RX480 vs GTX1060 - And an AMD's Fanboy rant....

[AgahPT]

So my ASUS R9 270X died yesterday,  and now i have to go look for a new GPU.. here is my story!

 

#begin_rant_part

 

I've always been a loyal fan of the red team (go Radeon 9200!) but this last GPU I bought died without any warning and without me abusing it (no OCing or temperature nonsense) and it was just 2+1/2 years old!

It all started with the occasional freeze (I don't consider this a warning, it happens!), whilst performance was great so I did not put much attention into it, then yesterday it froze... and now all it does is BIOS menus and Windows Safe Mode, anything that remotely need to multiply 2 time 2 it just generates a black screen! I've asked a friend to test it out on his system and he has the same results, so i pronounced the board functionally dead and started looking for a new one. I don't wanna go blaming this on ASUS or AMD, maybe it was bad luck so lets roll with that...

 

#end_rant_part

 

I begun looking at the 300€ish  segment and the only options I found were an RX480 or a GTX1060 (for a bit more).

I know the performance of both cards is really close and I could not justify the extra 60€ to 70€ to get the green card, and thinking with my wallet... AMD needs the money

 

So do you guys feel like I should feed my inner red fanboy or can you swing me to the green team?

And what manufacturer do you guys like the most?

[MoonlightSylv]

The 1060 performs better in DX11 titles but the 480 performs better in most DX12 and Vulcan titles.

 

GTX 1060: ASUS, MSI, EVGA, or Gigabyte

RX 480: Sapphire Nitro

[RGProductions]

3 minutes ago, AgahPT said:

 

Id say your GPU death was random. Could've happened to anyone, including green team

[Shiv78]

1 minute ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

RX 480: Sapphire Nitro

Not 100% sure, but I've heard that the Sapphire Nitro RX cards run extremely loud. XFX maybe? Swappable fans

[Biggerboot]

I won't say you should avoid AMD because of the unfortunate experience with the 270x.  Could've happened on green or red.

 

I will say I like the 1060 a little more if you plan on overclocking at all (the 480 can't really do OC).  Otherwise they're both fine choices depending on the titles you want to benefit in.

[MoonlightSylv]

4 minutes ago, Shiv78 said:

Not 100% sure, but I've heard that the Sapphire Nitro RX cards run extremely loud. XFX maybe? Swappable fans

The XFX and Sapphire cards have swappable fans.

 

Actually I think @ThinkWithPortals has a Nitro 480.

[Brooksie359]

14 minutes ago, AgahPT said:

So my ASUS R9 270X died yesterday,  and now i have to go look for a new GPU.. here is my story!

 

#begin_rant_part

 

I've always been a loyal fan of the red team (go Radeon 9200!) but this last GPU I bought died without any warning and without me abusing it (no OCing or temperature nonsense) and it was just 2+1/2 years old!

It all started with the occasional freeze (I don't consider this a warning, it happens!), whilst performance was great so I did not put much attention into it, then yesterday it froze... and now all it does is BIOS menus and Windows Safe Mode, anything that remotely need to multiply 2 time 2 it just generates a black screen! I've asked a friend to test it out on his system and he has the same results, so i pronounced the board functionally dead and started looking for a new one. I don't wanna go blaming this on ASUS or AMD, maybe it was bad luck so lets roll with that...

 

#end_rant_part

 

I begun looking at the 300€ish  segment and the only options I found were an RX480 or a GTX1060 (for a bit more).

I know the performance of both cards is really close and I could not justify the extra 60€ to 70€ to get the green card, and thinking with my wallet... AMD needs the money

 

So do you guys feel like I should feed my inner red fanboy or can you swing me to the green team?

And what manufacturer do you guys like the most?

if the rx 480 is 60 to 70 euros cheaper definitely go with that. i prefer nvidia but if the rx 480 is cheaper and you prefer amd then its a no brainer

[ThinkWithPortals]

2 minutes ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

The XFX and Sapphire cards have swappable fans.

 

Actually I think @ThinkWithPortals has a Nitro 480.

I do indeed, thanks for tagging me

 

OP, if you need any info on the RX 480 NITRO, please PM me. I really like the card, it's powerful, quiet at idle, totally tolerable under load and IMO it's drop-dead gorgeous.

 

Some temps: after one run of 3DMark Firestrike the maximum temperature was 81 degrees, after the SteamVR Performance Test it was 80 degrees. In games like DiRT Rally, Cities: Skylines and Euro Truck Simulator 2 it doesn't pass 80 degrees (normally hovers around 75-78). On all of these occasions the fan speed was between 60 and 75%.

 

In your case, if the 480 is that much cheaper then the 1060 then get the 480 for sure. It's why I did.

[xGGAx]

well I think you should consider power consumption and acoustics too. Both the RX480 and the gtx 1060 have very similar performance, and even though amd outperforms in dx12 and vulcan, most games favor nvidia over amd. The 1060 runs very cool and has better overclocking. My very own 1060 runs at 35C idle and 62C under load (overclocked to 2100MHz).

[kokakolia]

I would pick whatever's cheaper.

 

Originally I wanted to buy the rx 480, but I couldn't find a decent one under $400 cad (I am not buying a reference cooler!!!), so I bought a Zotac GTX 1060 6gb mini for $340 cad. The caveat is that it's an ugly looking card cooled by a single tiny fan and an aluminum block. Still better than a reference cooler though, and not by much

[AgahPT]

Great replies guys! I'm still leaning to red team on this, but more questions this time... Is the reference cooler/PCB that bad? I mean i have excellent airflow inside the case it should not be a hassle to handle a blower card eating fresh air from inside? (I've never owned a blower card)
 

The brands that are mostly available are XFX, SAPPHIRE, ASUS and GIGABYTE any thoughts on that?

[Darkseth]

1 hour ago, Shiv78 said:

Not 100% sure, but I've heard that the Sapphire Nitro RX cards run extremely loud. XFX maybe? Swappable fans

You're Right. Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 is the WORST RX 480 there is on the market.

 

MSI Gaming is very good and quiet, Powercolor Red Devil also.

Asus Strix is loud, but VERY cool, so can be made silent since there's alot room above to play with (Temperature Target is set to 65°C, which is way too low. Set it to 75-80°C, and voilá, Quiet.

 

Edit: Yes, the Reference is Crapshit +1. Loud, Hot, and some Power draw problems (not much room above the specification). Custom models did fix, what AMD fucked up.

[RGProductions]

1 hour ago, Biggerboot said:

 

The 480 overclocks quite well under water

[bakker1337]

lel my gtx 460 still works like a charm and handles some of the newer games 

[Biggerboot]

15 minutes ago, RGProductions said:

The 480 overclocks quite well under water

1) I dun believe you (show me the proof). 

2) Why would you?

[ThinkWithPortals]

24 minutes ago, AgahPT said:

Great replies guys! I'm still leaning to red team on this, but more questions this time... Is the reference cooler/PCB that bad? I mean i have excellent airflow inside the case it should not be a hassle to handle a blower card eating fresh air from inside? (I've never owned a blower card)
 

The brands that are mostly available are XFX, SAPPHIRE, ASUS and GIGABYTE any thoughts on that?

The reference cooler is pretty bad. Airflow doesn't really matter, the heatsink on that card is just tiny.

 

Here's the heatsink off the reference 480:

 

 

It's barely bigger than an Intel stock cooler.

 

21 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

You're Right. Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 is the WORST RX 480 there is on the market.

It was a good choice for me, for a while. It was exactly the same price as most of the reference RX 480s (and cheaper then a few reference cards) but cooled a lot better. It was either a hot, loud reference card, a more expensive aftermarket model, or the Sapphire, not as hot/loud as the reference but the same price.

 

Plus it was the first aftermarket 480 to come to market so all the early adopters wanting to get their hands on a 480 ASAP (like me) got one. It's also, in my opinion, the sexiest RX 480 around.

5 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

1) I dun believe you (show me the proof).

 

 

[Vode]

I'd say go RX 480 if it's 60 bucks cheaper.

 

I can recommend the PowerColor Red Devil, ASUS or the MSI Gaming X. The Sapphire is really loud for some reason...

[TheRandomness]

3 hours ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

The 1060 performs better in DX11 titles but the 480 performs better in most DX12 and Vulcan titles.

 

GTX 1060: ASUS, MSI, EVGA, or Gigabyte

RX 480: Sapphire Nitro

Sapphire went with aesthetics over performance this time... but it's still good

[Sintezza]

Reference PCB of the RX480 is exaly pretty good.

But yeah the reference coolers are crap.

So i cannot realy recommend a reference card based on its cooler.

 

I personaly like the Asus RX480 Strix OC, based on pcb and cooler capabilities.

 

[SteveGrabowski0]

I wouldn't avoid AMD, I would avoid Asus. Their coolers were horrible on some of the higher end cards in the R9 200 series (290/290x/280x). I don't know about the lower end cards like 270x, but Asus seems one of the least trustworthy tech companies out there right now.

[Nena Trinity]

7 hours ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

The 1060 performs better in DX11 titles but the 480 performs better in most DX12 and Vulcan titles.

 

GTX 1060: ASUS, MSI, EVGA, or Gigabyte

RX 480: Sapphire Nitro

No you do not want Sapphire 480 or PowerColor 480... (XFX GTR or MSI)

[MoonlightSylv]

4 minutes ago, Nena360 said:

No you do not want Sapphire 480 or PowerColor 480... (XFX GTR or MSI)

Why not?

[Nena Trinity]

18 minutes ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

Why not?

Sapphire cooler is to small an the PowerColor one had no part improvements yet it is not as bad as the Gigabyte one holy cow I must say it is the worst model out there!

[MoonlightSylv]

1 minute ago, Nena360 said:

Sapphire cooler is to small an the PowerColor one had no part improvements yet it is not as bad as the Gigabyte one holy cow I must say it is the worst model out there!

Proof?

[Nena Trinity]

4 minutes ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

Proof?

On which one?