MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming X Review
Peter Donnell / 3 years ago
A Closer Look
The card itself is not unlike a lot of other MSI cards I’ve seen in the past. It has that same funky angular two-tone design, with just some minor tweaks to the overall shape to accommodate the new PCB of the AMD Radeon 6600 XT chipset. That’s not a bad thing though, I like the design, and for a more affordable model, I know it’ll be a very competent cooler for the job.
The TORX Fans 4.0 cooling will do a superb job too. As you can see, they’re quite large fans, which means more airflow at lower RPM, but also less noise. Each set of two blades are joined into pairs too at the tips too, in a system that will help drive more air down into the GPU rather than blow it out the edges.
Down the side, you can see there’s a massive two-part heatsink, with each radiator located right under each of those TORX fans. There’s good ventilation down the side of the card too, ensuring heat cab be blown out nice and quick. There’s a large MSI badge on the side of the card too, which is RGB lit and can be customised in their desktop software. That’s all the RGB you get though, albeit, that’s all I really want anyway.
The 6600 XT draws power from an 8-pin connector, which is plenty given this card is targeting 1080p systems. AMD say the card runs at around 160W, but of course, this is a custom solution from MSI, so we’re expecting it to be a little higher. Either way, a 500W PSU system should be well within the limits of running this card.
On this side of the card, you have the PCIe connector, and again, more ventilation around the heatsink and PCB.
Quite a lot of heat will go through the backplate too, and since MSI has given it a good amount of ventilation towards the rear, the heat can be pushed away from the card more easily. It’s a nice backplate too, with a matte black design a smart looking MSI dragon.
Around the back of the card, you can see it has four heat pipes running through the card. Again, this is likely overkill for the chipset but bodes well for those long gaming sessions on a warm day.
The I/O panel has good ventilation too and offers up three DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, and one HDMI 2.1 with VRR and FRL.