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Nvidia Announces GeForce GTX 1060 Graphics Card
Hot off the heels of AMD’s RX 480 launch, Nvidia has revealed its budget-friendly GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card. Nvidia says that the GPU is at least as fast as its GeForce GTX 980, which currently runs for roughly $450 online, but will start at a much more affordable $249.
We found AMD’s $240 RX 480 GPU to be predominantly slower than the GTX 980 in most of our tests. According to Nvidia, the GTX 1060 runs 15 percent faster than the RX 480 on average.
The GTX 1060 will use Nvidia’s new Pascal architecture like its GTX 1080 and 1070 siblings. This means it is built on the same 16nm FinFet production process and will support many new, upcoming Pascal features such as simultaneous multi projection (SMP), VR Works, and Ansel. You can read more about these features in our GTX 1080 review.
In terms of specs, the card will have 1280 CUDA cores and carry a boost clock of 1.7GHz. While it features less CUDA cores compared to the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 before it, the card does carry a boost frequency that sits right in the middle. Like the GTX 1070, it will use GDDR5 video memory clocked at 8Gbps, though it will only use 6GB of it as opposed to the 1070’s 8GB allotment.
Despite the relatively fast boost frequency, the card will carry a 120-watt thermal design power (TDP). This makes the card quite power-efficient. Despite the modest TDP, however, Nvidia asserts that the card is a better solution for VR than the GTX 980 before it.
Like the GTX 1080 and 1070, Nvidia will release its own Founders Edition version of the card, which the company will sell exclusively on its site for $299.
We will put Nvidia’s claims to the test when we put the card through its paces when the GeForce GTX 1060 launches on July 19th. Until then, check out our pics of the card.
The GeForce GTX 1060 is a little shorter than the GTX 1080, but is a little longer than AMD's RX 480.
The GTX 1060 showcases a little more black accents and doesn't use the clear plastic material that the GTX 1080 uses above its heat sinks.
The GTX 1060 uses a single six-pin power connector.
The GTX 1060 features the same ports as the GTX 1080 before it: Three DisplayPorts, one HDMI, and one DVI. You may notice that AMD's RX 480 lacks a DVI port.
The back of each card (The GTX 1060 is in the middle). You'll notice that it, like AMD's RX 480, has an exposed PCB on the back.
A closer look at the backside of the card.
The GTX 1060 resting on its side.
The GTX 1060 uses the same fan that its GTX 1080 and 1070 siblings use.
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