AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Comparison

# AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 represent two vastly different tiers of graphics hardware, separated by generation, architecture, and raw compute capability. While the RX 6600 LE is an active, mainstream RDNA 2.0 part aimed at 1080p-class workloads, the RTX 4090 is an end-of-life Ada Lovelace flagship built to dominate 4K and compute-heavy tasks. The benchmark data confirms this chasm: across the two shared tests, the RTX 4090 wins both by margins exceeding 72%. Yet the RX 6600 LE holds a higher percentile ranking (91st vs 88th) among all GPUs, driven by its strong average score relative to its immediate peers. This comparison explores what the numbers reveal about architectural intent, performance scaling, and where each card’s strengths truly lie.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE has an average benchmark score of 70,829, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 scores 60,347. This discrepancy arises because the RX 6600 LE’s two benchmark results are both in the 69k–72k range, whereas the RTX 4090’s average is pulled down by several Passmark tests with low scores (e.g., 150 in DirectX 12, 224 in DirectX 10).

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4090 in OpenCL?

A: The RTX 4090 scores 255,416 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 72.9% ahead of the RX 6600 LE’s 69,229. This indicates a massive compute advantage for the NVIDIA card in general-purpose GPU workloads.

Q: What is the transistor density difference between the two chips?

A: The RTX 4090’s AD102 chip has a transistor density of 125.3M per mm², while the RX 6600 LE’s Navi 23 chip has 46.7M per mm². The NVIDIA chip is built on a 5 nm process versus 7 nm for AMD, enabling nearly 2.7 times the density.

Q: Which GPU has more memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4090 offers 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth from its 24 GB GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus. The RX 6600 LE provides 224.0 GB/s from 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. The RTX 4090’s bandwidth is over 4.5 times higher.

Q: Does the RX 6600 LE support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the RX 6600 LE includes 28 ray tracing cores, part of its RDNA 2.0 architecture. The RTX 4090 has 128 RT cores, but both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: What is the RTX 4090’s launch MSRP?

A: The RTX 4090 had a launch MSRP of 1,599 USD. The RX 6600 LE has no launch MSRP listed in the data.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational and philosophical. The RX 6600 LE uses AMD’s RDNA 2.0 architecture on a 7 nm TSMC process, with 11,060 million transistors packed into a 237 mm² die. The RTX 4090 leverages NVIDIA’s Ada Lovelace architecture on a 5 nm TSMC node, scaling to 76,300 million transistors across a 609 mm² die. This is a 6.9x difference in transistor count and a 2.6x difference in die area, yet the density gap is even starker: 125.3M vs 46.7M transistors per mm², reflecting the newer process node’s efficiency.

Compute resources diverge sharply. The RX 6600 LE ships with 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 4090 fields 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs — 9.1x, 4.6x, and 2.75x more, respectively. Ray tracing hardware follows the same pattern: 28 RT cores on AMD versus 128 on NVIDIA. The RTX 4090 also adds 512 tensor cores, a feature entirely absent from the RX 6600 LE, enabling AI-accelerated workloads that the AMD card cannot match.

Memory architecture reinforces the tier separation. The RX 6600 LE uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s. The RTX 4090 uses 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s. Clock speeds tell a nuanced story: the RX 6600 LE has a lower base clock (1626 MHz vs 2235 MHz) but a boost clock (2495 MHz) close to the RTX 4090’s 2520 MHz. The AMD card’s game clock of 2045 MHz has no equivalent on the NVIDIA side, which relies on boost behavior. The RX 6600 LE’s FP32 throughput is 8.942 TFLOPS, while the RTX 4090 reaches 82.58 TFLOPS — a 9.2x difference. Notably, the RTX 4090 achieves identical FP16 and FP32 rates (82.58 TFLOPS, 1:1 ratio), whereas the RX 6600 LE’s FP16 is 17.88 TFLOPS via a 2:1 ratio, indicating different compute precision strategies.

Physical and power characteristics also diverge. The RX 6600 LE is a dual-slot card measuring 190 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, with a 132 W TDP and a single 8-pin connector. The RTX 4090 is triple-slot, 304 mm long, 137 mm high, and 61 mm wide, with a 450 W TDP and a 16-pin connector. The suggested PSU scales from 300 W to 850 W. Both use PCIe 4.0, but the RX 6600 LE runs at x8 lanes while the RTX 4090 uses x16, doubling the interface bandwidth for the NVIDIA card.

The Verdict

The data suggests these GPUs serve entirely different audiences with no meaningful overlap. The RTX 4090 is the overwhelming choice for anyone prioritizing raw compute, ray tracing, or high-resolution memory bandwidth. Its 82.58 TFLOPS FP32, 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, and 24 GB VRAM make it a workstation-class tool, reflected in its 255,416 OpenCL score. The RX 6600 LE, despite its lower absolute performance, punches well above its class in relative terms: its 91st percentile ranking versus the RTX 4090’s 88th suggests that, within the broader GPU landscape, the AMD card sits closer to the top of its peers than the NVIDIA card does to the absolute ceiling. For gamers or compute users on a constrained power budget (132 W vs 450 W), the RX 6600 LE offers a compelling efficiency story, but the benchmark data cannot justify choosing it over the RTX 4090 when performance is the sole criterion. The RTX 4090 wins both head-to-head tests by 72.9% and 73.3%, making the verdict unambiguous for performance-first buyers.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | RDNA 2.0 | Ada Lovelace |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 11,060 million | 76,300 million |

| Die Size | 237 mm² | 609 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 46.7M / mm² | 125.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1626 MHz | 2235 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2495 MHz | 2520 MHz |

| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR6 | 24 GB GDDR6X |

| Memory Bus | 128 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 224.0 GB/s | 1.01 TB/s |

| Shading Units | 1,792 | 16,384 |

| TMUs | 112 | 512 |

| ROPs | 64 | 176 |

| RT Cores | 28 | 128 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 512 |

| Pixel Rate | 159.7 GPixel/s | 443.5 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 279.4 GTexel/s | 1,290.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 8.942 TFLOPS | 82.58 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 17.88 TFLOPS (2:1) | 82.58 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 132 W | 450 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | Triple-slot |

| Power Connectors | 1x 8-pin | 1x 16-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 300 W | 850 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Dimensions (L×H×W) | 190×110×40 mm | 304×137×61 mm |

| Fabrication Status | Active | End-of-life |

| Release Date | 2023-12-07 | 2022-09-19 |

| Launch MSRP | None | 1,599 USD |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two GPUs share only two benchmark tests, both from Geekbench, and the RTX 4090 dominates each. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4090 scores 255,416 against the RX 6600 LE’s 69,229, a delta of -72.9% from the AMD card’s perspective. This means the RX 6600 LE delivers only about 27% of the RTX 4090’s compute throughput in this test. The Geekbench Vulkan result is nearly identical in proportionality: the RTX 4090 hits 271,631, while the RX 6600 LE reaches 72,428, a -73.3% gap. These margins are consistent across both API frameworks, suggesting a fundamental compute resource advantage rather than an API-specific optimization.

The RTX 4090’s wins are so lopsided that the RX 6600 LE has zero head-to-head victories. However, context matters. The RX 6600 LE’s average benchmark score of 70,829 is higher than the RTX 4090’s 60,347, because the NVIDIA card’s Passmark suite includes legacy tests (DirectX 9: 397, DirectX 10: 224, DirectX 11: 326) and compute tests (26,613) that drag its average down. The RX 6600 LE’s two Geekbench scores are tightly clustered (69,229 and 72,428), yielding a stable average. This illustrates how average scores can mislead; the RTX 4090’s peak performance in OpenCL is 3.7x higher than the RX 6600 LE’s best result, despite the lower average.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4090 wins unequivocally in every head-to-head benchmark, but the RX 6600 LE claims victory in specific qualitative categories. The AMD card wins on efficiency per watt, based on its 132 W TDP versus 450 W for the NVIDIA card — a 3.4x power draw difference that the performance gap does not fully justify in all scenarios. The RX 6600 LE also wins on physical footprint: at 190 mm length and dual-slot width, it fits in cases where the 304 mm triple-slot RTX 4090 cannot. For users with 300 W PSUs, the RX 6600 LE is feasible; the RTX 4090 demands 850 W.

The RTX 4090 wins on every compute-heavy metric: FP32 (82.58 vs 8.942 TFLOPS), FP16 (82.58 vs 17.88 TFLOPS), pixel rate (443.5 vs 159.7 GPixel/s), texture rate (1,290.2 vs 279.4 GTexel/s), and memory bandwidth (1.01 TB/s vs 224.0 GB/s). Its 24 GB VRAM is triple the RX 6600 LE’s 8 GB, and its 512 tensor cores enable AI workloads the AMD card cannot process. The RTX 4090’s 128 RT cores versus 28 suggest superior ray tracing performance, though no ray tracing benchmark is present in the data.

The RX 6600 LE’s 91st percentile versus the RTX 4090’s 88th indicates that, in the context of all GPUs, the AMD card is closer to the top of its generation’s performance distribution. Its nearest rivals (NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile at 70,140, 1% behind; AMD Radeon RX 6650M at 71,768, 1.3% ahead) show it sits in a competitive midrange. The RTX 4090’s nearest rivals (Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60,326, 0% delta; AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 60,140, 0.3% behind) are far lower in absolute score, reflecting the NVIDIA card’s benchmark distribution quirks rather than its true capability. In practical terms, the RTX 4090 wins for 4K gaming, AI inference, and professional rendering; the RX 6600 LE wins for compact, low-power builds where 1080p-class performance suffices. The data does not support any scenario where the RX 6600 LE outperforms the RTX 4090 in raw speed, but it does highlight the AMD card’s superior relative standing among its peers.