Graphics 1080p Gaming: RX480 vs GTX1060 vs Too early to tell?

Power and performance wise the RX480 matches the 970 at least the launch drivers. 970 are starting around £190 mark over at OCUK for an MSI version. Unless you want the 8GB RX480 or believe DX12 and future drivers to elevate the the RX480 it would be worth considering.
I'm in a similar situation torn between the GTX970, RX480, GTX1060 and possibly a second hand GTX980. Waiting is probably the best option until supply increase and launch prices drop a bit.

 

I know it's been said to death but the 970 isn't a true 4gb card. It's a 3.5gb card. I would not want 3.5gb VRAM these days. 4gb is just enough I will hold my hands up to that but it's enough for 1080p. 3.5gb really isn't as Mordor shows. I would also hedge a bet that ROTTR and BLOPS III could throw issues up for the 970 too.

At this end of the market it is literally all about pence. Not pounds, pence. People are shaving pennies off here and there to get an SSD for example. At £199 for a card with the pedigree of the Sapphire it's going to be all about that card. Literally a one horse race. I would bet that the Strix will be ludicrously expensive and the next logical step up takes you into 1060 territory where things get messy.

It's a very clever release from Sapphire.

At this sort of power at this sort of price 8gb is practically worthless. By the time you get to the resolutions (and settings, MSAA eats VRAM) both this card and the 1060 would fall on their face any way. I made do with 4gb VRAM on my Fury X for ages and the only reason I wasn't happy was because of the price I had paid for them. Those were high end cards alright at over £500 each and reducing settings annoyed the hell out of me.

But on a £199 card? I could forgive that. However if VRAM is your thing then hey, there's always the 8gb.

Also, we are not seeing the rethink of prices that we will see at some point soon. When all of these AIBs announced their custom 480s there was no 1060. Those prices have mainly been pre order, so have stayed the same, however that now needs to be rethought.

So I fully expect the 8gb models to at least match the prices of the 1060. And if they are being binned (which they obviously are by Sapphire, given the 8gb model comes clocked out of the box higher than the 4gb model can overclock to) then they will perform even better.

The 1060 brings an extremely compelling argument, mind. But at this end of the GPU spectrum it is all about price for me. So whatever card comes cheapest would be the card I would recommend.

 

Already happening.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sapp...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-37c-sp.html

Was £259 first then £249 now it's £239. So it's like £4 more than a 1060 (the cheapest one I looked at which was Gainward or something? nowhere near as nice as the Nitro).

 

Well, I think I'll wait a couple of weeks while some custom coolers come out.

Thank you all for the help!

 

Seems to be still a few weeks from custom 480s at least. Wonder where long term the prices for custom 480 8gbs and 1060 6gbs will settle at, current pricing seems to have it £230+ on both with the minimum price in stock on scan a crazy £248 and £258 for the 1060 and 480 respectively.

 

Ocuk got there sapphire nitro stock today but they have been pre order for some time so might still not be available, I'm still not sure which is the best choice, the 1060 looks to have the edge but the 480 looks to have an advantage with dx12.

Best option has to be the cheapest I guess

 

Having watched a few reviews, I feel that the 1060 is the best choice. Why?

3GB is fine for 1080p and probably will be for a good while yet (nothing stopping you going for 6GB though).

The 1060 performs well for current applications. The 480 may have an edge in DX12, but IMHO it's going to be a few years before it's properly implemented. After all, how long did it take DX11 to become relativley mainstream?

The 1060 runs cooler and quieter.

1060 seems to have greater overclocking potential, to the point an overclocked 1060 will beat an overclocked 480 in everything as far as I understand - probably due to the cooling.

Lastly, and in my most humble opinion, Vulkan performance doesn't matter. I'm prepared to east humble pie if I'm wrong, but I personally fell it'll never take off.

 

The 3gb 1060 isn't the same Pete. The core has been cut back and it will be clocked lower.

With the 1060 they use a different process than they use for the 1070 and 1080 so it's likely the 3gb variants will be the ones that couldn't make the grade as a full 6gb card.

I somewhat agree about Vulkan. It will be hit or miss. I don't agree about DX12. We are already seeing games where the AMD pulls ahead.

 

In 2 years time dx12 will be the main choice today that is not the case, choice should be based on what your playing and intending to play, not every major release has even offered dx12 this year with it been patched into a few things months after the initial release in some cases.

Pretty much every up and comming game will offer dx11 / dx12 to support Windows 7 and Windows 8 users still.

Vulkan needed Apple to put it in the latest OS X which they did not do, That and the lack of multi gpu support has basically nailed Vulkan to a wall before it's even launched. Like Mantle before it I think Vulkan will be 10-20 games max then just slowly stop been a thing.

Dx12 does basically the same thing just not compatible with older OS.

The 5 will become 3 eventually with dx11 and Vulkan both loosing out. Metal success will based on Apple if they go big gaming it could take off massively. OpenGL and dx12 will be the big winners long term.