AMD Radeon RX 6600M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600M has a higher average benchmark score of 23,273, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 records an average of 21,035. The RX 6600M also holds a higher percentile ranking, at 68 versus 66 for the RTX 5050.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to the RX 6600M in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The RTX 5050 wins decisively, scoring 2,502 against the RX 6600M's 1,495. This gives the RTX 5050 a 40.2% advantage, the largest margin in any of the head-to-head tests.

Q: In which benchmark does the RX 6600M outperform the RTX 5050?

A: The recorded head-to-head data shows no wins for the RX 6600M. The RTX 5050 wins all 10 benchmark comparisons.

Q: What are the nearest rivals for each GPU based on average score?

A: The RX 6600M sits within 0.2% of the AMD Radeon R9 M290X and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, and 0.1% from the NVIDIA P106-100. The RTX 5050's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL at -0.6%, with the AMD Radeon HD 8970M at -1%.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth between the two?

A: The RTX 5050 offers 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the RX 6600M provides 224.0 GB/s. Both use 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus.

Q: Which GPU has a higher boost clock?

A: The RTX 5050 has a boost clock of 2572 MHz, higher than the RX 6600M's 2416 MHz boost.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent distinct architectural generations and process technologies. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm process. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 uses the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB207 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at the same foundry. This process node difference contributes to a significant change in transistor density, with the RTX 5050 packing 113.4 million transistors per mm² versus 46.7 million for the RX 6600M.

The RTX 5050 carries 16,900 million transistors on a die size of 149 mm², while the RX 6600M has 11,060 million transistors on a larger 237 mm² die. The architectural shift also introduces a different compute layout. The RX 6600M uses 1792 shading units with 112 texture mapping units and 64 ROPs. The RTX 5050 uses 2560 shading units but only 80 TMUs and 32 ROPs. This inversion of resource allocation indicates a design focused on shader throughput rather than texture fill.

Ray tracing hardware differs as well. The RX 6600M has 28 ray tracing cores, while the RTX 5050 has 20. However, the RTX 5050 also includes 80 tensor cores, which the RX 6600M lacks entirely. The FP16 compute profile is notably different: the RX 6600M reaches 17.32 TFLOPS via a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX 5050 delivers 13.17 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, meaning its FP16 throughput matches its FP32 rate.

The RX 6600M is an integrated GPU (IGP) with no power connectors and a 100 W TDP. The RTX 5050 is a dual-slot discrete card with a single 8-pin connector and a 130 W TDP, with a suggested PSU of 300 W. The RX 6600M uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the RTX 5050 steps up to PCIe 5.0 x8. Display outputs are portable device dependent for the RX 6600M, whereas the RTX 5050 provides 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark database shows a clear sweep in favor of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 across all recorded tests. The largest margin comes in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 workload, where the RTX 5050 leads by 40.2%. This test stresses modern DirectX 12 rendering paths, and the Blackwell architecture's higher shader count and tensor core support appear to deliver a substantial advantage.

Compute-oriented tasks also favor the RTX 5050 heavily. The PassMark GPU Compute test shows the RTX 5050 ahead by 38.5%, and the Geekbench OpenCL test shows a 25% lead. These results indicate that the RTX 5050's 2560 shading units and 13.17 TFLOPS FP32 throughput translate into stronger general-purpose compute performance compared to the RX 6600M's 1792 units and 8.659 TFLOPS.

The RTX 5050 also wins in memory-sensitive scenarios. Its 320.0 GB/s bandwidth is 42.9% higher than the RX 6600M's 224.0 GB/s, which likely explains the 34.6% lead in the PassMark G2D test and the 21.2% lead in the PassMark DirectX 12 test. The RX 6600M does not claim a single win in the head-to-head comparison, so its advantage is solely contextual: it holds a higher average score (23,273 versus 21,035) and a better percentile rank (68 versus 66) when viewed against the entire GPU database, despite losing all direct comparisons.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every core specification. The process node shifts from 7 nm to 5 nm, and the transistor count rises from 11,060 million to 16,900 million, while the die size shrinks from 237 mm² to 149 mm². Base clocks improve from 2068 MHz to 2317 MHz, and boost clocks from 2416 MHz to 2572 MHz. The RX 6600M has a game clock of 2177 MHz; the RTX 5050 has no recorded game clock.

Memory speed increases from 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) to 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective), lifting bandwidth from 224.0 GB/s to 320.0 GB/s while keeping the same 8 GB GDDR6 configuration and 128-bit bus. Shading units grow from 1792 to 2560, but TMUs drop from 112 to 80 and ROPs drop from 64 to 32. Ray tracing cores decrease from 28 to 20, while tensor cores appear only on the RTX 5050 with 80 units.

Pixel rate falls from 154.6 GPixel/s to 82.30 GPixel/s, and texture rate drops from 270.6 GTexel/s to 205.8 GTexel/s. FP32 compute rises from 8.659 TFLOPS to 13.17 TFLOPS. FP16 behavior changes from 17.32 TFLOPS (2:1) to 13.17 TFLOPS (1:1). TDP increases from 100 W to 130 W, slot width changes from IGP to dual-slot, and power connectors go from none to a single 8-pin. Bus interface advances from PCIe 4.0 x8 to PCIe 5.0 x8. Production status moves from end-of-life to active, and release dates are 2021-05-30 for the RX 6600M and 2025-06-30 for the RTX 5050. The launch MSRP for the RTX 5050 is 249 USD.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test delivers the most lopsided result. The RTX 5050 scores 2,502 versus 1,495 for the RX 6600M, a 40.2% delta. This is the only test in the set that measures a modern DirectX 12 workload with ray-traced elements, and the margin suggests the Blackwell architecture's ray tracing and tensor core hardware provides a substantial uplift over RDNA 2.0.

The PassMark GPU Compute test shows a similar gap, with the RTX 5050 scoring 9,184 against 5,646 for the RX 6600M, a 38.5% lead. This aligns with the raw FP32 difference: 13.17 TFLOPS versus 8.659 TFLOPS, a 52% theoretical advantage. The measured performance gap is smaller than the theoretical one, indicating that the RX 6600M's higher texture rate of 270.6 GTexel/s and ROP count of 64 help bridge some of the gap in certain workloads.

The PassMark G2D test shows the RTX 5050 ahead by 34.6%, scoring 1,113 versus 728. This 2D graphics workload often benefits from memory bandwidth, and the RTX 5050's 320.0 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s likely drives this outcome. The Geekbench OpenCL test gives the RTX 5050 a 25% win with 90,334 versus 67,765, while the Geekbench Vulkan test shows a narrower 17.5% margin, 89,381 versus 73,740.

In legacy DirectX tests, the RTX 5050 maintains its lead but with smaller margins. PassMark DirectX 12 shows a 21.2% gap (66 versus 52), DirectX 10 shows 15.5% (103 versus 87), DirectX 11 shows 9.3% (150 versus 136), and DirectX 9 shows only 1.1% (186 versus 184). The shrinking margins in older APIs suggest that the RX 6600M's higher pixel rate and texture rate become more relevant in workloads that do not fully utilize the newer architectural features. The PassMark G3D test, a composite of multiple graphics workloads, gives the RTX 5050 a 19.6% win, scoring 17,326 versus 13,929.

Despite losing all 10 head-to-head tests, the RX 6600M maintains a higher average benchmark score in the database, 23,273 versus 21,035. This discrepancy arises because the average includes a broader set of tests beyond the head-to-head list, and the RX 6600M's Geekbench Metal score of 92,237, a test not run on the RTX 5050, contributes significantly to its average. The percentile rankings reflect this: the RX 6600M sits at 68, the RTX 5050 at 66. The RTX 5050's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, trails by only 0.6%, while the RX 6600M's closest competitor, the AMD Radeon R9 M290X, is within 0.1%.