Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Review
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Page 1:Say Hello To A New Pascal-Based GPU
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Page 2:How We Tested GeForce GTX 1060
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Page 3:Ashes of the Singularity, Battlefield & GTA V Results
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Page 4:Hitman, Metro: Last Light Redux & Project CARS
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Page 5:Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Division & The Witcher 3
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Page 6:Power Consumption Results
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Page 7:Efficiency & Over/Underclocking Results
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Page 8:Frequency, Temperature & Noise Results
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Page 9:Conclusion
Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Division & The Witcher 3
Rise of the Tomb Raider
- tombraider 19x10 fps
- tombraider 19x10 frot
- tombraider 19x10 ftor
- tombraider 19x10 ftoa
- tombraider 19x10 smoothness
Count Rise of the Tomb Raider as another game that cleanly separates the GeForces and Radeons in our comparison field. Again, GTX 1060 shows up in between the 970 and 980.
As an aside, the RX 480 beats last-generation’s Radeon R9 390 and 390X, but trails the GTX 970. Given the pricing of both boards currently, that’s fitting, we’d say.
- tombraider 25x14 fps
- tombraider 25x14 frot
- tombraider 25x14 ftoa
- tombraider 25x14 ftor
- tombraider 25x14 smoothness
Higher resolutions tax the GP106 processor and its more mainstream configuration. As a result, the 1060 behaves more like a GeForce GTX 970 at 2560x1440 than the 980 we were hoping to see it beat. Still, you’re able to enjoy a playable experience using Tomb Raider’s highest detail settings.
For readers who asked about testing under DirectX 12 in our Radeon RX 480 review, we’ll reiterate: this feature is of questionable utility. In a contrived benchmark (GeForce GTX 1080 down at 1920x1080), we go from 132 FPS to 135 using DirectX 12. However, the jump to 2560x1440 increases the graphics workload enough to actually push the frame rate down.
The Division
- division 19x10 fps
- division 19x10 frot
- division 19x10 ftoa
- division 19x10 ftor
- division 19x10 smoothness
The GeForce GTX 1060, Radeon RX 480, Radeon R9 390X, and GeForce GTX 970 all post very similar results in The Division at 1920x1080 using Very High detail settings. AMD’s Radeon R9 390 isn’t far off either, but it demonstrates sharp frame time variance spikes that affect smoothness through the benchmark. Yet again, we see the 1060 act more like a GeForce GTX 970 than a 980.
- division 25x14 fps
- division 25x14 frot
- division 25x14 ftoa
- division 25x14 ftor
- division 25x14 smoothness
Jumping to 2560x1440 hits the 1060 harder, and it technically falls to sixth place in average frame rate. Based on our frame rate over time numbers, however, the 1060 runs right alongside the GTX 970, Radeon R9 390, and, to a lesser extent, the slightly faster RX 480. Even if Nvidia were to enable SLI across the PCI Express bus, it’s probable that two 1060s wouldn’t scale well above QHD based on what we see going from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440.
The Witcher 3
- witcher 19x10 fps
- witcher 19x10 frot
- witcher 19x10 ftoa
- witcher 19x10 ftor
- witcher 19x10 smoothness
The Witcher 3 shows four GeForce cards in first through fourth place at 1920x1080, but there’s a big group between the GeForce GTX 1060 and Radeon R9 390 that occupy the same space when we look at frame rate over time. Pricing becomes a primary consideration in cases like these, and GeForce GTX 1060 (at least the Founders Edition card) lands on the wrong side of that equation.
- witcher 25x14 fps
- witcher 25x14 frot
- witcher 25x14 ftoa
- witcher 25x14 ftor
- witcher 25x14 smoothness
Another cluster of upper-mainstream graphics cards in the middle of our chart compels us to think about pricing once more. Multiple Radeon R9 390s sell for less than $300. The same goes for GeForce GTX 970. Partisanship aside, either of those options compare readily to a GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition at $300.
MORE: Best Graphics Cards
MORE: Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table
MORE: All Graphics Content
- Say Hello To A New Pascal-Based GPU
- How We Tested GeForce GTX 1060
- Ashes of the Singularity, Battlefield & GTA V Results
- Hitman, Metro: Last Light Redux & Project CARS
- Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Division & The Witcher 3
- Power Consumption Results
- Efficiency & Over/Underclocking Results
- Frequency, Temperature & Noise Results
- Conclusion
Guess I'll recommend either from now on.
Thanks for the review guys, pleasure as always
On that review, as a matter of fact, you use pretty much only DX11 games and only one DX12 title; new API paths are available in Dota2, Talos Principle and Doom 2016... Why not include them, as a reference for the future of gaming, instead of only showing off DX11 games?
I don't know what NVidia is thinking... their marketing campaign might be stronger than I understand and people will still buy the 1060, but value on it just don't make sense right now.
Long story short, if you have Win7 and don't plan to upgrade for the next 2-3 years you have a solid reason to get a GTX 1060. The "plot changes" in favor of RX480 if you are going all forward with Win10.
Honestly I expected something decent but seems they released a cheap GPU for NVidia fans rather than to compete with AMD performance and prices!
I would also like to join others in their request for:
- including 2x RX480s in Crossfire (price-wise they are comparable to a 1070,)
- a benchmark using Doom's Vulkan rendering path, and
- results from the TimeSpy benchmark please.
Thank you again for a relaxing and informative read,
Andrew
A. Card is priced about $50 too high as review kind of indicates.
B. SLI is removed because Nvidia wants you to spend more $$$$$$$ on their higher priced cards. They dont want people trying to achieve playable 4k resolution without paying that Nvidia premium tax.
Right now if I was buying to play 1080-1440 I'd go AMD 480 all the way.
I agree with you there. I imagine that Project Cars is an EXTREMELY niche title compared to the new Doom. If one wants to include a racing game, why not one of the Dirt Rally games?I'll watch out for your next comment. ;-)
Source please, Myrmidonas? Edit: I found one (over at what I personally consider to be a usually Nvidia biased site, no less!): http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/07/19/nvidia_geforce_gtx_1060_founders_edition_review/4
>no SLI bridge
>$250 for 3gb and 300 for the 6.
>not exactly better than RX480 or even the 980, more like comparable in performance
>small OC headroom, well RX 480 OC headroom was near non-existent too.
Any AIB's RX480 are much better value than this.
*reads AIB's 1060, 480 still much better value
...realizes people would still buy this.
A respectable 25% lead in 1080p and a hefty 32% lead in 1440p.
Likely, the GTX 1060 won't match the performance of an RX 480 in Doom/Vulkan at stock clock, even if overclocked to 2+GHz.
Also the RX 480 seems generally have some performance advantages in next-gen games and API combinations.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/07/19/nvidia_geforce_gtx_1060_founders_edition_review/4#.V448Ue2lilM
A pair of GTX1060 would set you back $500 or more. At that point, might as well go with a 1080 for $50-100 more and not have to worry about multi-GPU performance scaling and compatibility issues. If you drop the SLI motherboard, larger case, extra case cooling, etc., getting a single GTX1080 might be cheaper than getting a pair of GTX1060.
It is not supposed to compete with 200$ 4GB RX 480. For that we will have ~200$ 3GB pascal card whatever they will call it (1050, 1060 3GB).
GTX 1060 6GB supposed to compete with 8GB RX 480 and it does the job for now.
For me it looks like "RIP AMD"
But IMO no matter if a mainstream product or not, a customer buys a computer part expecting not to expend on the same part again at least for 2 years. And the lack of benchmarks in the APIs of tomorrow is sad.