Maximum PC - USA (2019-07)

BY christian guyton

There’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 kind souls at Maximum PC have nailed down the three best 1080p cards currently

available—the new GTX 1660 6GB, the older GTX 1060 6GB, and AMD’s Radeon RX 590

8GB—and we’re going to throw them into a cage and see which is the last one standing.

What? That’s GPU cruelty? OK, we’ll just break down their pros and cons instead....

GTX 1060 6GB vs. GTX 1660 6GB

vs. RX 590 8GB

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 $200 on average, although

the Radeon RX 590, at around $230, is

extremely close. Looking at price-per-

gigabyte, the RX 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.

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 RX 590. 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 RX 590. Given the minimal

price variation, our recommendation for

value has to go to the RX 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. As an

added bonus, the RX 590 boasts some

excellent game bundles—at the time

of writing, you could get Division 2 and

World War Z for free with the majority of

RX 500 series cards.

Winner: RX 590

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 RX

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 RX 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 RX 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.

Winner: GTX 1660

Efficiency

Sorry AMD, but Radeon ain’t winning

this one. The RX 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–

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 1660

ROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3

quickstart

20 MAXIMUMPC aug 2019 maximumpc.com