Geforce GTX 1060 Thread: faster than RX 480, 120W, $249

[frozentundra123456]

Fight nice guys. Fact is, both are very good cards, but I would not consider either a slam dunk because they each have weaknesses. (efficiency for the 480 and DX12 performance for the 1060.) As for performance, you can make whatever case you want by cherry picking benchmarks. So to me it is a toss up depending on what games one wants to play and how much they value efficiency, as well of course of price and availability in the particular region where you live.

 

[sontin]

There doesnt exist a problem with DX12. Look at Ashes, the GTX1060 is as fast. Dont forget that Pascal has improvements for DX12 that were missing from Maxwell and no developer was able to optimize (okay ignore AMD paid developers) for it.

 

[Thala]

Look at Ashes, the GTX1060 is as fast.

Lowered expectations already? What an irony seeing this argument from an NVidia supporter in thread labeled with faster than RX 480,

Be prepared to lower your expectations even more in the coming months. 😉

 

[sontin]

Lowered expectations already? What an irony seeing this argument from an NVidia supporter in thread labeled with faster than RX 480,

Be prepared to lower your expectations even more in the coming months. 😉

Why "lower expectations"? Same speed, 80W less power sounds like a win. DX12 games are a minority. When you have finished Ashes, you can go and play Anno2205 where the card is >30% faster.

 

[nik14]

--

 

[Sweepr]

Nice roundup of Geforce GTX 1060 models here:

www.tomshardware.de/geforce-gtx1060-inno3d-gigabyte-msi,news-256219.html

 

[Thala]

Why "lower expectations"?

Oh, i was just assuming you expect the GTX1060 the faster card for upcoming DX12/Vulkan games. In this case you you would have to lower your expectations, which you already did when pointing out that GTX1060 could match RX480 in Ashes 🙂

. When you have finished Ashes, you can go and play Anno2205 where the card is >30% faster.

Thanks for suggestion, but I played both already. Looking forward to the upcoming DX12/Vulkan games. 🙂

 

[Vipeax]

I mean if I don't even recognize the currency they are quoting I'd say its a pretty isolated case. Maybe we should stick to USD/British Pound/Euro/CAD countries in terms of general discussions.

In most countries here in "Western" Europe (read: UK/NL/BE/DE/FR) you can get a non-FE/non-reference GTX 1060 for < 300 euros with stock, while finding a RX480 with a reference cooler for the same price is possible, non-reference isn't. Prices are pretty much equal, going from 259 to 339 if you don't include the bullshit offerings that are way too high.

 

[Olecki]

Ok so can you give me a list of countries that this is the case?

You said "here" without mentioning you're not in the US, even though this is a forum dominated by US residents and a site owned and hosted in the US.

It's true nearly for whole Europe. I'm from Poland and ordered today Gigabyte 1060 G1 gaming for about 15$ more than stock RX 480 8GB. You can find here other AIB 1060 for less than 480. Cheapest 1060 (Asus Turbo-blower) is about 25$ cheaper than 480. 480 4GB is more rare than AIB 1080 one day after release - I didn't found even single card in offer in my country so far, even preorders. I think that overclockers.uk is only retailer that have this card available in whole Europe, at least I didn't found other.

 

[moonbogg]

Too bad they had to yank SLI support from their customers though. People could have had 1080 performance for $500. SLI has draw backs, so $500 would have been a fair price for that, but NOPE, a good deal these days simply won't be tolerated I guess.
480 crossfire can't be ignored. Around $450 for close to 1080 performance plus better DX12 support as well as the same amount of Vram as 1080 is truly a badass deal. It would be a decision between 480 crossfire or a 1070.
Aftermarket 480's with 8GB Vram plus max OC = sickass GPU solution for $450.00. You're talking 1440p max settings at good framerates for under $500 and faster than a similarly priced 1070.

 

[Bacon1]

In most countries here in "Western" Europe (read: UK/NL/BE/DE/FR) you can get a non-FE/non-reference GTX 1060 for < 300 euros with stock, while finding a RX480 with a reference cooler for the same price is possible, non-reference isn't. Prices are pretty much equal, going from 259 to 339 if you don't include the bullshit offerings that are way too high.

Its impossible to find 480 non-ref anywhere because they haven't released yet 😀

 

[Vipeax]

Before editing it included a "(surprised?)", but that got lost after making a small addition. Sorry 🙂.

 

[Genx87]

Too bad they had to yank SLI support from their customers though. People could have had 1080 performance for $500. SLI has draw backs, so $500 would have been a fair price for that, but NOPE, a good deal these days simply won't be tolerated I guess.
480 crossfire can't be ignored. Around $450 for close to 1080 performance plus better DX12 support as well as the same amount of Vram as 1080 is truly a badass deal. It would be a decision between 480 crossfire or a 1070.
Aftermarket 480's with 8GB Vram plus max OC = sickass GPU solution for $450.00. You're talking 1440p max settings at good framerates for under $500 and faster than a similarly priced 1070.

Yes SLI and Crossfire can be ignored. Great idea, horrible implementation\support.

 

[SimianR]

Too bad they had to yank SLI support from their customers though. People could have had 1080 performance for $500. SLI has draw backs, so $500 would have been a fair price for that, but NOPE, a good deal these days simply won't be tolerated I guess.
480 crossfire can't be ignored. Around $450 for close to 1080 performance plus better DX12 support as well as the same amount of Vram as 1080 is truly a badass deal. It would be a decision between 480 crossfire or a 1070.
Aftermarket 480's with 8GB Vram plus max OC = sickass GPU solution for $450.00. You're talking 1440p max settings at good framerates for under $500 and faster than a similarly priced 1070.

That's what I was thinking as well. It's pretty frustrating the amount of times I've read people defending the fact that NVIDIA removed SLI support because "MULTI GPU SUCKS!" and "Why not just get 1070 then!?". I don't see how taking away the option of SLI can ever be a positive, even if you personally don't use it. And if SLI is as bad as people are saying, then I don't think NVIDIA would have seen it as a potential threat to their top tier products and removed it in the first place. Between the founders edition pricing and the artificially gimping their midrange product through the removal of SLI, I really wish the enthusiast sites and NVIDIA users themselves would let them know that they aren't happy with these choices instead of simply shrugging their shoulders.

 

[96Firebird]

Could be they are hedging their bets on DX12's explicit multi-GPU becoming popular, but I don't see many devs using that in their games..

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2519-gtx-1060-sli-benchmark-in-ashes-multi-gpu

 

[Silverforce11]

Fight nice guys. Fact is, both are very good cards, but I would not consider either a slam dunk because they each have weaknesses. (efficiency for the 480 and DX12 performance for the 1060.) As for performance, you can make whatever case you want by cherry picking benchmarks. So to me it is a toss up depending on what games one wants to play and how much they value efficiency, as well of course of price and availability in the particular region where you live.

Exactly. Looking at Guru3D's results and charting them:

Looks very close, they trade blows, the NV GPUs win big in Anno and RotTR. Doom they should have been reversed due to Vulkan which they tested, but for some reason went with OpenGL for the 1060's review...

If the 1060 is cheaper in your country, go for it.

But the comparison of the 1060 vs 480 is very similar to the comparison of 1060 vs custom OC 970/980 (faster than 1060 in DX11!!). If you can get these Maxwell cards for around the same price as the 1060, would you get it?

No, it's a poor recommendation because you know two things are certain with that buy, 1) less vram and 2) less future proofing.

The exact same thing applies to the 1060 vs RX 480 comparison, 480 has more vram and more future proofing via DX12/Vulkan giving it extra oomph.

 

[Ketchup]

So did Nvidia actually wait to release the 1060 because they knew what a disappointment the 480 would be? The 1060 isn't a bad card, especially for the (expected) price, but after seeing the amazing numbers coming form the 1070 and 1080, I couldn't help but be a wee bit disappointed.

 

[sze5003]

So did Nvidia actually wait to release the 1060 because they knew what a disappointment the 480 would be? The 1060 isn't a bad card, especially for the (expected) price, but after seeing the amazing numbers coming form the 1070 and 1080, I couldn't help but be a wee bit disappointed.

I don't think it's a disappointment, the 480. Both 1060 and 480 are excellent 1080p cards. The 1070 is a bit more than midrange and for its price, the extra performance should be there. What will be more interesting is how the 1060 will do a year or two from now.

 

[Genx87]

That's what I was thinking as well. It's pretty frustrating the amount of times I've read people defending the fact that NVIDIA removed SLI support because "MULTI GPU SUCKS!" and "Why not just get 1070 then!?". I don't see how taking away the option of SLI can ever be a positive, even if you personally don't use it. And if SLI is as bad as people are saying, then I don't think NVIDIA would have seen it as a potential threat to their top tier products and removed it in the first place. Between the founders edition pricing and the artificially gimping their midrange product through the removal of SLI, I really wish the enthusiast sites and NVIDIA users themselves would let them know that they aren't happy with these choices instead of simply shrugging their shoulders.

There might be something within the pascal arch that is making SLI less appealing. The 1080\1070 lose their 4 way SLI support as well. Or Nvidia is not spending resources on developing such a niche product. Putting SLI into a 250 dollar card costs resources. And given its niche and suspect game support. They skipped it.

That said I also think it is bad advice to sell somebody on spending 400-450 on SLI\CF that in a fraction of the game may beat a 1070 or compete with a 1080. That is a lot of money to spend on a solution that a good % of the time wont be close to a 1070 performance wise.

 

[Silverforce11]

There might be something within the pascal arch that is making SLI less appealing. The 1080\1070 lose their 4 way SLI support as well. Or Nvidia is not spending resources on developing such a niche product. Putting SLI into a 250 dollar card costs resources. And given its niche and suspect game support. They skipped it.

That said I also think it is bad advice to sell somebody on spending 400-450 on SLI\CF that in a fraction of the game may beat a 1070 or compete with a 1080. That is a lot of money to spend on a solution that a good % of the time wont be close to a 1070 performance wise.

Apparently a lot of the driver team's focus is on getting CF/SLI to work. It takes up the bulk of their time.

You either need a bigger driver team or you forgo the exotic options, like 3/4 GPU. Then you forgo the mainstream option, so now there's no need to worry about the 1060 and lesser GPU.

Only focus on 1070/1080. Job made easier. Saves $.

 

[garagisti]

Cheaper in India and UK this morning (ZOTAC GTX 1060 AMP!). Retailers in my country don't care much about the competitor so probably the same here, will update when we have prices.

Sapphire 4gb Nitro edition 480 is available for pre-order at GBP 199.99 from OCUK, and i doubt that any 1060 is that cheap.

 

[truckerCLOCK]

Apparently a lot of the driver team's focus is on getting CF/SLI to work. It takes up the bulk of their time.

You either need a bigger driver team or you forgo the exotic options, like 3/4 GPU. Then you forgo the mainstream option, so now there's no need to worry about the 1060 and lesser GPU.

Only focus on 1070/1080. Job made easier. Saves $.

Or they want you to buy the more $$$ 1070/1080. Seems right up Nvidia's alley.

 

[Sonikku]

Assuming you could get them for msrp I'd sooner go with a 480 for $200 vs a 1060 for $250 considering Nvidia abruptly drops support in a bid to push you to buy more sooner rather than later while AMD in contrast continues to give great support for years to come. But, let's not kid ourselves. Ain't nobody getting these things for msrp. 🙁

 

[poofyhairguy]

Assuming you could get them for msrp I'd sooner go with a 480 for $200 vs a 1060 for $250 considering Nvidia abruptly drops support in a bid to push you to buy more sooner rather than later while AMD in contrast continues to give great support for years to come. But, let's not kid ourselves. Ain't nobody getting these things for msrp. 🙁

Actually I think the best part about the 1060 and 480 launches is some people (on this very forum even) got them for MSRP. I don't know anyone who has gotten a $379 1070 without like a Jet.com or Paypal coupon or something.

 

[maddie]

Apparently a lot of the driver team's focus is on getting CF/SLI to work. It takes up the bulk of their time.

You either need a bigger driver team or you forgo the exotic options, like 3/4 GPU. Then you forgo the mainstream option, so now there's no need to worry about the 1060 and lesser GPU.

Only focus on 1070/1080. Job made easier. Saves $.

A secondary benefit.

AMD apparently is preparing to go full multi-GPU from 2018 and this must be having an effect. The stated reasons of extreme difficulty on fabricating big die with economical yields going forward appears sound.

Expect to see a tugging war where one side tries to limit multi-GPU and the other tries to advance it.