Please help me to choose between these card's models (AMD vs NVIDIA, again!)

Hi!

Please, help me to choose a better card. I'm not a frequent gamer but I like to test various new games(any genre) to see where technologies bringing us today I don't really know about latest models but heard about Crimson driver update. Now I'm choosing between gtx 1060 and rx 480. I know there are a lot of posts about those cards here. Sorry for another one But I'm more interested in particular models:

PALIT PA-GTX1060 DUAL 6G NE51060015J9-1061D 295$
MSI GEFORCE GTX 1060 6GT OCV1 299$
MSI GTX 1060 ARMOR 6G OCV1 312$
MSI RX 480 GAMING X 8G 319$
GIGABYTE Radeon RX 480, 8GB 315$
MSI RX 480 ARMOR 8G OC 323$
SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 480 8G 326$
GIGABYTE Radeon RX 480 G1 Gaming 8G 306$
POWERCOLOR Red Dragon Radeon RX 480 8GBD5-3DHD 308$

Btw, I have CPU i5 3570, a monitor with 1680*1050 resolution and I'm totally ok with it. So I'm not planning to go somwhere to 2k or 4k My 3 years old 2gb gtx 660 is, unfortunately, too weak know.

I heard Palit is pretty decent model for its price. Also I like Sapphire and thinking about future games may be this card will better but 30$ difference (between Palit and Sapphire) is matters in my country. GIGABYTE Radeon RX 480 G1 has a good price as well but I heard a lot of bad feedbacks about it and I'm not sure there will a big difference between 1060 and RX 480 G1(Nitro is much better). I heard 1060 architecture has a problem with dx12, on the other side rx480 also has its own issues (recently I heard about lags in No man's sky, overheating issues and freezes because of this problem).
Therefore I can't decide what better buy. Is it really worth to pay extra 30$ for Nitro? What do you think?

Thank you!

At this point, I'd choose the 480 for DX12 and/or higher than 1080p resolution. For 1080p and DX11 I'd price shop and grab the best deal on either one. I replaced my RX 480 with a GTX 1070, but the 480 is a great card for the money, as is the 1060. They are currently running neck and neck at lower resolutions and DX11. I don't know if the extra 2 GB of VRAM helps the 480 or not, but it seems to shine under those conditions.

With the latest driver update I understand the 480 is pretty much up with the 1060 6GB in DX11 performance, and still has a lead in DX12. So in that price bracket the 480 would be the choice if raw performance was the main consideration. I don't think the ram quantity difference is meaningful for now. Tough times to choose between red and green, as they have their own minor differences still if that matters.

As for the cards themselves, you might even just pick them on looks or price. I hate to admit I may choose components to better match looks if it is going in a window case.

mackerel said:

With the latest driver update I understand the 480 is pretty much up with the 1060 6GB in DX11 performance, and still has a lead in DX12. So in that price bracket the 480 would be the choice if raw performance was the main consideration. I don't think the ram quantity difference is meaningful for now. Tough times to choose between red and green, as they have their own minor differences still if that matters.

As for the cards themselves, you might even just pick them on looks or price. I hate to admit I may choose components to better match looks if it is going in a window case.

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+1

I hate to admit I may choose components to better match looks if it is going in a window case.

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That was a big factor in the purchase of my current card.

Alaric said:

That was a big factor in the purchase of my current card.

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Thanks! Actually I have a closed case Once I bought Gigabyte 660 card but It was so noisy in my case so I had to exchange it for Asus which is so silent

I could have bought a black case with no window and saved a lot of money.

Sandr5508 said:

Hi!

MSI RX 480 GAMING X 8G 319$
SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 480 8G 326$
GIGABYTE Radeon RX 480 G1 Gaming 8G 306$

but 30$ difference (between Palit and Sapphire) is matters in my country. GIGABYTE Radeon RX 480 G1 has a good price as well but I heard a lot of bad feedbacks about it and I'm not sure there will a big difference between 1060 and RX 480 G1(Nitro is much better). I heard 1060 architecture has a problem with dx12, on the other side rx480 also has its own issues (recently I heard about lags in No man's sky, overheating issues and freezes because of this problem).
Therefore I can't decide what better buy. Is it really worth to pay extra 30$ for Nitro? What do you think?

Thank you!

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Hi

I would go for the Gigabyte G1 for $306 if money is an issue. The MSI Gaming X and Nitro would be the best 480 purchases from the above list imo.

480's with good cooling do not overheat, I'd assume people have poor airflow in their case and/or reference cards.

NMS is still being patched too and was a rushed release from what I've read (haven't actually played the game myself) it has 'mostly negative' reviews on steam from 80k users so not sure if that is from performance or game content.

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 480 G1 Gaming 8G would be my choice, I like the Gigabyte support.

With the current state of performance with the 1060 and 480, and the direction both are trending, I'd vote for a 480. The driver improvements for the 480 are making a big difference and AMD cards have historically benefited a lot from driver optimization. That, combined with the DX12 and higher resolution advantages, make the 480 the winner for me-by a smidge. For 1080p and mostly DX11 gaming I'd price shop and get the best deal regardless. My $.02. But if you're getting a white case with a window, get a Hall Of Fame. LOL

Wow those prices are insane. I just picked up a dual fan XFX RX 480 8GB open box for $196 at my local Microcenter which came to $207 including tax. Plus there's a $20 rebate so it'll end up costing $187. It's the hard swap edition that allows the fans to be easily replaced.

DaveB said:

Wow those prices are insane. I just picked up a dual fan XFX RX 480 8GB open box for $196 at my local Microcenter which came to $207 including tax. Plus there's a $20 rebate so it'll end up costing $187. It's the hard swap edition that allows the fans to be easily replaced.

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It looks like possibly New Zealand pricing or something.......not US that is for sure.

480 8GB offers good future proofing. It has better DX12 support than nVidia, and RAM capacity is going to be less of a problem for high res when you eventually add a second 480 for more fps. (All the better if this card still supports uneven CF within the same generation, which would give you wider scope and more flexibility to respond to good deals when it's time to expand, depending on what's available/the best bang for the buck at the relevant time.)

The sad truth about the various manufacturers and individual card lines is that you can't really know. There are some cooler designs that are reputably better than some others, but it's narrow and limited and situational and subjective and everything else that's needed to give you a massive headache.

One thing you can say with certainty is that those coolers are better which use a standard 3/4-pin connector to mount a normal standard fan, just like a case fan. That's 1.000.000 times better than trying to replace some sort of custom 73.5-size 38 degrees inclined thing that can't be removed without cutting the cable. Some of those new coolers I've seen seem to allow you to just use normal 12cm fans. Go with that, and upgrade the fan(s) at your leisure, as your budget allows, for speed/temps or noise/vibration reduction, or both if you have more cash to burn. Still less expensive than an aftermarket heatsink, and easier and faster to do, not to mention you won't lose warranty (though I'd check that). If RMAing, you'd just put the manufacturer's original fans back on and that would be it.

In fact, chances are I'll be replacing my 280x this winter or spring, and I'll be looking for something that uses normal 12cm fans as my no. 1 priority.

If you have tech intuition and are aware of the directions and strength of airflow in your case, looking at heatsinks to see the rib direction, angle, spacing etc. would be helpful.

If your mobo has an M.2 connector under the GPU slot you'll need to make sure the heatsink won't block that.

What else? Back to fans, my personal preference is for one 12cm over two 8cm ones. It's possible for two or three 8cm fans to be civilized most of the time, but there's no way they'll still sound civilized when you manage to 100% load the card. And the probability of none of 3 such flimsy fans going bad in 2–3 years is not high.

For the record, depending on the heatsink design (you'll need to check carefully) it may actually be somewhat easy to remove the top (shield + fans) and just mount two 12cm fans of your choosing, using either rubber pads + metal clips like a pro, or just freaking glue like nobody cares. Heck, I've used a string before (bonus goal was to remove vibration by not having the fan touch the heatsink at all, no matter I ended up using 4 slots).

Recap:

No. 1 factor is normal plugs for normal (case) fans.
No. 2 is just a good heatsink you'll be happy with after replacing stock fans with something more serious.

In terms of companies, I'd probably go with Sapphire, Gigabyte, Palit and Powercolor in this order. Would probably still prefer Evga or XFX other things being equal (fan replacement options & heatsink design would still be more important).

NewbieOneKenobi said:

No. 1 factor is normal plugs for normal (case) fans.
No. 2 is just a good heatsink you'll be happy with after replacing stock fans with something more serious.

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The XFX GTR and Sapphire Nitro both have replaceable fans that simply click in and out. Literally no messing around with cables. They also have high quality PCB components and I never hear of coil whine with these models, then again I never really hear of coil whine on any of the RX 480s.

The Asus Strix and MSI are said to be the coolest running.

The Gigabyte and Powercolor have the lowest spec PCB and component quality. Decent coolers though afaik.

The HIS Roaring has an identical PCB to the XFX GTR (High quality) but non-replaceable fans.

This guy does some good videos on the quality of various GPU PCB/VRM setups.

Saul Goodman said:

The XFX GTR and Sapphire Nitro both have replaceable fans that simply click in and out. Literally no messing around with cables. They also have high quality PCB components and I never hear of coil whine with these models, then again I never really hear of coil whine on any of the RX 480s.

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Thanks. That's very useful information that may well decide the matter for me when I upgrade, which might be soon (struggling to justify the expense right now). Once there are cards with normally replaceable 12cm fans, then there's no way I'm going back to the old ways, but Sapphire's Nitro solution already is a step forward.

I think I may have some coil whine from my Sapphire 280X (the cheapest one, Dual-X), but I can't be sure what the source is.

The Asus Strix and MSI are said to be the coolest running.

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Hmmm… Well, I'd probably still trust my own hand at picking standard fans over a GPU manufacturer's solution.

The Gigabyte and Powercolor have the lowest spec PCB and component quality. Decent coolers though afaik.

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Didn't know about Gigabyte. As in never thought them to be any sort of quality champs, but didn't take them for cheapskates either. Figures, though. I've had a bunch of GPUs from them die or otherwise flip out on me, now that you say. More than enough.

Team Red get - SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 480 8G 326$

Team Green get - MSI GEFORCE GTX 1060 6GT OCV1 299$

Why?....Sapphire makes a really decent card. That RX 480 is going to run nice and cool. The MSI GTX is just going to be a very stout card and has decent quality.

The 480 wins with Memory bandwidth and Texel rate (about 35% difference in AMD favor) while the GTX 1060 will about double the pixel rate.

The nice thing with NVidia is the Physx ability, but this doesn't matter for most people. But if you game stuff with Physx, it's the way to go.

The GTX 1070 goes for about 389$ and the pixel rate is about 170% better than the 480 and about 12% better texel rate also. The memory bandwidth is about the same.

So if you're spending 325$ for a 1060 or 480, maybe spending a couple extra bucks will get you further and will handle that heavy gaming load if you ever get back into that style of computing.

I've read a bunch of tests, reviews, customer comments etc., and it seems Nitro has a reputation for being loud, especially on factory settings (which, to be fair, may be an issue with the settings rather than the cooler itself). There are people who say it's silent, but there are many who say it's loud, and tests look bad, as in 55 dbA (chamber), whereas MSI's Gaming X coolers, while more expensive (to be fair, those cards seem to get better VRMs too etc.), tend to peak out under 35 dbA in the same circumstances on the 1060 and perhaps a little worse on 480.

Personally I'd wonder what you guys here think about Gigabyte's Gaming series, as it's on sale in a shop close to me for a good price. I know it's not as quiet as MSI Gaming X, but reports seem to say it's still quite quiet.

I like Gigabytes 6+2 power phases for overclocking also they have a good 3 year warranty that I trust.

NewbieOneKenobi said:

Thanks. That's very useful information that may well decide the matter for me when I upgrade, which might be soon (struggling to justify the expense right now). Once there are cards with normally replaceable 12cm fans, then there's no way I'm going back to the old ways, but Sapphire's Nitro solution already is a step forward.

I think I may have some coil whine from my Sapphire 280X (the cheapest one, Dual-X), but I can't be sure what the source is.

Hmmm… Well, I'd probably still trust my own hand at picking standard fans over a GPU manufacturer's solution.

Didn't know about Gigabyte. As in never thought them to be any sort of quality champs, but didn't take them for cheapskates either. Figures, though. I've had a bunch of GPUs from them die or otherwise flip out on me, now that you say. More than enough.

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I had a Sapphire Dual-X 7950 that whilst it overclocked well, actually degraded over time even though it never got extremely hot.

Was a bit disappointed but sold the card in the mining boom, and got a brand new Gigabyte 7970 for not much more. Was a win but the Gigabyte came voltage locked and couldn't OC the piece of crap even 50mhz lol.

Here's a link to a guy on Youtube that looks at the PCB components and configuration of many GPUs.


There's probably discussion in the comments about the cards in general too.