AMD will reportedly release a scaled-down version of its RX 6600 XT GPU soon, and the first leaked benchmarks suggest that Nvidia need not worry too much about competition from its entry-level RTX 3060 card.

Leaker HXL posted a screenshot purportedly showing the new card's 3DMark benchmark. The graphics benchmark scores 8,155 points and the overall rig scores 8,612 points. VideoCardz, which first reported the leak, noted that this means the RX 6600 is about 350 points ahead of the RTX 3060 in the same test, meaning Nvidia's card is 5% faster.

Of course, there are many caveats to this statement: first, all leaked information should be taken with a pinch of salt until it is officially confirmed. Also, benchmarks don't often tell the whole story, and performance in a game can be better or worse, and often varies from game to game.

Second, even if the numbers are accurate, they are still taken from pre-launch hardware, and performance may change dramatically once software optimization is finally complete.

Third, and most importantly, even if the numbers are correct and not improved by optimization, they may not be comparable; the price of the AMD RX 6600 is unknown, and if it is significantly lower than the RTX 3060, even an objectively inferior product may be a better It may prove to be the better option.

Additionally, of course, the global chip shortage has had a significant impact on RTX 3060 inventory, making this not a good time to buy a graphics card, and the mantra "beggars can't be choosers" seems quite appropriate when it comes to GPU availability in 2021. In such a market, there doesn't seem to be much urgency to compare and contrast benchmarks one by one.

Rumor has it that the AMD RX 6600, unlike the XT model, will have a slightly slower clock speed and fewer stream processors: 1,792 instead of 2,048. Otherwise, the claimed specs are similar, down to 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Rumor has it that an announcement will be made as early as next week.