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GTA V, Hitman, Metro, and Rise of the Tomb Raider
Grand Theft Auto V (DX11)
Back when the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB launched, most of our benchmark suite consisted of DirectX 11-based games that favored Nvidia’s Maxwell and Pascal architectures. But those first Ashes numbers hinted at a change in the air.
A combination of new titles and old ones patched with DirectX 12 support clearly affected change in the way our performance analysis shakes out. GTA V is a reminder of the way things used to be as Nvidia’s 6GB GeForce GTX 1060 beats the Radeon RX 580 by ~9% and the older RX 480 by ~16%.
At 2560x1440, the 6GB 1060’s advantage over Radeon RX 580 contracts slightly to just over 8%. Previously, the 6GB card averaged more than 13% quicker than GeForce GTX 480. Even the 3GB model showed up ahead of Polaris.
We have a couple more DX11-based tests to cover, and we’ll be looking to see if Pascal continues to maintain its advantage over GCN in those benchmarks. After all, the list of DX11 games is much longer than those utilizing DX12.
Hitman (DX12)
Hitman shifts favor back over to Radeon RX 580, which beats the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB by almost 6% thanks to a near-11% gain over Radeon RX 480.
The only real loser is Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, which chokes after losing half of the original 1060’s on-board GDDR5 memory. A less expensive GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB roughly triples the hobbled card’s performance.
The Radeon RX 580 puts AMD in front of Nvidia at 2560x1440, where the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB is a little faster than Radeon RX 480.
Naturally, the 1060 3GB’s plight worsens. A higher resolution hits the 1050 Ti especially hard though, so it’s only two times faster than the 3GB board this time around. In comparison, AMD’s slightly more expensive Radeon RX 470 achieves an average frame rate 65% higher and is actually playable in Hitman.
Metro: Last Light (DX11)
Strong performance under DirectX 11 allows the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB to hold its top position in Metro: Last Light, though the Radeon RX 580 essentially ties it.
Prior to RX 580, the 1060 would have led RX 480 by more than 7% at 1920x1080, so this latest round of Ellesmere-based cards serves to close some gap between GCN and Pascal left in DX11 apps and open up more of an advantage in a growing list of DirectX 11 games.
The good news for AMD is that its Radeon RX 580 maintains playable frame rates using Metro’s Very High quality preset at 2560x1440. Unfortunately, a more taxing resolution hits the 580 harder. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB finishes in first place, while the GTX 970 and RX 580 demonstrate almost identical performance.
Rise of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
The benchmark built into Rise of the Tomb Raider switches scenes twice, so the minimums we record aren’t as problematic as they appear. A number of these cards do spend time under 40 FPS, though. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and 1060 3GB fare worst, while the Radeon R9 380 struggles a bit, too.
At the other end, Radeon RX 580 bests GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, which previously beat the RX 480.
RotTR’s most demanding quality preset remains playable on the fastest few cards, and Radeon RX 580 lands at the top of the stack we tested.
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