GTX 1060 vs RX 480 Solved. TechTalk

There has been a lot of debate going on about the GTX 1060 and its comparison to the Radeon RX 480. Its time to settle this with History and Stats.
I know I have covered this topic in a build before but it was too brief, to make it more clear let's do it again separately with more detail.

The 1060 is supposed to launch by the end of July 2016, priced at (starting from) $250, have 2 variants 3GB and 6GB, perform near to a 980 and have a TDP of 120W. There is more stuff involved but that wouldn't be too helpful in the comparison so we won't take that into account

Lets begin with the history lesson, shall we? Assume 'N' as any generation on Nvidia Side and 'A' as any generation on AMD side, an N60 card from NVIDIA has always outperformed A80 card from AMD. GTX 760 performed better than Radeon 280, GTX 960 performed better than Radeon 380. This puts the any N60 ahead of any A80 as per history. Also, an N60 card from newer Gen has always outperformed an N70 card from last Gen.

Power efficiency is another thing is which puts Nvidia ahead of AMD. From GPU History we know that an N60 card has been about 20% more efficient on average. The 760 was a whopping 25% more efficient than a 770. The 960 was about 18% more efficient than the 970 (we are just talking Watts here no performance). The 1070 has a TDP of 150W now from the GPU history we know that 1060 will be more efficient than that. If we take the efficiency to even 15-17% that too puts the 1060 at 125 Watts. 125 Watts of 1060 is a whopping 25% more efficient than the 170 watts the RX 480 takes (even when it is rated at 150W) with its power issues. We won't talk about power efficiency on AMD side because Nvidia never had competition with that.

This is just 2 Generations of GPUs mentioned here but even when we go further back, we will see a similar trend.

Now, we know that the RX 480 performs lesser than the GTX 970, the history suggests that 1060 would be faster than 970 which puts 1060 above the 480 in terms of performance. Similar is the case with power efficiency.

The history somewhat confirms the leaks, which say that 1060 performs near about 980 (over 970 as told in GPU History Para 1) and has a rated TDP of 120W (LESSER than whats told in GPU History Para 2).

Now the issue is Reference Coolers which suck at performing hence nobody likes to buy them but are sort of an early access hence people buy them, the solution to this is Aftermarket coolers. Aftermarket coolers usually ship out 1 month (maximum) after the release of a card. If GTX 1060 releases by the end of this month Aftermarket coolers come in by the end of August. If the card is released tomorrow that is 8th of July (which some leaks suggest) the aftermarket solutions come in the first week of August which makes the GOOD 1060 just 1 or 2 weeks behind the GOOD 480 cards.

If you are planning a build with 480 right now, drop it. The wait for 1060 would be worth be it 1 month or just 1 week.

There you have it. GTX1060 vs RX480 resolved.
Stay tuned for PC Builds, TechTalks and more.

~APex

Red-Black Mid Range PC (Request). GPU History TechTalk.

I got a request on the blog for a Red-Black Themed Gaming PC by a guy named Daniel (Ill address him as Dan). Dan has a budget of $1000 max but prefer the PC to be $700-$800. So, let's begin with the build

Starting off the build we have the pocket friendly CPU, i5 6500. This is a great CPU for the price with an amazing power. A surprisingly low TDP of 65W makes it highly efficient and helps it stay cool. All these features made its choice unquestionable.
CPU- Intel Core i5 6500

Like every other budget build I will do on this channel, this Build too has the same CPU cooler; Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. A "180W" Max TDP at just $20 is mind blowing. With the best price/performance ratio and amazing feedback from the users Hyper 212 EVO was a no brainer choice.
Cooler- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

Getting a budget LGA 1151 Motherboard wouldn't have been difficult but keeping up with the theme made it sort of difficult. But MSI came to rescue with their beautiful Red and Black B150 Gaming M3 motherboard. Since we have a non-K CPU a Z170 board isn't required and hence we saved about 10-15 bucks with a more affordable chipset.
Motherboard- MSI B150 Gaming M3

Keeping up with the gorgeous Red and Black Theme we have an equally gorgeous Red pair of RAM sticks from G.Skill. Excelling in both performance and aesthetics, this choice too was made simple with the 2X8 GB kit being the most popular DDR4 kit on PCPartPicker.
RAM- G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 2400mhz 8GB (x2)

Selecting the right storage is always easy even for newbies. Get the cheapest one you can find for your required capacity. Here we have the Hitachi 2 TB HDD and an SSD from PNY. Now, Hitachi was a choice of price but PNY was more a choice of its aesthetics with its beautiful black and red color scheme.
HDD- Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 7200 RPM 3.5"
SSD- PNY CS1311 240 GB 2.5"

The GPU was a difficult choice. Currently RX 480 has issues of its own with high power draw from PCIe slot, thermal issues and no overclocking potential with the AMD Stock Cooler. The card is great but not enough to get it over the GTX 1060, leaked benchmarks of the 1060 suggest it outperforms the RX 480, moreover, matches (or is near to) GTX 980 performance. Even if we consider the benchmarks wrong just like the RX 480 benches were still History of GPUs tells us to get the 1060 over 480.

Now, lets have a history lesson, shall we? An N60 card from NVIDIA has always outperformed A80 card from AMD. GTX 760 performed better than Radeon 280, GTX 960 performed better than Radeon 380. Also, an N60 card from newer Gen has always outperformed an N70 card from last Gen.

Power efficiency is another thing is which puts Nvidia ahead of AMD. From GPU History we know that an N60 card has been about 20% more efficient on average. The 760 was a whopping 25% more efficient than a 770. The 960 was about 18% more efficient than the 970 (we are just talking Watts here no performance). The 1070 has a TDP of 150W now from the GPU history we know that 1060 will be more efficient than that. If we take the efficiency to even 15-17% that too puts the 1060 at 125 Watts. 125 Watts of 1060 is a whopping 25% more efficient than the 170 watts the RX 480 takes (even when it is rated at 150W) with its power issues.

The history somewhat confirms the leaks, which say that 1060 performs near about 980 (over 970 as told in GPU History Para 1) and has a rated TDP of 120W (lesser than whats told in GPU History Para 2). If History repeats itself with this gen too then, a 1060 would perform better and be more power efficient than the RX 480.

Now back to the build, the 1060 is supposed to be released by the end of this month (July 2016), and be priced at around $250. There would be 2 versions 3GB and 6GB it is unknown which one will be priced at $250 but it is anticipated that it will be the 3GB one. The Aftermarket solutions will start shipping by the end of August (max). At this point it will be more beneficial to wait for a 1060 unless you are in a real hurry. For that instance, go with an RX 480. So in this build, I have added a GTX 1060 with an estimate price of $300. To match with the build the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming is chosen as it has a red and black shroud (Twin Frozr VI cooler).
GPU- MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming Edition

The case is an interesting choice. It is unknown to many but Deepcool makes an amazing and beautiful budget case called Kendomen. To match with the theme I had previously thought of the Corsair Spec-02 case but the Deepcool Kendomen TI stole the spot when it came across my eyes. This case comes with 5 pre-installed fans, 2 of which are LED. A thing to note that the PC Part Picker listing did not have the TI version of the Deepcool Kendomen (TI is the newer version with added Radiator support) so I selected the regular one but the TI is available on amazon.com. If Dan prefers he can go with the Corsair Spec-02 case instead.
Case- Deepcool Kendomen TI Red

The power required for this build was a mere 350W but I added a more powerful PSU anyway. A thing to note is that PSUs of higher wattage don't consume more power than their lower wattage counterparts. So adding a slightly more powerful PSU won't harm anything in anyway. Power consumption will always be equal to power requirement no matter what PSU you get. A 1200W power supply will consume power equal to a 500W PSU on a PC that requires 450W power.
PSU- Corsair CXM 550W 

This sums up the build at under $900.

A few notes for Dan-
If you want the PC right away go for RX 480 but if you can wait (or my TechTalk changed your mind) wait for the 1060 as the iGPU (GPU in the processor) can run games like CS GO, Rocket League, LoL etc at decent settings and FPS. If you currently have a GPU then build this right away and use the old GPU in this PC for 2 months until you get the 1060. If you have any other concerns, comment down below or e-mail me.

Thank you all for reading. What do you think about this build? Comment down below. Share this post and the Blog with your friends. See you guys next time with more awesome builds and other content.

Parts-
CPU- Intel Core i5 6500
Cooler- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard- MSI B150 Gaming M3

RAM- G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 2400mhz 8GB (x2)

HDD- Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 7200 RPM 3.5"
SSD- PNY CS1311 240 GB 2.5"
GPU- MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming Edition
Case- Deepcool Kendomen TI Red

PSU- Corsair CXM 550W 

PCPartPicker Link- http://pcpartpicker.com/list/CkFwVY

~APex

$900 Gaming PC Build ft. RX 480 (Special Request) And 1060 vs 480 talk.

Today, I got a build request from a guy named DC on the LTT Forum. He wanted a Skylake PC with an RX 480 and an Optical Drive. Now, the budget was quite enough to get a powerful gaming PC so building it was not at all difficult.
Few things to note, there is no INR Pricing in this build as this is a special request also the PCPartPicker Link is at the end as usual.

Starting off with the CPU, we have the amazingly powerful yet efficient Intel Core i5 6600K. At $30 higher than the 6500 it offers 20% more Stock and over 30% more overclocked performance which sealed it the deal. Fore more budget friendly build. One can opt to go with the 6600 because it will offer the same stock performance at a slightly lower chip and platform price.
CPU- Intel Core i5 6600K

Cooling our amazing CPU is the amazing Cooler from the Masters. Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is always the choice of budget overclockers. Its amzing Price/Perfomance Ratio brought it here on the list. 6600K overclocks to 4.3 very easily with this on Stock Voltages.
Cooler- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

Having an Unlocked CPU meant that an overclocking motherboard was required. While being on a budget getting those fancy Motherboards with colorful VRMs was not possible so we stuck with the pure Practicality with a budget Z170 Motherboard from MSI with all the required features and no bells and whistles. Another thing to note is that the guy wanted an AMD GPU and this Motherboard was the cheapest one to support Crossfire, there is not any SLI support though,
Motherboard- MSI Z170A PC Mate

For the RAM we have the amazing and beautiful G.Skill Ripjaws V. With its amazing performance and looks it stole a spot on the list.
RAM- G.Skill Ripjaws V 8 GB 2400mhz DDR4 (x2)

Storage was a no brainer with WD and Sandisk both being the most popular choices among budget HDD and SSD respectively I decided to follow the crowd.
HDD- WD Blue 1 TB 7200 RPM 3.5"
SSD- Sandisk Z400s 128 GB 2.5"

The guy to request this build DC wanted an RX 480, so we got him one. Now, the problem with the Stock AMD RX 480 is the fans. They are quite YES but don't perform well which prevents the user to put any sort of even mild overclock. This problem will be resolved with the aftermarket RX 480s which will start shipping really soon (next week probably). Taking the price to be around $270 we have-
GPU- Aftermarket (MSI or Sapphire) AMD Radeon RX 480 8 GB

The case wasn't a difficult choice. I selected the Corsair 200R as per DC's Request.
Case- Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower

A beefy power supply was not required for the build. But for Potential Crossfire in Future I decided to go with one. Now nothing is better than a beautiful for both eyes and wallet Corsair CXM Series. So we have-
PSU- Corsair CXM 650 Semi Modular Power Supply 650W

Now an Optical Drive isn't required in most modern Computer but since DC requested one we have-
ODD- Asus DRW-24B1ST


This sums up the build and the amazing thing is that we built a 1440p capable rig in under $1000 but before signing off I would like to talk about a few things;

Many would think that with 1060 in sight why an RX 480? I also thought the same but with there are reasons to forget the 1060. Firstly, there has been no Official announcement for it yet, it is suspected it will be done in mid August, another month for release and the cards hitting the shelves which makes it mid-September, another 15-20 days for the Aftermarket Cards and that is October for you and what if the perfomance it not all that great?? Congratulation, you wasted 3 months for nothing. Also byy the end of October News and Leaks of AMD Vega will start coming and you would think of waiting another few months to get hands on the Vega Card and hence an endless cycle starts. Remember, hardware will always get obsolete, better stuff will always come in always buy when you want and what you want don't see the future (not applicable in all cases).
Another reason is  DX 12 Support and Crossfire Scaling of Polaris. At the current stage, Crossfire Scaling of Polaris is better than SLI Scaling of Pascal. It is always better to get one stronger card than two weaker cards but what if you can't chug so much cash at one time? Then, 2 Way Card setups are for you. The RX 480 has shown amazing Crossfire Scaling which will only get better with driver updates. Yet another reason is DX 12 Performance of the RX 480, the $200 RX 480 performed better than the $300-$350 cards from both Nvida and AMD itself in the DX 12 titles. This performance would get better as more DX 12 titles start shipping.


Also for DC- if you can add another 30 bucks get a BluRay reader (http://bit.ly/1rsF2Lz) over the CD/DVD, would definitely be helpful as more and more stuff is coming in BluRay now (including 4K movies Yaay!). Wait for the aftermarket 480s should be here any day now also, it is highly recommended you Crossfire in Future, if not get the Corsair CX 500 Power Supply over the one mentioned here.

If you guys have any other Question comment down below. For Build requests use Contact THB Gadget on the right and Stay tuned for more such amazing builds and TechTalks.
Thank You all for joining.

Parts-
CPU- Intel Core i5 6600K
Cooler- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard- MSI Z170A PC Mate
RAM- G.Skill Ripjaws V 8 GB 2400mhz DDR4 (x2)
HDD- WD Blue 1 TB 7200 RPM 3.5"
SSD- Sandisk Z400s 128 GB 2.5"

GPU- Aftermarket (MSI or Sapphire) AMD Radeon RX 480 8 GB

Case- Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower

PSU- Corsair CXM 650 Semi Modular Power Supply 650W

ODD- Asus DRW-24B1ST

PC Part Picker- http://pcpartpicker.com/list/9MY4Cy

~APex