GTX 1060

[chaparral]

It is hilarious, especially when there's £650 reference cards out there that throttle because the cooling is so cheap.

The reference cooler is designed to work in as many PC cases as possible...

Not everyone owns a PC case that has the space and airflow that is needed for a AIB type cooler..

 

[Darujhistan]

look at it from another point of view, when you are on OpenGL NVidia cards do a lot a better. On Vulkan, which is supposed to still be heavily optimised for AMD cards, Nvidia ones still do better.

In terms of quality, you see people talking about their plastic or cheap screws. You see the RX 480 which looks anything but quality with noisy fan and running really hot. Then you get the ... oh look but I can run 2 x 480 or 2 x or 3 x whatever and I can do better than GTX 1080. This is of course when everyone says that neither SLI not Xfire are actually a good idea, let's not even discuss how the price now becomes £500 just to buy 2 cards which may or may not work in every game.

No worries though, next year or year after we will be amazed with some new stuff which will more than likely give 1070 a run for it's money. Unfortunately, by then, Nvidia will have 1080 TI out and the cycle will repeat itself again.

I've said it many times I cannot wait for AMD to release something amazing, it's just every year they disappoint ... again and again.

It depends where you're looking at for cards, the best ones i've ever bought were both AMD - in terms of bang for buck, cooling and noise, the 7850 and my current card, always bought NV prior to that. Clearly at 1080p the top end doesn't interest me as a purchase, so whether AMD produce a better top end card doesn't matter to me either.

I'm also not bothered who wins at the top end unlike the people who reside in 'camps' are. However it's not helpful to anyone that AMD aren't competing at the higher end as NV can just charge what they like

IMO AMD have been better where it matters to me over the last few years, when NV produce a 'better' overall card for the same price, i'll buy NV - I wouldn't mind a switch at all.

As for SLI and xfire I would not touch either with a barge pole. Even if money were no object I wouldn't buy a monitor that one top end card couldn't handle.

I might well pick up a 1070, possibly used, next year.

 

[Darujhistan]

The reference cooler is designed to work in as many PC cases as possible...

Not everyone owns a PC case that has the space and airflow that is needed for a AIB type cooler..

How many people that are willing to buy a £650 card also don't have a suitably large PC case?

I'd question whether ref cards work that well in any case, as they're generally too hot and too loud.

 

[Griffildur]

It depends where you're looking at for cards, the best ones i've ever bought were both AMD - in terms of bang for buck, cooling and noise, the 7850 and my current card, always bought NV prior to that. Clearly at 1080p the top end doesn't interest me as a purchase, so whether AMD produce a better top end card doesn't matter to me either.

I'm also not bothered who wins at the top end unlike the people who reside in 'camps' are. However it's not helpful to anyone that AMD aren't competing at the higher end as NV can just charge what they like

IMO AMD have been better where it matters to me over the last few years, when NV produce a 'better' overall card for the same price, i'll buy NV - I wouldn't mind a switch at all.

As for SLI and xfire I would not touch either with a barge pole. Even if money were no object I wouldn't buy a monitor that one top end card couldn't handle.

I might well pick up a 1070, possibly used, next year.

That's fair enough and completely agree. Hopefully this Vega can bring competition at top end.

 

[Darujhistan]

That's fair enough and completely agree. Hopefully this Vega can bring competition at top end.

Yes, lack of competition in any GPU sector is bad for everyone.

 

[DarrenM343]

How many people that are willing to buy a £650 card also don't have a suitably large PC case?

I'd question whether ref cards work that well in any case, as they're generally too hot and too loud.

Talk about exaggerations . Reference cards I believe ALL throttle BTW as the boost is a boost not a stock clock, in reply to a post in this thread. The whole throttling thing was blown out of proportion and a non-issue.
Reference cards are not too hot or too loud for most people. I'm not a fan of cards venting into the case personally unless have fab cooling

 

[Darujhistan]

Talk about exaggerations . Reference cards I believe ALL throttle BTW as the boost is a boost not a stock clock, in reply to a post in this thread. The whole throttling thing was blown out of proportion and a non-issue.
Reference cards are not too hot or too loud for most people. I'm not a fan of cards venting into the case personally unless have fab cooling

How was it blown out of proportion?

The cards were throttling because the cooling solution wasn't good enough - on a £650 card!

Ref cards are clearly too hot and loud for many, some will put up with inferior cards though just to get the latest tech on release. I'd say most on this forum, the enthusiasts would settle on an after-market card.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yes that's exactly why people buy Nvidia cards, e-peen and nothing else. Nothing to do with the fact they are better.

But, but ... dude you can buy value beans for 20p, why pay £2 for the same thing?

Sorry, but that logic doesn't sit well with me. You on the other hand are welcome to buy what you want.

I have a Nvidia card,so what has quality got to with it??

Remember,YOU are the one is going on about things like quality not me.

I have been buying cards since late 2003,and I cringe at all the rubbish about when brand being better quality than the other brand - its been going on for yonks. Its been said about ATI/AMD being better "quality" than Nvidia and vice versa.

You have had Nvidia "quality" disasters like the FX5800 and the $200 million+ bumps issues,then the crap reference cooler on the R9 290/290X,etc. People on this forum going on how the reference GTX670 PCB was "lower quality" than the reference HD7950,etc.

If you want me to cherry pick disasters,I can pretty much find examples for each company over the last 13 years or so if you really want me to.

All these quality arguments for BOTH sides always start appearing just before launches too - I remember good old Rollo,going on for months before the HD5000 series launch,how much better quality Nvidia were and it was worth the massive wait.

All of these are made in Far East factory cities,and for the average lifespan of components most of these cards will last fine.

Its all E-PEEN going on about quality.

What for the GTX1060 and RX480 which are cost cut cards with minimal coolers and cheap PCBs. LMAO.

Its like the stupid arguments on how Apple is better quality,etc for desktops and laptops. Yet some of the Dells we had running 24/7 running equipment lasted much longer with less problems and were cheap. Go figure.

The old 9500 PRO I gave to mate worked for 10 years,and so did the old NV 6600 I had lying about.

The old HD3870 I had still works and so does the cheap 8500GT I have.

I had one B-Grade card be DOA and one card actually die on me,in nearly 13 years. That includes £20 GPUs to those worth £250.

Every other ATI,AMD or Nvidia card lasted fine including my AGP NV 6800LE which was fully unlocked and overclocked to an inch of its life.

Meh.

 

[DarrenM343]

How was it blown out of proportion?

The cards were throttling because the cooling solution wasn't good enough - on a £650 card!

Ref cards are clearly too hot and loud for many, some will put up with inferior cards though just to get the latest tech on release. I'd say most on this forum, the enthusiasts would settle on an after-market card.

The cooling was sufficient enough for performance vs power efficiency vs noise. If you override the std fan profile there's no problem - you can eliminate it and even push the card further I believe, so nothing wrong with the cooling per se but the fan profile was configured for the best of all worlds.

The 980 Ti had the same issue, if you like to call it an issue, as does other cards before it (from both sides) I believe. Oh, and the TX (£999) performed the same way (proven by a forum member) but for the new 1080 the "oh no it's throttling" story was run to death for whatever reason.
The boost clock is exactly that, a boost you may get under certain conditions. It's not going to boost to the max 24/7 while running a GPU intensive game,probably not even with fantastic cooling.

 

[Griffildur]

I have a Nvidia card,so what has quality got to with it?? Remember,YOU are the one is going on about things like quality not me.

I have been buying cards since late 2003,and I cringe at all the rubbish about when brand being better quality than the other brand - its been going on for yonks. Its been said about ATI/AMD being better "quality" than Nvidia and vice versa.

You have had Nvidia "quality" disasters like the FX5800 and the $200 million+ bumps issues,then the crap reference cooler on the R9 290/290X,etc.

If you want me to cherry pick quality disasters,I can pretty much find examples for each company over the last 13 years or so if you really want me to.

All these quality arguments for BOTH sides always start appearing just before launches too - I remember good old Rollo,going on for months before the HD5000 series launch,how much better quality Nvidia were and it was worth the massive wait.

All of these are made in Far East factory cities,and for the average lifespan of components most of these cards will last fine.

Its all E-PEEN going on about quality.

Its like the stupid arguments on how Apple is better quality,etc for desktops and laptops. Yet some of the Dells lasted much longer with less problems and were cheap. Go figure.
The old 9500 PRO I gave to mate worked for 10 years,and so did the old Nv 6600 I had lying about.

Meh.

Well, you are welcome to have your own opinion, mine is different.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well, you are welcome to have your own opinion, mine is different.

Yours is just scare mongering before a launch and some of us have seen the same thing for the last 13 years - do you honestly think Nvidia and AMD want their reference designs to be that bad,so they have a massive return rate from OEMs?? They might not be the best,but reference designs tend to the ones sold to Dell,etc.

If anything from having dozens of different cards over the last 13 years,and having loads of mates who build computers,etc it is usually non-reference designs which tend to hit more issues with cost cutting,etc sometimes. Que,the Palit GTX460 cards which had VRM cooling for review samples and the shipped ones had no VRM cooling so throttled,or the whole disaster MSI(IIRC) had with failing fans on a number of their AMD models.

But since you say quality is important,lets have a look at the PCBs of the two cards in question.





Oh,wait the RX480 looks "better quality" than the GTX1060 I suppose using your metrics,especially since the GTX1060 uses some soldered wires to connect the PCI-E power connectors to the PCB.

But,I suppose since that is an AMD card,the RX480 must be lower quality overall just cause it is not Nvidia right??

I bought a GTX960 4GB over a R9 380 4GB because the GTX960 4GB was better quality right?? Nope,it was better value for money and I wasn't fondling PCB and cooler pictures to see which had a higher BOM for the PCB and cooler.

The same with my GTX660 which I bought over a HD7870 since the mining craze made my GTX660 as cheap as a basic HD7850. It was not even a "good brand" GTX660 and it still was fine.

Plus after good old Rollo's quality campaign on multiple forums pre-Fermi launch,LMAO after that.

 

[humbug]

Yours is just scare mongering before a launch and some of us have seen the same thing for the last 13 years - do you honestly think Nvidia and AMD want their reference designs to be that bad,so they have a massive return rate??

If anything from having dozens of different cards over the last 13 years,and having loads of mates who build computers,etc it is usually non-reference designs which tend to hit more issues with cost cutting,etc sometimes. Que,the Palit GTX460 cards which had VRM cooling for review samples and the shipped ones had no VRM cooling so throttled,or the whole disaster MSI(IIRC) had with failing fans on a number of their AMD models.

But since you say quality is important,lets have a look at the PCBs of the two cards in question.





Oh,wait the RX480 looks "better quality" than the GTX1060 I suppose,especially since the GTX1060 uses some soldered wires to connect the PCI-E power connectors to the PCB.

But,I suppose since that is an AMD card,the RX480 must be lower quality overall just cause it not Nvidia right??

I bought a GTX960 4GB over a R9 380 4GB because the GTX960 4GB was better quality right?? Nope,it was better value for money and I wasn't fondling PCB and cooler pictures to see which had a higher BOM for the PCB and cooler.

The same with my GTX660 which I bought over a HD7870 since the mining craze made my GTX660 as cheap as a basic HD7850.

Plus after good old Rollo's quality campaign on multiple forums pre-Fermi launch,LMAO after that.

Look at the difference in power phase, the RX 480 is far better quality.

Its the 1060 that does look positively cheap.

 

[DarrenM343]

Oh,wait the RX480 looks "better quality" than the GTX1060 I suppose using your metrics,especially since the GTX1060 uses some soldered wires to connect the PCI-E power connectors to the PCB..

It's difficult for us to know which one is better quality . But I did notice the "BLO" on the AMD card - an indication it "blows" .

Only kidding. Interesting pictures but a shame the nVidia one is smaller/a bit out of focus too.

 

[chaparral]

Look they couldn't even put the GPU chip on straight ..

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It's difficult for us to know which one is better quality . But I did notice the "BLO" on the AMD card - an indication it "blows" .

Only kidding. Interesting pictures but a shame the nVidia one is smaller/a bit out of focus too.

It does not matter in reality - both the reference designs are good enough for the purpose.

The GTX1060 probably needs less phases,and the RX480 needs more,but both cards are hardly pushing things anyway. The RX480 is probably just over the 150W limit and the GTX1060 is probably around GTX960 level,ie, around 120W. The RX480 OFC is limited by its six pin power connector anyway.

I expect people will get years of service out of both.

When I upgrade from GTX960 in a few months if the GTX1060 is better value for money,I will get it and since most people don't overclock anyway,an FE would be fine for me even if there are better reference cards. If the RX470 or RX480 are better value I will get that.

The only card I have no interest in is if the GTX1050 comes in at £150 and is a 3GB card - I would rather have a tad slower RX470 4GB TBH,after seeing what happened to the 8800GT 256MB.

Look they couldn't even put the GPU chip on straight ..

Its the card Raja dropped during the interview - I heard AMD had a big shipment of Blue-Tack recently!

 

[southernorth]

Since this thread has taken a slight turn, have any of you experienced much temp improvements replacing the stock thermal paste on 480's/other new cards with other paste?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Since this thread has taken a slight turn, have any of you experienced much temp improvements replacing the stock thermal paste on 480's/other new cards with other paste?

From my past experience the paste is usually good quality but its more the case if too much has been applied.

 

[fastboy]

holy moly..i have an old tv tuner card from pre 2000 that looks better than that 1060 naked..good job we don't judge on looks right ?

 

[RanxZy]

look at it from another point of view, when you are on OpenGL NVidia cards do a lot a better. On Vulkan, which is supposed to still be heavily optimised for AMD cards, Nvidia ones still do better.

Vulkan has some NVIDIA cards that were once neck and neck with AMD equivalents (280X vs GTX 770, 290X vs 780Ti) being left in the dust. If the Fury X was even stevens in terms of perormance with the 980Ti, Vulkan would give it a clear lead.

 

[Bonjour]

On the quality front, I believe it is down to perceived quality and is evidence that Nvidia's marketing team are doing a sterling job. Nvidia are a slick outfit.