[SOLVED] Upgrading from a GTX 1060 6GB to an RT 5600 XT for 1080p/60fps (Good idea now, or wait?)

Aug 27, 2020
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Hi! I'm sure everyone's tired of threads like this at this point, but I figured I might as well ask. Sorry if I say anything dumb. ^^;

My rig has a GTX 1060 6GB and while it has served me very well for the past four or so years since I got it, I figure it's time for an upgrade, especially since a new generation of games is about to come out. Some of the games I've been meaning to play (like Control, since I am a sucker for Remedy! Aha) are starting to struggle with it, even on low settings. The last game that has truly left me satisfied with it was Doom Eternal, being able to play at a constant 60fps, high settings outside of a few key set pieces where the framerate drops a little. Mortal Shell is another game I'm interested in that runs okay with the 1060, but you'd have to bump down some of the graphics options. Then there's the Crysis Remaster, which, well, would probably bring a 2016 mid-range GPU like that to its knees depending on how it goes lol. Either way, I felt like I should upgrade to a new GPU sooner rather than later, and stay comfortable with it for some good 3 or so years, especially as prices are fluctuating a lot where I live because of the pandemic. Who knows when things will get even more expensive than they already are? That's what I thought.

As for the GPU I'm looking to get, the RX 5600 XT seems perfect for my needs after looking at a ton of benchmarks. I don't really care much for ray tracing because of the performance loss, so the RTX cards just seem like a waste. Still, I know there are new GPUs on the horizon, including from AMD, so I'm not sure if upgrading right now would be ideal. What do you guys think? I don't want to get a beast of a graphics card that will struggle in games after about a year. In a way, I'm afraid of getting buyer's remorse, even if the 5600 XT looks incredible. What do you guys think? It sounds a bit silly, but I'd love to hear from people who know more than I do! I've already 'future-proofed' myself in a way by getting a Ryzen 5 3600 and a new PSU, so the graphics card would be the last of the bunch. Just as the title says, I intend to stick to 1080p/60fps. It's a nice sweet spot for me.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! ^^
 
Solution
Big Navi is still months away though and likely only the bigger cards will come first. So probably Q1 2021 is how long you'll be waiting. If you want to upgrade to the 5600XT it's going to be a decent upgrade. It's a bit better than the GTX 1070 and it's even beating the GTX 1080 in some titles. This GPU is pretty much like a GTX 1080 which is kind of like having your GTX 1060 in sli except better because it's a single card. If you want to wait then wait but don't wait forever. Your GPU seems OK enough to tide you over until Big Navi. But if you can't wait then yeah the 5600 XT does seem like it would be a pretty good upgrade.
Big Navi is still months away though and likely only the bigger cards will come first. So probably Q1 2021 is how long you'll be waiting. If you want to upgrade to the 5600XT it's going to be a decent upgrade. It's a bit better than the GTX 1070 and it's even beating the GTX 1080 in some titles. This GPU is pretty much like a GTX 1080 which is kind of like having your GTX 1060 in sli except better because it's a single card. If you want to wait then wait but don't wait forever. Your GPU seems OK enough to tide you over until Big Navi. But if you can't wait then yeah the 5600 XT does seem like it would be a pretty good upgrade.
 
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Solution
Aug 27, 2020
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Big Navi is still months away though and likely only the bigger cards will come first. So probably Q1 2021 is how long you'll be waiting. If you want to upgrade to the 5600XT it's going to be a decent upgrade. It's a bit better than the GTX 1070 and it's even beating the GTX 1080 in some titles. This GPU is pretty much like a GTX 1080 which is kind of like having your GTX 1060 in sli except better because it's a single card. If you want to wait then wait but don't wait forever. Your GPU seems OK enough to tide you over until Big Navi. But if you can't wait then yeah the 5600 XT does seem like it would be a pretty good upgrade.
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, out of all the current 1080p cards, it seems like the most powerful one, and the best 'bang for your buck'. Looking at the benchmarks for Control and Death Stranding compared to the 1060, it seems to utterly demolish it. I'd get an RT 5700 instead, but unfortunately it's a bit too expensive for me where I live (Brazil).
 
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, out of all the current 1080p cards, it seems like the most powerful one, and the best 'bang for your buck'. Looking at the benchmarks for Control and Death Stranding compared to the 1060, it seems to utterly demolish it. I'd get an RT 5700 instead, but unfortunately it's a bit too expensive for me where I live (Brazil).
Really it's ok as a 1440p card. So it's definitely one of the better ones at 1080p.
 
Aug 27, 2020
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Really it's ok as a 1440p card. So it's definitely one of the better ones at 1080p.
For sure. The benchmarks make this so tempting. Thanks so much. I feel a lot more confident. I may be getting this card within the next month. It does look incredible. I mean, average 130fps on Doom Eternal at Ultra Nightmare settings compared to 1060's average 80 on high. It's like a dream. I've never had a graphics card as good as this. :fearscream:
 
For sure. The benchmarks make this so tempting. Thanks so much. I feel a lot more confident. I may be getting this card within the next month. It does look incredible. I mean, average 130fps on Doom Eternal at Ultra Nightmare settings compared to 1060's average 80 on high. It's like a dream. I've never had a graphics card as good as this. :fearscream:
I have an RTX 2080 super myself. But I play at 4K. I'm going to get the new RTX 3080. I upgrade pretty much every year or 2.
 
For sure. The benchmarks make this so tempting. Thanks so much. I feel a lot more confident. I may be getting this card within the next month. It does look incredible. I mean, average 130fps on Doom Eternal at Ultra Nightmare settings compared to 1060's average 80 on high. It's like a dream. I've never had a graphics card as good as this. :fearscream:
My take on this is, while the upgrade is there, it's not a massive one, and waiting for rtx 3000 (the 3060 or so) that will come late september/early october is a much better buy.
 
My take on this is, while the upgrade is there, it's not a massive one, and waiting for rtx 3000 (the 3060 or so) that will come late september/early october is a much better buy.
Some people upgrade for much less performance gain than that and they enjoy it. While it would probably be a better buy for the RTX 3060 nobody knows when that GPU is coming or the price. I'm thinking it might be next year before RTX 3060 is even out. Maybe we will know on September 1st. I'm thinking RTX 3060 might be = to RTX 2080 Super. Which would be way overkill for 1080p anyway. Maybe the RX 5600 XT will go lower in price soon though. So it would probably be a good idea to at least wait and see what Nvidia says on the 1st. But yeah. November to February is the window I expect to see the RTX 3060. I expect $300 to $400 to be the price. More than likely $400.
 
My take on this is, while the upgrade is there, it's not a massive one, and waiting for rtx 3000 (the 3060 or so) that will come late september/early october is a much better buy.
A 5600 XT tends to be around 60% faster than a 1060 6GB on average (provided performance isn't CPU-limited), so I would say that's a pretty decent upgrade.

As for the 3060, I suspect it should be a decent amount faster still, though if current leaks prove true, it will be priced starting at around $400 in the US, or around 40% higher than a 5600 XT, putting it in a completely different price bracket. It's also rumored to not be coming until around November. There's a good chance that anything new in this price range won't be coming until after the new year. Waiting is of course an option, but unless one is willing to pay more, they might be waiting around 4-6 months.
 
A 5600 XT tends to be around 60% faster than a 1060 6GB on average (provided performance isn't CPU-limited), so I would say that's a pretty decent upgrade.

As for the 3060, I suspect it should be a decent amount faster still, though if current leaks prove true, it will be priced starting at around $400 in the US, or around 40% higher than a 5600 XT, putting it in a completely different price bracket. It's also rumored to not be coming until around November. There's a good chance that anything new in this price range won't be coming until after the new year. Waiting is of course an option, but unless one is willing to pay more, they might be waiting around 4-6 months.
60%? no way.
its more like 35% in most games, and maybe 50 or so in select games.

I know for 1080p a 3060 will be overkill, but i think that for the far future, a 3060 will be much better suited.
while an rx 5600xt will have to be upgraded again, probably the moment he gets a better monitor or decides to play a heavy game. remember that next gen consoles are right around the corner, and it's pretty obvious pc games follow suit, and will make much more demanding games.

Though, if the rtx 3060 is 400$, that's not good pricing, but even so, a 1 generation upgrade to the same tier of gpu, is just not worth it in my opinion.
If that is the case though, any lower tier cards, say a 2660 or something at the 220-280$ price range, replacing the 1660 ti and super, while being as good as a 2060 super or 2070, which both are much better than the rx5600

like, say he gets 1080p 60fps high-very high right now in most games.
he will get 1080p 80fps ultra with the rx 5600xt.
that's not an "experience changing" upgrade.
You'd probably barely feel it.

The 2060 will come out at the latest, in december.
But most probably will come out mid october/early november.
The same way the 2080 and 2070, then 2060 came out.
 
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Big Navi is still months away though and likely only the bigger cards will come first. So probably Q1 2021 is how long you'll be waiting. If you want to upgrade to the 5600XT it's going to be a decent upgrade. It's a bit better than the GTX 1070 and it's even beating the GTX 1080 in some titles. This GPU is pretty much like a GTX 1080 which is kind of like having your GTX 1060 in sli except better because it's a single card. If you want to wait then wait but don't wait forever. Your GPU seems OK enough to tide you over until Big Navi. But if you can't wait then yeah the 5600 XT does seem like it would be a pretty good upgrade.
The reason i don't think this is right, is because you say "tide you over until Big Navi" implying an upgrade when big navi launches.

That's not what op is saying, he is gonna upgrade now and not plan an upgrade in the near future.
 
Aug 27, 2020
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The reason i don't think this is right, is because you say "tide you over until Big Navi" implying an upgrade when big navi launches.

That's not what op is saying, he is gonna upgrade now and not plan an upgrade in the near future.
Well, I mean, to be honest, that will depend on my budget in the next couple months, since I got a mobo/cpu/ram upgrade first. I'm just afraid things will get even more expensive because of the pandemic, but maybe I'm just worrying too much.
 
I'm just afraid things will get even more expensive because of the pandemic, but maybe I'm just worrying too much.
It's hard to say for sure, but I don't think that will be the case. The big reason that prices of certain components rose were because of shipping yards in China getting closed for a month or so, combined with the quarantine causing people to stay home more, and in turn upgrade their PCs for work or entertainment, creating unseasonably high demand that the manufacturers didn't plan for. But by this point, most people buying hardware as a result of the quarantine have likely already done so, and shipments are slowly catching up, even if they're not quite there yet.

Graphics card prices never really seemed to be affected much though, in any case. And if anything, I would expect pricing to get better over the coming months. Even if it takes some time for new cards to get released in this price range, there will likely be at least some trickle-down effect to prices if new cards are getting released in the $400+ range. After all, it would be hard to sell a 5700XT or 2060 SUPER for around $400 if a notably faster card launches for that price, so we could potentially see discounts on those to around the $300 level during "Black Friday" sales if stores are trying to clear their inventory. If you feel your current performance is still "adequate", it could be worth waiting a few months to see what happens.

60%? no way.
its more like 35% in most games, and maybe 50 or so in select games.
The reviews I have seen tend to disagree. Comparing the 5600 XT to a 1060 6GB...

12 game average at TechSpot, 56% faster at 1080p, 62% higher 1% lows...

22 game average at TechPowerUp, 69% faster at 1080p...
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-5600-xt-pulse/27.html

Tom's Hardware didn't include the 1060 in their review, but showed the 5600 XT to be 47% faster on average than a 5500 XT 8GB in the 11 games they tested, while that card is in turn a little faster than a 1060 6GB...
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx_5600_xt/2

Of course, these reviews tend to be testing relatively demanding games at max graphics settings, and you would likely see lower differences in games that are less demanding in the graphics department, and more limited by CPU performance. I'm guessing you might be getting that "35%" number from that nonsensical "EFPS" metric at Userbench though. That's a pretty terrible measurement of graphics card performance, since the small handful of games they test to come to that number are all older and/or esports titles that are not particularly demanding on graphics cards. Even so, they are showing 47-64% performance gains in 3 of the 5 games tested there.

The 2060 will come out at the latest, in december.
But most probably will come out mid october/early november.
The same way the 2080 and 2070, then 2060 came out.
Nope, the 2080 and 2080 Ti came out in late September of 2018, the 2070 in mid October, but the 2060 didn't come out until mid-January, almost 4 months after the first cards. The card that launched in this price range, the 1660 Ti, didn't come out until late February, so more like 5 months. Assuming the 3060 will come out just a month or so after the first cards seems a bit too optimistic. I suppose the 1060 came out just two months after the 1080 though, so a November release might be possible if they follow a schedule more comparable to that series, but again, the 3060 is likely to be in a notably higher price range.
 
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Aug 27, 2020
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It's hard to say for sure, but I don't think that will be the case. The big reason that prices of certain components rose were because of shipping yards in China getting closed for a month or so, combined with the quarantine causing people to stay home more, and in turn upgrade their PCs for work or entertainment, creating unseasonably high demand that the manufacturers didn't plan for. But by this point, most people buying hardware as a result of the quarantine have likely already done so, and shipments are slowly catching up, even if they're not quite there yet.

Graphics card prices never really seemed to be affected much though, in any case. And if anything, I would expect pricing to get better over the coming months. Even if it takes some time for new cards to get released in this price range, there will likely be at least some trickle-down effect to prices if new cards are getting released in the $400+ range. After all, it would be hard to sell a 5700XT or 2060 SUPER for around $400 if a notably faster card launches for that price, so we could potentially see discounts on those to around the $300 level during "Black Friday" sales if stores are trying to clear their inventory. If you feel your current performance is still "adequate", it could be worth waiting a few months to see what happens.
Let's hope you're right. Building a PC in a country with an undervalued economy/currency can be a pain sometimes, aha. :p But at least I didn't notice prices increasing too much over the past 3 months, so maybe things will start to stabilize.
 
Let's hope you're right. Building a PC in a country with an undervalued economy/currency can be a pain sometimes, aha.
Yeah, I'm not quite as sure about what could happen with pricing in Brazil. I know prices of computer hardware there tend to be quite expensive due to high taxes on imported goods though, or least that's how it was some years back. It's possible that prices could take longer to react to new product launches too.
 
It's hard to say for sure, but I don't think that will be the case. The big reason that prices of certain components rose were because of shipping yards in China getting closed for a month or so, combined with the quarantine causing people to stay home more, and in turn upgrade their PCs for work or entertainment, creating unseasonably high demand that the manufacturers didn't plan for. But by this point, most people buying hardware as a result of the quarantine have likely already done so, and shipments are slowly catching up, even if they're not quite there yet.

Graphics card prices never really seemed to be affected much though, in any case. And if anything, I would expect pricing to get better over the coming months. Even if it takes some time for new cards to get released in this price range, there will likely be at least some trickle-down effect to prices if new cards are getting released in the $400+ range. After all, it would be hard to sell a 5700XT or 2060 SUPER for around $400 if a notably faster card launches for that price, so we could potentially see discounts on those to around the $300 level during "Black Friday" sales if stores are trying to clear their inventory. If you feel your current performance is still "adequate", it could be worth waiting a few months to see what happens.


The reviews I have seen tend to disagree. Comparing the 5600 XT to a 1060 6GB...

12 game average at TechSpot, 56% faster at 1080p, 62% higher 1% lows...

22 game average at TechPowerUp, 69% faster at 1080p...
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-5600-xt-pulse/27.html

Tom's Hardware didn't include the 1060 in their review, but showed the 5600 XT to be 47% faster on average than a 5500 XT 8GB in the 11 games they tested, while that card is in turn a little faster than a 1060 6GB...
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx_5600_xt/2

Of course, these reviews tend to be testing relatively demanding games at max graphics settings, and you would likely see lower differences in games that are less demanding in the graphics department, and more limited by CPU performance. I'm guessing you might be getting that "35%" number from that nonsensical "EFPS" metric at Userbench though. That's a pretty terrible measurement of graphics card performance, since the small handful of games they test to come to that number are all older and/or esports titles that are not particularly demanding on graphics cards. Even so, they are showing 47-64% performance gains in 3 of the 5 games tested there.


Nope, the 2080 and 2080 Ti came out in late September of 2018, the 2070 in mid October, but the 2060 didn't come out until mid-January, almost 4 months after the first cards. The card that launched in this price range, the 1660 Ti, didn't come out until late February, so more like 5 months. Assuming the 3060 will come out just a month or so after the first cards seems a bit too optimistic. I suppose the 1060 came out just two months after the 1080 though, so a November release might be possible if they follow a schedule more comparable to that series, but again, the 3060 is likely to be in a notably higher price range.
Okay, i get your point.
Guess i underestimated the 5600xt or overestimated the 1060 6gb.
Though i don't really change my point of: 1060 is good enough for now that you're not having a "bad experience" and waiting a little while longer for a potentially much better product, or a reduction in price for current gen higher end cards.
I upgrade my computer whenever i can, and that sometimes comes around after a year, and sometimes 6 years. so i tend to like waiting a bit more for a potentially much better product.

also, the 3060 FE will be 400$, so we can expect that it will be around 300-320$ from AIB boards.