RX 580 vs GTX 1060

The battle between the Radeon RX 580 and the GeForce GTX 1060 is a longstanding one and, if you’ve clicked on this article, chances are you’re interested in purchasing one of them.

AMD and Nvidia have been going head to head for years, and the Radeon RX 580 and GeForce GTX 1060 are shining examples of this rivalry, with both cards competing in both price and performance.

If you’re a dedicated gamer, you might be wondering which one is better for you. That’s where we come in! Here at WePC, we’re going to be taking a look at the differences between these two cards to help you make a choice on which one might be better suited to your needs.

MSI ARMOR 8GB OC RX 580

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MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

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As these two cards are made by different companies, they both feature a different architecture. First, we’re going to take a look at the GTX 1060. It has been made with Nvidia’s tried and true Pascal architecture which, at the time of release, promised up to 3x faster overall performance over older generation GPUs. The Pascal GPU architecture is able to support next-generation virtual reality gaming, as well as immersive effects and sounds.

Plus, to deliver optimum power efficiency, the GTX 1060 features a FinFET and DirectX 12 that will be able to ensure a smooth and fast gaming experience alongside the GDDR5X VRAM.

As for the RX 580, it is based on AMD’s Polaris architecture and features a 14nm FinFET process technology, which is able to ensure that the RX 580 offers a lower power consumption level (150mV) than that of older-generation cards, for a more smooth and fast operation.

The resolution refers to the card’s ability to effectively render numerous amounts of pixels to the screen every second, in order to create a clear image. All graphics are made up of pixels, so if you were to zoom into your screen, you would see that it’s just a bunch of pixels, or ‘squares’.

By taking a look at the two card’s pixel rates, we can see that the AMD Radeon RX 580 has a pixel rate of 42.9 Gpixel/s, while the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 has a pixel rate of 72.3 GPixel/s. This means that, out of the two, the GTX 1060 will be able to render a higher screen resolution while gaming in full HD, or even while editing videos.

Thanks to an upgraded architecture, the Radeon RX 580 features a much more efficient cooling system than the older RX 480. In order to deliver a more efficient gaming experience, the 580 features an upgraded thermal system, as well as an increased clock speed of 10%.

As for the GTX 1060, it has been built with premium materials that will be able to keep the hardware running cooler, as well as improved thermals that will help to keep this GPU from overheating, even under the most intense of gaming workloads.

The last thing you want to do is purchase a card and then discover that it’s the wrong size! The GeForce GTX 1060 features a PCI-Express 3.0×16 interface, and measures 250 mm in length and 111 mm in width. It also features a dual-slot cooling solution.

In contrast, the Radeon RX 580 utilizes a PCI-Express 3.0×16 interface and is 241 mm in length. Just like the GeForce GTX 1060, it also features a dual-slot cooling solution.

Ray tracing is the ability to emulate light and shadows effects within a game to create a more immersive and realistic experience. Unfortunately, neither cards have the correct hardware needed to enable ray-tracing, particularly within games of today.

This might not be such a big issue, especially as there is currently a lack of ray-tracing support games on the market. However, if ray-tracing capabilities are a priority for you, then we recommend considering a card with the correct hardware needed, such as one from Nvidia’s RTX-series.

MSI ARMOR 8GB OC RX 580

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MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

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Nvidia has given the GTX 1060 a 192-bit interface with 8gbps GDDR5 memory modules. Thanks to that, the GTX 1060 offers a total of 192GB/s of bandwidth. This memory set-up limits the GTX 1060 to 6GB of VRAM, which means that it is better suited to 1080p and 1440p gaming.

In contrast, the RX 580 has been built on the same core as the RX 480 and consists of 2304 GPU cores, 144 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 32 render outputs. This makes it a pretty powerful GPU, with 256GBps of memory bandwidth, and a full 8GB of RAM. This means it is a card well-suited to handling all 1080p and 1440p gaming, as well as 4K.

However, as far as overclocking goes, the GTX 1060 pulls ahead effortlessly, so much so that it has built a reputation for being a great overclocker. With a 1,506MHz GPU base clock and a 1,809MHz boost clock Nvidia state that it can be overclocked easily up to 2GHz, which means that you can gain up to15% additional performance. This contrasts against the RX 580’s base clock of 1366MHz, which offers a moderate overclocking ability, and also means you’ll have to keep temperatures below 85 degrees celsius.

All in all, it’s pretty hard to decide on a winner. Both the GTX 1060 and the RX 580 fall within a mid-range category and are able to offer a steady and smooth gaming performance across all 1440p and 1080p gaming. However, we feel that it is the GTX 1060 that takes the gold medal. It can be easily overclocked, offers a silky-smooth performance, and also happens to be the most affordable.