Comparison: radeon rx 480 vs geforce gtx 1060

Radeon RX 480 vs GeForce GTX 1060. Today is the day chosen for the lifting of the NDA of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 so we already have the first reviews, among which is ours. Taking advantage of the situation we have made a comparison between the GeForce GTX 1060 from Nvidia and the Radeon RX 480 from AMD to see their main differences.

Radeon RX 480 vs GeForce GTX 1060: A similar design although more careful in the case of Nvidia

The design of both cards is very similar in its reference model although the Nvidia card is presented as a solution with a more premium appearance. In both cases, a PCB of very small dimensions is observed , in which the cooling system consisting of an aluminum radiator and a turbine fan stands out.

The main difference is that GeForce GTX 1060 presents a much more careful design with the same aesthetics as the GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Founders Edition. Regardless of aesthetics, tests show that Nvidia's heatsink design is much more efficient and allows the card to maintain an excellent operating temperature below 70ºC in stock conditions.

Radeon RX 480 vs GeForce GTX 1060: specifications of both cards, big differences for the same objective

We already get into the specifications of Radeon RX 480 vs GeForce GTX 1060 and we realize how different they are between them although both share the same goal of being the new queen of the mid-range.

The Radeon RX 480 uses a Polaris 10 GPU manufactured by Global Foundries at 14nm FinFET and made up of 36 Compute Units totaling 2, 304 Stream Processors, 144 TMUs and 32 ROPs at a maximum frequency in its reference model of 1, 266 MHz. This GPU is accompanied by 4 GB / 8 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 256-bit interface and a bandwidth of 256 GB / s. All this led by AMD's new GCN 4.0 architecture and with a 150W TDP that allows it to work with a single 6-pin power connector although custom versions will use an 8-pin connector.

On the other hand, the GeForce GTX 1060 is based on a Pascal GP106 GPU that has a total of 1, 280 CUDA Cores, 80 TMUs and 48 ROPS that operate at a maximum frequency in its 1.7 GHz reference model . In this case, the GPU is It comes with 6 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 192-bit interface and a bandwidth of 192 GB / s. Based on the advanced Pascal architecture manufactured by TSMC at 16nm FinFET and which has already proven impressive energy efficiency, the GTX 1060 has a 120W TDP and is powered by a single 6-pin connector.

We recommend reading our guide to the best graphics cards.

If we see the specifications, it may seem that the GeForce GTX 1060 is much lower, but remember that they are two very different architectures and cannot be directly compared. Traditionally, Nvidia has shown that its architecture is more efficient and is capable of achieving more performance with lower a priori specifications.

Gaming performance tests: Full HD, 2K and 4K

We have used our usual test equipment: i7-6700k, Asus Maximus VIII Formula, 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz, 500GB SSD, Corsair AX860i power supply and both graphics cards.

Temperatures and consumption

Our tests have confirmed that the GeForce GTX 1060 is superior in performance to the Radeon RX 480 in addition to presenting a much higher energy efficiency, consuming up to 40W less energy, a figure that is very significant given that we have gone from an approximate consumption of 160W from the Radeon RX 480 to about 120W from the GeForce GTX 1060.

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Conclusion: AMD RX 480 or GTX 1060?

The conclusion is quite clear, Nvidia has achieved a card that performs better, consumes less and heats up less… at least in most current situations and with the doubt that it may happen in the future. AMD gets along better with DirectX 12 and Vulkan so the balance could tip in its favor although seeing the performance of the GeForce GTX 1060 it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which it will be clearly below performance.

A strength of the Radeon RX 480 is its greater amount of memory although it seems difficult for a card of its power level to take advantage of more than the 6 GB that the GeForce GTX 1060 mounts, in any case the Radeon RX 480 has 2 GB more than memory that may give you an advantage in the future.

With all this we can affirm that today the GeForce GTX 1060 is a better card and the prices will be very similar, in both cases with the reference models around 280 euros. What is the best for you?