AMD RX 560 vs NVIDIA GTX 1050: Which is Better for Gaming?

Estimated read time 10 min read

Today we’ll be taking a look at two of those GPUs and comparing their price to performance: AMD’s RX 560 and NVIDIA’s GTX 1050.

OUR VERDICT:

If you’re in the market for a graphics card around $120, you’ll be much better served both in cost and in performance by GTX 1050 from NVIDIA.

AMD RX 560

NVIDIA GTX 1050

PROS
PROS

Compelling 1080p performance at reduced detail settings

Manageable heat/power consumption

Radeon RX 560 4GB is reasonably priced if you find a $120 card

Great eSports performance

Can play AAA games at Medium settings

Lots of compact cards available

Very low power consumpion

CONS
CONS

Comparable performance from GeForce GTX 1050 in most games

Higher power consumption than GTX 1050

More expensive than rivals

2GB memory limits the future potential

SPECIFICATION TABLE: MSI RX 560 VS MSI GTX 1050

Model

MSI RX 560

MSI GTX 1050

Brand
MSIMSI
Model
Radeon RX 560 4GT LP OCGTX 1050 2G OC

Interface

GTX 1660

RX 580

Interface
PCI Express x16 (Uses x8)PCI Express 3.0 x16

Chipset

GTX 1660

RX 580

Chipset Manufacturer
AMDNVIDIA
GPU
Radeon RX 560GeForce GTX 1050
Boost Clock
1196 MHz1518 MHz
CUDA Cores
640

Memory

GTX 1660

RX 580

Effective Memory Clock
7000 MHz7008 MHz
Memory Size
4GB2GB
Memory Interface
128-Bit128-Bit
Memory Type
GDDR5GDDR5

3D API

GTX 1660

RX 580

DirectX
DirectX 12DirectX 12
OpenGL
OpenGL 4.5OpenGL 4.5

Ports

GTX 1660

RX 580

HDMI
1 x HDMI1 x HDMI 2.0b
Multi-Monitor Support
33
DisplayPort
1 x DisplayPort1 x DisplayPort 1.4

Details

GTX 1660

RX 580

Max Resolution
7680 x 4320
SLI Support

Virtual Reality Ready

No
Cooler

Double FansSingle Fan
Operating Systems Supported

Thermal Design Power

60W75W
System Requirements

Recommended PSU: 400WPower Consumption: 75W
Recommended PSU: 300W
Power Connector

HDCP Ready

Yes

Form Factor & Dimensions

GTX 1660

RX 580

Max GPU Length
168 mm177 mm
Card Dimensions (L x H
6.61" x 2.72"6.97" x 4.65"
Slot Width
Dual SlotDual Slot

Additionl Information

GTX 1660

RX 580

Date First Available
November 17, 2018March 08, 2018

Expert Reviews For AMD RX 560:

By RelaxedTech
The RX 560 is a fantastic card that performs exactly as advertised. As far as pricing goes, on Amazon and Newegg I can find the RX 560 to be anywhere from $5 to $15 cheaper than the GTX 1050. With all that being said, the Radeon RX 560 deserve our Gold Award.

By TechAdvisor
The Gigabyte Radeon RX 560 OC offers good performance for the money in its 2GB version and a degree of future-proofing in its slightly more expensive 4GB version. Both offer good build quality, high performance cooling and silent operation options via the supplied overclocking software. However, there are less expensive RX 560 cards available from other vendors.

By PCGamer
Assassin’s Creed Origins is one of the strongest entries in the long-running series. Taking a year’s break paid off, and Egypt comes to life in a game that’s frequently visually…

By HardwareSecrets
Compared to the GeForce GTX 1050, we can say it was a technical tie: in some games, the Radeon RX 560 was faster; in other ones, it was slower; and they were similar on the other ones. The tested models have the advantage because they have 4 GB, which makes them better suited for future games than 2 GB models. So, we concluded that the Radeon RX 560 is a good video card for casual gamers, with a great cost/benefit ratio.

By TomsHardware
Radeon RX 560 doesn’t outperform its predecessor by as much as we expected. However, it’s still a fairly cool, fairly quiet card that serves up modest frame rates at 1920×1080 in modern games, so long as you’re willing to dial quality back to Medium…

Expert Reviews For NVIDIA GTX 1050:

By TrustedReviews
The best-value low-budget GPU for eSports gamers.Thanks to Overclockers UK for supplying this review…

By PCWorld
MSI’s overclocked GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card outpunches its AMD rival for significantly lower cost, and can seamlessly slip into prebuilt “big box” computers.

By TechPowerUp
I pretty much feel the same about GTX 1050 non-Ti, its gaming performance is simply too low for anything serious. Please do yourself a favor and save up a little bit more money to get something like GTX 1050 Ti or maybe RX 470, it will make a huge difference, no matter what games you play.

By HotHardware
The new GeForce GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti are interesting products. They won’t set the gaming world aflame with blazing performance, but what they do is allow virtually any PC user to install a Pascal-based graphics card and enjoy many current games at 1080p, without having to worry about power supply limitations.

By BenchmarksReviews
Ask yourself what you expect your graphics card to do. If you don’t play any games and need a new graphics card just to watch movies, browse the web, and perhaps edit photos without constant stuttering and annoying lags, both the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050…

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.

QUICK SPECS: RX 560 vs GTX 1050

AMD RX 560

Nvidia GTX 1050

S.Proces. / C.Cores 896/1024 640
Base Clock 1175 MHz 1354
Boost Clock 1275 MHz 1455
Memory 4GB 2GB
Interface 128 – Bit 128 – Bit
Bandwidth 112 GB/s 112 GB/s
NOTE -:
Things like Cuda cores, stream processors, and clock speeds are not directly comparable because both are based on different architectures.

AMD RX 560:

The RX 560 was released about 6 months later in April of 2017, the RX 560 launched at a price of only $99 USD. Its core runs at 1175MHz with 1024 shaders, has 4GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1750MHz, and is rated for 2611 GFLOPS of floating-point performance. Like the GTX 1050, it has a TDP of 75W which means it doesn’t require an extra PCIe power connector.

 This model here is the RX 560 Aero ITX from MSI

Nvidia GTX 1050:

The GTX 1050 was released in October of 2016 and started at a launch price of $109 USD. Its core frequency is 1354MHz with 640 shaders, it has 2GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1752MHz, and is rated for 1862 GFLOPS of floating-point performance. With a TDP of 75W, it doesn’t require an extra PCIe power connector. Both cards have dual-slot coolers and both cards are equipped with HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort connectors.

 The specific model we’re looking at here is the MSI GTX 1050 2GT OC

PERFORMANCE: RX 560 vs GTX 1050

For the testing, I’m using the MSI GTX 1050 2GT OC and the
Radeon RX 560 AERO ITX 4G. The system that I’m testing with has an Intel i5-7500K CPU with 8GB RAM DDR4-2400MHz.

NOTE -:
The Following games are tested at 1080p and the FPS are shown is average.

Rocket League

First, we’ll look at Rocket League. From the minimum settings to maxed out, the GTX 1050 led by around 22% in average FPS. The difference in lows varied as high as 245%, with GTX 1050 no less than 30% faster than the RX 560 in all cases. That extra VRAM didn’t seem to help much here, and GTX 1050 comes out ahead.

PUBG

Second on the list is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG. On low settings, the 1050 comes out well ahead with a 60% lead in average FPS while maintaining similar lows. On medium settings, the 1050 again leads with 60% higher average FPS and again, similar lows. On ultra, however, things go south. Though the 1050 does come out ahead in average FPS, it falls far below the 560 in lows, dipping as far down as 8FPS while the 560 never dropped below 15.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive

Next we’ll look at CS:GO. On low and medium settings, the 1050 led in average FPS by about 12%. The lows weren’t so close; on low settings the GTX 1050 led in 1% and 0.1% lows by close to 60%, and on medium settings that lead increased. 1% lows on medium were 75% higher with the 1050 and 0.1% lows were more than double those of the RX 560. On high settings, the 560 trailed in average FPS by a whopping 40%, while its lows were again close to 50% lower than the GTX 1050.

Battlefield 1

On low settings, the GTX 1050 pretty effectively crushed the RX 560; almost 25% faster on average and lows were 40-60% higher. On medium, the gap closes with the RX 560 only trailing by about 14%, and on ultra settings, the gap between them was only about 10%. This was most likely due to the RX 560 having twice as much VRAM, which comes in handy once the texture and anti-aliasing settings start to get bumped up.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Performance is very similar across the board: no more than 3FPS separate the RX 560 from the GTX 1050 all the way from low settings up to ultra. I would have thought the RX 560 extra 2GB of VRAM, twice that of the GTX1050, would make a bigger difference in a game like this with all its high-resolution textures and hefty anti-aliasing on higher settings, but it appears both cards run almost identically.

GTA 5

For the first time, the RX 560 gets a win on low settings. Because of the stuttering glitch that the GTX 1050 suffers from on low settings, the RX 560 comes out well ahead. Average FPS hits 129 frames per second while lows barely dip below 80. On medium, the 560’s lead vanishes: the GTX 1050 was 27% faster on average with about a 20% lead in 1% lows. On high settings, the GTX 1050 ran about 20% faster average FPS but lows were closer to the 560: 12% faster 1% lows but 18% slower 0.1% lows.

Just Cause 3

Just Cause 3 is up next. Oddly enough, despite its usual preference for NVIDIA GPUs, results from JC3 were very similar. On low and medium settings, the GTX 1050 only led average FPS by about 10%, while on high settings the averages were nearly identical. Lows were likewise similar across the board; no more than 7FPS difference, but in most cases only 3 frames per second difference or less.

Overwatch

Finally, we have Overwatch here. On low settings, the 1050 absolutely smears the RX 560; 41% faster average, 72% faster 1% lows, and a 245% lead in 0.1% lows. On high settings, the two cards come much closer together: only a 6% difference in average FPS, identical 1% lows, and the 560 about 20% faster in 0.1% lows. On epic settings, the 1050’s lead comes back. 28% faster average, 24% faster 1% lows, and 8% faster 0.1% lows. In Overwatch, the GTX 1050 is the clear winner.

POWER USAGE & TEMPERATURES: RX 560 vs GTX 1050

Every graphics card comes with a different cooler so looking at temperatures for two different cards isn’t exactly a like-for-like comparison, but it will give you a rough estimate of where they sit. Temperatures were measured in a room at 24C.

Idle Results:

At idle the RX 560 leveled off at 37C and the system drew 42W.

The GTX 1050, on the other hand, idled at 31C and only drew 32W from the wall – something about the 1050’s power management allows it to use almost no power when it’s at idle.

The 6-degree difference in temperature is due to the GTX 1050 having a BIOS-enforced minimum fan speed of 45%, which the RX 560 does not.

Underload Results:

Under load with Unigine’s Valley benchmark the 560 topped out at 72C and drew 101W from the wall. The GTX 1050 hit a slightly higher 76C and drew 106W from the wall.

Overall Results:

The RX 560 and GTX 1050 both have a TDP of 75W and they really aren’t going to draw much more power than that, nor produce more heat. From a subjective standpoint, neither card was louder nor quieter than the other, and neither one was really audible among the other noise sources in the case.

WHICH TO BUY:  AMD RX 560  vs  NVIDIA GTX 1050 

I can only assume that the RX 560 price is inflated due to cryptocurrency mining and in the context of gaming, that means you’ll be getting a raw deal if you go with a RX 560 over the GTX 1050. It’s more expensive and noticeably slower.

There really isn’t any outside benefit to picking the RX 560; both cards use about the same power, make about the same noise, have the same display connectors, and neither one requires a PCIe power connector.

If you’re in the market for a graphics card around $120, you’ll be much better served both in cost and in performance by GTX 1050 from NVIDIA.

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