DarrkPhoenix: From the research I did beforehand, the RX 480 will give you more power for the price [...]
real.geizterfahr: [...] but less frames per second in any game that isn't perfectly optimized for DX12 or Vulkan (or a new Square Enix release like Hitman or Deus Ex, that is heavily optimized for AMD hardware).
My old HD 6870 died and I wanted to get a RX 480, but then the GTX 1060 came out of nowhere before the 480 customs got released. It's slightly faster than the 480 in most games, a bit cheaper and needs ~35 Watt less power (which allows for quieter cooling solutions). That's why I got an EVGA 1060 SC. It's 17cm/6.8 inches short, has a single fan cooling solution with additional heatpipes (that allow passive cooling outside of games!) and it comes slightly overclocked. And it was one of the cheapest cards on release! I'm happy with it.
The GTX 1060 and the RX 480 pretty much are on par. The 1060 is faster in most DX11 games and the 480 is faster in DX12/Vulkan games. If a game makes good use of DX12/Vulkan, the 480 wipes the floor with the 1060. The problem with DX12: Most games still run faster in DX11 than they do in DX12. And DX12 is Windows 10 exclusive. The problem with Vulkan: It's not DirectX. And developers love their DirectX -.-
If you go for the 1060:
Make sure to get a model with 6 GB RAM! The 3 GB model comes with a slower chip! There's quite a difference between them (
see benchmarks). I have no idea who thought it would be a good idea to call both of them "GTX 1060".
I was wondering why they bothered with a 3GB model to be honest. Seems a little pointless in this day and age.