AMD RX 590 vs Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti: Which Should You Pick?
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at two of those GPUs and comparing their price to performance: AMD RX 590 vs Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti
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AMD RX 590 |
NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti |
| PROS | PROS |
| Double-digit performance gains over GeForce GTX 1060. Good for high-fps 1080p and 1440p gaming. Quiet cooling. Includes three free AAA games (at this writing). Reasonable overclocking capabilities. | Great performance at 1920 x 1080. Acceptable frame rates at 2560 x 1440. Retains Turing’s video encode/decode acceleration features. 120W board power compares favorably to AMD competition. |
| CONS | CONS |
| High power requirements. Physically large for a mid-level graphics card. The Radeon RX 580 is considerably cheaper and not much slower. |
No RT/Tensor cores mean you won’t be able to try ray tracing or DLSS |
| OUR VERDICT:
If I was buying new today I’d go for the GTX 1660 Ti, it’s a much better bang for the buck. Buying the RX 590 isn’t a good idea, it seems weak to really give a good experience. |
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SPECIFICATION TABLE |
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0 x16
5
2Expert Reviews For AMD RX 590:
By PCGamesN
AMD’s RX 590, especially in this affordable PowerColor Red Devil trim, is the fastest sub-$300 graphics card. Though not much of an upgrade over its predecessory its existence helps make the case for buying an RX 580… at least while stocks last.
By TomsHardware
The new Radeon RX 590 beats Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB across our benchmark suite at 1920 x 1080 and 2560 x 1440. However, AMD took a truncheon to the card’s power limit in order to motivate its Polaris GPU. We think you’re better off scooping up great deals on older Radeon RX 580 8GB cards for high-quality gaming at FHD.
By HotHardware
Ultimately, if you’re budgeting less than $300 for a GPU, the Radeon RX 590 is arguably the best overall choice at this time. It’s the strongest performer in the category and multiple AAA games are being tossed in for good measure.
By Hexus
The Radeon RX 590 represents a relatively quick method of gaining an extra 10 per cent performance over the RX 580(X). And given its similar pricing, the RX 590 is generally ahead of the GTX 1060 6GB.
By PCWorld
The XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy uses brute force and an improved 12nm process to muscle past Nvidia’s GTX 1060, but it doesn’t displace the RX 580 completely.
Expert Reviews For Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti
By PCGamesN
The Asus Phoenix GTX 1660 Ti shows the strength of Nvidia’s GTX 1660 Ti, beating the RX 590 for only slightly more cash. But, while the diminutive cooler makes it great for a mini-ITX build, it does still hold that new Turing GPU back a little.
By TomsHardware
Although GeForce GTX 1660 Ti costs more than the 1060 6GB it replaces, Nvidia’s newest Turing-based board delivers performance similar to GeForce GTX 1070. High performance, a reasonable price tag, and modest power consumption come together in a solid upper-mainstream graphics card.
By PCGamer
The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti balances price, performance, and features to create a compelling mainstream offering with improved performance for the midrange market.
By eTeknix
Do you have around £270 and want to play the latest games at high frame rates at 1080p, or even 1440p? Then it’s a no brainer right now.
The GTX 1070 is around the same price, which is a much bigger GPU, higher power usage, and lower performance. The RX590 is £250, cheaper, but again higher power consumption, heat, and slightly lower performance. For affordable gaming, this plucky little card blows my mind. It’s much more powerful than it looks and a solid replacement for the older cards. Obviously, I wouldn’t replace an existing 10-series card with this in my PC. However, if you’re still on old cards like the 660 Ti, or RX 460, it’s a great upgrade.
By Bit-Tech
Palit’s card is basic but gets the job done and is acceptable given the MSRP. We wouldn’t advise paying much over MSRP either, as then RTX 2060 becomes all the more appealing. But nevertheless, this card slots into the market neatly, and if you really can’t stretch much beyond £250 it’s probably the card we’d choose if looking for an upgrade over something older than previous-gen silicon.
Above we have shown the overview and depth specifications of both the graphics card.
Now, we are sharing the full review of both graphics cards.
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QUICK SPECS: RX 590 vs GTX 1660 Ti |
|
RX 590 |
GTX 1660 Ti |
|
| S.Proces/ C.Cores | 2304 | 1536 |
| Base Clock | 1469 MHz | 1500 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1580 MHz | 1875 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 8000 MHz | 12000 MHz |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDRR6 |
| Interface | 256 – bit | 192 – bit |
| Bandwidth | 256 GB/s | 288.1 GB/s |
| TDP | 225W | 120W |
NOTE —
Things like Cuda cores, stream processors, and clock speeds are not directly comparable because both are based on different architectures.
The RX 590 was introduced back in November of 2018 at a launch price of $279. It runs a core clock of 1469MHz, has 8GB of GDDR5 memory, and runs at a TDP of only 225W.
The GTX 1660 Ti was released in February of 2019 at a launch price of $219. It runs a core clock of 1500 MHz, has 6GB of GDDR6 memory, and a TDP of 120W.
Both cards take up two slots and have an HDMI, DisplayPort jack, and neither one utilizes a 6 pin PCIe power connector. So you can drop these into any old prebuilt with no power issues.
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PERFORMANCE: RX 590 vs GTX 1660 Ti |
For the testing, I’m using the XFX RX 590 Fatboy 8GB and the MSI GTX 1660 Ti GamingX.
System Specs :
- Intel Core i5-9600K @ 5.0GHz
- Gigabyte Z390 Auros Xtreme
- 16GB DDR4 RAM @ 3200MHz
- 2TB HDD
- AMD Drivers used – Adrenalin Edition 19.2.2
- Nvidia Drivers used – GeForce Graphic driver 419.
17
NOTE —
The Following games are tested at 1080p and 1440p. The FPS are shown are average.
Shadow of the tomb raider
Shadow of the tomb raider was tested with the built-in benchmark using ultra settings. At 1080p, we’re looking at a 17FPS higher when compared to RX 590. At 1440p, GTX 1660 Ti was 15FPS faster.
Resident Evil 2 Remake
Resident Evil 2 Remake was also tested using the built-in benchmark. At the top of the graph for our 1080p results, the GTX 1660 Ti was getting almost 12FPS higher when compared to the RX 590. Stepping up to 1440p this lowers to 9FPS.
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus was tested using the built-in benchmark at ultra settings. I’ve found this game to favor Nvidia’s graphics cards. At 1080p, there’s a 14FPS difference and at 1440p, it lowers to 10FPS.
Just Cause 4
Just Cause 4 was tested with the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and at 1080p, GTX 1660 Ti was 8FPS ahead, and 9FPS at 1440p.
Hitman 2
Hitman 2 was tested in the practice range as I can easily perform the same test run compared to playing with bots or other players which will differ every time. The GTX 1660 Ti was ahead in both resolutions.
Far Cry New Dawn
Far Cry New Dawn was tested using the built-in benchmark with ultra settings. At both resolutions, the GTX 1660 Ti was ahead. At 1080p, 1660 Ti was 14FPS higher and at 1440p, it was just 8FPS ahead.
Darksiders 3
Darksiders 3 was tested using the replay feature with the exact same replay at ultra settings. At 1080p the 1660 Ti was seeing an 8% improvement to average FPS. At 1440p, with a 7% increase to average FPS over the RX 590.
Battlefield 5
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode rather than multiplayer, as it’s easier to consistently reproduce the test run, and it seems to be more graphically intensive.
At 1080p, the GTX 1660 Ti was giving us 8FPS higher when compared with the RX 590. At 1440p, GTX 1660 Ti was 7FPS ahead.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a resource-intensive game, and I can play it alright with a solid 60FPS only on GTX 1660 Ti. At 1080p, the 1660 Ti was 19FPS ahead and at 1440p, it was 15FPS ahead. So Nvidia is the clear winner here.
Apex legends
Apex legends was tested using the replay feature with the exact same replay at ultra settings. At 1080p the 1660 Ti was seeing an 18FPS improvement to average FPS. At 1440p, with a 11FPS increase to average FPS over the RX 590.
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WHICH TO BUY: RX 590 or GTX 1660 Ti |
If you got $280 and you’re looking for a card these two cards are in the same category. The GTX 1660 Ti actually does beat the RX 590 between all the games that we have tested. This card was cooler, in terms of temperature.
If I was buying new today I’d go for the GTX 1660 Ti, it’s a much better bang for the buck. Buying the RX 590 isn’t a good idea, it seems weak to really give a good experience.
Jaskaran Singh
Karan is senior editor of this website. He is known for his passion for tech related stuff and not only handles the writing ventures at The World’s Best and Worst as a tech writer but has also successfully pioneered many tech websites.
GPU Specs, Prices, and FPS in Games
Refine results to filter 355 graphics cards by performance, release date, price, and value. Click on a GPU to view more in-depth specifications and game FPS.
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Found 355 GPUs.
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Graphics Card
Performance
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
Jan 3rd, 2023
Performance Rating
$819.99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce RTX 4090
Sep 20th, 2022
Performance Rating
$1,699.99 on Amazon
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GeForce RTX 4080
Sep 20th, 2022
Performance Rating
$1,199.99 on Amazon
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GeForce RTX 3060
Jan 12th, 2021
Performance Rating
$309.99 on Amazon
In Stock
Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Nov 3rd, 2022
Performance Rating
$1,069.99 on Amazon
In Stock
Radeon RX 7900 XT
Nov 3rd, 2022
Performance Rating
$799.99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce GT 1030
May 17th, 2017
Performance Rating
$69.99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce RTX 3070
Sep 1st, 2020
Performance Rating
$481.
1 on Amazon
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Radeon RX 6800 XT
Oct 28th, 2020
Performance Rating
$529 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce RTX 3050
Jan 4th, 2022
Performance Rating
$245.99 on Amazon
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Arc A770
Oct 12th, 2022
Performance Rating
$339.99 on Amazon
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Radeon RX 6400
Jan 19th, 2022
Performance Rating
$139.99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce GTX 1650
Apr 23rd, 2019
Performance Rating
$154.74 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce GT 730
Jun 18th, 2014
Performance Rating
$79.95 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER
Oct 29th, 2019
Performance Rating
$229.99 on Amazon
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Radeon RX 550
Apr 20th, 2017
Performance Rating
$109.99 on Amazon
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Radeon RX 6800
Oct 28th, 2020
Performance Rating
$509.
99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER
Jul 9th, 2019
Performance Rating
$349.99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce RTX 3090
Sep 1st, 2020
Performance Rating
$1,574 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X
Oct 19th, 2022
Performance Rating
$409.99 on Amazon
In Stock
Radeon RX 6750 XT
Mar 3rd, 2022
Performance Rating
$449.99 on Amazon
In Stock
Radeon RX 6500 XT
Jan 19th, 2022
Performance Rating
$149.99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Dec 1st, 2020
Performance Rating
$419.99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce GT 710
Jan 26th, 2016
Performance Rating
$69.99 on Amazon
In Stock
GeForce RTX 3080
Sep 1st, 2020
Performance Rating
$929.