GTX 1060 3 GB or RX 470 4GB

tarunswm

Commendable
Sep 22, 2016
9
0
1,510
Greetings to all gamers.
Before putting this question to you guys, i have gone through many posts, articles, reviews etc. but were not able to reach any conclusion.
I recently purchased a 900p (MAX Resolution) monitor and will be continuing to game on that.
I am not very frequent to upgrade my rig. My current graphics card which just got dead 2 days back was 8600GT 256MB 😀 and AMD 550 Dual core which i guess i have purchased in back in 2007 or 2008. I guess this will give you a hint that i am not replacing hardware soon.
So thing is my card is dead now and needed to replace with another, but now found that my current dual core stands no where for new games.
OK, cut to the point i am upgrading my rig to below specs:

  • CPU: i5 6402p
    Motherboard: Any supporting DDR4
    RAM: 8 GB (4 GB * 2)
    GPU: GTX 1060 3GB or RX 470 4GB
    PSU: Zebronics 600w Silver (This one i already have it and will upgrade it if any issue comes around)

At 900p, will 3GB gtx 1060 will be good or RX 470 ?. I am planning to play CS:GO, Mortal Kombat X, Batman Arkham Knight, and may be Gear of War 4 when it will be out. I know for CS:GO, both those two cards will be overkill but i would like to have other games with decent settings as well. But honestly i am more of Counter Strike 1.6 player but CS:GO is now keeps yelling me to upgrade 😛

On other thoughts, i am also considering RX 460 2GB which is exactly half the price of 1060 or 470 available here in India (But i doubt that it will be no useful for 900p for modern games). Or i should wait for GTX 1050.
I will not be going to 6GB for 1060 or 8GB for 470 as those are totally costly affair in India. (Pricing of graphics cards here are crazy). So which one would be a good choice for 900p gaming. Will 3GB GTX be obsolete for coming years when DX12 will took over all the games or still be good at mid settings at 900p. Will 1 GB extra at 470 make any difference in future with DX12. I am tending towards to nvidia and this one have better performance at this time.

1 more thing, i live in desert where average room temperature is 35 Celsius. This is another major concern for me and also for tending towards nvidia as it has lower temperature.

Thanks to all of you guys for helping me out here.

Request, please not to start AMD vs Nvidia War, they both have their own goodies.
 


True, for now. But again will it be playable 3 or 4 years from now. I know we can't predict the future but looking at VRAM uses at current games, will 3GB be bottleneck compare to 4GB at 900p gaming
 


You are right about pricing in US. Here in India it is totally different ball game:
Roughly conveting INR to US $

GTX 1060 3GB oc = $ 267
MSI Gaming X 470 4GB = $ 267
HIS RX 480 IceQ X2 8GB = $ 345 (4GB version isn't available here)

And these are the lowest price available in the market yet. Already told you pricing here are insane.
 


raw performance also very important. extra VRAM is useless without raw power to back it up. just look how the original titan with it's 6GB VRAM. even at 4k resolution the card still cannot beat 4GB cards like 970/980/290/290X. also you can turn down some game setting to ensure the VRAM usage did not go crazy. in some games the difference between ultra and high texture are not that noticeable (and usually even high look very good) yet ultra texture use bajillion more VRAM than high.
 


That is pretty much i was thinking of, but again i am not sure how much it will affect games at 900p. 1080p is totally different story. Currently benchmarks are generally shown at 1080p or higher. There are hardly have any benchmarks on 900p. I am not sure but i guess VRAM uses won't be as much as 1080p. I have doubt on this and this is why i am asking this question. From my point of view, i think GTX 1060 should do good for me, but wanted to have an idea from you guys. You all have tested and used other graphics cards so you know better than me.

Also what about temperatures of cards i have asked earlier.
 


I am not sure about that. I already see some of reviews and videos for games, its hardly keeps up at 900p. From what i saw RX460 is exact same performance at GTX 750 TI and apart from e-sports games, it's not good at high settings.
Correct me if i am wrong here.
 
http://www.techspot.com/review/1237-msi-geforce-gtx-1060-3gb/

http://www.techspot.com/review/1220-amd-radeon-rx-470/

RX 480 runs slightly behind the 1060, but price-wise its 4GB model is apparently a better deal. 3GB 1060 runs slightly slower than the 6GB model. RX 470 runs slightly behind the RX 480, & apparently runs neck-and-neck with the 3GB 1060. So, basically, whichever one has the better cooler on it, matches the color scheme of your build, or even if you simply prefer one GPU source over another, you won't regret either one.
 


There are different versions of the rx460. Basic 2GB version (PC Worlds budget card winner) up to 4GB tricked out oc versions from Sapphire and XFX that can handle any game at 900p.

 


you can keep 470 cool by increasing the fan speed. but between the two 470 probably going to release more heat. and here your case air flow will play a big role: to dumb out the heat as fat as possible. there is one test that i see where both AMD and nvidia gpu core (it was 1060 vs 480) temp was about the same but the system with radeon have much higher temp inside the case.
 

This is something interesting to me. If a RX460 will be good at 900p the obviously i will go for 460. It will save around half of the money compare to 1060 3GB.
i will check.
 


Yes, i doubted that earlier. I just checked the performance of RX 460 on 900p on internet and it is not good for many games out there.

I only see option of 1060 or 470 at the price i am getting in my country. Anyways i think either of the card will be good, unless someone have a solid reason for extra 1GB VRAM on RX 470 over gtx 1060 3GB. But again i am talking here 900p gaming and not 1080p.

Man!! this is sooo hard to choose. :)
 


I guess i am agree on this. Lets wait then, as saving few buck with decent output will always be better. I strongly think that 3GB will have impact on DX12 games down the line, not sure though. But it just me.

Thanks all for your time on this. If anyone has better thought on this, please do share.
 
funny thing about DX12 is the game usually end up using more resource. with low level optimization we should be able to do more with less resource. i have seen one side by side bench of DXMD DX11 vs DX12 (RX480) where DX12 only giving 2-3 fps more than DX11 (around 5fps more at most) and yet DX12 version end up using 200-300mb more VRAM and around 2GB more system RAM.
 


Sapphire rx460 4gb ddr5 will play games at 900-1080p, but sometimes at medium-low settings... But can save you money.

It you want 900-1080p on all games at max game settings go for either the rx480 or gtx1060.

 
@tarunswm Even I'm in a similar situation as you mate... Need to buy a new card but the Indian pricing is driving me crazy..

I suggest you go with the RX 470 4gb. Its much cheaper than the GTX 1060 3gb and also gives you 1 gig more VRAM which will definitely be helpful in the long run when games use more than 3gb.

The MSI version of the RX 470 is really good and costs around INR 18500 while the MSI GTX 1060 3gb one is around 22k.
 


:pt1cable: True indian prices are cruel. Actually i am waiting for GTX 1050 ti 4gb. It would be out in few days now. If it has a decent performance compare to rx 470 and price under 15k INR then i will go for it. Also i found rumors that rx 470 will receive a price drop due to 1050 launch, but i am not sure how much in India. So just waiting for 1050, as i guess this will be best for 900p.
Let's see what GTX 1050ti is offering.

 
Get the 1060 6GB version.

Gears of war 4 1080p ultra settings no AA was using 4.8gb of Vram
Overwatch in 1080p Maxed no AA 3.6 VRAM
Doom 1080p Maxed no AA 4.2 VRAM

So even at 1080 3gb is not enough i can't imagine the amount this games can use in 1440p or future 4k.....

Before i forgot 1060 is on pair of 480. So 1060 will crush a 470 anytime, in the last of the cases get the 1060 3gb ver