What determines if a GPU is High/Mid/Low (RX480/GTX1060)

[solidberserker]

I have been out of the GPU world for a bit, I picked up a HD 7870 when they were new and its getting a little long in the tooth and is sadly dying with failures and what not when it gets taxed too much.

My question is if the RX480 and GTX1060 are able to play current and what looks like future(ish?)games at max settings 60+ fps at 1080p why are they considered Mid to Low? Is it only because they are not "rated" for everything max 1440p/4K?

If you folks don't mind answering another simple one would either of these cards be a noticeable increase in performance over my HD 7870. They are in my price bracket and gaming resolution. Not really shooting for a GTX 1070 or whatever Radeon will have at that bracket.

Thanks in advance as usual Tom's Hardware Community!

 

[jpatrick2]

It's all relative. HD is the new SD - it's just expected now, while 4k is the new 1080p.

The rx 480 will get you 60 fps at 1080p, so if that's what you're looking for, go get it!

 

[why_wolf]

all relative. But in general for tech sites it seems that mid range is any card that can perform 1080p @ 60fps with medium and up settings. High is anything above and beyond that and low is anything under that. Of course the demand that those "medium" settings places on the GPU changes a lot as the years go by as well as peoples expectations for what they considered the "bare minimum".

Of course this is all opinion so one mans mid card is another mans low card.

In answer to your question both cards will be better. The 1060 will probably be best but you'll have to wait for the reviews to know if the price difference between the two is worth it or not.

 

[spdragoo]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1753?vs=1749

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1753?vs=1716

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/778?vs=857

Just an idea of how the cards have progressed (note that for the first 2 comparisons, the 7870 wasn't available, so I added a 7850 vs. 7870 comparison to the mix).

Beyond that, it's pretty much like @jpatrick2 pointed out. 1080p was the upper end of performance when the 7870 came out (with 720p & other resolutions in the middle considered "mainstream"). Nowadays, 720p is considered a "budget" resolution, 1080p is considered "mainstream", 1440p is "high-end", & 4K being the "ultimate" level.

 

[Herobrine]

For nVidia: 1080- 10 is the generation, 8 is the tier aka high end, 0 just to make bigger number (1080>108) (Ti/Titan flagship) GT is weak/low end, GTX is powerful/mid to flagship
For AMD: R9 390X- R7 low to mid end R9 mid-high to high end, 3 generation, X adds some little performance (+100 MHz and 8Gb VRAM +$100 cost) (Fury is flagship). Dunno why AMD went for RX apart from X being Roman for 10.
Tiers from most powerful to least powerful:
-Flagship (R9 Furry)
-High end (1080)
-Mid-high (R9 380)
-Mid range (RX 480)
-Low end (GT 740)
-Entry level (Intel HD)
This doesn't mean that RX 480 is weak. Technology never stops developing. It is mid end compared to 1080 in terms of performance, but flagship in terms of features and improvements compared to R9 Fury. And you cannot directly compare AMD and nVidia. It's like comparing Ford Mustang (AMD. Number crunching beast, but weak in 3D)and Nissan GTR (nVidia. Low compute power, but excels in 3D) /understand number crunch beast/ low compute power as FLOPS and 3D as Polygons/sec and Pixels/sec. Benchmarks are proof/

 

[solidberserker]

Thank you all for the insight on the topic and for a website that seems to be exactly what I was looking for.

 

[burgessanthony]

Herobrine - good overall explanation, but on your list you put 380 above 480 - the 480 handily smashes it in most things. And 1080 is now.really flagship as it outperforms the Titan and 980ti.

Overall a good summary though!

OP- don't worry about that kinda stuff. Pick a resolution and required fps in the games you wanna play, then look at benchmarks. Something like a 480 is ideal, or if you want 1440p I'm the near future then a 1070.