I’m like many of you guys. I’m really into video games on all platforms – I don’t love or support one console over another – and I love PC gaming as well. PC gaming is an expensive hobby, because technology is always progressing. Keeping up appearances and always trying to have the latest and greatest hardware is fruitless, but as a budget-driven PC gamer I don’t deal with that crap. I just need a card that will let me play the latest games on medium-to-ultra settings for at least a few years, and I don’t want to spend an arm and a leg. I also don’t have my masters in computer engineering, so when it comes to comparing specs, I’m hopeless. If that’s you too, then I’m here to dish out the dirt on Nvidia and AMD’s new budget cards and try to offer a little advice as to which card might be right for you.
AMD and Nvidia are both producing cards right now based on their new architectures, Polaris and Pascal, respectively. Both lines are more powerful and more efficient than anything we’ve seen before, and both seem to offer fantastic value. AMD released its RX 480 not long ago, and we’ve been watching the benchmarks trickle in. The 480 was poised to be the go-to card for budget-driven PC gamers; all we’ve been waiting for is Nvidia’s GTX 1060. Nvidia has been promising it can crank out GTX 980 levels of performance at half the cost. If true, that would pose a serious threat to AMD, which typically conquers the mid-range market.
I woke up the morning of the July 19 to a flood of charts, graphs, reviews, and benchmarks. Nvidia’s long-awaited GTX 1060 is finally here, the embargo has lifted, and the results are… good. This is a good card, which is really frustrating, because I was hoping for a clear winner between the 1060 and AMD’s RX 480. I myself am in agony, as the benchmarks are pretty much split down the middle. When it comes to affordability, the RX 480 has a clear advantage, as the 4GB model can be had for $200. 8GB models are around $250, which is the lower end of what you’ll pay for Nvidia’s GTX 1060 (which only has a 6GB model available). Cards from Asus and MSI may cost you upward of $300. Does the 1060’s performance merit the extra dough?
For most games, according to most benchmarks, the 1060 performs about 3-10% better and faster than the RX 480. In most DX11 games the 1060 seems to be the clear winner. The card hits GTX 980 numbers sometimes, but this would be a more suitable replacement for your 600 and 700 series cards if anything, as it’s clearly more powerful and more efficient. If you’re playing on a 980, I’d hold off for the next wave of Nvidia’s 10 series, or else upgrade to a 1070 or 1080.
When DX12 and Vulkan come into play, the results are more varied. For those of you who understand very little technical jargon (like me), all you need to know is Vulkan and DX12 are newer APIs that basically tell your GPU what to do in a more efficient way. In some games, like DOOM and Hitman , AMD’s card got a much bigger boost from the newer APIs (the 480 runs DOOM like a beast using Vulkan), so if you’re more concerned about future-proofing and getting the best card for a future asynchronous monitor, then an 8GB RX 480 might actually be the better option. Either card offers a great, affordable, VR-ready alternative to the more expensive GPUs, and Vulkan and DX12 are going to take a lot of pressure off of our older, slower CPUs.
The bottom line is this: If you’re an Nvidia fan on a budget, the 1060 is a fantastic value if you can find one for $250. You’ll be running current-gen games at 1080p on ultra settings no problem, you’ll be VR ready, and as more games start utilizing DX12 and Vulkan, you’ll only see performance gains as long as Nvidia stays vigilant with its drivers. The 1060 also seems to be handling most current DX11 games much better than the RX 480. If you’re just looking for the cheapest upgrade, don’t hesitate to pick up a 4GB RX 480, though. You’ll only spend $200, and it may even be the safer option moving forward with Vulkan if you’re willing to bet on developers using it more in the future. I myself will be waiting for the perfect, custom 480 from EVGA, and that’ll likely be my GPU for the next three years at least. What about you guys, is there a specific GPU you’ve decided on, or have been waiting for? Which card seems to be the better value to you, and why?