Radeon RX 580 vs. GeForce GTX 1060: Which Was the Better Investment?

[Julio Franco]

Today we've revisiting the age old battle between the Radeon RX 580 and GeForce GTX 1060, though this battle really began for AMD with the Radeon RX 480. This GPU was released in June 2016, nearly four years ago which is crazy in GPU years and more so considering this part is technically still on sale today and is sold in fairly large quantities.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1990-geforce-1060-vs-radeon-580/

 

[nnguy2]

AMD FineWine™ Tech!

 

[grumblguts]

That is easy.
That be the 590 8 gig I purchased for £150
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powe...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-197-pc.html

 

[redhat]

Personally I would chose efficiency Although I can get r9 290x for 75 Euro here in EU.
I know you already have headache regarding power consumption, but If you play for 6-7 h/d (partner/family included) then the efficiency will play important role here the RX 580 will cost you 20$ per year if the price is 10c per kWh, I think power to performance value chart will be good too

 

[Kytetiger]

:-|
(cries internally in GTX 1060 3gb)

 

[Vulcanproject]

The RX580 was a bigger upgrade on the RX480 than what Nvidia did to the GTX1060 to counter. So it was going to win, coupled with additional VRAM that makes it a better choice now. As noted both these revised cards are nearly 3 years old. Based on architectures nearly four years old.

What I would say though is the GTX1060 still pulls a lot less power, and most overclock very well. The RX580 was AMD squeezing all the core speed they had out of Polaris at that point. 10 percent above reference boost on the core of an RX580 is a great OC on a good sample. 15 percent on a GTX1060 is routine.

In the very old review you noted how it overclocked and the actual performance gains averaged better than 10 percent https://www.techspot.com/review/1209-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060/page7.html

As end user you should give it a shot and that would somewhat even up the situation.

 

[Confuzled]

Personally I would chose efficiency Although I can get r9 290x for 75 Euro here in EU.
I know you already have headache regarding power consumption, but If you play for 6-7 h/d (partner/family included) then the efficiency will play important role here the RX 580 will cost you 20$ per year if the price is 10c per kWh, I think power to performance value chart will be good too

It doesn't matter how much it costs per year, it matters how much MORE it costs. Run those numbers

 

[Irata]

AMD FineWine™ Tech!

Really nothing more to add except that it seems AMD builds their platforms for sustainability making them age pretty well. This is something I personally like really well rather than a „throw away“ mentality.

 

[christiangeli]

What I have learned is that amd gpu have better lifespan than nvidia. when I bought my nvidia 8800 gt I should have buy an ATI HD3870 when I bought my GTX 570 I should have buy an HD6970, then finally replace my GTX 570 with an AMD R9 280x (hd7970 oc) this cars is still working fine with most game.
when I bought my R9 280x for higher price the gtx 760 was there. Now I have a vega 56 bought it cheaper than a 1070 and performing event better every year.

 

[christiangeli]

Never mind power, my gaming tower is on the floor on the basement , the floor is cold and the gpu heat help my foot and leg to warm. Why for any reason should I bought a video card that cost higher for some watt less ??? if the cooler is good the watt get outside the tower ...

 

[Totee]

So 3 years after the release of RX 580, Radeon RX 580 is doing better than GeForce GTX 1060.

How can this be possible?!
AMD has bad drivers, "Gamers are ditching Radeon graphics cards over driver issues"

 

[Adhmuz]

So 3 years after the release of RX 580, Radeon RX 580 is doing better than GeForce GTX 1060.

How can this be possible?!
AMD has bad drivers, "Gamers are ditching Radeon graphics cards over driver issues"

It took 3 years of driver updates to beat a product that worked as advertised from day 1, if you are willing to wait a few years for your investment to perform than by all means go AMD, drivers might not be great at launch, but hey, 3 years later and you finally get what you paid for.

Otherwise buy Nvidia, get working drivers from day 1, all the value is there right away, no waiting required. Just keep in mind that after 3 years of trouble free ownership the AMD card you could have had will finally be outperforming your Nvidia product. If this keeps you up at night than the choice is clear to just buy the AMD card and deal with 6 - 12 months of driver issues, system instability, game crashes, etc.

But really common, everyone knows you should have bought the GTX 1080 TI, and not waste anytime looking back at these pointless comparisons years later right @QuantumPhysics ( :

 

[Bluescreendeath]

I have the small sized one fan version of the 1060 6GB and I have it in my cramped HTPC. Power consumption and small form factor for a small case were the reasons I went with the 1060 over the RX480/580, as the significantly more power hungry/heat producing RX cards would stretch the computer's thermal limits. I'd imagine I would be equally happy with an RX card if I was using a larger sized computer case.

 

[dirtyferret]

Whichever one was cheaper at the time you got it (and you are happy with it), was the better buy

 

[QuantumPhysics]

It took 3 years of driver updates to beat a product that worked as advertised from day 1, if you are willing to wait a few years for your investment to perform than by all means go AMD, drivers might not be great at launch, but hey, 3 years later and you finally get what you paid for.

Otherwise buy Nvidia, get working drivers from day 1, all the value is there right away, no waiting required. Just keep in mind that after 3 years of trouble free ownership the AMD card you could have had will finally be outperforming your Nvidia product. If this keeps you up at night than the choice is clear to just buy the AMD card and deal with 6 - 12 months of driver issues, system instability, game crashes, etc.

But really common, everyone knows you should have bought the GTX 1080 TI, and not waste anytime looking back at these pointless comparisons years later right @QuantumPhysics ( :

There is a conscensus that for gaming,Nvidia and Intel are just better - and driver issues is one of the biggest problemsplaguing AMD.

Sure they make great workstation CPU and GPU but when it comes to gamer optimizations, there's just no beating the Intel, Nvidia combination.

 

[ofhs93]

For many of us out here in the real world, power consumption and thermal efficiency matters...which is why the 1060 was the better option...and now the 1650 Super even more so. The 5500 series from AMD is a huge disappointment thus far. Spend a little more for the 1660 Super and get the best of all worlds in terms of efficiency and performance.

 

[Lionvibez]

AMD FineWine™ Tech!

Its been like this for years the Radeon's generally age better and the drivers get better in time.

For many of us out here in the real world, power consumption and thermal efficiency matters...which is why the 1060 was the better option...and now the 1650 Super even more so. The 5500 series from AMD is a huge disappointment thus far. Spend a little more for the 1660 Super and get the best of all worlds in terms of efficiency and performance.

How much do you pay for power where you live?

 

[Irata]

For many of us out here in the real world, power consumption and thermal efficiency matters...which is why the 1060 was the better option...and now the 1650 Super even more so. The 5500 series from AMD is a huge disappointment thus far. Spend a little more for the 1660 Super and get the best of all worlds in terms of efficiency and performance.

I have the small sized one fan version of the 1060 6GB and I have it in my cramped HTPC. Power consumption and small form factor for a small case were the reasons I went with the 1060 over the RX480/580, as the significantly more power hungry/heat producing RX cards would stretch the computer's thermal limits. I'd imagine I would be equally happy with an RX card if I was using a larger sized computer case.

The perf / watt issue was what turned me off to RX 580. Price / Performance was great, but I just don‘t like inefficient designs and the extra heat affects all other components. Electricity cost is not an issue, but inefficiency is.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Whichever one was cheaper at the time you got it (and you are happy with it), was the better buy

Yup, the reason my first video card in 15 years was a 1060 6GB was that the RX480/580 prices were already sky high thanks to cryptomining and I got an MSI Gaming X for list price. The RX580 is great at $170, not at $450.

 

[toooooot]

Steve's benches opened my eyes regarding how these two companies care for their older products.
I own 1080ti and honestly I feel betrayed. Surely it is still a strong card, but what will happen to it even with next gen nvidia cards? Will there be optimizations for 10xx? I am not sure.
And unfortunately, many people buying from green only are not aware how much nvidia cares about their older products.

 

[Adhmuz]

Steve's benches opened my eyes regarding how these two companies care for their older products.
I own 1080ti and honestly I feel betrayed. Surely it is still a strong card, but what will happen to it even with next gen nvidia cards? Will there be optimizations for 10xx? I am not sure.
And unfortunately, many people buying from green only are not aware how much nvidia cares about their older products.

Don't look at it in the sense that Nvidia will stop optimizing drivers for 10 series cards, the cards have already been fully optimized for what they are. As far as continued support regarding game optimization the current Nvidia driver supports back to the 600 series released in 2012. Current AMD drivers support back to the 7000 series, also released in 2012 ironically enough, so really both companies equally support their hardware which is nice to see.

If the you want to look at it this way, Nvidia supports 5 generations of their products with a single driver pack, you're currently 1 generation behind, meaning you have 3 more generational releases at minimum before your card stops receiving driver updates. By then the card you have will likely be far overshadowed by even and entry level card, being a 1080ti it'll likely still be usable but the power consumption in comparison to a newer entry level card would be atrocious.

Besides these aren't AMD products that aren't fully optimized until 3 years after launch and multiple re-brands. What you buy is what you get and it performs as advertised from day 1, mild optimization will occur when new tech is baked in to the cards, RTX as an example, but gaining the kind of performance optimization the way AMD does years later isn't a sign of Nvidia's incompetance or lack of care towards their products, quite the contrary in fact.

 

[Linux7055]

Steve's benches opened my eyes regarding how these two companies care for their older products.
I own 1080ti and honestly I feel betrayed. Surely it is still a strong card, but what will happen to it even with next gen nvidia cards? Will there be optimizations for 10xx? I am not sure.
And unfortunately, many people buying from green only are not aware how much nvidia cares about their older products.

The rtx 2080 already left it in the dust

 

[hahahanoobs]

So 3 years after the release of RX 580, Radeon RX 580 is doing better than GeForce GTX 1060.

How can this be possible?!
AMD has bad drivers, "Gamers are ditching Radeon graphics cards over driver issues"

One has nothing to do with the other.....

 

[Ludak021]

AMD cut prices on 580s because used market is flooded with them from mining rigs. AMD just had no choice and a lot of stock. I am glad for them, they raised prices and created artificial shortage, the check for those actions came back later. There are still used cards on market and unused in stocks all over the world.Price for new ones? Buy Borderlands 3 and you get a 580 in the bundle.

 

[cfbcfbcfb]

I was just in the market for a gpu. I run a 1440p monitor, so 4k gaming and in fact, 1440 gaming just wasn't super critical. Price and being able to sustain fair frame rates @1080 was fine with me, and getting 150fps instead of 95fps wasn't something I needed to pay extra for.

I really wanted a 1650 Super, but getting one for <$150 was a rarity and involved a rebate, which I hate.

Then a sale on an RX570 came up, and in reviews it overclocks smoothly. $99 after coupons and cash back. Did OC well by about 12%. Runs everything at high or ultra at 1080 with more than enough FPS to be smooooooth.

Driver updates over the last few years squeezed a bit more fps out of it, amounting to 10-15fps. Its a mature product. And it'll do me fine for gaming for at least 3-4 years.