Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Review: Fighting for the mid-range crown

[Steve]

How 4GB RX 480 can have exactly the same performance compare to 8GB 480 despite having less Vram and less bandwidth(7Gbps Vs 8Gbps)?

A few reasons. Firstly the 7Gbps vs 8Gbps memory at most only sees a few frames per second difference as I said and you can of course overclock the memory on the 4GB card. There are almost no games where we see the RX 480 8GB beating the 4GB card "under playable conditions". The RX 480 GPU really isn't powerful enough to utilize that much VRAM and still deliver playable frame rates, certainly no where near 60fps.

 

[Nima V]

A few reasons. Firstly the 7Gbps vs 8Gbps memory at most only sees a few frames per second difference as I said and you can of course overclock the memory on the 4GB card. There are almost no games where we see the RX 480 8GB beating the 4GB card "under playable conditions". The RX 480 GPU really isn't powerful enough to utilize that much VRAM and still deliver playable frame rates, certainly no where near 60fps.

Thanks for your reply. But in this case you are comparing overclocked 4GB RX 480(overclocked on memory side) to stock 8GB RX 480 and GTX 1060 which is not fair because you can overclock memory of those cards to 9Gbps while you can't do that on 4GB 480.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for your reply. But in this case you are comparing overclocked 4GB RX 480(overclocked on memory side) to stock 8GB RX 480 and GTX 1060 which is not fair because you can overclock memory of those cards to 9Gbps while you can't do that on 4GB 480.

The AMD spec doesn't call for 7Gbps memory on the 4GB cards, that is the minimum memory spec. Board partners can stick 8Gbps memory on their 4GB models if they want, or faster memory. Either way you are missing the point, the RX 480 GPU isn't memory starved so the difference between 7Gbps and 8Gbps is a few frames at the most.

 

[mosu]

Thank you for a more balanced review.If you care to check this, link: <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/nvidia-gtx-1060-review/ >you will understand why I asked you about Mark Walton, but in the meantime you did improve so thanks again.

 

[Steve]

Thank you for a more balanced review.If you care to check this, link: <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/nvidia-gtx-1060-review/ >you will understand why I asked you about Mark Walton, but in the meantime you did improve so thanks again.

Ohh great I improved, must have been your feedback Mate I am just doing my thing, if you look back through the last 10 years of GPU reviews I have written here at TS you will find no bias. I don't have a favorite company and I try my best to stick to the facts.

I don't think I have ever read an Arstechnica review before (no offence to them), so I don't think I need to start now because some guy with the surname Walton writes there. Imagine a Walton based in the UK, whaaat!!! Before you ask I am not related to Jarred Walton of Anandtech either.

 

[EndlessWaves]

I never understood anyone moving from the 970 and 980 to the new cards. Next gen was where I thought the real upgrades were gonna be for people with the newer cards.

As you go to the higher end screens scale faster in their requirements than graphics cards scale in their performance. With less margin and higher expectation of sparklies It's not surprising that high end card buyers change their cards more often than mainstream. I would think a fair number of 1080/Vega buyers will be coming from a 980/Fury.

 

[NightAntilli]

Pure nonsense ey

Once you disable the memory limit it stays disabled. Anyway it was disabled in my test and this is pretty obvious when looking at the 1440p results. Not just that but the video you linked showed that on average the 970 was faster at 1080p when using the ultra-quality preset. They initially show performance with the Hyper preset and the 970 won’t provide playable performance under those conditions.

Seems like nVidia fixed the issue with a driver version at 1080p. Forget what I just said. Still has the issue at 1440p though.

And by the way, there's a typo in the Index and top of the Mirror's Edge page. It's Mirror's Edge, not Mirrors's Edge.

 

[jauffins]

where did you get the 50% more money?

you are just taking a hit at most by 30%. Lower with 3rd party coolers. You get 6GB opposed to 4GB, faster in both DX12 & 11, power efficient, overclocking prowess and less heat. I can give up a month of starbucks or mcdonalds and I can get that $50 in no time.

The problem is Nvidia should address the supply issues.

$300 is $100 more than $200, and $100 is 50% of $200. You can buy a $200 RX 480... you can't buy a $200 (or, within a few weeks, a $250 or $300) 1060.

I went to buy a 1070 yesterday, for a secondary build. The cheapest card I could find was nearly $450. There is no $380 1070. Not out of stock, not in stock, not listed. You're paying $430-450 for a 1070, or much, much more. Sure in six months I'm sure supply will be "fine" and maybe you'll find sub $400 parts, but nVidia has made it quite clear they want the 1060 to exist in the $300 price range that was previously occupied by x70 products.

 

[jauffins]

we are talking about mainstream here. everything is on a tight budget. if forking another 50$ was that easy then most people would just buy the 1070
and for your knowledge, most people can't wait a month just to buy something marginally better.

Except the difference in price between a 1060 and a 1070 is $100-150, possibly more (if you can actually get, after launch, a 1060 for sub-$300 prices).

 

[DJMIKE25]

I won't be upgrading to this latest series af nVidia cards but if I were I'd wait about another 6 months and rather throw my money at a 1070 which will cost about $300 here by then.

Good idea. I am thoroughly enjoying my 1070 FE.

 

[OcelotRex]

$300 is $100 more than $200, and $100 is 50% of $200. You can buy a $200 RX 480... you can't buy a $200 (or, within a few weeks, a $250 or $300) 1060.

I went to buy a 1070 yesterday, for a secondary build. The cheapest card I could find was nearly $450. There is no $380 1070. Not out of stock, not in stock, not listed. You're paying $430-450 for a 1070, or much, much more. Sure in six months I'm sure supply will be "fine" and maybe you'll find sub $400 parts, but nVidia has made it quite clear they want the 1060 to exist in the $300 price range that was previously occupied by x70 products.

As of this morning you could not buy a $200 RX 480 but you could buy a $250 GTX 1060 -

n the US, NewEgg currently has stock of the Zotac GTX 1060 at the correct MSRP of $249, but orders are limited to one per customer. Be quick if you're interested: all other cards at $249 are sold out, with even the more expensive partner cards like the $329 Asus Strix on back order. Best Buy also had cards from PNY and EVGA at $249, but has also sold out. Some retail Best Buy stores may have stock on shelves if you're lucky.

Meanwhile, availability of AMD's RX 480 is mixed. There's plenty of stock of the 8GB version of the card in the UK, and now at just £5 over the MSRP. That said, the cheaper 4GB card has all but disappeared from online stores, although Overclockers will sell you one for a hugely inflated £215—just £5 less than the 8GB version. In the US, neither Best Buy or NewEgg currently has stock of either version of the RX 480.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

I'd take this over the closest Radeon if I had a lower end CPU.

I just got a Core i7 6950x, 32GB RAM with TITANX 12GB.

Thus far DOOM and every game I test runs at ULTRA over 120 FPS.

Very satisfied.

 

[STbob]

Finished reading all reviews from tech sites.

If you want the BEST and king of mainstream card, get the gtx 1060.

If you are in a TIGHT budget and a lot of rx480 in the shelves. get that.

They are all great cards for 1080P 60+fps cards.
But

1. RX480 best bang for buck for sure. SLI option, cheaper just as fast or close enough to 1060. 1060 not a good deal.
2. GTX 1070

1060 at 225 then I would pick that.

So RX 480 or move up to 1070 and skip the 1060 as it has no place at that price unless you are a nvidia have to have on a budget.

 

[ddferrari]

25-50% more money for 10-13% more performance. Sigh.

where did you get the 50% more money?

you are just taking a hit at most by 30%. Lower with 3rd party coolers. You get 6GB opposed to 4GB, faster in both DX12 & 11, power efficient, overclocking prowess and less heat. I can give up a month of starbucks or mcdonalds and I can get that $50 in no time.

The problem is Nvidia should address the supply issues.

we are talking about mainstream here. everything is on a tight budget. if forking another 50$ was that easy then most people would just buy the 1070
and for your knowledge, most people can't wait a month just to buy something marginally better.

I assume by "most people" you mean 10 to 16 year-old crowd? Adults usually don't have that problem.

 

[ddferrari]

I'd take this over the closest Radeon if I had a lower end CPU.

I just got a Core i7 6950x, 32GB RAM with TITANX 12GB.

Thus far DOOM and every game I test runs at ULTRA over 120 FPS.

Very satisfied.

I sincerely hope you use your rig for a LOT more than gaming, because the $1650 6950x got it's butt KICKED by the $350 i7-6700K in gaming. LOL
https://www.techspot.com/review/1187-intel-core-i7-6950x-broadwell-e/page6.html

 

[OcelotRex]

They are all great cards for 1080P 60+fps cards.
But

1. RX480 best bang for buck for sure. SLI option, cheaper just as fast or close enough to 1060. 1060 not a good deal.
2. GTX 1070

1060 at 225 then I would pick that.

So RX 480 or move up to 1070 and skip the 1060 as it has no place at that price unless you are a nvidia have to have on a budget.

Surely you're kidding right? The AMD Radeon RX 480 does not support SLI:

I wouldn't agree that the 1060 has no place either. Most outlets report about a 10% performance edge to the 1060 at at 25% price premium to the 4GB 480. The 8GB 480 is only 5% or so cheaper for partner boards and makes the 1060 a clear option.

 

[Puiu]

I assume by "most people" you mean 10 to 16 year-old crowd? Adults usually don't have that problem.

I've yet to meet an adult that will not think twice before forking another 50 bucks unless he absolutely needs to.
you are seriously mistaken if you think adults have endless cash they can use just to buy a better GPU.

 

[Mike89]

A big thing to me that wasn't addressed in this review was the noise factor of all these cards. That is as important to me as performance. I can't stand a noisy vid card.

 

[GeforcerFX]

A big thing to me that wasn't addressed in this review was the noise factor of all these cards. That is as important to me as performance. I can't stand a noisy vid card.

Never buy a reference card, wait for AIB card reviews.

 

[Puiu]

A big thing to me that wasn't addressed in this review was the noise factor of all these cards. That is as important to me as performance. I can't stand a noisy vid card.

all reference cards are noisy. AMD a bit more in this case since Nvidia has a better reference cooler.
just wait for AIB cards for both before buying.

 

[jauffins]

As of this morning you could not buy a $200 RX 480 but you could buy a $250 GTX 1060 -

n the US, NewEgg currently has stock of the Zotac GTX 1060 at the correct MSRP of $249, but orders are limited to one per customer. Be quick if you're interested: all other cards at $249 are sold out, with even the more expensive partner cards like the $329 Asus Strix on back order. Best Buy also had cards from PNY and EVGA at $249, but has also sold out. Some retail Best Buy stores may have stock on shelves if you're lucky.

Meanwhile, availability of AMD's RX 480 is mixed. There's plenty of stock of the 8GB version of the card in the UK, and now at just £5 over the MSRP. That said, the cheaper 4GB card has all but disappeared from online stores, although Overclockers will sell you one for a hugely inflated £215—just £5 less than the 8GB version. In the US, neither Best Buy or NewEgg currently has stock of either version of the RX 480.

That's funny: every 1060 I've seen in stock has been $300-360(most $350+), every 1070 $430-500 (most $450+) and I can't find a 1080 below $800.

 

[OcelotRex]

That's funny: every 1060 I've seen in stock has been $300-360(most $350+), every 1070 $430-500 (most $450+) and I can't find a 1080 below $800.

That wasn't written by me: it was a quote by another publication that's been echoed on many other reviews.

 

[CaptainTom]

25-50% more money for 10-13% more performance. Sigh.

where did you get the 50% more money?

you are just taking a hit at most by 30%. Lower with 3rd party coolers. You get 6GB opposed to 4GB, faster in both DX12 & 11, power efficient, overclocking prowess and less heat. I can give up a month of starbucks or mcdonalds and I can get that $50 in no time.

The problem is Nvidia should address the supply issues.

Then give up another couple weeks and get 1080 lol. You can always save more to afford more later, but if you are buying NOW the 480 is a better deal; and in the future it will in fact be the better performing choice as well.

There simply is almost no point in getting the 1060 over the 480 - besides swearing loyalty to a company of course

 

[jauffins]

Then give up another couple weeks and get 1080 lol. You can always save more to afford more later, but if you are buying NOW the 480 is a better deal; and in the future it will in fact be the better performing choice as well.

There simply is almost no point in getting the 1060 over the 480 - besides swearing loyalty to a company of course

What's funny is, I was in the market to buy a $200 class GPU for a secondary system, last week. Couldn't find a 1060 below $330 (and wasn't going to pay $80+ above MSRP) in stock, or any RX 480's in stock, so I said to hell with it and picked up a 950 for $115 after MIR. It will handle low gaming needs at 1080p just fine.

 

[OcelotRex]

Then give up another couple weeks and get 1080 lol. You can always save more to afford more later, but if you are buying NOW the 480 is a better deal; and in the future it will in fact be the better performing choice as well.

There simply is almost no point in getting the 1060 over the 480 - besides swearing loyalty to a company of course

Now that's some mental gymnastics there. Right now the 1060 has about a 10% performance lead on the 480 and 2 GB more RAM than the $200 4GB 480. It's more efficient at doing so which means it will be cooler and quieter.

If you were referring to the 4GB 480 (which right now performs 1-2% better than the 4GB version) there's a $10 difference between the 2 and again the 1060 outperforms it using less power.

So if by "no point" you meant to exclude better performance, uses less energy, and runs cooler and quieter then I guess you'd be right. But Steve and others have a great point - at $200 if your only metric is FPS for dollars spent then the 480 is better today.

As for the future making bold claims about which card will perform better would be showing your loyalty to a company and their promises of gains under DX12.