Vega 56 vs 1070

In this comparison article, we put the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 against the Nvidia GeForce 1070 to discover which one is best.

WePC Vega 56 VS GTX 1070 template
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Whether you want to expand your PC-build, or you’re an avid gamer looking to purchase a new graphics card, you might be wondering which is best for your needs, especially with so much choice on the market.

Regardless of your reason, choosing the right graphics card is a vital part of your PC set-up, and will greatly determine how well you can expect your computer to run games, handle image rendering and even stream videos.

This is where we come in. If you need a helping hand making the right choice for you, today we’re going to be putting the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 against the Nvidia GeForce 1070, which are two longstanding bestsellers within the gaming industry.

From architecture to cooling, dimensions to resolution, we’ll be covering a variety of specifications to not only decide which is offers the best performance but to help you make a choice as to which is best for your specific needs. Let’s begin!

Architecture

To begin, the first specification that we’re going to be taking a look at is architecture, which essentially refers to the type of hardware a card has been based on. The architecture is an important specification to compare, as it helps to indicate to us the overall performance of the card.

The GTX 1070 is based on Nvidia’s Pascal architecture, as part of their 10-series range. As a successor to Maxwell microarchitecture, Pascal architecture is able to offer up to 3x faster performance than older generation cards, an example being the GeForce GTX 970. In addition, despite the fact that Pascal does lack necessary features geared towards supporting latest-generation games, such as ray-trace enabling, it is still deemed as being a fantastic gaming card for 1080p gaming.

In contrast, the AMD Radeon RX 560 has been made using AMD’s 4th generation GCN architecture. It has been optimized using Samsung’s 14nm FinFET process, meaning that the 560 is suitable for supporting higher GPU clock speeds. This means that, just like the GTX 1070, it is well-suited for 1080p gaming.

Resolution

Now that you know about the architecture of each card, you may be wondering how that actually translates to the performance of both. This is where the resolution comes into play.

On average, you can expect the AMD Radeon RX 560 to hit around 22fps at a resolution of 1440p, and around 12fps at 4K, which means that this card will struggle to render and run the latest-generation games. At 1080p, you can expect a decent performance of around 60fps, though it should go without saying that this isn’t the card to purchase if you’re on the hunt for the best future-proof find.

This brings us to the Nvidia GeForce 1070, which offers similar performance to the RX 560. At 1080p gaming, the GeForce 1070 will be able to offer you a performance of around 60fps. However, just like the RX 560, it will begin to show its age on anything higher than that, especially if running the latest-generation games.

Dimensions

Besides performance, another important factor to consider when selecting a graphics card is the dimensions, as this will help you to understand whether or not the card will be compatible with your current gaming/PC set-up.

The GTX 1070 will connect to the rest of the system using a PCI-Express 3.0×16 interface, and its dimensions are 267mm x 112mm x 40mm. In contrast, the RX 560 is 170mm in length and will connect to the rest of the system via a 3.0×8 interface.

Cooling

Another important element we’re going to be taking into consideration is the cooling features of each card. When selecting a graphics card, the cooling features are important as it helps to indicate how well the card will be able to keep itself cool, how well it can withstand being overclocked, and whether or not you’ll need to purchase an additional cooling system.

Firstly, the AMD Radeon RX 560 consists of a durable, aluminum body and a heatsink that will both work together to lower the chances of overheating. In addition to that, it also features a single rotor blade fan, including two continuous casting aluminum fins, which offer an extra level of cooling. As for the GTX 1070, it features an aluminum casing that will help to keep the card cool, while its single-fan system will maintain a steady airflow.

The only downside to both cards in this area is that each card tends to run quite loudly, which may be an issue if you prefer a quieter operation.

Ray Tracing

Unfortunately, neither the Radeon RX 560 nor 1050 feature the necessary hardware needed to be able to properly support ray-tracing. Interestingly, Nvidia actually released a driver update that was intended to make GTX cards suitable for ray-tracing, although the GTX 1050 and the 1050 Ti were the only two GPUs incompatible with the driver update.

Therefore, if ray-tracing is important to you, you should consider upgrading to a newer GTX or RTX card from Nvidia’s 10 and 20 series cards.

VRAM

VRAM, which also stands for video memory, basically refers to the amount of graphics power you can expect the card to deliver. In a nutshell, it is a type of memory store that is able to hold data for short-term periods of time and essentially acts as a buffer between the CPU and the video card.

There isn’t too much comparing or contrasting to do in this specification, as both the GeForce 1050 and the RX 560 contain a 4GB GDDR5 video memory. Though this type of memory is somewhat outdated to GDDR6 memory, it is still widely considered to be powerful enough for latest-gen games.

Final Words

All in all, it’s difficult to pick a winner as both offer similar performances, not to mention that both were released around the same time, which is now over three years ago. However, if we had to pick a winner, we’d select the Nvidia GeForce 1070 as not only is it slightly faster than the Radeon RX Vega 56, but it also offers better power efficiency. The Radeon RX Vega is very power-hungry and will require an additional cooling-system in order to prevent it from overheating, which means that it also offers the least value for money.