Gadgetory

the GTX 1060 versus our X 480 debate has been one of the most hotly debated topics since both cars were launched this summer the reason for that is simple they're both affordable and cost almost the same we've even done a few tests here on the channel comparing both these cards in titles like Deus Ex and Gears of War 4 but now that the holiday season is upon us gamers might be looking for a solid upgrade on their existing systems to play some of the latest titles nearly 4 months have passed for both these vendors to patch up their drivers and update things in preparation for games like Call of Duty infinite warfare battlefield 1 and titanfall 2 so where does a gtx 1066 gigabyte and the arcs 488 gigabyte line up now welcome to our performance update for them where we'll be putting these cards to a huge battery of tests including more than a dozen of games in dx11 and dx12 at 1080p and 1440p resolutions I won't be touching on overclocking though since Headroom can vary widely from one car to the other this is going to be a big one so before we move on quick message from our sponsor the z9 neo-byzantine budget with a large windowed side panel 5 included fans and the excellent interior layout with super simple cable management get it now link in the description below now you might have noticed we have four cards lined up at the table and there's a reason for that two of these cards are reference base which means there are no factory overclock or custom triple fan cooler design whereas the other two cards are slightly overclocked out of the box for better results and have upgraded heat sinks this should give us a clear representation of the performance gain you can achieve when you decide to spend a few extra dollars so let's start with team GeForce the first one highlighted here is the EVGA gtx 1066 gigabyte gaming that retails for just 250 dollars before rebates while it might not look like that much this is a very important little graphics card unlike the ridiculously priced $300 founders addition we've originally reviewed this card retails for less than in videos baseline 260 dollar cost for the gtx 1066 combined this is a basic gtx 1060 without any significant upgrades and what I like about it is its compact form factor at just six point eight inches in length it also features a single large fan to cool the GP 106 core and I think this would be a perfect fit for micro or even mini ITX build moving on we have the GTX 1060 super clock from EVGA that retails for two hundred and sixty dollars so that's a $10 premium over the basic gaming Edition but the exact same starting price that Nvidia first discussed at launch a few key aspects of this card is that the core clock gets an increase of a hundred megahertz and it features a heavily upgraded but still very compact heating design while this version utilizes the same three plus one phase PWM and PCB as its reference clock sibling that's where the similarity is pretty much end the super clock variant features an extensive heatsink design with a copper core integrated heat pipes and an extensive fin array whereas the standard model that has a very simple anodized aluminum setup this should theoretically yield better temperatures and even provide additional Headroom for overclocking now on to team red and the start of the side has to be the reference based arcs for 80 because it still serves as the backbone of AMD's current GPU lineup while the blower style cooler received some critique at launch AMD's driver team has been fine-tuning this card on the software side so the performance is now more balanced and the power consumption remains within its specs I also have to point out that finding in arcs 488 gigabyte GPU at its 240 dollar launch price is a bit challenging as most reference based models float around the $250 mark before rebates just like several of the GTX 10 60s like EVGA is gaming sapphires arcs 488 gigabyte nitro plastics thanks to the next level priced at $270 which is a $30 premium over the reference launch price it is the most expensive among all these cards but it packs a ton of features the core clock speed reaches up to 13 42 megahertz you get a heavily upgraded PCB RGB LEDs that can be controlled through the Trix software suite quick disconnect fans that can be easily swapped out in a highly efficient cooling system that's a lot for an extra $30 you also get a backplate with this card and while I'm not a fan of the design some of you might like this transformer themed there's a small cutout in the back plate where you'll be able to locate a red button this button acts as a hardware based control for the LEDs and it's bordered by a small v bios switch what I found interesting here is that sapphire included two biases within this card one of which is a more efficient and quite a preset while the other setting houses a high performance mode which ensures that 13 42 megahertz core frequency can be achieved more often oddly enough the location of the power input connector is on the rear edge and while that might not affect installation on most mid tower cases it can limit Nitro+ s compatibility with smaller and more compact chances so without any further delay let's roll out the benchmarks to see if team red or team green offers the best bang for your buck starting with 1080p in dx11 the super clock 1060 and the Nitro+ arcs 480 we're playing a cat-and-mouse game fighting for the lead so if I were to put it in simple terms it really boils down to what titles the users are interested in one interesting thing is how well the arcs 480 cards do in many of the newer games for example in titanfall 2 and NVIDIA game works tattle and Call of Duty infinite warfare see AMD cards far out front while NVIDIA does very well in battlefield 1 and some other titles switching to 1440p index 11 and these are the results we see the same trend with the GTX 1060 superclocked and the Sapphire arcs 480 Nitro+ fighting for that lead but things are even closer here with the cards pretty much time meanwhile the reference cards fight back and forth and it's almost impossible to determine a winner AMD seems to have really closed the gap let's see how this translates into some very basic numbers as you can see while the reference arcs for 80 was pretty far behind back in July it has now almost completely closed the gap with the reference gtx 1060 it really does look like AMD has been improving on the drivers with their new architecture and more importantly in new games this card does very well indeed now onto DX 12 here the Sapphire arcs for 18 Nitro+ took the lead and pretty much every one of the titles outperforming the super clock gtx 1060 over and over again even the reference based arcs for 80 did surprisingly well taking second place in front and even the super clock card while the reference gtx 1060 tended to take up the rear and videos cards don't seem to like Microsoft's new api that trend continues to an even greater extent as the resolution increases and here we are in DX 12 at the high resolution of 1440 P and there's no doubt about these winners being the two AMD cards but did AMD really increase their lead in DirectX 12 so here you have it and this chart put things into perspective while the arcs for a tea has been able to narrow the gap with Nvidia's GTX 1060 in dx11 it is also able to further expand its lead into x12 there's absolutely no denying the potential of AMD's architecture as more titles move towards this new API whoo sorry for the chart heavy video guys but this one needed to be done the results really do speak for themselves as AMD has made some serious inroads towards improving the arts for ATS performance against the GTX 1060 even though it's extremely hard to find an RX 480 for $240 right now even at $250 I feel like it is now the winner from a pure budget-friendly perspective AMD has been able to message its performance to the point where it completely rights against GTX 1060 in t x11 and tends to dominate when dx12 is factored into the equation but what bothers me the most is trying to find the card at its initial launch price if you find this card for $240 I would blindly pull the trigger no questions asked now if you're willing to spend an extra $30 to get better results along with features like RGB lighting and a custom heatsink the Sapphire are X 480 Nitro+ will not disappoint the GTX 1060 and particularly EB J's well-priced super clock card on the other hand is highly competitive and I think it would be a good choice for titles like overwatch doom OpenGL and battlefield one in DX 11 three of this season's most playing online games and so that concludes our performance update between the gtx 1060 and the arcs 480 boy this has come a long way and the results sure took an interesting turn since the last time we looked at them back in July let us know your thoughts about this comparison and which one of these cards would you actually pick looking forward to your responses I mean bar with hurricane axe thank you so much watching and we'll see you in the next one