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AMD Radeon R9 280X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB

Our index puts the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB roughly 28% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 280X. This is an estimate for ranking, not a measured benchmark, and the gap varies considerably by title and by resolution.

SpecificationAMD Radeon R9 280XNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
ManufacturerAMDNVIDIA
ArchitectureGCN 1Pascal
Relative performance index4760 (better)
Video memory3 GB3 GB
Memory typeGDDR5GDDR5
Memory bus384-bit (better)192-bit
Release year20132016 (better)
Board power250 W120 W (better)
Suggested PSU600 W400 W (better)
Hardware ray tracingNoNo
Upscaling supportNot recordedFSR 3
DirectX1212

Green marks the stronger figure for that row only — for power draw and PSU requirement, lower is treated as better. Performance indexes are CanMyPcPlay estimates; read how they are derived.

Which should you pick?

  • Check video memory, not just speed. A faster card with less VRAM can perform worse in recent titles at high texture settings.
  • Check power and clearance. Confirm your PSU and case can take the card — the build checker does this.
  • Upscaling support differs. DLSS is NVIDIA-only; FSR and XeSS run more broadly.