Sunday, August 1st 2021
Sapphire Intros Radeon RX 6600 XT NITRO+ and Pulse Graphics Cards
Sapphire introduced a nifty lineup of new AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics cards, with the value-ended RX 6600 XT Pulse, and the premium RX 6600 XT NITRO+. Both are strictly two slots-thick designs that are compact, and use dual-fan cooling solutions. The NITRO+ features a higher factory OC, a heavier heatsink, and premium bits that include wave-edged aluminium fins in the cooler, fans with webbed impellers, dual-BIOS, a silvery metal backplate, an addressable-RGB LED illuminated Sapphire logo, and a 3-pin ARGB header so you can sync your lighting to the card's.
The RX 6600 XT Pulse, on the other hand, features a simpler design without the shiny dual-tone finish of the NITRO+. There are no illuminated logos, additional RGB headers, or dual-BIOS to be had. You still get a similar combination of wave-edge fin-stack, and webbed impellers, as well as a metal back-plate. The card has a lower state of factory OC than the NITRO+, and is expected to be priced closer to the baseline price. The company didn't reveal engine game/boost frequencies of either cards, but both feature 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory, and take in power from single 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
The RX 6600 XT Pulse, on the other hand, features a simpler design without the shiny dual-tone finish of the NITRO+. There are no illuminated logos, additional RGB headers, or dual-BIOS to be had. You still get a similar combination of wave-edge fin-stack, and webbed impellers, as well as a metal back-plate. The card has a lower state of factory OC than the NITRO+, and is expected to be priced closer to the baseline price. The company didn't reveal engine game/boost frequencies of either cards, but both feature 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory, and take in power from single 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
15 Comments on Sapphire Intros Radeon RX 6600 XT NITRO+ and Pulse Graphics Cards
I'm interested in the Pulse model and Asus Dual 6600 XT O8G model, wondering which is better. Both cards are beautiful, so it's the price and performance that decide which to buy. And Pulse seems to have two heat pipes and O8G seems to have 3? And O8G has more capacitors on the back of chip than Pulse? I'm not sure since there are so details yet...
At a guess the Pulse will meet that requirement, likely for $389 or $399. Spending an extra $50-60 premium on the Nitro+ for a card that will likely be only 1% faster is just madness. Don't forget, the Pulse is already a factory OC so we're probably talking about the Pulse being just 25-50MHz slower than the Nitro+
That said I would be more interested in a 2 fan variant, not a huge 3 fan one. Also I would probably lean towards a heat pipe cooler vs. a solid AL fin cooler.
Nothing wrong with Sapphire having Both Pulse and Nitro across their entire product Stack.
I mean you can get Zotac Amp Edition cards in the 3060 etc.
OEM cards are often what @mechtech mentioned - solid alu cooler with no heatpipes.
Most OEM cards are a step below the bottom rung on most branded cards, and those entry-level retail models at MSRP often already lack things like backplates, full VRAM/VRM cooling etc.
OEM cards are shifting towards open coolers now but even up to just before COVID we were still seeing ultra-cheap blowers on unbranded cards from both Turing and 5000-series.
For a 160W part like this I wouldn't be surprised to see vendors like Dell/HP ditching heatpipes in favour of a copper-slugged alu extrusion :\
Pulse:
Nitro:
Nitro+ offers LEDs and dual BIOSes. The Pulse with its default clocks will probably be Nitro+ silent bios option and I will be perfectly content with that especially if it will be cheaper. But i will not buy it until it costs 250 €, i'm not paying for this way overpriced gear.
And before anyone says so, I'm aware that previous gens of Nitro+ cards have 2 fan versions as well, it's just that I'm now used to Nitro+ having triple fans.
These Sapphire cards look great and as usual I'm sure they'll be some of the best 6600 XT variants out there.