technotes » head to head
GTX 1060 6GB vs. GTX 1
6GB vs. RX 590 8GB
Battle for the best 1080 gaming card.
T
here’s plenty to choose from right now in the world of gaming GPUs. With
Nvidia recently releasing the GeForce GTX 1660 series, choosing a card for
1080p gaming is a challenge. So, we have nailed down the three best 1080p
cards currently available – the new GTX 1660 6GB, the older GTX 1060 6GB, and
AMD’s Radeon R X 590 8GB – and we’re going to break down their pros and cons.Round 1
VALUE
At a first cursory glance, the GeForce
GTX 1060 is the victor here. It’s the
cheapest card of the three, after all,
costing $370 on average, although the
Radeon R X 590, at around $390, is
extremely close. Looking at price-per-
gigabyte, the R X 590 beats out both the
other cards, packing 8GB of GDDR
memory against the 6GB offered by the
other pair. That extra graphical
memory puts the Radeon card in good
stead, too – despite being older, the 590
can hold its own, with performance on
par with the GTX 1660, even at 1440p
ultra settings.
The GTX 1660 might be the newest of
the three GPUs here, but prices have
dropped quickly – you should be able to
snap one up for only a little more than
the GTX 1060, with $380 the going
price at the time of writing. As you
might expect, the GTX 1660 is great
value when it comes to baseline
performance, although the memory
speed isn’t any faster than that of the
R X 590. Given the minimal price
variation, our recommendation for
value has to go to the R X 590. The GTX
1060 is too old to justify its price point,
while the 590 is a solid card that
slightly undercuts the 1660 on cost.WINNER:
RX 590
Round 2
EFFICIENCY
Sorry AMD, but Radeon isn’t winning
this one. The R X 590 is a good card, but
it demands 175W of power without
overclocking; almost a third more than
the 120W required by each GTX card.
The system power draw if you attempt
to properly overclock is nightmarish,
too, the GPU demanding as much as
half of the build’s entire power budget.
Swapping from Nvidia to AMD can
often force a PSU upgrade. It’s not
particularly quiet, either, though this
depends on the specific model you
purchase. It’s worth noting that if you
choose to cool your GPU with liquid,
noise ceases to be a factor, of course.
The GTX 1660 feels like a clear
winner in the efficiency stakes, though.
In terms of what it demands from your
system, it’s near-identical to the 1060,
but it simply pumps out superior
performance, typically running at
around 10–12 percent faster than the
1060, without any significant increase
in noise or running temperature.
Certain versions of the card perform
more efficiently and quietly, too, thanks
to manufacturers’ proprietary fan
technology. That’s not to say the GTX
1060 is a slouch in this department,
though; most models run very quietly
and draw a sensible amount of power –
it simply can’t quite keep up with its
newer descendant.WINNER:
GTX 1660Round 3
OVERCLOCKING
Looking purely at factory boost clocks, the
GTX 1660 powers through here. With a
boost clock of 1,785MHz against a
1,530MHz base clock, it boasts both the
highest maximum speed and the greatest
percentage increase from base to boost out
of all three cards. The R X 590 struggles
with overclocking; even when it was
originally released, it ran on two-year-old
architecture, so it won’t hit any higher
than 1,700MHz, even with some serious
tweaking. This is perhaps unsurprising to
those in the know – the R X 570 and 580
also struggle with overclocking, which
results in high temperatures with
minimal speed gains.
The 1060 can perform almost as well as
the 1660, however, despite its age. It’s
relatively impressive, with a factory
boost clock just barely over 1,700MHz. It
still comfortably beats out the R X 590 –
manual overclocking should easily throw
at least another 100MHz on top, too.
When it comes to memory speed, the
590 performs better, capable of hitting
9GT/s (a similar figure to the 1660). The
1660 simply dominates when you commit
to proper overclocking. If we dive under
the hood, there’s simply greater capacity
to push the limits of the 1660’s hardware.
Maxing out fan speeds and heat limits let
this card crack 2,000MHz – impressive,
given that it still uses GDDR5.