2016 GPUs 1070/1080 and 480/490

[caLLous]

One thing that is missing from the GeForce GTX 1060 card? SLI bridge connection. There are none and the reason is simple: NVIDIA tells us that SLI is not going to be supported on the GeForce GTX 1060. Rumors have swirled since pictures first leaked that this meant NVIDIA was moving to a PCI Express based data transfer technology for the GTX 1060, similar to what AMD does with CrossFire on its entire lineup. That’s not the case, and would be crazy after the big push for a new SLI Bridge that NVIDIA made with the GTX 1080 launch. The GTX 1060, and we assume any future cards in this class, are not going to support multi-GPU technology.

The decision is kind of astounding to me, really. NVIDIA launched Pascal pushing 2-GPU SLI strongly and eventually ended up cutting out all higher count SLI configurations completely, in order to preserve the consumer experience of 2-Way SLI. Cutting out GTX 1060 owners from SLI because “that market doesn’t really utilize SLI” is just an excuse, not a reason. There is no substantial cost benefit to cutting validation testing for the GTX 1060 if you are continuing to run it for GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. There are plenty of consumers that love the idea of buying a ~$250 graphics card today and adding another down the line, potentially to scale to the performance of one of NVIDIA’s larger, more expensive graphics card. Even worse, you can actually see indentations and spacing on the PCB where SLI connections would have been inserted!

 

[Raven]

Its probably down to the fact that they will be placing the 1060 against the 480 with a similar price point. In SLI they will be comparable to a 1080 for 2 thirds of the cost.

 

[caLLous]

Sooo calling the RX at tree-fiddy eurobucks. What say you callbacon?

Sapphire Radeon RX 480, 8192 MB GDDR5

 

[TdC]

Well colour me impressed!

 

[caLLous]

Hmm, it was € 234.90 when I posted the link, it's € 269 now.

 

[TdC]

dynamic pricing based on internet views? Gaffer would have a commerce-gasm

 

[Raven]

I blame Brexit.

 

[caLLous]

dynamic pricing based on internet views? Gaffer would have a commerce-gasm

Mmm well it was linked on reddit so either they made a whoopsee and corrected it when they saw the high traffic (€ 234.90 is *very* cheap for the 8 GB and it didn't say "OMFG SPECIAL OFFER" or anything) or it's like you say.

 

[BloodOmen]

Crossfire turned out to be less of a faf on than I thought.

 

[caLLous]

There's a new patch for Rise of the Tomb Raider which enables SLI/Crossfire as well as Async compute (which is of much more use with AMD cards). You still get the occasional minimum framerate issues with SLI/CrossfireX but overall the pros outweigh the cons for me. You might have to wait a few days for a proper CrossfireX profile from AMD but their drivers are orders of magnitude better than they used to be (there's already a driver - 16.7.2 - out to sort out the RX 480 PCI-E power draw issue).

 

[old.user4556]

Hmmmm, that 1060.

 

[ECA]

Hmmmm, that 1060.

Its wank, more expensive and worse performance than the 480.

 

[old.user4556]

Its wank, more expensive and worse performance than the 480.

Can you post some sources please, want to make an informed decision and there's a bit of conflict. Found this on reddit which has a TL;DR. It shows the 1060 overall slightly favourable.

GTX 1060 vs. RX 480 • /r/buildapc

 

[Moriath]

Think it depends what res you want to run.

 

[ECA]

Basically the 480 is 10-15% cheaper, and holds close at 1080p/dx11, and pulls ahead in when you either go higher res or dx12.
More multiplatform titles are coming out that are DX12, and amd cards typically see a 10-15% improvement in performance over their lifespan - nvidia just optimise per new big game.

If you buy now I'd still say the 480 is better and the longer into the lifecycle we go the better it'll do.

 

[caLLous]

The reviews were largely a shower of pro-Nvidia shit as well, testing games that perform well on Nvidia cards and not testing where AMD cards do well (Doom running under Vulkan vs OpenGL for instance and inexplicably testing DX11 versions of games when DX12 is supported but doesn't fair so well on Nvidia cards). The RX 480 will improve throughout it's lifespan (as all AMD cards do), with driver updates and as more and more DX12/Vulkan games come out. Xbox support for DX12 is a massive incentive for devs to use it over DX11.

AdoredTV is a great Youtube channel for unbiased information about GPU stuff, and he speaks a language that @Big G can understand.

 

[ECA]

One of the worst things I saw with the 1060 reviews was BF1/Doom comparisons but only in DX11 lol.

 

[Wij]

Yeh but where's their 1080 killer at the moment?

 

[old.user4556]

Yeh but where's their 1080 killer at the moment?

Bro, do you even £600?

 

[Raven]

They aren't releasing a 1080 beater and are instead aiming at the budget market. I think this gen that's actually sensible.

 

[BloodOmen]

Can't see a 1060 beating a 480 on Battlefield of all things as Battlefield games are generally optimized for AMD hardware.

 

[old.user4556]

The reviews were largely a shower of pro-Nvidia shit as well, testing games that perform well on Nvidia cards and not testing where AMD cards do well (Doom running under Vulkan vs OpenGL for instance and inexplicably testing DX11 versions of games when DX12 is supported but doesn't fair so well on Nvidia cards). The RX 480 will improve throughout it's lifespan (as all AMD cards do), with driver updates and as more and more DX12/Vulkan games come out. Xbox support for DX12 is a massive incentive for devs to use it over DX11.

AdoredTV is a great Youtube channel for unbiased information about GPU stuff, and he speaks a language that @Big G can understand.

Excellent vid, thanks Cal, that clears a lot up. RX 480 it is, hard to argue with £230 which'll see me through another 4 years. Incredible value.

He sounds like Nicola Sturgeon's love child.

 

[Raven]

I very much doubt it will see you through 4 years, its basically top end last gen.

 

[old.user4556]

Remember I'm on a GTX 660 which I've had for a few years at least . I'm not a huge gamer but I do want to be able to play today's games / VR for at least a couple of years.

 

[Raven]

Yeah, it should be fine for 1080, all depends on your monitor plans.

 

[old.user4556]

Yeah, it should be fine for 1080, all depends on your monitor plans.

It all works out nicely, looking at a Dell 31" 4K monitor for Lightroom but run at 1080p for games. There's a post somewhere on this thread that shows that 4k scales down to 1080p nicely being an exact scale.

 

[Raven]

Yeah it will do that fine.

 

[Wij]

Bro, do you even £600?

I did have when I bought a 1080

(still not arrived though )

 

[caLLous]

I did have when I bought a 1080

(still not arrived though )

Luckily it wasn't a paper launch!

 

[old.user4556]

Any reason not to press the button on this right now?

Asus Radeon RX 480 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

I know it's slightly more expensive, but since I've bought Asus motherboard and graphics cards, I've never had an issue.