Radeon RX 580 vs. GeForce GTX 1060: Which Was the Better Investment?

Today we've revisiting the age old battle between the Radeon RX 580 and GeForce GTX 1060, though this battle really began for AMD with the Radeon RX 480. This GPU was released in June 2022, most 4 years agone which is crazy in GPU years and more so considering this part is technically still on auction today and is sold in fairly big quantities.

The Radeon RX 480 was originally intended to do battle with Nvidia'southward upcoming Pascal-based GTX 1060, released only a month afterward. At the fourth dimension, the 8GB RX 480 was priced at $240 and the GTX 1060 6GB was sold for $250. 3 months after release we compared the ii, head to head in 22 games and plant on average that the GeForce GPU was half dozen% faster. We noted then that in more contempo titles, based on mod DX12 and Vulkan APIs, the RX 480 was almost always faster. One-half a dozen of the titles tested supported a modernistic API and when comparison the data from those select titles, the GTX 1060 6GB was really 5% slower on boilerplate. It seemed like over time, the Radeon RX 480 would end up being the faster production, while the GTX 1060 was more efficient and therefore AIB models generally ran libation and quieter.

We've revisited the aforementioned comparing a few times over the years. In 2022, AMD released new drivers claiming big performance upgrades and with 19 games tested in total we found the GTX 1060 6GB was now merely one% faster on boilerplate.

A year after launching the RX 480, AMD refreshed it as the RX 580 with a mild overclock and a price cut. To combat this Nvidia released a 9 Gbps memory version of the GTX 1060 which improved memory bandwidth by xiii% over the standard eight Gbps models. That sounded reasonably substantial, but without increasing the core clock frequency this change had little impact on performance.

By mid 2022 on a 27 game benchmark, the Radeon RX 580 was already 3% faster than the GTX 1060 9Gbps model. The tables had turned yous could say, though it was fair to say operation was a match betwixt the 2 and the ultimate selection came downwards to which games you lot played the most. A yr afterwards in 2022 we revisited this boxing once again with 25 games, many of them new and previously untested for this comparison. This fourth dimension the GTX 1060 was found to exist on peak past a marginal three% faster on boilerplate result.

Then the nigh contempo update was published in 2022 with our biggest sample of games all the same at 36. This time the RX 580 was around iii% faster than the GTX 1060. What'south perhaps about surprising, the RX 580 is still on sale and remains one of the best value sub-$200 graphics bill of fare on the market. Easily chirapsia out the newer 5500 XT and matching the GTX 1650 Super. It'due south possible to buy an 8GB RX 580 for equally little as $160 and that makes this ancient GPU better value than most of the latest offerings.

Today'south comparisong is a big 32 game benchmark, every bit usual we'll go over the results for near a dozen of the newer titles and then we'll check out some head to head comparisons with all games in a few performance breakdown graphs. Our test rig consisted of a Core i9-9900K clocked at five GHz with 32GB of DDR4-3400 memory. Representing the dark-green squad is the Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1060 6G 9Gbps and for the red team the Gigabyte Aorus RX 580 XTR 8G. The latest bachelor display drivers at the time of testing nosotros're used and all results accept been updated. Let'southward get to the expert stuff…

Benchmarks

First up we accept Rainbow Half-dozen Siege using its new Vulkan implementation. Previously using DX11, the RX 580 was effectually 15% faster than the GTX 1060. Withal, we're at present looking at around twice that margin every bit the RX 580 was 27% faster at 1080p and 30% faster at 1440p.

Conspicuously Nvidia hasn't bothered to optimize their drivers for Pascal GPUs using the newer API in this title.

World War Z is another championship that makes use of Vulkan and hither the RX 580 is seen to be 23% faster at 1080p and 27% faster at 1440p, so another massive win for the red team.

Resident Evil two is notwithstanding some other championship that makes use of a depression-level API and here the RX 580 comfortably beats the 1060 by a 23% margin at 1080p and a 24% margin at 1440p.

Scarlet Dead Redemption 2 requires at to the lowest degree 8GB of VRAM when using high quality settings and equally a consequence, we see rather poor 1% low performance from the GTX 1060 due to its 6GB buffer.

And then while the RX 580 was eighteen% faster when comparing boilerplate frame rate performance at 1080p, it was a whopping 77% faster when comparing the 1% low information, and more crucially, didn't suffer from frame stuttering.

Apex Legends uses a modified version of Valve'south Source engine and we had previously found the RX 580 to take a large operation reward in this title. Even so, after the about recent update performance has swung effectually in Nvidia's favor, and for now at least, the GTX 1060 is upward to 12% faster.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds uses the Unreal Engine four which is optimized for Nvidia hardware and every bit such the GTX 1060 beats the RX 580 past a handy margin in this title, offering fourteen% more than frames at 1080p and x% more at 1440p.

Interestingly, although Fortnite also uses the Unreal Engine iv, AMD has been able to optimize the RX 580 for better performance. We know AMD was focused for a while on improving functioning for this super popular championship, and it seems they've done merely that every bit the RX 580 was faster at both tested resolutions by up to a 12% margin.

Performance in Assassin'due south Creed Odyssey is cervix and neck, no real winner here.

Interestingly despite beingness an Nvidia sponsored title, Metro Exodus plays much better on the RX 580, though it does also utilize the DX12 API. Here the Radeon GPU was 23% faster at 1080p and 21% faster at 1440p.

Performance in the newly released Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Society is very similar and this is a DirectX 11 title using the highly popular Unreal Engine.

Last year when testing F1 2022 the RX 580 and GTX 1060 were ever so close. However, this latest version, F1 2022 makes use of DX12 and here the Radeon GPU has a huge operation reward that sees it deliver 21% more frames at 1080p and 23% more than at 1440p.

Performance in Phone call of Duty: Modernistic Warfare is fairly even, though the RX 580 was 6% faster at 1080p and 9% faster at 1440p. Not a huge difference, though yous will notice the performance boost at 1440p in particular.

Operation Breakup

The Radeon RX 580 looked somewhat dominant in that 12 game sample, but we tested many more than games...

Let's see how the 580 and 1060 stack up beyond 32 new and pop titles.

At 1080p the RX 580 was 5% faster on average and looking at the results overall, you lot have a much better chance of receiving an extra 10% or more performance with the Radeon GPU in modern titles. Many of the newly released titles where the RX 580 didn't await so great use the Unreal Engine such as The Outer Worlds and PUBG, for example.

Of the 32 games tested, 10 of them saw margins within 5%, which nosotros'd consider a tie. At that place were xvi games where the RX 580 was faster past a vi% margin or greater and only half dozen games where it was slower by a 6% margin or greater. The RX 580 is conspicuously the more than consistent performer in 2022.

The margins abound in AMD's favor at 1440p. Hither the RX 580 was 8% faster on average, information technology'south biggest win over the GTX 1060 since this boxing started. It would seem as though the extra 2GB of VRAM is now coming into play and nosotros certainly saw this in titles such as Ruddy Dead Redemption two, for example.

Long Term Bets

Roughly four years after putting together our first big benchmark comparison between these two GPUs, information technology seems many of our original thoughts were accurate. We suspected that due to the strong initial low-level API performance of the RX 480, the Radeon would eventually end up becoming the superior GPU. We didn't recommend ownership the RX 480 on that hunch alone though, as it was impossible to know just how long information technology would be before the superior DX12 and Vulkan performance would pay off.

While the RX 580 has clearly aged better, the GTX 1060 6GB hasn't turned out to be a poor choice after all these years either. Electric current owners of the GTX 1060 6GB may still exist content near their investment. In some titles the RX 580 delivers in excess of 20% more frames, only overall functioning is all the same good. For the most part the 6GB frame buffer is fine and yous can easily work around that limitation.

Had you planned to go on the Radeon RX 480 for many years, and so the meliorate depression-level API support would accept been a major consideration, but if y'all upgrade every 2 or 3 years, then probably not as much. Since the RX 480 was released and and then refreshed as the RX 580, there'southward been no obvious alternative in the $180 to $250 price range.

Nvidia'south attempt with the GTX 1660 a year agone was welcome, simply offering but fifteen% more than performance didn't brand the $220 upgrade worth it, plus AMD kept cut RX 580'due south prices in retaliation.

Correct now, for $160-$180, Radeon RX 580 graphics cards offering expert value merely for the same toll we'd adopt the newer GeForce GTX 1650 Super. Both GPUs are by and large matched on functioning, with the GeForce getting the upper hand on efficiency and thermals.

If you want to spend over $200 on a new graphics card today, get with the $230 GeForce GTX 1660 Super which offers ~30% more functioning, or $300 on a GeForce RTX 2060 for a little over fifty% more performance.