AMD Radeon RX 6600 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 leads with an average benchmark score of 19036, compared to 18159 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile. This places the AMD card at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA mobile chip sits at the 62nd percentile.

Q: How do the two compare in DirectX 11 performance?

A: The RX 6600 dominates in PassMark DirectX 11 with a score of 152 versus 110 for the RTX 3060 Mobile, a margin of 38.2%. The AMD card also wins DirectX 9 (197 vs 146) and DirectX 10 (95 vs 90).

Q: Which GPU wins in compute workloads?

A: The RX 6600 wins PassMark GPU Compute with 6554 points against 5718 for the RTX 3060 Mobile, a 14.6% advantage. However, in Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA chip crushes the AMD part by 63.7% (79483 vs 28850).

Q: What about ray tracing and modern API performance?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile takes the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test with 1821 points versus 1492 for the RX 6600, an 18.1% lead. The NVIDIA GPU also wins Geekbench Vulkan (80344 vs 67623) and PassMark DirectX 12 (58 vs 51).

Q: What are the memory configurations?

A: The RX 6600 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus delivering 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a wider 192-bit bus achieving 336.0 GB/s.

Q: Which GPU is more power-efficient?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile has a TDP of 80 W, while the RX 6600 draws 132 W. Despite the lower power draw, the NVIDIA part still wins 4 of the 10 head-to-head benchmarks.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear split: the AMD Radeon RX 6600 is the better desktop card for general rasterization and legacy API workloads, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile excels in modern, compute-heavy scenarios. The RX 6600 wins 6 of the 10 head-to-head benchmarks, including decisive victories in PassMark DirectX 11 (38.2% ahead) and PassMark G2D (51.2%). Its PassMark G3D score of 15096 beats the RTX 3060 Mobile's 13230 by 14.1%, and its average benchmark score is 4.8% higher overall.

For users prioritizing DirectX 9/10/11 gaming or 2D performance, the RX 6600 is the clear pick. Its 8 GB framebuffer also doubles the mobile chip's 6 GB capacity, which matters for texture-heavy titles. The RTX 3060 Mobile, however, is the choice for modern API workloads — it leads by 18.1% in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 63.7% in Geekbench OpenCL. The NVIDIA part also has 120 dedicated tensor cores versus none on the AMD side, making it the better option for AI-accelerated tasks. Given its 80 W TDP versus 132 W, it also fits better in power-constrained systems.

The verdict is situational: desktop builders with room for a dual-slot card should favor the RX 6600; laptop or low-power system builders need the RTX 3060 Mobile's efficiency and modern API muscle.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest victory for the AMD Radeon RX 6600 comes in PassMark G2D, where it scores 889 against 588 for the RTX 3060 Mobile — a 51.2% margin. That is followed by a 38.2% win in DirectX 11 (152 vs 110) and a 34.9% win in DirectX 9 (197 vs 146). The AMD card also takes PassMark G3D (15096 vs 13230, +14.1%) and PassMark GPU Compute (6554 vs 5718, +14.6%). Even in DirectX 10, where the gap is slim, the RX 6600 edges out the NVIDIA chip 95 to 90.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile counters with its most dramatic win in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 79483 versus 28850 — a staggering 63.7% advantage. The NVIDIA part also wins 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 by 18.1% (1821 vs 1492), Geekbench Vulkan by 15.8% (80344 vs 67623), and PassMark DirectX 12 by 12.1% (58 vs 51).

The pattern is unmistakable: AMD wins every legacy DirectX test (9, 10, 11) plus the 3D and compute PassMark suites, while NVIDIA sweeps the modern API tests (Vulkan, DX12, OpenCL). The deltaPct values confirm the magnitude — the RX 6600's wins range from 5.6% to 51.2%, while the RTX 3060 Mobile's wins range from 12.1% to 63.7%. Notably, the Geekbench OpenCL result is the single largest delta in either direction.

The average benchmark scores reflect this split: 19036 for RX 6600 versus 18159 for RTX 3060 Mobile, a gap of about 4.8%. The nearest rival data places the RX 6600 between the RTX 4050 Mobile (19049, -0.1%) and Quadro K6000 (19030, 0%), while the RTX 3060 Mobile sits near the Radeon Pro 5700 (18189, -0.2%) and RTX 2060 SUPER (18093, 0.4%).

Specification Differences

The memory subsystems diverge sharply. The RX 6600 carries 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth; the RTX 3060 Mobile has 6 GB on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA part's wider bus gives it 50% more raw bandwidth, but the AMD card has 33% more capacity.

Clock speeds favor AMD heavily. The RX 6600 runs at 1626 MHz base and 2491 MHz boost, with a game clock of 2044 MHz. The RTX 3060 Mobile is far more conservative at 900 MHz base and 1425 MHz boost. Memory clocks are identical at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Shader configurations tell a different story. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 3840 shading units and 120 TMUs, versus 1792 shading units and 112 TMUs for the RX 6600. The AMD card has more ROPs (64 vs 48). The NVIDIA chip includes 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores; the RX 6600 has 28 RT cores and no tensor cores.

Power and physical specs differ greatly. The RX 6600 draws 132 W, requires a 300 W PSU, uses a dual-slot design with a 1x 8-pin connector, and measures 190 mm long. The RTX 3060 Mobile draws 80 W with no power connectors and no listed dimensions — it is a mobile chip. The RX 6600 is a PCIe 4.0 x8 card; the RTX 3060 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

The RX 6600 offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs; the RTX 3060 Mobile's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent." The AMD card launched at 329 USD on 2021-10-12; the RTX 3060 Mobile launched on 2021-01-11 with no listed MSRP.

Architecture Differences

The RX 6600 is built on TSMC's 7 nm process with 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, yielding a density of 46.7M transistors per mm². The RTX 3060 Mobile uses Samsung's 8 nm node with 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die — a density of 43.5M per mm². The AMD chip is smaller and denser, while the NVIDIA chip has more transistors overall.

Architecturally, the RX 6600 uses RDNA 2.0 (Navi 23) from the Navi II generation, while the RTX 3060 Mobile uses Ampere (GA106) from the GeForce 30 Mobile series. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA part's tensor cores (120 of them) enable AI features the AMD card lacks entirely.

The FP32 performance figures show the RTX 3060 Mobile at 10.94 TFLOPS, ahead of the RX 6600's 8.928 TFLOPS. However, the AMD card's FP16 throughput is 17.86 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the NVIDIA part matches its FP32 at 10.94 TFLOPS (1:1). The RX 6600 achieves higher pixel rate (159.4 GPixel/s vs 68.40) and texture rate (279.0 GTexel/s vs 171.0), reflecting its higher clock speeds.

The RTX 3060 Mobile's predecessor is GeForce 20 Mobile, while the RX 6600's predecessor is Navi. The AMD card is marked end-of-life with a successor of Navi III; the NVIDIA part is also end-of-life with no successor listed. The bus interface difference — PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD versus x16 for NVIDIA — could matter on bandwidth-sensitive workloads, though the benchmark data shows the wider bus helps NVIDIA in OpenCL and DX12.