The GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition & ASUS Strix GTX 1060 Review
by Ryan Smith on August 5, 2016 2:00 PM ESTOverclocking
For our final evaluation of our GTX 1060 cards, let’s take a look at overclocking.
We’ll start things off with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition. This card has a 3+1 power delivery system and a 116% TDP limit. Like the earlier GTX 1080 and 1070 cards, the GTX 1060FE can be “overvolted” to 1.093v to unlock an additional boost bin.
| GeForce GTX 1060FE Overclocking | ||||
| Stock | Overclocked | |||
| Core Clock | 1506MHz | 1706MHz | ||
| Boost Clock | 1709MHz | 1909MHz | ||
| Max Boost Clock | 1911MHz | 2100MHz | ||
| Memory Clock | 8Gbps | 9Gbps | ||
| Max Voltage | 1.062v | 1.093v | ||
We were able to overclock the GTX 1060FE’s GPU an additional 200MHz (12%), bringing the boost clock to 1909MHz. Unsurprisingly, this is very similar to the GTX 1080 and 1070, both of which overclocked by around 200MHz as well. Consequently it looks like both GP104 and GP106 seem to have similar voltage/frequency curves. Meanwhile we were able to push the memory another 1Gbps (13%) to 9Gbps.
Our other GTX 1060 is ASUS’s ROG Strix GTX 1060 OC. This card features a more advanced cooler and 6+1 power delivery system, but it also ships with a factory overclock. So all things held equal it’s likely that there’s not as much headroom for additional end-user overclocking. Meanwhile the card also ships with a built-in OC setting via ASUS’s GPU Tweak II software, which offers a small, virtually guaranteed overclock.
| ASUS Strix GTX 1060 OC Overclocking | |||||
| Stock | OC Mode | Overclocked | |||
| Core Clock | 1620MHz | 1646MHz | 1720MHz | ||
| Boost Clock | 1848MHz | 1874MHz | 1948MHz | ||
| Max Boost Clock | 2025MHz | 2050MHz | 2113MHz | ||
| Memory Clock | 8.2Gbps | 8.2Gbps | 9.2Gbps | ||
| Max Voltage | 1.062v | 1.062v | 1.093v | ||
As expected, due to its factory overclock the ASUS GTX 1060 doesn’t offer quite as much end-user overclocking. We were able to add another 100MHz (5%) to the GPU, half that of the stock clocked GTX 1060FE. Though it should be noted that in absolute terms the ASUS card has overclocked a bit farther than NVIDIA’s card, with a base clock 14MHz higher and a boost clock 39MHz higher. Meanwhile we got a slightly higher memory overclock out of the card as well, with the card topping out at 9.2Gbps, 1Gbps (12%) over the card’s shipping memory frequency.
The overall performance gains and resulting power/temperate/noise costs are about as expected. The additional overclock helps the performance of the GTX 1060, but it’s nowhere near enough to close the gap with the GTX 1070. Meanwhile the final overclocks of the NVIDIA and ASUS cards are close enough that their peak performance is neck-and-neck.
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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...