The GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition & ASUS Strix GTX 1060 Review
by Ryan Smith on August 5, 2016 2:00 PM ESTAshes of the Singularity
Sorely missing from our benchmark suite for quite some time have been RTSes, which don’t enjoy quite the popularity they once did. As a result Ashes holds a special place in our hearts, and that’s before we talk about the technical aspects. Based on developer Oxide Games’ Nitrous Engine, Ashes has been designed from the ground up for low-level APIs like DirectX 12. As a result of all of the games in our benchmark suite, this is the game making the best use of DirectX 12’s various features, from asynchronous compute to multi-threaded work submission and high batch counts. What we see can’t be extrapolated to all DirectX 12 games, but it gives us a very interesting look at what we might expect in the future.
Ashes is a game that in our GTX 1080 review we found AMD does rather well in, with their last generation cards still challenging GTX 1070 at times. So I was surprised to see GTX 1060 and RX 480 so close here. At 1440p GTX 1060 trails by just a couple of percent, and at 1080p it’s a dead heat. Given that of all of the games in our current benchmark suite this is the game that AMD seems to do the best on, it’s notable that GTX 1060 can keep up with AMD’s card even when it’s on the backfoot. Given that NVIDIA is charging a slight price premium for the GTX 1060, it’s helpful for NVIDIA that the card never falters against its slightly cheaper competitor. That said there is also the spoiler effect of the cheaper 4GB RX 480, but that’s a slightly more complex matter for the conclusion of this article.
Meanwhile on a generational basis, GTX 1060 continues to deliver GTX 980-like performance. Or against the GTX 960, we’re looking at a considerable 74% performance improvement. GTX 1060 is even fast enough to do better than 30fps at 1440p with the Extreme settings, which for an RTS is perfectly playable. However GTX 1070 still has a significant lead over the GTX 1060 here.
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lilmoe - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link
This is becoming the next "where is Kai" thing. This is getting redundant and, frankly extremely rude. Stop. I started enjoying some of their content AFTER Anand left.There's quite a bit of bias, but regulars can ignore all that and focus on the important info they're looking for.
We made it clear to them that we expect better in terms of quality and timely delivery. I'm sure they listened and took 7 Notes.
TallestJon96 - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
I think this is the best card of NVIDIAs lineup so far. Generationally, it destroys the previous card, which frankly the 960 sucked, especially compared to the 760 or the 970. The 960s only saving grace was the $200 price point. 2gb wasn't good, the 970 crushed it, the 380 was a better deal, and even the 760 beat it sometimes.Compared to the 960, its 80% faster, has 3x times the ram, and costs $50 more.
Most importantly, this card will be a success vecause it is the card that can easily handle 1080p60 at a good price. Like the 970 before it, the gtx 1060 handles 1080p with ease, and will continue to do so with 15% more performance than the 970 and 2gb more ram.
I will recommend this card to many people.
fanofanand - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
I love that people keep claiming this is a $250 card. Maybe someday, but that day isn't today.bananaforscale - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
Maybe it is, excluding (VAT and import) taxes, margins and such.HollyDOL - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link
Cheapest model (from Zotac) around here costs $326 :-(eddman - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link
There are four $250 1060s on newegg, with the same specs as the FE version.fanofanand - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link
You mean the listings titled "out of stock"? Of course there are higher priced versions available. Surprise surprise.eddman - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link
As if 480s aren't out of stock. The point is, there ARE $250 1060s. Availability is another matter.bug77 - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link
It says "ships in 3-5 days" on most of them, so I don't see your problem.Mugur - Sunday, August 7, 2016 - link
In my country the Zotac mini 1060 is cheaper with the equivalent of 25$ than the cheapest RX 480 8 GB...