While many graphics cards remain difficult to find, let alone for MSRP, we do know where you can go to buy the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT now if you don’t mind driving. AMD’s latest graphics card is in stock at none other than the good ole’ brick and mortar retail chain Micro Center. We did exactly that this morning to get a feel for what the supply and demand for the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT was like at a local location (Marietta, Georgia).
Upon pulling up at the store before opening, there were only two people in line and 100 available graphics cards in stock. The stock consisted of a mix between Sapphire and PowerColor models, with most of them being Hellhounds and Fighters. The retailer also had some of the high-end variants from MSI and ASUS ROG available.
More importantly, the base Sapphire Pulse and PowerColor Fighter models are actually priced at the MSRP of $380, while the PowerColor Hellhound can be had for $399. The Gigabyte Eagle is also listed at $380, though this wasn’t in stock at the location we visited. The other cards from MSI and ASUS ROG venture into the $550+ range, so there’s much less value there. Overall, the AIB markups are less than we expected though.
We’re surprised, but maybe we shouldn’t be
As you may recall from the 6600 XT announcement, this particular chip from AMD is the Navi 23 die. There are no AMD reference models for this graphics card, and the die is physically smaller than anything else in the lineup. This means AMD can not only produce more units, but also attain better yields.
Additionally, despite the record sales for graphics cards, both AMD and Nvidia are under a lot of fire from consumers for the ongoing pricing and availability situation. Perhaps AMD finally drew the line on pricing for this product. $380 is frankly a high MSRP for something that offers similar performance to the 5700 XT, but it does give the AIBs plenty of margin for profit.
While the location we visited is certainly not Micro Center’s busiest location in Georgia, the amount of available inventory is reassuring enough to suggest that more locations will have similar numbers of stock. Micro Center is a national retailer, so you may want to consider making the drive if you want to buy a 6600 XT and know where to find a location even remotely close to you. After all, Newegg and Best Buy are already sold out. Shocker, we know.
Please note that all prices are in USD.
