AMD RX Vega 56 vs Nvidia GTX 1070: Which One is Better?

Estimated read time 7 min read

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at two of those GPUs and comparing their price to performance: AMD RX Vega 56 vs Nvidia GTX 1070

AMD RX Vega 56Nvidia GTX 1070
BUY NOWBUY NOW
PROSPROS
Massive heat sink enables cool and quiet operation. Bundled support bracket helps keep card stable. Customizable RGB lighting adds enthusiast appeal.Strong 1440p performance. The wide selection of aftermarket cards. Affordable reference cards.
CONSCONS
Thermal solution occupies three expansion slots. Coil whine is louder than AMD’s reference Radeon RX Vega 56. Limited availability and correspondingly untenable price tag.Founder’s Edition still too pricey

SPECIFICATIONS

MODELGIGABYTE RX VEGA 56GIGABYTE GTX 1070
BrandGIGABYTEGIGABYTE
ModelGV-RXVEGA56GAMING OC-8GDGV-N1070G1 GAMING-8GD R2
INTERFACEGIGABYTE RX VEGA 56GIGABYTE GTX 1070
InterfacePCI Express 3.0 x16PCI Express 3.0 x16
CHIPSETGIGABYTE RX VEGA 56GIGABYTE GTX 1070
Chipset ManufacturerAMDNVIDIA
GPU SeriesAMD Radeon RX VEGA SeriesNVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 Series
GPURadeon RX Vega 56GeForce GTX 1070
Core Clock1170 MHz1620 MHz in OC Mode

1594 MHz in Gaming Mode
Stream Processors / CUDA Cores3584 Stream Processors1920
MEMORYGIGABYTE RX VEGA 56GIGABYTE GTX 1070
Effective Memory Clock800 MHz (1.6 Gbps)8008 MHz
Memory Size8GB8GB
Memory Interface2048-Bit256-Bit
Memory TypeHBM2GDDR5
3D APIGIGABYTE RX VEGA 56GIGABYTE GTX 1070
DirectXDirectX 12DirectX 12
OpenGLOpenGL 4.5OpenGL 4.5
PORTSGIGABYTE RX VEGA 56GIGABYTE GTX 1070
HDMI3 x HDMI 2.0b1 x HDMI 2.0b
Multi-Monitor Support64
DisplayPort3 x DisplayPort 1.43 x DisplayPort 1.4
DVI1 x Dual-link DVI-D
DETAILSGIGABYTE RX VEGA 56GIGABYTE GTX 1070
Virtual Reality ReadyYesYes
CoolerWINDFORCE 2XWINDFORCE 3X
Thermal Design Power210W
System RequirementsRecommended PSU: 650WRecommended PSU: 500W
Dual-Link DVI SupportedYes
FORM FACTOR & DIMENSIONSGIGABYTE RX VEGA 56GIGABYTE GTX 1070
Form FactorATXATX
Max GPU Length274 mm280 mm
Card Dimensions (L x H)10.78″ x 5.18″11.02″ x 4.49″
Slot WidthTriple SlotDual Slot

Expert Reviews For Nvidia GTX 1070:

By IGN
The GTX 1070 is a clear winner at $400 or so. Its biggest contribution to the GPU world is serious VR horsepower and the ability to run games at 2560×1440 without taking out a second mortgage. If you’ve been considering upgrading both your GPU and…

By PCGamer
Forget the GTX 1080; this is the Pascal GPU you can actually…

By TrustedReviews
Want judder-free 1440p gaming? Then you should buy the Nvidia GTX 1070.

By Gadgets360
It is absolutely clear that Nvidia’s new GeForce GTX 1070 GPU is a monster. It equals or tops the GeForce GTX 980Ti – even an overclocked one – in a variety of games and tests, and does so in a smaller package, consuming less power, and for a lot less…

By TechPowerUp
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 comes at an MSRP of $379. This review covers the GTX 1070 Founders Edition, which will retail at $449. Incredible performance, large performance jump Extremely power efficient 8 GB VRAM Backplate included New NVIDIA…

Expert Reviews For AMD RX Vega 56:

By GoldFries
The AMD RX Vega 56 delivers pretty good performance and the power draw is quite reasonable at under 200W, in some tests it performs really close to the RX Vega 64 elder brother.The down side again is the price as the RX Vega 56’s SRP is at RM 2,699 –…

By CGM
It may have taken the company over six years, but 2017 marks AMD’s return to the high-end market of enthusiast level CPUs and GPUs. Starting with Ryzen, followed by Threadripper, and ending with Vega, consumers finally have alternatives to the…

By Techadvisor
The Radeon RX Vega 56 is a worthy competitor to Nvidia’s GTX 1070, often beating it on both performance and price. It can be a little power hungry and runs rather loud but, if you can find one at recommended price, it’s an excellent value for money…

By HardwaresZone
At RM2,599, the Radeon RX Vega 56 is an impressive piece of plastic and metal, filled with AMD’s latest iteration of the HBM2 memory format. Like its more powerful RX Vega 64, the card signifies AMD’s return into the realm of high-end gaming graphics…

By PCGamesN
The overall design of the Vega architecture seems to have been about laying a marker in the sand, defining a branching point for future generations of their GPU technology. They’ve almost sacrificed legacy gaming performance for the promise of future…

DETAILED REVIEW:

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.

OVERVIEW

RX Vega 56GTX 1070
S.Proces/ C.Cores35841920
Base Clock11561506
Boost Clock14711683
Memory8GB8GB GDDR5
Interface2048-Bit256-Bit
Bandwidth410 GB/s256 GB/S
NOTE –
Things like Cuda cores, stream processors, and clock speeds are not directly comparable because both are based on different architectures.

In this article, I’ll test out and compare 8 different games at 1080p and 1440p resolutions to help you see the performance difference between them, and find out which is better value for money.

Something to take note of though is that the both graphics card have the 8GB memory. The RX Vega 56 and gtx 1070 are also available in the lower tier 4GB model, however we’re not looking at that here.

PERFORMANCE

For the testing I’m using the GIGABYTE Radeon RX Vega 56 and GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming graphics cards, and while both were tested with out of the box settings. Expect slightly different results with different models.

The system that I’m testing with has an Intel i7-6950K CPU @ 4.0GHz in an MSI X99A Gaming Pro motherboard, along with 32GB of RAM running at DDR4-3200 in dual channel. The same Windows 10 PRO 64-Bit were used. 

AMD Drivers Used: Adrenalin Edition 17.12.2

Nvidia Drivers Used: GeForce Graphic driver 388.71

Let’s get into the results –

Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 was tested with all settings maxed out. In terms of average FPS the GTX 1070 was about 19FPS slower than the RX vega 56 at 1080p. At 1440p, RX vega 56 was 16FPS faster than GTX 1070. As you can see, the RX Vega 56 is the clear winner here but GTX 1070 was also giving solid 60FPS with good textures.

Fallout 4

Fallout 4 was tested with the built in benchmark using ultra settings. At 1080p, GTX 1070 was 9FPS ahead of the RX vega 56, while RX Vega 56 take the lead at 1440p with 3FPS.

Far Cry Primal

Far Cry Primal was tested in campaign mode rather than multiplayer, as it’s easier to consistently reproduce the test run. Both cards were providing a playable experience at 1080p and 1440p resolutions. But in terms of average FPS, the RX Vega 56 was leading in both resolutions.

Gears of Wars 4

Gears of Wars 4 was tested using the built in benchmark with ultra settings, and there was basically no difference between the two when it came to average frames.

GTA 5

GTA 5 was also tested using the built in benchmark with high settings. The average frame rates were not close together in this game, however GTX 1070 was leading in both resolutions.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider was tested using the replay feature with the exact same replay on both graphics cards. In this test RX Vega 56 was coming out ahead of the 1070 at both resolutions. At 1080p, the RX Vega 56 was just 1FPS ahead and 6FPS ahead at 1440p.

The Divison

The Divison was tested with the built in benchmark at ultra settings. Again, RX vega 56 was performing good in both resolutions. As you can see, GTX 1070 was able to give playable fram rates.

Witcher 3

Witcher 3 was also tested using the built in benchmark with ultra settings. This seems to be more of a graphically intensive test, and the RX Vega 56 was coming out ahead at both resolutions. At 1080p, RX Vega 56 was 7FPS ahead of the 1070, and 6FPS ahead at 1440p.


Why Should You Buy Nvidia GTX 1070?

  • Strong on DX12 Titles
  • Strong in Professional Workloads
  • Better Price/Performance

Why Should You Buy AMD RX Vega 56?

  • Strong in DX11 titles
  • Much lower power consumption

WHICH IS BETTER GPU?

The AMD RX Vega 56 wins in almost all scenarios, especially in DX12 titles. Because of their similar pricing, the RX Vega 56 is the better choice.

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