The Witcher 3

The third game in CD Projekt RED’s expansive RPG series, The Witcher 3 is our RPG benchmark of choice. Utilizing the company’s in-house engine, REDengine 3, The Witcher makes use of an array of DirectX 11 features, all of which combine to make the game both stunning and surprisingly GPU-intensive. Our benchmark is based on an action-heavy in-engine cutscene early in the game, and Hairworks is disabled.

The Witcher 3 - 2560x1440 - Ultra Quality (No Hairworks)

The Witcher 3 - 1920x1080 - Ultra Quality (No Hairworks)

In terms of absolute performance, I’m a bit surprised that the GTX 1060 can’t crack 60fps at 1080p. 57.6 isn’t too far off the mark, but for what’s otherwise meant to be NVIDIA’s ultimate 1080p gaming card, it’s not quite ultimate enough to hit 60fps on a year-old game.

In any case this does put GTX 1060 a bit farther behind the GTX 980 than usual, delivering around 94% of its high-end predecessor’s performance. Or to compare the card to GTX 960, it nets a 75% performance gain. Otherwise this also happens to be a game where the GTX 1060/1070 gap is a smidge larger than usual, with GTX 1060 delivering 70% of GTX 1070’s performance.

Finally, as for the RX 480 comparison, GTX 1060 is yet again solidly in the lead. Here we see it deliver 12-15% more performance than the 8GB RX 480, depending on the resolution.

Crysis 3 The Division
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  • Notmyusualid - Sunday, August 7, 2016 - link

    Seems amazingly mis-priced.

    The lowest I see a GTX1060 for, on Amazon.co.uk is 260 GBP (delivered). That is $340 USD.

    The pound didn't fall that much.
  • silverblue - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    True, but what taxes go on top of that $250? As a Brit myself, that's out of genuine curiosity.
  • thesavvymage - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    Taxes vary by location, in my state, Washington, sales tax is almost 10% (which i think might be the highest sales tax) so it'd land around 275. UK prices include taxes, US dont, so the price premium isnt as much as you'd initially think
  • mdw9604 - Sunday, August 7, 2016 - link

    Why aren't the 1080 performance numbers included in the Charts? This thing cost about half as much, would expect about half the performance. But b/c they were not included, can't cant really come to that conclusion.
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    While the charts can handle more results, we're trying to keep things readable. If you want a 1080 comparison, Bench would be perfect for this.
  • mdw9604 - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    Thanks for taking the time to reply, will check it out. Would think it would be useful to include the newest high-end nvida graphics cards for perspective.
  • medi03 - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    Thanks for the review, Ryan.

    I've noticed difference in power consumption results between your and other sites (let's take TPU for example).

    You are testing total power consumption, which, given PSU's 80%-ish efficiency, should give bigger differences between cards, than if testing power consumption of GPU alone (pcie/connectors).

    On your site, ref 480 consumes 37 watt more than 1060.
    Ref 1070 consumes 6 watt more than 480.

    On TPU site (PCIe, "average gaming"):
    1) 480 consumes 47 watt more, which, taking 80% PSU efficiency in account, is 58.7 watt more
    2) 1070 consumes a bit less than 480

    (review is for an AIB, but I'm comparing Ref vs FE numbers)
    https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_...

    Any thought about why that might be? Can chips really vary that much? Is power consumption that different between different games?
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    "Can chips really vary that much?"
    Yes, especially since these cards are at times TDP limited .Move the temperature up or down by 5F and you'll get slightly different results with blowers, for example. That said...

    "Is power consumption that different between different games?"
    Absolutely. There can be a massive difference in the CPU load from the simulation, and on the GPU side there's the balance between texturing/shading/ROPing. We can't test all games, so with Crysis 3 we try to pick a game that offers a reasonable middle case. But if someone else uses a different game they can get very different results.
  • Greeba77 - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    Great review as always, however I was hoping this would also take in the recent benchmarks that have come out comparing the 1060 to the RX480 using Vulkan on Doom, in which I gather the Nvida card completely tanked. And of course whether this should have any bearing on any decision to buy anyway... if the regular performance is as clear cut as it looks then it seems the 1060 is a pretty good mid range upgrade choice for me (I have an R9 270X at the moment so it's a few generations old and this or an RX480 will smash it.)
  • beck2050 - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    Great card for the money when prices settle down. Early adopters always pay more for popular tech.

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