1060 vs. 480 @ same price

lazz

lazz

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 15, 2007
Messages
324
So here in Canada the (custom) 480s and 1060s kind of overlap on pricing due to weird inflation, taxation, border fees, etc. etc.

Given this, which is the better card? They seem to trade blows in most reviews.
 
I guess it depends on your preference and experience. If you like ones control panel then that might sway you. Also how long you plan to keep said card. If a year or so either is fine. More than that then the 480 might be the better choice, based on previous 5years although that is not guaranteed this generation just basing on past trends.

then you have power use where the difference isn't too large but given if you game alot then the 1060 would cost you less over time, again not a huge amount but if you have constraints it can be a factor.

as far as performance in the here and now it is a toss up. Look for the games you play now and look at individual reviews. Also consider future titles and whether DX11 or 12. 1060 generally stronger in 11, 480 in 12, generally.
 
AMD tends to improve overtime with drivers and generally better in most dx12 and so far one vulkan game. AMD usually sucks in driver performance initially when they come out with new architecture. Whatever changes they made to polaris front end might not fully materialize until they keep improving their drivers. I guess it has to do with probably having a much larger man power than nvidia.
 
I'd get 1060 if it's the 6GB version that's the same as the cheapest RX 480 in price.
 
On the flip side. I haven't seen a 480 with a consistent overclock yet. Whereas the 1060 appears to be a good overclocker.
 
skeeder said:
On the flip side. I haven't seen a 480 with a consistent overclock yet. Whereas the 1060 appears to be a good overclocker.
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1060 boosts like crazy already. It is not a crazy overclocker its just that with boost 3.0 the base models are already in the 1800s.
 
I personally wouldn't consider 4GB VRAM cards these day and age, unless you are going to be strictly on 1080p and will not go any higher for gaming purposes.

480 4GB is, personally, more palatable than the 3GB 1060 (I have no idea why this version exist, even if designed solely for 1080p).

If you see yourself keeping the GPU for as long as possible, AMD is often the better choice. They have less upfront performance, but tend to get better over time (for example, Fury X got beaten by 980ti by a small margin, but now newer games it consistent beats 980ti), since AMD often refresh their lineup (EG 300 series is just a refresh of 200 series mostly), which has the advantage that driver support tend to get longer, nVidia tend to focus game optimisation drivers on the latest microarch. DX12 also seem to favor AMD more than nVidia, but DX11 nVidia has an advantage.

But, this is the future none of us can accurate predict (IE the direction of DX12 games, nVidia's Driver support, AMD's driver support, AMD's survival even), I am merely extrapolating what has happened before into the future, and it could very well change next day. So it really depends on the games you want to play.
 
if you are gaming at 1080p. I would rather stick with 470 rather than 480. Get a 4gb rx 470 they sustain their clock speed better and nearly reach or even beat rx 480 with overclock. Best card for 1080p in my opinion. MSI model is one heck of a card even at 199 for aftermarket cooling. If 1080p gaming I say go with rx 470 aftermarket card with 8 pin connector. MSI has good reviews.
 
The VR leaderboard that [H] is putting out is swaying me away from the 480 and toward the 1060. Looking at the Project:Cars numbers, there's a pretty massive difference. This upgrade is to support a Rift, so these numbers are important to me.

My options are as follows:

Cheapest Reference RX 480 8GB - $340 CAD -- Asus Radeon RX 480 8GB PCI-E w/ HDMI, Triple DP at Memory Express

Cheapest GTX 1060 6GB - $340 CAD -- EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB PCI-E w/ DVI, HDMI, Triple DP at Memory Express <- EVGA, stock single fan cooler, short.

Cheapest AIB RX 480 8GB - $400 CAD -- Asus ROG STRIX RX480 8G GAMING Radeon RX 480 8GB PCI-E w/ Dual HDMI, Dual DP, DVI at Memory Express <- Asus Strix, stock clocks

Cheapest AIB 1060 6GB - $380 CAD -- MSI GeForce GTX1060 6G OC ARMOR PCI-E w/ DVI-D, HDMI, Triple DisplayPort at Memory Express <- MSI OC Armor


So, really, I can get a decent 1060 6G for $20 less than an RX 480 8GB, if I don't consider the reference 480 or the short, stock 1060.
 
NKD said:
if you are gaming at 1080p. I would rather stick with 470 rather than 480. Get a 4gb rx 470 they sustain their clock speed better and nearly reach or even beat rx 480 with overclock. Best card for 1080p in my opinion. MSI model is one heck of a card even at 199 for aftermarket cooling. If 1080p gaming I say go with rx 470 aftermarket card with 8 pin connector. MSI has good reviews.
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Agree, for 1080P gaming, 470 just makes much more sense and being much cheaper.
 
If you are doing a vr for now nvidia seems to have their drivers done better. But why not shoot for a 1070 if you are spending so much on a rift? I think that will be much more future proof of vr is your primary concern.
 
NKD said:
If you are doing a vr for now nvidia seems to have their drivers done better. But why not shoot for a 1070 if you are spending so much on a rift? I think that will be much more future proof of vr is your primary concern.
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Two reasons. First is current budget, as a middle aged family man. In Canada, the difference between these cards and the cheapest 1070 is over $250. Our pricing structure is weird, like AMD cards seem to have a higher price compared to the US pricing than Nvidia cards.

Second, the 1060 doesn't seem to enable a better gameplay experience in VR right now. A 1070 may be more future-proof, but it two years when I upgrade again it won't matter anyways if in the interim my gameplay experience is the same.
 
The EVGA 1060 you linked is your best bet out of those options. Pretty minimal differences in overclocking between the brands this time around, especially when the MSI is $40 CAD more. Plus it's faster in the vast majority of games than the 480 for the same price.
 
Stryke1983 said:
The EVGA 1060 you linked is your best bet out of those options. Pretty minimal differences in overclocking between the brands this time around, especially when the MSI is $40 CAD more. Plus it's faster in the vast majority of games than the 480 for the same price.
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Thanks for the input. My main concern with the short, single fan card is what the overclocking will look like. The 1060 by all accounts can OC pretty agressively, and I'm not sure on 1) the math as to whether the performance difference of a solid OC is worth the extra dosh and 2) whether there actually would be a difference in the OC between the short, single fan EVGA card and a larger dual or triple fan setup with larger heatsink.

Actually, this sounds like the kind of article Steve would write.
 
lazz said:
Thanks for the input. My main concern with the short, single fan card is what the overclocking will look like. The 1060 by all accounts can OC pretty agressively, and I'm not sure on 1) the math as to whether the performance difference of a solid OC is worth the extra dosh and 2) whether there actually would be a difference in the OC between the short, single fan EVGA card and a larger dual or triple fan setup with larger heatsink.

Actually, this sounds like the kind of article Steve would write.
Click to expand...

I have the EVGA 1060 SC and I'm getting clock speeds of 2114 in game after overclocking just via bumping up power, and clocks in precision. Haven't touched voltage yet.
 
Really depends on games, if you look at Deus EX, the 480 is superior to the 1060, while in the majority of other titles its the 1060. Personally, in the lower tiers I would go with the 480, otherwise you may as well spend the coin for a Windforce 1070 if you can find one.
 
The 1060 overclocks equally well no matter which version you buy. Even the reference cooler could handle the OC just fine with a custom fan curve.

Imo if you go for a 1060 just buy the cheapest non-reference one you can find.

As long as it's not a blower cooler, you're good.

I think the rx470 is a better choice than the RX480 considering how cheap it is.

As for amd or nvidia, look at what games you play and judge based on benchmarks for those games. Do you have a big backlog of old games you want to play?
 
6gb 1060, more video ram for futurproofing. There are already many games that will utilize this much.
 
[H] has a very interesting article on the PowerColor 470 Red Devil, pretty much match a 480, which in the end makes a very attractive buy.
Also they tested on the latest article Deux gaming performance and it's actually faster compared to 1060.
I would say AMD has the lead on the new games due to the fact now they are in most consoles and developers are tweaking the games under AMD GPUs.
 
As long as you have no interest in VR games, you really can't go wrong with either option.
 


This was insightful regarding the low VRAM found on lower tier cards.
 
Yeah, the game results are mixed between the two, with some solid wins for the RX 480 in more recent games.

But the advantage of the RX 480 disappears as soon as you overclock the 1060. And in games where the 1060 at stock wins, it's even faster.
 
DirtyB said:
If you're going EVGA spend the extra $15 for the SuperClocked version. It has the same fan but a better heatsink and is already OC'd. There shouldn't be much of a difference between the EVGA SC and any dual/triple fan setups.

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC Edition 6GB PCI-E w/ DVI, HDMI, Triple DP at Memory Express
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The link actually has the box and part number for the acx 2 version which I have but the description says acx 3 . I could have sworn Newegg had the same thing when they first got theirs and I actually ordered it thinking it was the 3.0 version. Supplies were so iffy I just kept it. Works well and cool though.
 
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