A lot of recent gaming PC hardware lately tends to specialize in high-resolution, high-fidelity graphics. Whether it’s 2K, 4K, or maybe 8K, PC makers, monitor manufacturers, and graphics silicon developers put most of the stress on raw power or AI to push many pixels around. AMD’s newest GPU, in contrast, goes the other direction and aims to utilize its latest Radeon technologies instead to optimize gaming at 1080p resolutions.
Despite the market buzz around 2K or 4K graphics, many gamers still flock towards 1080p because of the sweet spot for gaming. It strikes the most straightforward balance between a resolution that gives decent graphics quality without taxing hardware an excessive amount. It’s no coincidence that 1080p is where mass-market, entry-level GPUs and monitors tend to gravitate towards.
As the kind of “minimum requirement” for gaming, many manufacturers require this particular segment of PC hardware without consideration. AMD, however, is trying to interrupt from that mold with the new Radeon RX 6600 XT, its latest entry-level graphics card aimed squarely at 1080p gaming. The 32 compute units, 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, and 2359 MHz base clock speed might sound a touch disappointing, but, additionally, to its tag, AMD compensates by giving the GPU a number of its newest technologies out of the box.
At the highest of that list is FidelityFX Super Resolution, AMD’s answer to NVIDIA’s DLSS. This suggests that using some intelligent algorithms, the Radeon RX 6600 XT can push even 1080p graphics to realize higher frame rates. The graphics card also supports AMD Smart Access Memory that lets supported Ryzen 5000 or 3000 Desktop processors access the high-speed graphics memory.
With a tag of $379, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is being positioned to require older entry-level NVIDIA RTX graphics cards. The graphics card is predicted to hit the market on August 11, but the worldwide chip shortage could mean that even this 1080p GPU might be briefly supplied.
