Nvidia is back at it again, revealing last week the fifth variant of its popular GeForce GTX 1060 (opens in new tab) graphics card. Priced at $299, the card differs from past approaches in that it's outfitted with faster GDDR5X memory instead of the GDDR5 used in the other four variants.
Graphics card manufacturers often rewarm their silicons to produce multiple variations of the same product if it's doing particularly well in sales. Although both AMD and Nvidia are guilty of this practice, the latter takes it to another level with the GeForce GTX 1060. If four different versions of the GeForce GTX 1060 wasn't enough, Nvidia has now added a fifth. Who can blame them? From a price-to-performance perspective, the GeForce GTX 1060 is hard to beat and very popular among gamers. In fact, the graphics card has been the reigning champion on Steam's Hardware & Software Survey for a while now.
AMD is expected to usher in its Radeon RX 500-series refresh very soon. It seems Nvidia is preparing to compete. The Geforce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X can serve as Nvidia's answer to AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 590 graphics card.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Specs Comparison
| Header Cell - Column 0 | GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X | GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 9Gbps | GeForce GTX 1060 6GB | GeForce GTX 1060 5GB | GeForce GTX 1060 3GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture (GPU) | Pascal (GP104) | Pascal (GP106) | Pascal (GP106) | Pascal (GP106) | Pascal (GP106) |
| CUDA Cores | 1,280 | 1,280 | 1,280 | 1,280 | 1,152 |
| TMUs | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 72 |
| ROPs | 48 | 48 | 48 | 40 | 48 |
| SM | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 |
| Base Clock | 1,506MHz | 1,506MHz | 1,506MHz | 1,506MHz | 1,506MHz |
| GPU Boost Clock | 1,708MHz | 1,708MHz | 1,708MHz | 1,709MHz | 1,708MHz |
| Memory Clock | N/A | 2,257MHz (9,028MHz effective) | 2,002MHz (8,008MHz effective) | 2,002MHz (8,008MHz effective) | 2,002MHz (8,008MHz effective) |
| Memory Capacity | 6GB GDDR5X | 6GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 | 5GB GDDR5 | 3GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus | N/A | 192-bit | 192-bit | 160-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | N/A | 216.7 GB/s | 192.2 GB/s | 160.2 GB/s | 192.2 GB/s |
| TDP | 120W | 120W | 120W | 120W | 120W |
The GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X is reportedly built around a cut-down version of the Pascal GP104 silicon, which is present in the GeForce GTX 1070, GTX 1070 Ti and GTX 1080, instead of the GP106 silicon that was employed in previous GeForce GTX 1060 models.
Nvidia didn't disclose memory clock information for the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X. But since Micron provides Nvidia with GDDR5X memory chips for its GeForce GTX 1080, 1080 Ti, Titan X and Titan Xp graphics cards, we dropped by the U.S. memory manufacturer's website to check its GDDR5X catalog. Micron currently offers GDDR5X memory chips rated at 10Gb/s, 11Gb/s and 12Gb/s. We expect the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X's memory will probably come clocked at 10Gb/s, since faster memory chips would increase the graphics card's pricing. On the performance front, the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X should perform a little faster than previous models.
