GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB vs Radeon R9 290X

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
Memory: 3072Mb GDDR5DESKTOP
Release date: 18 Aug 2016
GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
Radeon R9 290X
Memory: 4096Mb GDDR5DESKTOP
Release date: 24 Oct 2013
Radeon R9 290X

Summary

Synthetic performance index

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    101%
  • Radeon R9 290X
    100%

Relative performance

Gaming performance index

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    100%
  • Radeon R9 290X
    111%

Relative performance

Reasons to consider GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB

170 watts lower power draw. This might be a strong point if your current power supply is not enough to handle the Radeon R9 290X .
This is a much newer product, it might have better long term support.
Supports PhysX
Supports G-Sync
Supports ShadowPlay (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
Based on an outdated architecture (Nvidia Pascal), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications

Reasons to consider Radeon R9 290X

11% higher gaming performance.
Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
Supports FreeSync
Supports ReLive (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
Supports TrueAudio
Based on an outdated architecture (AMD GCN), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications

Radeon R9 290X

HWBench recommends Radeon R9 290X

The Radeon R9 290X is the better performing card based on the game benchmark suite used (18 combinations of games and resolutions).


Specifications

Core Configuration

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GBRadeon R9 290X
GPU NameGP106 (GP106-300-A1)vsHawaii (Hawaii XT)
Fab Process16 nmvs28 nm
Die Size200 mm²vs438 mm²
Transistors4,400 millionvs6,200 million
Shaders1152vs2816
Compute Units9vs44
Core clock1506 MHzvs1000 MHz
ROPs48vs64
TMUs72vs176

Memory Configuration

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GBRadeon R9 290X
Memory TypeGDDR5vsGDDR5
Bus Width192 bitvs512 bit
Memory Speed2002 MHz
8008 MHz effective
vs1250 MHz
5000 MHz effective
Memory Size3072 Mbvs4096 Mb

Additional details

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GBRadeon R9 290X
TDP120 wattsvs290 watts
Release Date18 Aug 2016vs24 Oct 2013

Raw Performance comparison

Pixel Rate

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    72.30 GP/s
  • Radeon R9 290X
    64.00 GP/s

GigaPixels - higher is better

Texel Rate

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    108.40 GT/s
  • Radeon R9 290X
    176.00 GT/s

GigaTexels - higher is better

Memory bandwidth

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    192.20 GB/s
  • Radeon R9 290X
    320.00 GB/s

GB/s - higher is better

Single precision performance

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    3470.00 GFLOPs
  • Radeon R9 290X
    5632.00 GFLOPs

GFLOPs - higher is better

Synthetic benchmarks

3DMark 11

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    16380
  • Radeon R9 290X
    16210

Points (higher is better)

Game benchmarks

Doom (2016)

OpenGL, Ultra Quality, SMAA 1tx

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    103
  • Radeon R9 290X
    100

FPS (higher is better)

Far Cry Primal

DX11, Very High Settings

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    66
  • Radeon R9 290X
    68

FPS (higher is better)

Hitman (2016)

DX12, Ultra Quality, MSAA, 16x AF

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    52
  • Radeon R9 290X
    75

FPS (higher is better)

Rise Of The Tomb Raider

DX12, Very High Details, Pure Hair On, HBAO+

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    70
  • Radeon R9 290X
    60

FPS (higher is better)

Thief 2014

DX11, Very High Details

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    82
  • Radeon R9 290X
    64

FPS (higher is better)

Tom Clancy's The Division

DX11, Max Details, 16:1 AF

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    58
  • Radeon R9 290X
    61

FPS (higher is better)

Doom (2016)

OpenGL, Ultra Quality, SMAA 1tx

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    65
  • Radeon R9 290X
    63

FPS (higher is better)

Far Cry Primal

DX11, Very High Settings

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    45
  • Radeon R9 290X
    50

FPS (higher is better)

Hitman (2016)

DX12, Ultra Quality, MSAA, 16x AF

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    37
  • Radeon R9 290X
    59

FPS (higher is better)

Rise Of The Tomb Raider

DX12, Very High Details, Pure Hair On, HBAO+

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    46
  • Radeon R9 290X
    43

FPS (higher is better)

Thief 2014

DX11, Very High Details

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    49
  • Radeon R9 290X
    49

FPS (higher is better)

Tom Clancy's The Division

DX11, Max Details, 16:1 AF

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    41
  • Radeon R9 290X
    44

FPS (higher is better)

Doom (2016)

OpenGL, Ultra Quality, SMAA 1tx

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    33
  • Radeon R9 290X
    32

FPS (higher is better)

Far Cry Primal

DX11, Very High Settings

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    22
  • Radeon R9 290X
    28

FPS (higher is better)

Hitman (2016)

DX12, Ultra Quality, MSAA, 16x AF

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    22
  • Radeon R9 290X
    31

FPS (higher is better)

Rise Of The Tomb Raider

DX12, Very High Details, Pure Hair On, HBAO+

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    17
  • Radeon R9 290X
    24

FPS (higher is better)

Thief 2014

DX11, Very High Details

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    24
  • Radeon R9 290X
    26

FPS (higher is better)

Tom Clancy's The Division

DX11, Max Details, 16:1 AF

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
    23
  • Radeon R9 290X
    25

FPS (higher is better)