GTX 1060 Benchmarks for 15 Games Out; Compared With Radeon RX 480, GeForce 980 & 970

The GTX 1060 is the spiritual successor to the GeForce GTX 960 but according to Nvidia, it will outperform even the GeForce GTX 980. This test provides some proof of that, and gives us a detailed comparison between GTX 1060,Radeon RX 480, Geforce 980 & 970.

[ocelot07]

I have been reading some of these GTX 1060 reviews. Most of them benchmark games that are Nvidia game work titles. Or DX 11 titles. We all know AMD comes second place in DX11 titles.

But why not benchmark DX12 games. Like a few of them benchmark the new Hitman in DX11 mode where the 1060 outperforms the RX 480. Yet they don't bother benchmarking Hitman in DX12. I saw one review that benchmarked the new Hitman in both DX11 and 12. DX11 Nvidia performed better and DX12 the 480 performed better than the 1060.

Doom another title. Most of the benchmarks I have seen are using OpenGL where the 1060 pretty much thrashes the 480. Yet only 1 review I seen so far has benchmarked it in Vulkan where not only did the 1060 perform better than in OpenGL. But the RX 480 thrashed the 1060 in Vulkan.

[Asuka]

its just that there are only a handful of games and support software that support DX12 or Vulkan atm. Most of these benchmarks and reviews are for people looking for a new card "now" and there is a huge back catalog of supported software for DX11/OpenGL4.5. However for future proofing it would be wiser to consider DX12 and Vulkan as the industry is moving in that direction, more so Vulkan i hope as it is open sources and supported on almost every platform. I myself am waiting till AMD Vega with HBM2 comes out to make a decision on buy a new card as by then more drivers and developer support for the newer libraries would be prevalent.

[dirkdady]

Regardless I think the fact the 1060 cannot do SLI limits it future potential. With the 480 my desire would be to pickup a second card down the line and crossfire those bad boys.

[ocelot07]

I have no issues with them benchmarking DX11 games. My issue is when they benchmark the likes of Hitman which has DX12 support. They decide to just benchmark DX11 instead. Why not benchmark both? Same thing with Doom. Most reviews benchmarked OpenGL. Why not both openGL and Vulkan.

@dirkdady I have a pair of RX 480s and am over the moon with them. I was a bit worried when I bought the second one as all I read on the internet was crossfire don't work properly and only a handful of games work ect.

Out of all the games I have thrown at it so far. only a handful of games have flat out not used the 2nd card. Or have been to bugy or performed worse than using 1 card.

Them games are Rainbow Six Siege (don't work at all). Ark Survival Evolved (early access, Works but get less frames than using just the 1 card). Division (get same FPS than a single card).

Most notable games I have played and works well. GTA 5 4K almost a solid 60fps. Battlefield 4 and Hardline (almost a solid 50). Rocket League (Almost a solid 120 at 4K). DayZ (100+ fps mostly). Resident Evil 6 (solid 120FPS 4K). Elite Dangerous (solid 60 4K)

[freshslicepizza]

out of ll those games project cars seems to be the odd ball. it was very low in frame rates on the rx480 so it must be a game made for nvidia cards. maybe they will add an update specifically for this game.

[1nsomniac]

It is very odd as i've noticed that as well. I'm not a fanboy in the slightest but am genuinely looking to buy either the 1060 or 480 & obviously want to get the right one for now & near future.

I've seen several people benchmarking loads of games & every single one seems to be mentioning that they're aware of DX12 but purposely not benchmarking them.

There's something very wrong with that no matter which way you look at it. Now I'm completely decided that I'm refusing to order one until there's a better understanding. So it looks like I'm going to be waiting awhile..

[ocelot07]

I found this review. This is the one that opened my eyes really and got me asking. Why didn't other websites do these games with DX12 or Vulkan.

http://www.hardocp.com/arti...

That review only benchmarks a few games. But at least the benchmark in DX12 and Vulkan. Something is not sitting well with me. Tom's Hardware review is laughable and has got me thinking if Nvidia slipped them £20.

http://www.tomshardware.com...

Not only was half the titles they benchmarked Nvidia Gameworks titles. But the likes of Hitman they benchmarked on DX11. They could of included a DX12 benchmark as well.

[NecoTehSergal]

The benchmarks can be biased for just that reason. Only trust sites that do VARIOUS resolutions at various types and games that are, for the most part - not having any ties to using Tesselation extensively or TressFX or else the tests will be ruined. (as proprietary Nvidia software always fucks with/sabotages AMD cards) such as Crysis 2 at the time, or Tomb Raider, or any other under Gameworks.

[RegorL]

Why does kind of API matter? Wouldn't any owner run in the API providing the best experience?

DOOM
Nvidia OpenGL (no Vulkan stuttering)
AMD Vulkan

Do that for other games as well - for each game and GPU use what API that works best!

[GameBoyColor]

Because vulkan/dx12 will be the new standard. Amd is better and more future proof in this case but these reviewers aren't showing that by not benchmarking them.

[ONESHOTV2]

would it make you happy to see the two games with DX12 benchmark. will it make you feel like you have made the right purchase ? why dont you do your own DX12 benchmark and compare them i'm sure you will see what you are looking for

[ecchiless]

So stupid your reply man....

[ONESHOTV2]

ecchiless------ not being rude but your comment is not in the right order. and the reason i said that is becuase the few games that run well on AMD is nothing to be proud of when you have thousands that run even better on DX11

[babadivad]

Yes, A lot of sites are choosing games specifically built for nVidia cards[game works], I've noticed that as well. Truly this card is about 5% faster than the 480 in Dx11 but slower in Dx12. And because AMD's driver overhead for OpenGL is fucking ridiculous, The 1060 beats the 480 in Open GL but when the driver overhead is gone with Vulcan, The 480 trounces the 1060.

What this is really saying is that the 480 is under performing the hardware of the card. And that's really on AMD. Driver overhead has been an issue for AMD since the introduced GCN. The cards are not performing as well as the hardware says they should. How long is it gonna take for them to get their shit together?

In the end, The 480 is the better buy. It's cheaper and you know it's performance is going to get better over time[like AMD cards usually do with better drivers down the line]. Realistically, it's just the better investment unless you are a fanboy of either company.

[Jman2]

Most people probably still use DX11 because it's more stable in terms of knowledge base, we need to learn DX12 properly to take advantage of its ability to create more optimised games. They should benchmark DX12 but the results won't be representative of what DX12 is actually capable of, when DX12 matures we will see the claimed performance benifits.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

dx12 and vulkan titles are few and far between.

[SonyWarrior]

i was going to get the rx480 but after seeing these benchmarks ill just spend $50 more and get a way better card the gtx1060 easy decision

[GNCFLYER]

Wow didnt know you can stack 480s and not 10xx series.

My god @ocelot that is crazy. GTA5 4k at near 60 fps. I might go this route.

[ocelot07]

Yes I was shocked my self. I have been trying to record some gameplay for youtube. But for some reason DXtory won't see GTA. If I try and record in window mode with the Windows 10 DVR it disables crossfire. Am still trying to figure out how to record with crossfire enabled and without FPS loss at the same time.

[windblowsagain]

Fraps?

[ocelot07]

FRAPs pretty much half's the frame rate when recording.

[ARESWARLORD]

Would definitely be a hard decision between the 1060 in the RX 480. My main rig I'm running a 1070 and I like it a lot. But I think if I was to choose between these two I would go for the RX 480 and I would crossfire it. Just makes it way more future-proof than a single 1060

[wannabe gamer]

it either equals the 980 or beats/loses by 1-3 frames ...but at a THIRD of the cost... if you cant see how thats a win then i dont know what to say.

and the whole point of benchmarks is to see how it stacks up to current hardware and usage. there arent enough games or people using dx12 now to worry with it. its like all this talk of 4k benchmarks in other places,,,,that are useless since the majority are still not using 4k.

[bmf7364]

Nvidia's design choices are very questionable with the 1060. 6GB is a lot of VRAM, yes, but GPU's show to have problems with their VRAM being at an increment of 3GB. Also their choice to not have it capable of SLI, and their claim of it being faster than a GTX 960 when it's clearly not. It mostly JUST matches the GTX 970 in those benchmarks (granted, the GTX 970 is still a revered mid-tier card at $260 on Amazon).

As an entry-level card, the $250 tag and the extremely low 120w TDP make it very attractive.

However, the GTX 1000 series as of right not is well-optimized for DirectX 12 in contrast to AMD's new cards and drivers, and the RX 480 is capable of CrossFire, meaning at $500, you are capable of performance that's close but below the GTX 1080 (granted, single-card graphics is always the better option as most games dont run well with XFire/SLI anyway, but if dual-card is a cheaper/better offering, Nvidia has to compete with that somehow)

[IrishSt0ner]

Have a look through these real world benchmarks:

https://www.techpowerup.com...

The RX480 Crossfire barely competes with a 1070, I honestly was going to go with 2xRX480 before I found out the 1070 is just a better solution by a large margin... the 1080 shouldn't even be mentioned beside 2xRX480.

DX12/Vulkun may or may not change this landscape, but if you want to run 99% of games better go with the single card setup... plus the whole 'performance boost' for AMD with these new APIs is literally due to better effeciency.. as in the AMD cards could be seen going as low as 60% core utilisation (under 'full' load in DX11) where NVIDIA cards have always utilised the cores effectively.. this is the reason why we see huge gains for AMD cards and minor gains for NVIDIA (and it's why NVIDIA have continually dominated the top end market up until now).. so the next time you hear NIVIDA is going to have an 'A-sync compute' or 'full DX12' card call it what it is, bullshit, they may release cards with these labels.. but they're never going to see 50% boosts like with AMD.

I hope AMD can now start to actually compete with NVIDIA in the top end, and hopefully gamers can get better price to performance as a result.

[mochachino]

I really just want to see what the 490 can do. What taking so long AMD. My 970 isn't enough anymore.

[dunnyone]

Okay I get how N4G works now. Flashy clickbait headline is all that's needed, as the articles (which it is not, it's a paragraph and an awful video) are uniformly shite. N4G is a joke. I'm done.