RX 480, GTX 1060, or wait for Vega?

[corevo]

Hey guys,

 

I'm planning on building my first computer soon, mainly for pc gaming. The build is pretty much all planned out, but I'm having trouble picking a GPU.

 

At first, I thought I would go with the GTX 1060 because it seems like the best value for my situation, but then I began reading about AMD's better performance in DX12 and considered that a freesync monitor is within my budget while a G-sync monitor is not. So it seems that an AMD card might be the better investment. 

 

The problem is, I'm a little petty and don't really want to put a 6 month old GPU into my new system, effectively dating it 6 months. I know that AMD is releasing something a little more high end soon, do you guys think I should wait for this release? I know that it won't be at the same price point as these other two cards, but I'm willing to pay more if the card is a good value and will stay relevant for longer. I won't be building this PC until January anyways because I'm waiting for Intel's new CPUs, and I guess its possible that AMD will have released something new by then anyways.

 

So yeah...choices...do y'all have any advice to offer on which of these to go with?

Thanks!

[DrMacintosh]

wait for Vega

[needlessly_weekday]

5 minutes ago, corevo said:

Hey guys,

 

I'm planning on building my first computer soon, mainly for pc gaming. The build is pretty much all planned out, but I'm having trouble picking a GPU.

 

At first, I thought I would go with the GTX 1060 because it seems like the best value for my situation, but then I began reading about AMD's better performance in DX12 and considered that a freesync monitor is within my budget while a G-sync monitor is not. So it seems that an AMD card might be the better investment. 

 

The problem is, I'm a little petty and don't really want to put a 6 month old GPU into my new system, effectively dating it 6 months. I know that AMD is releasing something a little more high end soon, do you guys think I should wait for this release? I know that it won't be at the same price point as these other two cards, but I'm willing to pay more if the card is a good value and will stay relevant for longer. I won't be building this PC until January anyways because I'm waiting for Intel's new CPUs, and I guess its possible that AMD will have released something new by then anyways.

 

So yeah...choices...do y'all have any advice to offer on which of these to go with?

Thanks!

Do you want to game NOW? Or can you wait? Depends on your situation too! I mean, I am running a 1060 6GB and it's very good

[Morgan MLGman]

8 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

I'd go 1060. 

They trade blows in DX12, but the 1060 performs better in everything else

RX 480 does have an advantage on average in DX12, however I still wouldn't get a GTX 1060 when this is available at this price: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/M2mxFT/sapphire-video-card-112470340g

Faster than both of those cards at the same price.

[corevo]

4 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

RX 480 does have an advantage on average in DX12, however I still wouldn't get a GTX 1060 when this is available at this price: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/M2mxFT/sapphire-video-card-112470340g

Faster than both of those cards at the same price.

4 GB of VRAM seems a bit low in my opinion, if I'm planning on using this card for a few years.

[zMeul]

Vega will be GPU aimed at the a different market sector and most likely won't overlap with Polaris

if you're waiting for Vega to get a RX480 price reduction, then you'll be waiting quite a few months

otherwise, it makes no sense in waiting

[Brekmister]

19 minutes ago, corevo said:

Hey guys,

 

I'm planning on building my first computer soon, mainly for pc gaming. The build is pretty much all planned out, but I'm having trouble picking a GPU.

 

At first, I thought I would go with the GTX 1060 because it seems like the best value for my situation, but then I began reading about AMD's better performance in DX12 and considered that a freesync monitor is within my budget while a G-sync monitor is not. So it seems that an AMD card might be the better investment. 

 

The problem is, I'm a little petty and don't really want to put a 6 month old GPU into my new system, effectively dating it 6 months. I know that AMD is releasing something a little more high end soon, do you guys think I should wait for this release? I know that it won't be at the same price point as these other two cards, but I'm willing to pay more if the card is a good value and will stay relevant for longer. I won't be building this PC until January anyways because I'm waiting for Intel's new CPUs, and I guess its possible that AMD will have released something new by then anyways.

 

So yeah...choices...do y'all have any advice to offer on which of these to go with?

Thanks!

As a RX 480 8GB Owner (with a reference cooler at that) the RX 480 is perfect for me to do everything from Gaming at Max settings to Video Rendering in 1080P. Yes, it does get hot enough for me to cook scrambled eggs on my backplate (No I did not try that) but, it doesn't throttle surprisingly unless I try to OC.

 

As a first build, I say go for the 480 and here's why:

1. the 1060 is not as future-proof as one might think

2. Vega might be overkill for your needs.

3. Sweet and Innovative AMD software technology for all AMD Radeon users. (Who knows what's the next cool thing after FreeSync?)

4. Your temps will be better than mine because you won't have a reference card.

[Misanthrope]

Vega will be over your budget. If you already have a freesync monitor or want to get one, then get the 480. But outside of that there's little reason to go with the 480 instead of the 1060: Yes even with DX12 games most of the time the 480 matches or very slightly surpasses the 1060 and only a handful of games show like a pretty clear 480 lead (Doom and Hitman come to mind). The 1060 6gb is just a better card overall if you consider the total amount of games currently available and how they perform.

 

And no I don't like the "future proofing" argument either: it takes a while for games to get tailor made for Vulkan and DX12 enough that the difference would be significant. Said time is probably about or longer than the useful life cycle of these types of cars (about 3 years of usefulness)