PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics card with 8GB GDDR6 memory review

Smart Access Memory but also FidelityFX Super Resolution. The stock technical specifications offered by AMD at launch mentioned that the card features 32 Compute Units, a maximum Game Clock of 2359MHz, 32MB of Infinity Cache and a power target of 160W; the PowerColor Hellhound RX 6600 XT optimizes this even further by offering a 2593MHz Game Clock (Boost of 2593MHz) and also meets a power target of just 135W in order to get a good balance between noise and performance. Get more in PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics card with 8GB GDDR6 memory review.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Only 132 watts of total board power
• Above 60 fps at 1080p in most games
• Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
• Single- to triple-fan design available

Cons

• Doesn’t have access to DLSS
• About 8% slower than the RTX 3060
• Poor ray tracing performance without upscaling

Specs – PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics card with 8GB GDDR6 memory

• Model: Radeon RX 6600 Hellhound OC
• Graphics Card:
  • Graphics Engine: AXRX 6600 8GBD6-3DHL
  • Stream Processor: 1792 units
  • Engine clock: 2044mHz (Game) / 2491mHz (Boost)
  • Memory clock: 14 Gbps
  • Video Memory: 8GB GDDR6
  • Memory interface: 128-bit
  • PCI Express: 4.0
  • Dual Slot Size
• Video outputs:
  • 3x DisplayPort 1.4a (up to 7680 x 4320 px @ 60 Hz)
  • 1 x HDMI 2.1 (up to 7680 x 4320 px @ 60 Hz)
• Features:
  • CrossFireX technology: supported (Direct X 12 / Vulkan)
  • Stream AMD technology: supported
  • AMD Eyefinity Technology: Supported
  • AMD Hypermemory
  • DirectX 12
  • OpenGL: Supported
• Energy:
  • Recommended: 500W
  • Power input: 8-pin PCI Express
• Dimensions 220 x 132 x 45 mm

Compare PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics card with 8GB GDDR6 memory

PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics card with 8GB GDDR6 memory review

Design

The shell is finished with a matte coating, and the card looked excellent displayed inside my Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic. Although one of the longer models available at 11 inches, the Eagle still adheres to the dual-slot design of the other AIB models.

For the Hellhound mode, PowerColor has went with two large 100mm fans, optimized for static pressure.

The blades of the fans are semi-transparent, in order to allow the integrated LED light to shine through; one of the fans comes in the middle with the Hellhound logo.

Ports

For ports, the Gigabyte Eagle comes with two DisplayPort 1.4a connections and two HDMI 2.1 connections. I would’ve preferred a third DisplayPort connection over the second HDMI — even with HDMI 2.1 increasing refresh rates, it makes sense to have three of one connection type for triple-monitor setups instead of splitting them. 

Memory

The RX 6600 XT is based on the smallest GPU so far, named Navi 23 (7nm process), with a total of 2048 Stream Processors; despite the fact that the GPU is accompanied by 8GB of GDDR6 as the 5700/5700XT, it communicates on a small 128-bit bus for a total bandwidth of 256Gbps. The card does not use the full PCIe interface, but only x8 Gen4, which is about the same bandwidth as the x16 Gen3.

Frame rates

The RX 6600 jumped to 83frames per second (fps) in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with the High present, for example, and Battlefield V produced 158 fps with the Medium preset.

 It stilled managed 55 fps in Red Dead Redemption at 1440p, which is impressive considering how demanding that game is. In a less demanding title like Civilization VI, the RX 6600 was able to squeeze out above 100 fps, and it even managed to go above 60 fps at 4K.

Temperature

the GPU beneath the hood generates 130W to 140W TGP and 160W TBP of heat in its default configuration, it is likely that the cooler has a thermal power design of 250W or more. It appears that 33-35 DBa levels under load are the sweet-spot and temperatures stick closer to the 60~65-degree Celsius range, these are all very acceptable values. Additionally, a board examination reveals that all-important components are linked to some sort of cooling. FLIR imaging reveals that the card is only barely leaking heat. In general, we are really satisfied with what we have observed.

Power Consumption

250 Watts in energy consumption approaches close to 250 Watts in heat as output. This is the basis of TDP. AMD is listing the card at 160W, which is okay at best for a graphics card in the year 2021. We measure numbers slightly under the XT’s advertised values; we measure the entire power consumption of the card to close in at 160~170 Watt, for the total card.

Here is our power supply recommendation:

• Radeon RX 6700 XT – On your average system we recommend a 600 Watt power supply unit.
• Radeon RX 6800  – On your average system we recommend a 600 Watt power supply unit.
• Radeon RX 6600 XT – On your average system we recommend a 500 Watt power supply unit.
• Radeon RX 6800 XT – On your average system we recommend a 650~700 Watt power supply unit.
• Radeon RX 6900 XT – On your average system we recommend a 750 Watt power supply unit.

Alternate of PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics card with 8GB GDDR6 memory

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

Memory: 12GB GDDR6 | Memory bandwidth: 384Gbps | Memory bus: 192-bit | Base clock: 2,321MHz | Boost clock: 2,581MHz | Stream processors: 2,560 | Process: 7nm | Power: 230W

AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT is a price performer with a listing of about $480. It costs more than the RTX 3060 Ti, but it also delivers better raw power. This is especially important for those who want to push QHD frame rates and don’t care as much about ray tracing or image upscaling.

If this is the GPU you want and you can find one at a reasonable price, nab it up. No specific recommendations while most hardware is sold out.

Pros

• Stellar 1440p (QHD) performance
• 16GB of VRAM
• Capable of ray tracing
• Costs less than other RDNA 2 cards

Cons

• Costs more than RTX 3060 Ti
• Ray tracing and FSR support not as good

While the RX 6700 XT offers ray tracing, its support isn’t as good as NVIDIA’s, and you will likely see a harder hit to performance. This is true even though AMD’s cards now have FSR, an alternative to DLSS.

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT slots in somewhere between the NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti and NVIDIA RTX 3070 in terms of raw performance. It also costs about $80 more than the list price of the 3060 Ti, so you have to be sure you’re looking for better power and not a better feature set. If you want to push high frame rates at 1440p and even want to dabble a bit at 4K, the RX 6700 XT will do a great job.

Bottom line? The 12GB of VRAM sets the RX 6700 XT up nicely for the future, and FidelityFX Super Resolution is beginning to cut into NVIDIA’s DLSS technology. If you can find an RX 6700 XT close to retail price, it should make a great card for QHD gaming.

Editor’s recommendations

• EVGA GeForce GTX 1650 SC Ultra Gaming 04G-P4-1057-KR 4GB GDDR5 review & benchmark
• EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti XC Gaming 08G-P5-3663-KL 8GB GDDR6 review
• ZOTAC 3070 Ti AMP Holo vs Trinity differences – which is better for mining?
• ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3070 Ti AMP Holo 8GB GDDR6X review – is it good for mining?
• ZOTAC gaming GeForce GTX 1650 OC 4GB GDDR6 128-bit gaming graphics card super compact review