Conclusion
Conclusion
The most fun cards to test are always the more mid-range products, they often offer nice performance for money and do benefit from a nice tweak. The GTX 1060 is a product that will bring a smile to your face as value for money wise I think that if you can spot a 6 GB version for that evangelized 249 USD, you'll have heck of a card. Performance is a bit all over the place though, but seen in broader lines spot on with and/or above or on the GTX 980 performance level or the Radeon RX 480, which this product obviously is targeted against. And therein is a danger to be found. See at 1080P or even 1440P that Radeon RX 480 with 4 GB can be spotted for 199 USD already, and that definitely is a more attractive price for roughly similar performance (with exceptions here and there of course). Overall though we have to call both cards what they are, excellent value mainstream performance products. If for example you take the preceding GeForce GTX 960, well the 1060 in a lot of scenarios is almost twice as fast. So yeah, I really do like the price performance ratio of the GTX 1060 much better then what the GTX 1070 and 1080 offers at their sales prices. This GPU with GDDR5 memory at 8 Gbps still offers plenty of horsepower but also does that at low Wattage, we maxed out at roughly 135 Watts measured, and for this kind of game performance that is peachy-perfect my man (or women). Back to memory, there will be 3 GB models inevitably but all suggested retail prices are based on the 6 GB SKU and I do have the feeling that in the first launch wave we'll be seeing very little 3 GB models as the trend-line points towards 4 GB or higher these days. Yes, anno 2016, we do recommend you to go for a little more graphics memory, so please do forget about the 3 GB models unless you are certain you'll be stuck at 1920x1080 for years to come. Let me call out that big elephant in the room, SLI or better said, the lack of SLI. Yes, a bit of an awkward move to make from Nvidia is to remove SLI compatibility from the 1060. Nvidia is doing this deliberately, as two cards would easily outperform even a 1080, and that thus endangers their product sales stack in the higher regions.
Aesthetics
The GeForce GTX 1060 is a more of a value mainstream product series. If you compare previous mainstream Nvidia product and compare it to this one, this does give it a bit of a premium feel doesn't it. Yes Nvidia tweaked the aesthetics of the cooler a bit as you now see that triangles/polygons embedded on the cooler shell, resembling the core essence 3D objects are made of, of course. The Founders Edition GTX 1060 carries a 50 USD/EURO price premium for this design with this specific cooler. Overall it's just a good looking and sturdy product, lacking is a back-plate.
Cooling & Noise Levels
As you guys know, the reference design (founder editions) of all GTX 1070/1080 are set at an offset threshold of 80 degrees C. Once the GPU gets warmer the card will clock down / lower its voltage etc to try and keep the card cooler, that's throttling and it part of the design. This is not the case with the GeForce GTX 1060. The low power draw already spilled the beans, amd means it's not running extremely hot and certainly not oozes out heat in massive amounts. Hence the cooler can deal with the GPU really well. The GPU simply does not reach the 80 Degrees C thermal marker, instead hovers at roughly 70 Degrees C. That not only makes it fairly cool running product, it means it's silent as well. You can barely hear the card while using it. Overall this is a very sound and solid cooling solution. The VRM area runs a bit hot though. We did not hear an coil whine.
Power Consumption
GP106-400-A1 Pascal GPUs are rated as having a 120 Watt TDP under full stress, our measurements show it to be a tiny bit higher at 134 Watts, that still remains to be a very low value. Here again keep in mind we measure peak power consumption, the average power consumption is a good notch lower depending on GPU utilization. Also, if you plan to overclock the CPU/memory and/or GPU with added voltage, please do purchase a power supply with enough reserve.
Gaming Performance
A GeForce GTX 1060 is a near perfect product for Full HD gamers at 1920x1080/1200. However given the nature of it's performance this actually is a pretty darn good WQHD (2560x1440) card as well. Not everybody requires or demands 100+ FPS and many people find that 40~60 average FPSes good enough, especially with a GSYNC monitor. For that last category the GeForce GTX 1060 is going to offer a tremendous amount of value as at WQHD you are indeed in the 40 to 60 FPS marker. For example DX12 Rise of the Tomb Raider at proper image quality settings is doing a 50+ FPS here. Total War Warhammer in DX12 also hovers at that same framerate marker. Tom Clancy's The Division still offers roughly 40 FPS there with wicked quality settings, so these I consider to be good numbers at 2560x1440 for a product that sits in the mid-range aka mainstream category. In short, for the money this is an excellent 1080P and a proper 1440P card that will often offer a nice 40~60 FPS experience at WQHD and proper image quality settings. It has plenty of muscle and has the graphics memory to deal with it (6 GB model), even with the best quality settings and some niche AA levels. Resolutions after 2560x1440 will obviously be more complicated.
Last Words
If Nvidia can get a grip at the price level (as with every release these days the price artificially jumps up so horrendously badly) then the GeForce GTX 1060 is a hit. If you can spot a 6 GB AIB version at 249 USD / 269 EURO and the product suits your needs and requirements, then go for it. You'll play your games up-to 2560x1440 with nice framerates and proper image quality settings. Obviously that 6 GB framebuffer helps out quite a bit and does make your graphics card a little more future proof. The new architecture proves its agility and the die shrink to 16 nm FinFET shows low power consumption due to lower voltages and obviously the high clock-speeds and that 8 Gbps GDDR5 memory offer the product that the GTX 1060 is. The GeForce GTX 1060 is a terrific choice for the ones that game in the 1920x1080 up-to 2560x1440 resolution domain. The card will tweak quite well, we however predict (once again) that any and all cards can achieve a 2.0~2.1 GHz boost clock frequency and for the memory you should be reaching 9 Gbps (effective data-rate) quite easily as well. Here again I predict that all cards from any vendor are going to hover in the 2.0~2.1 GHz range max due to the limiters that Nvidia applies these days. For the bigger part they are in control of your tweak, not you. Still anno 2016 we have 120 Watt GPUs now passing the 2 GHz marker quite easily, and that is impressive at any level. We like the GeForce GTX 1060 a lot, but we do recommend you to look at the Radeon RX 480 as well if you are keen in pricing and budget. Their 4 GB model simply is 50 bucks cheaper while perf wise it's all more or less the same. The AIB/AIC partners are all going to offer tweaked products, meaning you can add another 5 to 10% performance on top of what you have been able to see today. But more exclusive cooling means higher pricing and that is something this product series cannot have as that 250 USD marker really needs to be it. If so, the GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB version) is going to be a hit alright, we do like it a lot, and certainly would like to recommend the card to any fanatic gamer. Combined with silence and a cool running GPU with a low TDP the 249 USD marker has never been more attractive as it is right now. Highly recommended.
BTW I just finished up an FCAT article on the 1060, see the link below.
- H
Other Related reviews
Recommended Downloads
- Sign up to receive a notice when we publish a new article
- Or go back to Guru3D's front page
