In-Game Benchmarks

Now that we have an idea of how the cards stand compared to each other, it’s finally time to get down to the in-game performance numbers. To do that I ran through our entire in-game benchmark test suite. The suite has 13 different games tested at both 1080p and 1440p at their highest settings. Four of the games are also tested in more than one configuration to see the difference between DX11 and DX12 performance or in the case of the most recent addition, DOOM I test out both OpenGL and Vulkan performance. The problem is, with so many results it can be a little too much to take in. To help with that I have condensed our results into two graphs, one for 1080p and the other for 1440p. All of our games are run at their max settings and we use the average FPS as the end result. The graphs below are broken down into three FPS ranges to represent unplayable (below 30), playable but not ideal (30 to 60), and ideal (over 60 FPS). So what did I find from those results?

Well for starters, the GTX 1060 Aero didn’t have any results in the red meaning at both resolutions everything you toss at the card is going to be at least playable. At 1080p all but three of the results were in the 60+ range. Those three were Deus Ex at the ultra setting and as always Ashes of the Singularity in DX11 and DX12. The 1440p results weren’t a good and there is good chance that if you plan on running at 1440p you are going to need to turn the settings down a little for the buttery smooth gameplay. The 1440p results were exactly the same as the XFX RX 480 that I recently tested but at 1080p it did edge out one more in the green than the 480. All in all the GTX 1060 Aero seems to hit the sweet spot where everything is playable without being a big flagship card, perfect for a LAN rig.

As always I also include all of the actual results as well for anyone crazy enough to want to dig through them all. So were any of the results interesting? Well, Nvidia’s drivers have evolved as have AMDs so it was interesting to see how things have changed from the launch performance. In DOOM, for example, the Aero jumped in performance on both OpenGL and Vulkan, but the OpenGL numbers really jumped. The RX 480’s using Vulkan are still the better option in DOOM though with the huge performance benefits they get with Vulkan. In Shadow of Mordor the performance has dropped a little and in The Division the performance has jumped all the way up into the GTX 1070 range. I’m sure the 1070’s would have a similar jump as well if retested. All in all, the 1060 Aero is quick both because of its overclock and because of a few driver improvements, the EVGA is still going to be quicker with those same driver improvements, but we will have to wait until tests later to see if the higher clock speeds hurt other aspects.