Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro 8GB or MSI Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 Gaming X?

[Yoo Song Won]

Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro 8GB or MSI Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6GB?

 

I'm planning to buy one of these GPUs but don't know which one to buy.

 

PRICE DOESN'T MATTER FOR ME! PLEASE DON'T JUDGE ON WHAT I SHOULD BUY WITH PRICE!

 

I've seen the benchmarks and have seen that both GPU's are really close in terms of performance in some games.

 

I want the best performance, quiet fans, low temperature, low power consumption and future proofing.

 

I'm not yet sure if I'll use crossfire but will probably use a 1440p monitor.

 

Thanks.

[crysilis]

2 minutes ago, Yoo Song Won said:

Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro 8GB or MSI Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6GB?

 

I'm planning to buy one of these GPUs but don't know which one to buy.

 

PRICE DOESN'T MATTER FOR ME! PLEASE DON'T JUDGE ON WHAT I SHOULD BUY WITH PRICE!

 

I've seen the benchmarks and have seen that both GPU's are really close in terms of performance in some games.

 

I want the best performance, quiet fans, low temperature, low power consumption and future proofing.

 

Thanks.

rx 480 for furtureproofing

[JJVGaming]

The rx 480 is probably better for the future, cuz you got 8gb and plus you can crossfire

[Yoo Song Won]

Just now, crysilis said:

rx 480 for furtureproofing

I heard, however, that DX12 and Vulcan are going to come in games in a really long time so there's no point in getting the RX 480...

[Bananasplit_00]

super hard to choose here, the RX480 has done amazingly in newer tittles using both DX12 and Vulcan but the 1060 has more raw power IIRC so i would probably go look at benchmarks from tittles you want to play and then pick, if you get the Rx 480 then make sure to get the 8GB one because of future proofing and all that good stuff. also you can X fire the RX 480 so there is that if you ever want more then one card in your system

[Nena Trinity]

GTX 1060 has no SLI bridge...

[Z-Gaming]

7 minutes ago, Yoo Song Won said:

Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro 8GB or MSI Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6GB?

 

I'm planning to buy one of these GPUs but don't know which one to buy.

 

PRICE DOESN'T MATTER FOR ME! PLEASE DON'T JUDGE ON WHAT I SHOULD BUY WITH PRICE!

 

I've seen the benchmarks and have seen that both GPU's are really close in terms of performance in some games.

 

I want the best performance, quiet fans, low temperature, low power consumption and future proofing.

 

I'm not yet sure if I'll use crossfire but will probably use a 1440p monitor.

 

Thanks.

Bad news... if you plan on crossfire, the 1060 offers no such thing. As nVidia said, if you want moaaar powaaa, go with a more powerfull card like a 1070. You wont be able to add another 1060 in the future

[Thony]

Well if u say price dont matter then GTX 1060 is better option.

[Autoimmunity]

1 hour ago, Yoo Song Won said:

I heard, however, that DX12 and Vulcan are going to come in games in a really long time so there's no point in getting the RX 480...

Battlefield 1, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Forza Horizon 3, Watch Dogs 2, Civilization VI, Gears of War 4, and Halo Wars 2 are all confirmed to use DX12.

 

All of those games will be out within 8 months, so what's this about DX12 not coming?

[App4that]

Just now, Autoimmunity said:

Battlefield 1, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Forza Horizon 3, Watch Dogs 2, Civilization VI, Gears of War 4, and Halo Wars 2 are all confirmed to use DX12.

 

All of those games will be out within 8 months, so what's this about DX12 not coming?

Because it's not going smoothly. Look at the performance in the games we have using DX12, they're buggy messes. Luke has posted here that a video is incoming on this problem.

 

Towards the bottom of the page.

 

 

[Autoimmunity]

2 minutes ago, App4that said:

Because it's not going smoothly. Look at the performance in the games we have using DX12, they're buggy messes. Luke has posted here that a video is incoming on this problem

 

And with time, and driver updates this will improve.  The post I quoted said that DX12 wasn't coming for a while, which it clearly IS.  It's important that people are aware that more and more DX12 games are coming later this year.  

 

There also has yet to be a DX12 only game, which is probably why it's so buggy at the moment, because it's been added on to all these games very recently.  Running a game engine off an entirely new API that works completely differently from the previous one is going to require some bug squashing through patches.

 

Gears of War 4 will be an interesting one, as it is a UWP game and requires DX12.  

[App4that]

4 minutes ago, Autoimmunity said:

And with time, and driver updates this will improve.  The post I quoted said that DX12 wasn't coming for a while, which it clearly IS.  It's important that people are aware that more and more DX12 games are coming later this year.  

 

There also has yet to be a DX12 only game, which is probably why it's so buggy at the moment, because it's been added on to all these games very recently.  Running a game engine off an entirely new API that works completely differently from the previous one is going to require some bug squashing through patches.

 

Gears of War 4 will be an interesting one, as it is a UWP game and requires DX12.  

But look at your list, see something? Console ports. DX12 is being pushed by Microsoft, it requires Windows 10. Microsoft wants everyone in the same ecosystem so they can make more money off it. Only the API doesn't work, Vulkan works. Sure we only have Doom but the differences on the developers side are clear. Even with Microsoft investing in the use of DX12 games developed using Vulkan cost less since they take less resources. It's a tug of war between Microsoft paying developers to use the API they want, and the cost savings using a better API. The games you mention include DX11, they have to since DX12 requires Windows 10 and no publisher wants to loose sales due to a OS.

 

DX12 has a slim chance of being the dominate API a year from now.

[Autoimmunity]

38 minutes ago, App4that said:

But look at your list, see something? Console ports. DX12 is being pushed by Microsoft, it requires Windows 10. Microsoft wants everyone in the same ecosystem so they can make more money off it. Only the API doesn't work, Vulkan works. Sure we only have Doom but the differences on the developers side are clear. Even with Microsoft investing in the use of DX12 games developed using Vulkan cost less since they take less resources. It's a tug of war between Microsoft paying developers to use the API they want, and the cost savings using a better API. The games you mention include DX11, they have to since DX12 requires Windows 10 and no publisher wants to loose sales due to a OS.

 

DX12 has a slim chance of being the dominate API a year from now.

Civ 6 and Battlefield are console ports? This is news to me. I get what you're saying, but again, the point I was responding to was that there are no DX12 games coming, which is untrue. There are. 

 

This also doesn't even take into account Vulkan, which has shown the same results as DX12.  Nvidia gets slight bumps while AMD gets massive ones. 

 

Personally, I think the RX 480 is a better choice for anyone who doesn't plan to upgrade next year. 

 

 

[App4that]

8 minutes ago, Autoimmunity said:

Civ 6 and Battlefield are console ports? This is news to me. I get what you're saying, but again, the point I was responding to was that there are no DX12 games coming, which is untrue. There are. 

 

This also doesn't even take into account Vulkan, which has shown the same results as DX12.  Nvidia gets slight bumps while AMD gets massive ones. 

 

Personally, I think the RX 480 is a better choice for anyone who doesn't plan to upgrade next year. 

 

 

The reason for those "massive" jumps is a term we use in drag racing know as "sand bagging"

 

AMD kept the performance in Doom in the basement by not running the same level of OpenGL as Nvidia. Nvidia ate this up of course because their cards significantly better than AMD's at launch and for weeks after. Then when the Vulkan update launched the roles were reversed only this time Nvidia was blocked by id the developer of Doom from using all of the features avalible to AMD. Hence the performance disparity. Dispite what you read in the tabloids Vulkan works wonderfully on Nvidia hardware after the smoke clears from this transition we will see the normal trading of blows between AMD and Nvidia hardware.

[r4ndomdinosaur]

So. I've been struggling with this decision as well. It was between the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 4gb/8gb and the MSI Gaming X 1060.

I just placed my order today at Mike's Computer store for 429,99.

 

The reason I went with this choice is because nVidia had better bench marks for DX11 games like Dragon Age Inquisition and Witcher 3. The improvements were very minor varying between 5fps to 10 fps.

 

I've looked on reddit and other forums to see what others have said, I finally came to this guy that did the same benchmarks for the same games.

• Sapphire RX 480 8gb Review
• MSI GTX 1060 6gb Review

The decision came down to a few things for me.

1. The RX 480 has some pretty terrible and audible coil whine. If you have sound isolated case, not a problem. (SOUND)

2. The RX 480 gobbles lots of power and offsets a lot of heat. Minor setback at most. (POWER & TEMPERATURE)

3. The MSI 1060 was more quiet and power efficient. Solid plus. (SOUND)

4. I don't plan to ever crossfire or use SLI.

5. I'm just going to game at 1080p.

 

Until today, I was going to pick up a 980 TI for 470$ as posted on a reddit post, but I was too late.The performance of the 980 Ti is much better than the 480 and 1060, and is comparable to the 1070; however, if you OC the 980 Ti a bit more it can beat the 1070.

 

tl;dr: The 480 has very comparable performance to the 1060; however, the trade offs are in noise, heat, and power efficiency. The Solid plus is that it can run in crossfire; however, if you were going to spend that much money on 2x 480's, you'd probably be better off getting a upper tier 1070 card.

 

Note: If I see the 980 Ti come back at the lower price, I'd snag it if it's in the mid 400's again. The only caveat is efficiency, but that performance is beast.

[Autoimmunity]

1 hour ago, r4ndomdinosaur said:

So. I've been struggling with this decision as well. It was between the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 4gb/8gb and the MSI Gaming X 1060.

I just placed my order today at Mike's Computer store for 429,99.

 

The reason I went with this choice is because nVidia had better bench marks for DX11 games like Dragon Age Inquisition and Witcher 3. The improvements were very minor varying between 5fps to 10 fps.

 

I've looked on reddit and other forums to see what others have said, I finally came to this guy that did the same benchmarks for the same games.

• Sapphire RX 480 8gb Review
• MSI GTX 1060 6gb Review

The decision came down to a few things for me.

1. The RX 480 has some pretty terrible and audible coil whine. If you have sound isolated case, not a problem. (SOUND)

2. The RX 480 gobbles lots of power and offsets a lot of heat. Minor setback at most. (POWER & TEMPERATURE)

3. The MSI 1060 was more quiet and power efficient. Solid plus. (SOUND)

4. I don't plan to ever crossfire or use SLI.

5. I'm just going to game at 1080p.

 

Until today, I was going to pick up a 980 TI for 470$ as posted on a reddit post, but I was too late.The performance of the 980 Ti is much better than the 480 and 1060, and is comparable to the 1070; however, if you OC the 980 Ti a bit more it can beat the 1070.

 

tl;dr: The 480 has very comparable performance to the 1060; however, the trade offs are in noise, heat, and power efficiency. The Solid plus is that it can run in crossfire; however, if you were going to spend that much money on 2x 480's, you'd probably be better off getting a upper tier 1070 card.

 

Note: If I see the 980 Ti come back at the lower price, I'd snag it if it's in the mid 400's again. The only caveat is efficiency, but that performance is beast.

Even though the 480 consumes more power, it is still miles better than cards from a generation or two ago.  If you have had any GPU from before 2014, it used more power than the 480 does now.  It simply isn't a big enough factor to base a purchase on.  The heat these cards generate is also much less than previous generations as well.

 

Base your purchase on budget and performance, nothing more.

[App4that]

4 minutes ago, Autoimmunity said:

Even though the 480 consumes more power, it is still miles better than cards from a generation or two ago.  If you have had any GPU from before 2014, it used more power than the 480 does now.  It simply isn't a big enough factor to base a purchase on.  The heat these cards generate is also much less than previous generations as well.

 

Base your purchase on budget and performance, nothing more.

Power consumption can be a make it or break it, not everyone has the money to buy a large power supply. 

[Autoimmunity]

Just now, App4that said:

Power consumption can be a make it or break it, not everyone has the money to buy a large power supply. 

Both the 1060 and the 480 consume less than 200w of power, which means even the most basic 400w PSU can run either.....

[App4that]

1 hour ago, Autoimmunity said:

Both the 1060 and the 480 consume less than 200w of power, which means even the most basic 400w PSU can run either.....

The 480 draws as much power as a 1070. Oops, sorry. Forgot the...

[xAcid9]

21 minutes ago, App4that said:

The 480 draws as much power as a 1070. Oops, sorry. Forgot the...

If only the 1070 cost much more than the 480.. Oh wait.. 

[App4that]

7 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

If only the 1070 cost much more than the 480.. Oh wait.. 

What? A Ford Mustang costs more than a Chevy Sonic? Whaaaaaaaat!?!? Nani!?!?

 

Are sure? 

 

 

Mind=blown

[xAcid9]

5 minutes ago, App4that said:

What? A Ford Mustang costs more than a Chevy Sonic? Whaaaaaaaat!?!? Nani!?!?

 

Are sure? 

 

 

Mind=blown

Honto-desu

 

[r4ndomdinosaur]

4 hours ago, Autoimmunity said:

Even though the 480 consumes more power, it is still miles better than cards from a generation or two ago.  If you have had any GPU from before 2014, it used more power than the 480 does now.  It simply isn't a big enough factor to base a purchase on.  The heat these cards generate is also much less than previous generations as well.

 

Base your purchase on budget and performance, nothing more.

 

Power draw is power draw, if it's important to me it's something I consider, that said the power draw difference appeared to differ by only 20 watts; therefore, it's a wash of a consideration. As you stated. I think it's important to think about the most important thing, price/performance, which was what I was thinking about after dinner.

 

Performance of the 4gb and 8gb Rx 480 cards are negligible right now varying between 5 fps difference

Taking into consideration the following prices:

• RX 480 4gb ($329.99)
• RX 480 8gb ($399.99)
• GTX 1060 6gb ($429.99)

The question is whether if it is worthwhile to purchase the 1060 which gets 10% more frames/second than the competion, approximately 5-10 additional frames. This ends up being the difference between 55 fps and 65 fps on average.

 

On additional thing to consider is the accoustics, which other reviewers have noted. The 480 doesn't have the best accoustics when the card is under 100% load and reaches 65.6 decibels; in contrast, the 1060 is around 53.5 decibels. When the cards are at 50% load, the difference is smaller with the 480 at 42.8 decibels, and the 1060 at 38.5 decibels. tl;dr, the 1060 is a moderately more quiet at full load, and a touch quieter than the 480 at 50% load.

- The reviewer I referenced earlier stated that the MSI Gaming X 1060 was very quiet; in contrast, he noted significant coil whine (unavoidable) and sound emananating from the 480.

 

Personally, for best price/performance I would go with the 4gb 480 at 329.99.

If I was considering the 480 8gb I would go with the 1060 6gb due to slightly better performance, cooling, and power efficiency. All those little extra bonuses for 30$ more. Although it can be stated that the 480 has potentially more ram, the cards are using different architectures and do not store data the same way. It may have been Linus that stated that nVidia compresses more of the data.

 

That's the consensus I reached.

 

Here is some of the material I used:

Gamers Nexus

Bit Tech

Hardware Canucks Video (GTX 1060 vs RX 480)

JayzTwoCents

Eteknix

 

As for me, I think I might either keep my MSI 1060 or return it and grab the 4gb RX 480 for 100$ less.

 

Update: I just looked at Newegg.com. The MSI Gaming X 1060 is 279.99 USD, which converts to 364.00 CAD... and I'm paying 429.99 before tax... omfg...

 

[ace_cheaply]

I don't get it...If price doesn't matter, you'll be using a 1440p monitor, and you want to make it future proof, why don't you buy a 1070?  1060 and 480 are both mediocre at 1440p now, let alone in the future. 

[xAcid9]

3 hours ago, r4ndomdinosaur said:

The question is whether if it is worthwhile to purchase the 1060 which gets 10% more frames/second than the competion, approximately 5-10 additional frames. This ends up being the difference between 55 fps and 65 fps on average.

 

On additional thing to consider is the accoustics, which other reviewers have noted. The 480 doesn't have the best accoustics when the card is under 100% load and reaches 65.6 decibels; in contrast, the 1060 is around 53.5 decibels. When the cards are at 50% load, the difference is smaller with the 480 at 42.8 decibels, and the 1060 at 38.5 decibels. tl;dr, the 1060 is a moderately more quiet at full load, and a touch quieter than the 480 at 50% load.

- The reviewer I referenced earlier stated that the MSI Gaming X 1060 was very quiet; in contrast, he noted significant coil whine (unavoidable) and sound emananating from the 480.

 

Personally, for best price/performance I would go with the 4gb 480 at 329.99.

If I was considering the 480 8gb I would go with the 1060 6gb due to slightly better performance, cooling, and power efficiency. All those little extra bonuses for 30$ more. Although it can be stated that the 480 has potentially more ram, the cards are using different architectures and do not store data the same way. It may have been Linus that stated that nVidia compresses more of the data.

 

That's the consensus I reached.

 

As for me, I think I might either keep my MSI 1060 or return it and grab the 4gb RX 480 for 100$ less.

 

Update: I just looked at Newegg.com. The MSI Gaming X 1060 is 279.99 USD, which converts to 364.00 CAD... and I'm paying 429.99 before tax... omfg...

 

55fps vs 65fps is closer to 20%. More like 55fps-61fps

 

Noise level is high especially for the Nitro cooler because the driver interfere with the custom fan logic.

Quote

Here's an issue that has gone back and forth between HEXUS and Sapphire. As we mentioned in the Asus RX 480 review, the AMD Control Centre (CC) takes charge of the fan speed on all partner RX 480s, irrespective of what the manufacturer has set the curve at. For some reason, the CC likes to ramp up fan speeds to high levels - 2,350rpm on the two fans in this instance, causing the aural ruckus shown in the above graph.

PowerColor cooler is much quieter according to Hilbert.

 

Both arch use memory compression but Nvidia 3rd gen memory compression is superior to Polaris but not by significant margin and not all can be compress so in some games raw bandwidth is better.