Hitman, Metro: Last Light Redux & Project CARS
Hitman (DX11)
As with AofS, Hitman favors AMD’s GCN architecture; the Radeon R9 390, 390X, and RX 480 all beat the new Pascal-based board. That card, the GeForce GTX 1060, lands between the 980 and 970 at 1920x1080. It’s plenty playable, averaging 73 FPS. But the fact that a $300 Founders Edition card trades blows with a less expensive competitor is tough to swallow.
Nvidia’s woes continue at 2560x1440, where its GeForce GTX 1060 and previous-gen Maxwell boards average lower frame rates than the Radeon RX 480.
The GeForce GTX 960 struggles in particular; sharp frame time spikes throughout Hitman’s built-in benchmark are indicative of a choppy experience.
Metro: Last Light Redux (DX11)
Some redemption is found in Metro, where the GeForce GTX 1060 slides in ahead of both Grenada-based Radeons and the GeForce GTX 970. But Nvidia’s GTX 980 is still faster.
Pushing to 2560x1440 exacts a big performance hit on the entire field. However, AMD’s Radeon R9 390 and 390X are more resilient than the cut-back GP106, which falls to fifth place. While charting frame rate over time makes the differences look small, certain 390s sell for less ahead of the 1060’s launch. Nvidia needs to rely on board partners to make its value case; the Founders Edition board at $300 comes up short in that regard.
Project CARS (DX11)
There is an established history of AMD hardware underperforming Nvidia’s in Project CARS. The explanation for this remains unclear, though Slightly Mad Studios remains adamant that the misbalance has nothing to do with Nvidia technologies or any specific optimization in the MADNESS engine. At least the Radeons remain playable at 1920x1080.
The AMD cards are even playable at 2560x1440, though the disparity between the GeForces and Radeons is quite clear in our frame rate over time chart. We also see the GeForce GTX 1060 above GTX 980 in average FPS, though the frame rate over time chart shows them tracking each other’s performance almost exactly. Minimal frame time variance across the board backs our experiential data that says CARS runs smoothly across a wide range of graphics hardware.
MORE: Best Graphics Cards
MORE: Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table
MORE: All Graphics Content
