Amd Radeon Rx 580 Equivalent Nvidia

While high-end graphics cards like the AMD Radeon seven and RTX 2080 Ti capture the lion'due south share of the headlines, most PC gaming is still done at skilful old-fashioned 1080p. Here, yous can spend merely a few hundred bucks on a graphics card to become panel-quality visuals at threescore frames per second, even in some of the about contempo games. Ii of the all-time graphics cards for 1080p gaming are the focus of our commodity today: the AMD Radeon RX 580 and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060.

These ii mainstream GPUs are oft close in terms of price, but which offers better performance? To find out, nosotros'll show you how each of these cards perform in a selection of pop games, including Ghost Recon Wildlands, Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher iii. While 1080p performance volition be the focus, we'll also await at how these cards can handle stretching to 1440p. Before nosotros get into the frame-charge per unit charts, we'll take a brief look at how these two popular cards are unlike in terms of features and pricing. Let's get started.

Thinking about upgrading your gaming PC? Take a await at our recommendations for the all-time graphics cards on the market. Pairing your graphics bill of fare with one of the best gaming monitors is too important, then check out our latest picks!

While benchmarks are helpful, they're not the full story either. Nosotros'll likewise cover how the cards compare in terms of software and hardware features, plus what you lot tin can expect to pay for each of these two cards. Permit's get started!

Sapphire Nitro AMD Radeon RX 580, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

GTX 1060 vs RX 580 features

Before we get into the benchmarks, how do these cards compare in terms of features?

Well, both support the virtually important technologies: DirectX 12 and Vulkan graphics APIs, DisplayPort i.4 and HDMI two.0b monitors and 4K / HDR content. That means you'll be able to play modern games and use recent monitors without worrying about compatibility bug.

As a member of Nvidia'due south Pascal generation, the GTX 1060 comes with a nice option of modernistic features, including support for G-Sync monitors, Ansel game photography, Nvidia Shield streaming, ShadowPlay recording and so on. Nvidia have as well recently added support for FreeSync monitors, assuasive GTX 1060 owners to buy cheaper monitors without giving up variable refresh charge per unit support - and if you're interested, we've recommended the best FreeSync monitors for Nvidia GPUs.

Meanwhile, the RX 580 is part of the Polaris line of graphics cards, which has been since superceded past AMD's later Vega GPUs. Even so, Polaris yet supports helpful features such as FreeSync monitor support, the AMD Link system monitoring mobile app, Eyefinity multi-brandish gaming and more.

Ultimately, it'southward hard to choose a winner here, every bit near features that appear on ane card will appear on the other, often nether a different name. Nvidia may have a few technologies that have yet to exist matched by AMD, such as Ansel, just FreeSync monitors supported past the RX 580 are significantly less expensive than the G-Sync alternatives supported by the GTX 1060 - so if yous're planning on a new gaming monitor to go with your new graphics carte, that should shift things rather radically in AMD'southward favour.

GTX 1060 vs RX 580 prices and models

The GTX 1060 6GB and RX 580 8GB occupy a similar mid-range infinite in the graphics card market, although the ongoing cryptocurrency bubble has meant that prices for both cards are likely to vary. Near of the time, we usually come across the cheapest GTX 1060 6GB models around $210 (£200) and the RX 580 8GB a little lower, ordinarily around $190 (£180). Yous might also option up a gratuitous game or two with your graphics card: At the time of writing, AMD are offering whatever 2 of The Partition two, Resident Evil ii or Devil May Weep 5, while Nvidia are saving their promotions for the newer GTX 1660 and 1660 Ti, giving the overall lead to the AMD bill of fare.

Of course, prices can vary by manufacturer, clock speed, cooling solution, grade factor and a laundry list of other characteristics. Searching for bargains, you lot may find prices substantially below those that nosotros've quoted above - but be aware that y'all may be looking at a cut-down model with half of the usual assortment of VRAM, which works out as 3GB for the GTX 1060 and 4GB for the RX 580. These budget cards are significantly worse in terms of functioning, and then we recommend sticking with the full-fatty models. For an idea as to why, check out our 3GB vs 6GB GTX 1060 comparing. There's even a Chinese-only RX 580 model that ships with fewer compute units, 2048 compared to the standard 2304, which is similarly not worthwhile in our books.

Brands we recommend you look out for (in alphabetical order) include Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI and Zotac. Of grade, this isn't an exhaustive list of manufacturers y'all should trust, and other brands tin produce great cards also.

GTX 1060 vs RX 580 benchmarks

For each benchmark, you'll run across a YouTube video depicting the game in question and a special in-house benchmarking widget. Once you start the video, you can run into in real fourth dimension how each card handles the game. Y'all can select and deselect different benchmarks equally y'all please; y'all might want to run across how the aforementioned card varies betwixt 1080p and 1440p resolution, or see how both cards handle the aforementioned resolution. If you coil down a footling more than, yous can also find a handy graph of the results from the entire run, presented in barchart form. You lot can click on this to bandy between frame-charge per unit and percentage differentials, the latter of which may be more illuminating.

Our tests were conducted with a reference Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and a Sapphire Nitro AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB. It'south worth noting that no reference model exists for the RX 580, and then we went with what was (at the time of testing) the fastest RX 580 available that nosotros're aware of, to the point where stable overclocking only adds another 20MHz to the core (!). That means you should expect slightly worse performance from other RX 580 models that operate at a lower clock speed; your mileage may vary.

Assassin's Creed Unity

We'll start off with Assassin's Creed Unity, which came out dorsum in 2014. The bustling streets of Paris withal testify a adept test for nearly cards, and the results are quite like indeed. The GTX 1060 seems to be a little more stable here, with less frame-rate variance and improve fifth percentile results, although the RX 580 does manage to score a improve outcome on boilerplate for both resolutions nosotros tested at.

AC Unity: Ultra Loftier, FXAA

Ashes of the Singularity

Ashes of the Singularity, a 2016 strategy game, features lots of robotic creations shooting RGB lasers at each other - simply similar the interior of well-nigh PC cases these days. The game includes a handy in-game benchmark targeted past both Nvidia and AMD, but Nvidia tend to fall behind at the final whistle. That's definitely the instance here, with Team Green sitting behind by about four or 5 frames per second on average. Things are a petty better when you expect at the minimum frame-rate measurements, which shows just a 2 frame per 2d lead for AMD at 1080p.

Ashes of the Singularity DX12: Extreme, No AA

Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 features a stunningly chaotic depiction of World War ane combat, both in its trademark multiplayer and the story-based single-role player campaign shown in our benchmark. AMD tend to exercise improve in DirectX 12 benchmarks like this, and combined with the RX 580's factory overclock we become a convincing 10 per cent performance advantage for the RX 580 hither. Note that the frame-time peaks here are quite random, based on the presence or absence of close-range explosions, so don't worry about them too much.

Battlefield i DX12: Ultra, TAA

Crysis 3

Can it run Crysis? Yup, both of these cards tin handle the 2013 release, Crysis 3, at a hearty eighty frames per second at 1080p and fifty frames per second at 1440p. However, running at 4K is out of the question - surprising for a game approaching its sixth birthday, but that's Crysis for you lot. Our usual highly explosive train ride shows very niggling to separate both cards, with the RX 580 coming out just a petty bit alee on average thanks to a few actress dips for the GTX 1080.

Crysis 3: very high, SMAA T2X

The Division

Nvidia's cards sometimes fall behind AMD in DirectX 12 games, and that's exactly what happens in our test of The Division. This 2016 title is playable on the GTX 1060 and averages over 60 frames per 2d at 1080p, just the RX 580 nevertheless commands a sizeable 10 per cent lead in this test. Ultimately though, both cards produce a reasonable result equally long as you're willing to have some cutbacks in terms of graphical fidelity.

The Division DX12: Ultra, TAA

Far Cry Key

Far Weep Primal is a tweener game, sitting between Far Weep 4 and Far Cry 5 and including some technical characteristics of both titles. This championship offers some of the best results for Nvidia cards, with the GTX 1060 claiming an reward at 1080p over the carte from Team Red. However, the 2 GPUs swap places in the more challenging 1440p version of the examination, standing the trend we've seen thus far.

Far Cry Fundamental: Ultra, SMAA

Ghost Recon Wildlands

Ghost Recon Wildlands is mayhap the nigh challenging game in our criterion suite thanks to its extremely demanding ultra preset, but it doesn't seem to favour ane card over the other - then you lot tin can expect very similar results at both resolutions. Nvidia take the 1080p crown by a pilus, possibly thanks to AMD's greater commuter overhead, and AMD return the favour at 1440p where CPU utilisation is less important.

Ghost Recon Wildlands: Ultra, TAA

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Ascent of the Tomb Raider is some other DirectX 12 criterion, and we all know what that means: slightly better performance for AMD in a typical scenario! In one case once again, the trend plays out although the margins are closer than y'all might wait. Expect lower frame-rates merely a similar trend in the newer Tomb Raider title, Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Rising of the Tomb Raider DX12: Very High, SMAA

The Witcher 3

We conclude our benchmark bout with one of the most popular RPGs in recent retentivity, The Witcher 3. Here we see our final win for AMD, every bit the RX 580 manages to outdo the Nvidia GTX 1060 throughout the benchmark at both 1080p and 1440p.

The Witcher three: Ultra, POST-AA, No Hairworks

Wrapping up

And then what do our benchmarks reveal? Well, clearly the RX 580 is the ameliorate card in more of the games that we've tested, with the AMD card coming on top in vii of our nine tests at 1080p, and every time at 1440p. Even so, the GTX 1060 does keep information technology close in most games, usually within two or three frames per second at the lower resolution. Too bear in listen that we are running the fastest RX 580 on the market here in the absenteeism of a reference card.

Given its often lower price compared to the RX 580 unit of measurement we tested, that suggests the GTX 1060 might be the better buy if yous're gaming at 1080p, but if you want to stretch to 1440p, the AMD card is probably worth its extra cost. One thing we should point out is that our exam system is a Core i7 6700K overclocked to four.5GHz on all cores. AMD's driver overhead is significantly college nether DX11, and then some of these results may change if y'all're running an older, or slower processor. We know there'due south even so a lot of vintage Core i5 2500Ks out in that location! On those older systems, Nvidia is the smarter pick.

Withal, the GTX 1060 and RX 580 are so close in nearly titles that it makes information technology hard to definitely recommend i over the other, especially given the contempo variations we've seen in graphics card prices. Therefore, nosotros recommend yous expect at the benchmark results above to see how the cards handle your favourite games, decide which features are the most important to you and check the current toll of each card before committing to either.

At present that you've seen the benchmarks for i menu, why non cheque out see which PC hardware we recommend to our friends and family? Here are the DF picks for the overall best graphics cards and for the best gaming monitors on the market.

We promise this comparing was useful. For further reading, why non take a expect at our reviews of each card via the links below?

See the Digital Foundry RX 580 review
See the Digital Foundry GTX 1060 review

Thank you for checking out the commodity and we'll catch you on the next one.