1060 6gb vs 290x 4gb

[OpenToSuggestions]

I currently have a 290x 4GB and a friend has offered to swap for a 1060 Palit StormX 6GB. I'd only need to cover postage.

Benchmarks say the cards are neck and neck (1060 ~5% faster), but I cannot seem to overclock my 290x much more. I have a 3440x1440 screen, so 3K gaming.

Seems like a good trade to me as the 1060GB is a newer card with less power draw, plus this particular model overclocks well.
Gaming at 3K the extra ram should help too. Freesync makes my screen flicker so I don't care about losing that.

Rig is: 3rd gen i5 @ 4.4ghz, 16GB 1600Mhz ram.

Any comments from fellow gamers? Is it worth my time swapping for a near identical card?

 

[HangTime]

Seems like a no brainer to me, faster card, more VRAM, less power draw / running costs, and good chance Freesync will work with the new Nvidia drivers. If you had an 8GB card it might be a more interesting comparison.

 

[synixx]

Why has he offered to swap? Seems like a good deal to me!

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

Why has he offered to swap? Seems like a good deal to me!

It was in a PC he was given and he just intends to use it as some form of server or 2nd PC.

 

[TheRealDeal]

Yea that seems like a no brainer to me. If you had the 8gb 290x i would have stuck with the 290x but as the 1060 has 2gb more Vram and comes with other small benefits i would do it.

 

[nashathedog]

It was in a PC he was given and he just intends to use it as some form of server or 2nd PC.

I just looked and the 1060 is a blower card what's your 290x?
I'd still be inclined to swap but if as an example you have a decent aftermarket card & noise is an issue take that into account, As for the chip it's on a newer node so it has several improvements like power draw however the extra 2gb's of ram would be the clincher for me, If it had been an 8gb 290x or 390x I would have stuck with that.

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

I just looked and the 1060 is a blower card what's your 290x?
I'd still be inclined to swap but if as an example you have a decent aftermarket card & noise is an issue take that into account, As for the chip it's on a newer node so it has several improvements like power draw however the extra 2gb's of ram would be the clincher for me, If it had been an 8gb 290x or 390x I would have stuck with that.

The 290x is a tri-x. Doesn't help much with overclocking but it is reasonably quiet.

 

[gublok]

i had a 290x it overheated the whole pc i would not go there again

 

[nashathedog]

The 290x is a tri-x. Doesn't help much with overclocking but it is reasonably quiet.

You may find the 1060's quite loud in comparison to a tri-x, I'm not sure how loud that blower model is under load but it may be why your mate wants to do the swap, If he uses the rig somewhere that noise matters such as in the front room where it might be used as a Home theatre with some light gaming rig the reference 1060 might be annoyingly loud, hence why he's willing to do the swap, it doesn't really make sense that he'd want to swap otherwise.

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

You may find the 1060's quite loud in comparison to a tri-x, I'm not sure how loud that blower model is under load but it may be why your mate wants to do the swap, If he uses the rig somewhere that noise matters such as in the front room where it might be used as a Home theatre with some light gaming rig the reference 1060 might be annoyingly loud, hence why he's willing to do the swap, it doesn't really make sense that he'd want to swap otherwise.

His main PC is way better ....Vega 64 etc. I think he just won't use it so asked if I wanted to swap.

 

[nashathedog]

His main PC is way better ....Vega 64 etc. I think he just won't use it so asked if I wanted to swap.

In that case the balls in your court, If I was you I'd have a mooch around the web to dig some info up on the noise levels of that particular model, Technically a 6gb 1060 is the better card as I said earlier but a blower card will be loud when you're playing games, I had a Vega blower for a few weeks and that was a full on hairdryer while gaming so I sold it on, Yes a 1060's a completely different kettle of fish but it's something you need to consider. Best of luck.