Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition Review

Conclusion

Pricing for the RX 480 depends on the SKU you're looking at: we've found custom 4GB versions for £210, while reference 8GB cards start at around £220, which increases to £250 for 8GB cards with custom coolers. All things considered, then, the GTX 1060 with a starting price of £239 is certainly price competitive.


In terms of performance, the two cards are very close. AMD does seem to have an advantage in DirectX 12 titles, but differences are rarely that big either way. Nvidia's card is clearly the more efficient of the two, and with its SMP hardware it's perhaps better suited to VR as well. Neither card seems to have a particular advantage when it comes to raw overclocking potential, although the efficiency of Nvidia's card we'd say gives it the edge here again. Ultimately, both cards are solid options for high fps 1080p play and smooth 1440p play, as long as you can live with 'High' instead of 'Ultra' settings.

Ultimately, we don't think there's a clear winner between the two, and your purchase decision will thus likely come down to the features, performance and pricing of specific SKUs. AMD definitely needs to work on its availability, but the 4GB variant of the RX 480 looks like the current best buy from a pure value perspective. That said, SKUs with lower amounts of memory tend not to age as well as those with higher amounts – the RX 480 4GB only drops a few fps here and there compared to the 8GB, but the difference could easily widen as games become more advanced in the coming years.


With its performance and pricing where it is, the GTX 1060 is a worthy competitor to the RX 480, but it's by no means a knock-out blow. It does enough to earn our Recommended award, and is definitely the card to go for if efficiency is a priority, but we should say that this award applies to the vanilla GTX 1060 rather than the Founders Edition. At £279, this is a tougher card to recommend – the premium finish is certainly welcome, but the always-on cooler, average noise levels and the fact that its bang per buck is lowered means it will be well worth shopping around to see what Nvidia's partners have to offer over it.

We'll use our final words to say that while it's nice to finally have next-gen offerings from both sides in the all-important mid-range market, we're still very keen to see what will be offered at sub-£200 price points, as this is an area that has felt neglected for quite some time.