RX 480 or GTX 1060

[KyleFinnegan]

I'm building my first Gaming PC and can't decide between the RX 480 and GTX 1060. The RX 480 has more VRAM while the GTX 1060 has a higher clock speed. I don't know whether more VRAM or higher clock speed is better. I'm going to play games like Far Cry Primal, Doom, GTA V, Rust, Resident Evil 7, Civilization 6, Skyrim, and League of Legends. Any feedback will be much appreciated. 

 

My Build 

CPU: i5 6600k 

CPU Cooler: Cryorig M9i

MOBO: MSI Z170A Gaming M3

RAM: HyperX 8GB (2x4) DDR4 2133

GPU: Either RX 480 or GTX 1060

CASE: Eclipse P400

PSU: Corsair CXM 550W

 

[Apollo Refugio]

more vram for sure. overclocks don't do much difference in games, but they could in benchmarks. so i'd personally go for the rx 480, aint no fanboy here

[App4that]

Best news ever, doesn't matter. Both are awesome cards. You can't go wrong so buy the one that tickles you. 

[Shiv78]

RX 480. More VRAM AND better performance in most games AND FreeSync is wayyyyyyyyy cheaper than GSync

Get the MSi Gaming X to match your build

[StayFrostyy]

RX 480. Reasons listed above, plus AMD FineWine Technology

[DrMacintosh]

The RX 480 my dude. AMD is starting to really kick butt right now.

 

 

[DragonTamer1]

I haven't personally used a 1060 but I'm very happy with my 480. The only game that I can't max out is GTA 5 (for obvious reasons). It is the first high end AMD card I've owned and I'm quite impressed enough that I will probably be sticking with them for a while.

[App4that]

10 minutes ago, StayFrostyy said:

RX 480. Reasons listed above, plus AMD FineWine Technology

Yeah, only there's stuff floating in the R9 290 and R9 390 bottles. So that wine is turning to vinegar LOL

[samocamo123]

R9 Fury Nitro from newegg for 260$

[JiMiKi]

I just had to make this decision myself in early December, upgrading from my outdated and already very meh at the time Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB, and I ended up buying Sapphire's RX 480 Nitro+ 4GB, the only reason I chose AMD over Nvidia this time around was because of the 4GB instead of 3GB VRAM, 2GB was already borderline not enough for me in mid 2015 when playing Far Cry 4 and GTA 5, so upgrading to 3GB seemed like a huge waste of money, as that shortly won't be enough either (already isn't enough for some games at higher settings), so I personally recommend the RX 480

[stconquest]

Overclocking can have a substantial affect when a game utilizes the maximum stock performance of a GPU.

 

I would go with an RX 480 and I would pick a good model to try for 1400Mhz or more, on the core.

[JiMiKi]

1 minute ago, stconquest said:

Overclocking can have a substantial affect when a game utilizes the maximum stock performance of a GPU.

 

I would go with an RX 480 and I would pick a good model of it so I could get 1400Mhz or more.

Oh, yeah... BTW, my Stock Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+ runs 45-50c idle, and 75c under load.... real toasters!

[stconquest]

1 minute ago, JiMiKi said:

Oh, yeah... BTW, my Stock Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+ runs 45-50c idle, and 75c under load.... real toasters!

Sooo, how far can you push the core?  Stable clock please.

[ivan134]

480.

Trade blows in dx11. Faster in new APIs. FreeSync monitors are much cheaper and you get one since this is a new build.

[JiMiKi]

5 minutes ago, stconquest said:

Sooo, how far can you push the core?  Stable clock please.

Well, the thing is, I am pretty much as much of an overclocking noob as it gets, and since my GPU is 1 month old, I haven't dared trying to push it yet, but I did bump up the core clock 40mhz lol, never had any issues at all so far

Edit: only bumped it up from 1266 to 1306 as I had read in various places that the RX 480's don't overclock well or something like that.
 

[ivan134]

3 minutes ago, JiMiKi said:

Well, the thing is, I am pretty much as much of an overclocking noob as it gets, and since my GPU is 1 month old, I haven't dared trying to push it yet, but I did bump up the core clock 40mhz lol, never had any issues at all so far

Edit: only bumped it up from 1266 to 1306 as I had read in various places that the RX 480's don't overclock well or something like that.
 

Which 480 do you have?

[stconquest]

6 minutes ago, JiMiKi said:

Well, the thing is, I am pretty much as much of an overclocking noob as it gets, and since my GPU is 1 month old, I haven't dared trying to push it yet, but I did bump up the core clock 40mhz lol, never had any issues at all so far
 

Decent RX 480s will do well over 1400MHz.  Good cooling allows for higher stable clocks.  The cooler your GPU is, the easier it will overclock.  Stock cooling on the RX 480 is really crappy, both loud and inefficient when trying to push the clocks.  The heat sink is tiny.

[JiMiKi]

3 minutes ago, ivan134 said:

Which 480 do you have?

 

2 minutes ago, stconquest said:

Decent RX 480s will do well over 1400MHz.  Good cooling allows for higher stable clocks.  The cooler your GPU is, the easier it will overclock.  Stock cooling on the RX 480 is really crappy, both loud and inefficient when trying to push the clocks.  The heat sink is tiny.

I have the Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro+ 4GB (one of the cheapest 480's in Sweden, where I live) so I understand if it won't be a beast overclocker

[ivan134]

1 minute ago, JiMiKi said:

 

I have the Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro+ 4GB (one of the cheapest 480's in Sweden, where I live) so I understand if it won't be a beast overclocker

It's a good overclocker. It's just loud.

[Energycore]

I would get a 480 for the following reasons:

 

- Freesync

- More fun to overclock (might take a bit of BIOS modding and shit)

- Supports MultiGPU, in case that becomes relevant

- Does better in Hitman which I found to be a really fun game

- You can get it starting at $200 for the full performance (but nicer cards that are better cooled will hit higher clocks every time, like the MSI Gaming X)

[stconquest]

3 minutes ago, JiMiKi said:

 

I have the Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro+ 4GB (one of the cheapest 480's in Sweden, where I live) so I understand if it won't be a beast overclocker

You should be able to push well over 1250MHz... but the noise will be noticeable.  You could head into 1350MHz territory, but you won't know until you try it. 

[stealth80]

26 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

The RX 480 my dude. AMD is starting to really kick butt right now.

 

 

My 1080 says different

 

 

 

46 minutes ago, KyleFinnegan said:

I'm building my first Gaming PC and can't decide between the RX 480 and GTX 1060. The RX 480 has more VRAM while the GTX 1060 has a higher clock speed. I don't know whether more VRAM or higher clock speed is better. I'm going to play games like Far Cry Primal, Doom, GTA V, Rust, Resident Evil 7, Civilization 6, Skyrim, and League of Legends. Any feedback will be much appreciated. 

 

My Build 

CPU: i5 6600k 

CPU Cooler: Cryorig M9i

MOBO: MSI Z170A Gaming M3

RAM: HyperX 8GB (2x4) DDR4 2133

GPU: Either RX 480 or GTX 1060

CASE: Eclipse P400

PSU: Corsair CXM 550W

 

 

It's almost down to personal choice between these 2 now (and feeling like 290/390 vs 970)

 

Personally id take the 480 due to the drivers performance over time, 8gb and freesync - Yes that's coming from a gsync 1080 sporting kinda guy

[JiMiKi]

6 minutes ago, stconquest said:

You should be able to push well over 1250MHz... but the noise will be noticeable.  You could head into 1350MHz territory, but you won't know until you try it. 

Yeah, at 1306 as the image I provided shows  and it's working well.

 

11 minutes ago, ivan134 said:

It's a good overclocker. It's just loud.

 It tends to get loud when I play games and GPU usage is 100%, but that's only when I play games, and when I do, I have my closed-back headset on, so I barely notice anyways

[ivan134]

1 minute ago, JiMiKi said:

Yeah, at 1306 as the image I provided shows  and it's working well.

 

 It tends to get loud when I play games and GPU usage is 100%, but that's only when I play games, and when I do, I have my closed-back headset on, so I barely notice anyways

Set a custom fan curve. Look up bang4buckpcgamer's video on overclocking his nitro 480 and copy his fan curve.

[Nena Trinity]

RX 480, note for GTA V you should not enable anything in the advanced graphics menu!