6GB or 3GB

[n3urion]

So yeah I am kinda in a hard spot right now as I really can't decide if 3gb gtx 1060 is enough for someone who only plays at 1080p but still wanna get that 60 fps, can you guys help me decide please ? I mean I wish I could just get the 6gb as i am a really big fan of evga's ftw+ edition ... but it's just too freaking expensive in my country .. and even if i buy it from somewhere else with the taxs and all it'll just cost a little less which it's still not worth it, at all. There's also a possiblity to get someone to send it to me via mail ( someone who lives in the country from which I'll buy the gpu ) but he's gonna need to get it out of the box in order to get it through the borders without paying the extra taxes (appearently, in my country, you can't get a gift without paying extra for it unless it's unboxed).
to put you guys in perspective here's what I am dealing with : 
- The 3GB version costs around 295$ in my country, the 6GB however costs WAY HIGHER : 450$ ... yeah 
- Buying the 6GB version online will cost me 330$ + taxes = around 430$ ... getting someone to unbox it and send me the gpu as a gift will probably cost around 340$ but there's the chance tht I might not get it as a one piece. 
so yeah any advice woud be appreciated ... and thanks in advance guys   

[asdf2061]

Have you tried the 4GB RX 480? It's kinda like a middleman.

[Zyndo]

I would recommend the RX 480 4GB over the 1060 3GB. However I would recommend the 1060 6GB over the RX 480 8GB. But if where you live the 480's are more affordable then that would be the more sensible way to go.

 

That being said, a 1060 3GB is a plenty powerful card for 60 fps gaming. Doesn't have a lot of VRAM headroom if you're the kind of guy who loves to throw a bunch of texture mods and things at your games, but if you're playing games at 1080p at stock settings (even at high/ultra presets) 3GB should be fine for now.

[n3urion]

5 minutes ago, I_IHaveNoLife_l said:

Have you tried the 4GB RX 480? It's kinda like a middleman.

I don't think it's available in my country + it would cost 400$ if it was ... since the 8gb is availabe and costs 450$

 

[sgloux3470]

3 GB is fine for 1080p, the only real quality difference will be some games you will need to lower texture quality.

 

6 GB is better in this regard and should run pretty much any game with maximum texture quality.  

 

So the main thing to ask yourself is if it's worth spending 25% more for the extra 3 GB of vRam when most games don't show much difference between different texture quality settings.  Keep in mind that most reviewers who run vRAM benchmarks are fucking idiots and are doing it with cards that have a huge surplus of vRAM, and so they will always show more utilization because the game engines are smart enough to allocate extra vRAM if it's available. Here's a pretty safe guideline for recent and future titles vRAM utilization at 1080p:

 

Low - 1 GB 

Medium 2 GB

High 3 GB

Very High 4 GB

Ultra 6 GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I have 4GB of vRAM at 4K and the only game that rapes my vRAM regardless of settings is assassins creed unity. (Although there's a trick with anistropic filtering that fixes that iirc).  Everything else only exceeds my vRAM if I throw MSAA or the max texture quality setting at it.  Bumping the texture quality down one peg and everything is dandy and looks great.

 

I would suggest looking at games like Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Rise of the Tomb Raider, GTA V and Shadow of Mordor texture quality comparisons.  Compare the max preset with the next step or two down.  Nvidia often has a pretty great breakdown of these settings in their Performance Guides.  Here's an example with Rise of the Tomb Raider comparing Very High Textures to Medium Textures:

http://images.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/rise-of-the-tomb-raider/alt/rise-of-the-tomb-raider-texture-quality-interactive-comparison-001-very-high-vs-medium-alt.html

 

And the large article

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/rise-of-the-tomb-raider-graphics-and-performance-guide#rise-of-the-tomb-raider-texture-quality

 

EDIT:
 

Just saw in your country the 6 GB version is massively more expensive.  I would definitely recommend the 3GB in that case UNLESS you're willing to find an older gen card used.  For example, the R9 390, GTX 980. Definitely don't spend that much on the 6 GB variant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LabRat]

the speed of the gpu will dictate the speed of the card. the speed of the ram will dictate how fast the information flows. the amount of ram will dictate the amount of information will be stored on the card before it needs to off load and use system's resources.

not sure i conveyed that right.

long story short. 3gigs isn't enough for my money, even at 1080p without making adjustments to the game panel settings. but I think the 1060 is faster most of the time over the 480?

 

[Nena Trinity]

1060 3GB is inferior to the RX 470/480 4GB so unless you are willing to get 6GB I vote for RX!

[LabRat]

i see 1 game in this benchmark from digitalfoundry that does worse, and I see where the 3gig buffer hurts game play. but the 470/80 isn't better  in most of these games tested.....

 

[TechyRicefarmer]

In my eyes the 3GB GTX 1060 should be considered a GTX 1055

[JacobKS]

7 hours ago, n3urion said:

So yeah I am kinda in a hard spot right now as I really can't decide if 3gb gtx 1060 is enough for someone who only plays at 1080p but still wanna get that 60 fps, can you guys help me decide please ? I mean I wish I could just get the 6gb as i am a really big fan of evga's ftw+ edition ... but it's just too freaking expensive in my country .. and even if i buy it from somewhere else with the taxs and all it'll just cost a little less which it's still not worth it, at all. There's also a possiblity to get someone to send it to me via mail ( someone who lives in the country from which I'll buy the gpu ) but he's gonna need to get it out of the box in order to get it through the borders without paying the extra taxes (appearently, in my country, you can't get a gift without paying extra for it unless it's unboxed).
to put you guys in perspective here's what I am dealing with : 
- The 3GB version costs around 295$ in my country, the 6GB however costs WAY HIGHER : 450$ ... yeah 
- Buying the 6GB version online will cost me 330$ + taxes = around 430$ ... getting someone to unbox it and send me the gpu as a gift will probably cost around 340$ but there's the chance tht I might not get it as a one piece. 
so yeah any advice woud be appreciated ... and thanks in advance guys   

For me personally I'd go for the 3GB version since you're kinda into budget system here. If you want to choose between the 3GB and the 6GB vesion the question is... When you buy a card aren't you planning for any future upgrade? If you're not planning for any future upgrade on your card and still want to kick some ass in the near future go for the 6GB version you'll have plenty of VRAM there. If you're planning to upgrade to 1160 immediately when they released the next gen card in the near future go for the 3GB version you could play on Ultra in most of games out there today on a very playable FPS and just lower the graphics quality in the near future if you;re playing some games that its quite demanding.

My best advice watch some benchmark videos on YT regarding these two GPUs, it will help you a lot.

 

Here are some good benchmark videos that I found for you.

 

[Carclis]

I would not be going for the 3GB model at all. If you are able to a 4GB RX 480 is very much preferable but not ideal. This issue came up in a topic not too long ago and you might find this post to be of help.

 

[n3urion]

thank you all for the help ... but I think I'll just have to take my chances with the gtx 1060 6gb and get my friend to send it to me, maybe even wait till christmas for those sweet sales ... And since I am on a very limited budget and that is not going to change for quite some time ( architecture student problems >..> ) so I am gonna have to cross the 3gb version off since it's not really futur-proof if I may say ? also the rx 480 in my country is only 10$ or 20$ cheaper than gtx 1060 6gb so way out of my league and not worth it. wish me luck, I hope my gpu arrives safe *crossed fingers*.
oh and sorry for the late reply guys I was super busy lately and didn't get the chance to jump in and read your comments .. but they were very helpful and made me make up my mind, and for I am grateful  

Edited September 24, 2016 by n3urion