The GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition & ASUS Strix GTX 1060 Review
by Ryan Smith on August 5, 2016 2:00 PM ESTDiRT Rally
For the racing game in our benchmark suite we have Codemasters’ DiRT Rally. Codemasters continues to set the bar for graphical fidelity in racing games, delivering realistic looking environments with layered with additional graphical effects. Based on their in-house EGO engine, DiRT Rally includes a number of DirectCompute based compute shader effects, and while it’s not the most punishing game in our suite, it still takes a very good card to sustain the 60fps frame rate that driving games are best played at.
DiRT Rally is another strong showing for the GTX 1060. This time even the stock clocked card edges out GTX 980, and ASUS’s factory overclocked card adds on another 10% at 1440p. This also becomes one of the few games where GTX 1060 is plenty fast for 1440p with everything turned up, as it has no problem holding over 60fps in this game.
As for the generational comparisons, GTX 1060 remains ahead of the curve for Pascal cards. Relative to GTX 960, it offers 77% better performance. Though the gap between it and GTX 1070 is also a bit larger, with GTX 1060 offering 74% of its faster sibling’s performance. Finally, against the RX 480, GTX 1060 bests its AMD competitor by 14%.
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Ryan Smith - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
Since there is no standard benchmark, it depends on the area you use. We purposely picked a section of the game that would be among the most demanding.Arbie - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
I really want to 'need' a new graphics board for FPS gaming. But I can't find any such games worth playing that need one. They're all console ports with mediocre graphics and even worse mechanics. And my GTX 770 is more than enough even on 2560x1440. I still read about the new cards but... how long...Simplex - Sunday, August 7, 2016 - link
"And my GTX 770 is more than enough even on 2560x1440"So you play at sub-30 fps and/or low details?
Arbie - Sunday, August 7, 2016 - link
Simplex - Can't see how you jumped to that conclusion, so I guess you're just trying to be contentious. FOR THE GAMES I *DO* PLAY the 770 is fine. That's my point, and the reason I personally am not in the market.I don't check frames per sec unless the gameplay is laggy. When it is - which is rare with the 770 - I dial down the eye-candy. Beyond a certain point that doesn't matter anyway, compared to game design & mechanics. The problem is that there are NO NEW FPS GAMES that deliver on those two aspects. My benchmark game is Crysis (and its siblings) which I run at "Very High" settings. There are a few games now with equally good graphics, but nothing even compares for fluidity, control, physics, level design, AI quality etc etc. Until there is, I won't need a new card. I wish it were otherwise.
just4U - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
A note for Nvidia since they will likely read these comments (..as will AMD)I've said there is a market for a reference design using a stylish reference cooler (like what you see on the Titan series..) For some it's worth the $50 admission. If your going to do that at the lower end but charge a premium... make sure it's got the same goodness as the upper end models.
Your 1060 Founders might sell.. but it won't sell as well as it could have if you'd gone all out on the cooler like you have for the higher end models. Plastic? Ugh.. No full backplate? Please.. Come on!
AnnonymousCoward - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
Now that you mention it, I've got a note for NVIDIA too: support the VESA standard Adaptive-Sync already! My monitor supports it, why won't you.Gigaplex - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link
If they do that, then there would be no reason for manufacturers to produce G-SYNC monitors. They'd all flock to Freesync compliance.Beararam - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
Great review, Ryan. Hope all the negative comments don't bring you down. Probably a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't see.VulkanMan - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
Why no encoding tests?Both camps support H.265 HEVC encoding & decoding.
Ryan Smith - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link
I've looked into it, but I haven't found any good encoding tests right now, particularly those that use HEVC. But if you happen to come across something, then I'm all ears.=)