GTX 1060 or RX 480?

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Phantomous

Phantomous

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I'm stuck between these two cards, want to know which one you guys recommend I get. My specs are:

i5 2320 3.0GHz Turbo to 3.3GHz
MSI R7 250 1GB GDDR5 OC Edition
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
6GB RAM

I want to know which one will be more worth getting, as I don't want to be spending more than £300 for a GPU. Which one is meant to perform better?
 
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spdragoo
Depends on how much you want to buy it for.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=186,370&sort=a8&page=1

Yes, you can find a GTX 970 for £200...but you can also find models that cost more than twice as much. In contrast, the most expensive RX 480 is running for £255, but you can also get one for £221.

What you should do is:
1) Double-check what resolution you can play at. Both the 970 & 480 are solid cards for 1080p resolutions; the 970 was Tom's Hardware's pick for "maxed-out" play back in April (their last update to the GPU list), & the 480 is right there with it. However, if your monitor can only make it to a lower resolution (say, 1280x720, or 1366x768), then either card is going to be overkill...
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madmatt30

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Honestly ,at the minute in the uk I'd just buy a 970 for £199 personally.
The 480 is £250, the 1060 will likely drop at £270.

The 970 is the best buy , its 'just' beaten by the 480 & I expect the 1060 to be similar.

Both good cards but ultimately not a good buy for the £50 extra over a 970.
 
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Rogue Leader

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We don't know yet. The RX 480 seems to support new DX 12 technology better (Async compute) but that doesn't mean there won't be changes for Nvidia.

I would not buy a GTX 970 over the RX 480 for the reason I just mentioned, however until the 1060 is in reviewers hands we have no idea how it will perform in comparison.
 
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Borisblade7

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I'm not sure how the prices and supply are in Britain, but in the US the 1060 6gb MSRP is 30% more than the 480 8gb but it only performs about 10% better when you compare reference versions of each, OC'd versions could change this. Also, if the game uses Async Compute then this lead vanishes and can even flip. The supply of each card does mean they are actually selling for higher than the MSRP, but the 1060 will be doing this even more so because its newer and in shorter supply so its cost difference could be much greater depending on supply in your country.

With only 10% difference (or none in newer async games), it comes down to the price difference. Honestly its hard to go wrong with either. I'm picking up the 480 because its going to be a good 40%+ cheaper for the next month or so atleast, and it just makes no sense spending that extra $100-150 for only a 10% boost.
 
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spdragoo

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Depends on how much you want to buy it for.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=186,370&sort=a8&page=1

Yes, you can find a GTX 970 for £200...but you can also find models that cost more than twice as much. In contrast, the most expensive RX 480 is running for £255, but you can also get one for £221.

What you should do is:
1) Double-check what resolution you can play at. Both the 970 & 480 are solid cards for 1080p resolutions; the 970 was Tom's Hardware's pick for "maxed-out" play back in April (their last update to the GPU list), & the 480 is right there with it. However, if your monitor can only make it to a lower resolution (say, 1280x720, or 1366x768), then either card is going to be overkill. Conversely, if your monitor can go up to 1440p (or you plan on buying a new monitor that can reach that), realize that both of those cards will have some issues, & you may want to consider a better one (R9 390/390X, GTX 980/980Ti/1070, maybe even a GTX 1080).
2) Once you verify which cards you need to pick from, compare their benchmarks. Don't waste your time, though, with games that you don't play or plan on playing. For example, I don't play GTA V; never had any interest in the franchise, & don't plan on ever playing it. So basing a future GPU purchase on how it performs in a GTA game is of zero help to me. Now, Battlefield 4 & Starcraft 2 are both games that I own, & being a big fan of Star Wars I could see purchasing SW: Battlefront in the future. So, using those gaming benchmarks for my decision make a whole lot more sense. Don't just look at which card "beats" the other one, though; also consider & make note of the "edge" each card has on the other. For example, if card A "beats" card B by 10 FPS in game X, but both are able to get over 100FPS, then the "win" for card A isn't that significant. OTOH, if card B beats card A by 10 FPS in game Y, but only card B was able to hit 60+ FPS, that's a much more significant "win".

3) Consider the price of the cards. There will probably be a lot of "personal opinion" in this, but it comes down primarily to a) can you afford the GPU, & b) is the extra performance worth the extra price? Obviously, if the card costs £300 & you can only afford to pay £250, then you have a hard choice of waiting to get the new card or deciding to go with your 2nd-best option. And that's where "b" comes into play: if your first choice costs 30% more than your second choice, but only offers a 10% performance boost in the games you play/want to play, then are you willing to pay the extra cash for it, or do you logically -- at least to my way of thinking it seems logical -- decide to save your cash so that you can pick an option that will still be "good enough"?
 
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Phantomous

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Thanks guys, I'll probably end up picking the GTX 1060 since it's meant to only draw 120W while the RX 480 draws 150W. I like to keep power down and prefer to stick to Nvidia most of the time.
 
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KoHinoor Singh

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gtx 1060 beats RX 480 i have seen the benchmarks. so, go with gtx 1060 also nvidia graphics cards supports latest drivers than amd and new pascal gpu increses gaming performance as it is 10x more powerful than maxwell gpu . i will also buy gtx 1060 as soon as it launches hope this helps!!!!!!!
 
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Rogue Leader

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No it doesn't there are no benchmarks yet. And regarding drivers, both Nvidia and AMD supply new drivers almost weekly. Not only that AMD has better support for Async compute sometimes giving it an advantage in DX 12. 10x is not a correct number either at all.

Opinions are fine but please avoid making up information when offering recommendations on this forum.
 
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burgessanthony

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Kohinoor - that is probably one of the worst most misinformed posts I have seen. No such info exists. Early nod was to 980 level of performance so maybe 5-10% over a 480. 10x is wrong. Drivers either side are good but have their issues at times. Dx12 def has AMD advantage right now whilst nvidia have the most powerful gpu with the 1080.

Don't spread rubbish!
 
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Rogue Leader

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We did not say that. The 1060 is not out yet, nor are any benchmarks out yet, so we don't know, only know rumors..

Wait for the reviews and benchmarks to be release then you can make your decision and a recommendation can be made.

If you have any additional questions you should start your own thread.
 
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Phantomous

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Not exactly as we don't know yet. Most likely that the 1060 will overall be a faster card but the RX 480 will have an edge in DX12 games like it does over the GTX 970. But yet again, these are only speculations.
 
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spdragoo

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Not to mention the price difference involved. $250 would be on par with the RX 480, but that's apparently for the reference 3GB model; the 6GB model will cost more ($300). And until we can get actual benchmarks -- either official ones released by nVidia, or (preferably) real-world benchmarks by legitimate 3rd-parties (i.e. Techspot or Tom's Hardware's gaming benchmarks, instead of the "synthetics"), we really don't know how much (if any) more performance a GTX 1060 will have over an RX 480, let alone be able to determine if that performance is worth the extra cost (hint: with the prices running about 13-20% higher, it should really be offering at least that much performance improvement to be considered a solid "better buy").
 
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