EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Superclocked 6GB GDDR5 Review

Today, a one-page review of EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Superclocked gaming graphics card.

Article index:

• 1 – Overview
• 2 – Gallery
• 3 – GPU Data
• 4 – Benchmarks
• 5 – GPU Bun-in Test
• 6 – Conclusion

1 – Overview

The GeForce GTX 1060 is the third member of the new family based on the Pascal GPU architecture, first members being the GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070.

The GTX 1060 is based on the GP106 GPU (1280 CUDA cores, base clock: 1506MHz and boost clock: 1708MHz, 80 texture units and 48 ROPs) and comes with 6GB of GDDR5 graphics memory clocked at 8000MHz effective speed (or 2000MHz real speed).

EVGA GTX 1060 SC is a factory-overclocked GTX 1060: the GPU is overclocked at 1607MHz (base) and 1835MHz (boost). The graphics memory is also overclocked but only a little bit: 8008MHz. The For the VGA cooler, EVGA has replaced NVIDIA reference cooler by another based on EVGA ACX cooling technology: the ACX 2.0.

2 – Gallery

Let’s start with the box and the bundle. There are always some geeky gadgets in EVGA bundles and this time, we have some stickers, a PC case badge and a big poster.

 
Now serious things: the graphics card. The GTX 1060 SC is equipped with the ACX 2.0 VGA cooler. The ACX 2.0 is not a new technology, it has already been used by previous GTX 980 and GTX 970 (more information can be found HERE). To enjoy the newer ACX 3.0, you have to look at the GTX 1060 SSC or FTW. The main difference between ACX 2.0 and 3.0 is the 0dB fan noise only available on ACX 3.0: below 60°C, fans are turned off leading to 0dB of noise. On the ACX 2.0, fans are always spinning, but in idle (browsing the Net for example), the cooler is quiet. Actually there is a noise but it’s barely audible.

 
The GTX 1060 SC comes with three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.0b output connectors. A dual-link DVI connector is also available:

 
The rear side, no backplate like we can find on GTX 1080 or GTX 1070. Maybe on ACX 3.0 coolers 🙁

 
The GTX 1060 SC requires one additional 6-pin power connector (the TDP is less than 150W, 120W for NVIDIA reference board):

 
The GTX 1060 SC is a small card:

3 – GPU Data

3.1 – GPU Caps Viewer

3.2 – GPU Shark

3.3 – GPU-Z

4 – GPU Benchmarks

4.1 – 3DMark Sky Diver

29024 – ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Strix – R368.51

25134 – ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti – R353.06

23451 – EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC – R368.81

23038 – ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix – R344.75

21964 – MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming – Catalyst 14.9 WHQL

21811 – Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phantom – R344.75

20274 – EVGA GeForce GTX 780 – R344.75

17570 – MSI Radeon HD 7970 – Catalyst 14.9 WHQL

17533 – EVGA GeForce GTX 680 – R344.75

4.2 – 3DMark Fire Strike

Fire Strike is a Direct3D 11 benchmark for high-performance gaming PCs with serious graphics cards.

15583 – ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Strix – R368.51

12514 – ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti – R353.06

10574 – ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix – R344.75

10322 – EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC – R368.81

9382 – MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming – Catalyst 14.9 WHQL

8870 – MSI GTX 970 CLASSIC 4GD5T OC – R344.75

8203 – EVGA GeForce GTX 780 – R344.75

6572 – MSI Radeon HD 7970 – Catalyst 14.9 WHQL

6399 – ASUS Strix GTX 960 DC2 OC 4GB – R353.06

6235 – EVGA GeForce GTX 680 – R344.75

4.3 – 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra

5125 (Graphics score: 5330) – ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Strix – R368.51

3047 (graphics score: 3043) – EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC – R368.81

2617 (Graphics score: 2592) – MSI GTX 970 CLASSIC 4GD5T OC – R368.69

2178 (Graphics score: 2134) – EVGA GeForce GTX 780 – R368.69

4.4 – FurMark 1.17

FurMark is an OpenGL 2 benchmark that renders a furry donut. This benchmark is known for its extreme GPU workload.

Settings: Preset:1080 (1920×1080)

7151 points (119 FPS) – ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Strix – R368.51

6233 points (103 FPS) – ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti – R353.06

4660 points (77 FPS) – ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix – R344.75

4592 points (76 FPS) – MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming – Catalyst 14.9 WHQL

4578 points (76 FPS) – EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC – R368.81

4050 points (67 FPS) – EVGA GeForce GTX 780 – R344.75

3335 points (55 FPS) – MSI GTX 970 CLASSIC 4GD5T OC – R344.75

2951 points (49 FPS) – MSI Radeon HD 7970 – Catalyst 14.9 WHQL

2733 points (45 FPS) – EVGA GeForce GTX 680 – R344.75

2566 points (42 FPS) – ASUS Strix GTX 960 DC2 OC 4GB – R353.06

Settings: Preset:2160 (3840×2160)

2715 points (45 FPS) – ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Strix – R368.51

1565 points (26 FPS) – EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC – R368.81

1385 points (23 FPS) – EVGA GeForce GTX 780 – R368.69

1339 points (22 FPS) – MSI GTX 970 CLASSIC 4GD5T OC – R368.69

4.5 – Alien vs Predator

Alien vs Predator (or AvP) is a Direct3D 11 benchmark with tessellation and high quality shadows. AvP can be downloaded from this page.

Settings: Resolution: 1920 x 1080, Texture Quality: 2, Shadow Quality: 3, Anisotropic Filtering: 16, SSAO: ON, Vertical Sync: OFF, DX11 Tessellation: ON, DX11 Advanced Shadows: ON, DX11 MSAA Samples: 1.

305 FPS – ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Strix – R368.51

229 FPS – ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti – R353.06

180.3 FPS – ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix – R344.75

176.3 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC – R368.81

159.9 FPS – Gainward GeForce GTX 970 Phantom – R344.75

151.5 FPS – MSI GTX 970 CLASSIC 4GD5T OC – R344.75

147.8 FPS – MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming – Catalyst 14.9 WHQL

138 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 780 – R344.75

103.1 FPS – EVGA GeForce GTX 680 – R344.75

102.6 FPS – MSI Radeon HD 7970 – Catalyst 14.9 WHQL

97.8 FPS – ASUS Strix GTX 960 DC2 OC 4GB – R353.06

5 – Burn-in Test

 
This quick burn-in test has been done with Geeks3D FurMark 1.17 and EVGA Precision.

Testbed:
– motherboard: ASUS Z170 Gaming Pro
– CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K (default clock speed)
– PSU: Corsair AX860i
– memory: 8GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance LPX @ 2666MHz

The GPU power target of the GTX 1060 SC can be set from 50% TDP to 116% TDP (see the GPU Shark screenshot in the GPU Data section). The first thing to do before the burn-in (same thing applies to overclocking) is to set the power target to the max: 116% TDP.

At idle, the total power consumption of the system was 37W and the GPU temperature was 30°C. And the noise? At idle, the EVGA GTX 1060 is quiet. Fans are not stopped but the noise is barely audible in my open case testbed.

I launched FurMark in stress test mode in 1024×768 and after 5 minutes, the GPU temperature reached 74°C while the total power consumption jumped to 200W.

A rough approximation of the GTX 1060 SC power consumption is (the power consumption of the CPU is around 20W when running FurMark): (200-37-20) * 0.9 = 128W

where 0.9 the the power efficiency factor of the Corsair AX860i PSU.

The GTX 1060 reference board has a TDP of 120W (100% TDP). Since the GTX 1060 SC is overclocked, a TDP of 128W seems correct.

At 74°C, the fan noise was really reasonable.

Important fact: there is no throttling! During the stress test, the clock speed of the GPU core was constant and equal to 1835MHz.

Here is the thermal imaging at idle:

 
and the the thermal imaging under full stress (FurMark):

6 – Conclusion

For around USD $260 (price on EVGA website), you get a powerful graphics card that is able to run all videogames at fullHD resolutions with max settings while keeping the power consumption to a reasonable value. The GTX 1060 is between the GTX 970 and the GTX 980 in the performance side. The card is quiet at idle while some noise is produced under load which should not be a problem in a PC case. But to be honest, a VGA cooler with 0dB fan technology (ACX 3.0) would have been perfect!

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UPDATE (2016.08.25): I wasn’t aware of that, but EVGA has released a VGA bios especially to bring the 0dB fan to the GTX 1060 SC. This is very cool. You can download the VGA bios from HERE.

The bios is really simple to apply:

1/ unzip the archive:

 
2/ Launch update.exe:

 
Now the GTX 1060 SC has the 0dB fan technology and it works fine! Thanks EVGA!

And since it’s a bios update, this feature is now etched in the card 😉

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The GTX 1060 comes with 6GB of GDDR5 memory which offers enough place for gaming at FHD, WGHD and even 4K resolutions. The GPU is factory overclocked (+127MHz on the boost clock).

I quickly tested the latest DOOM and, thanks to the 6GB of VRAM, the GTX 1060 SC is able to run DOOM at around 35 FPS in 4K resolution (3840×216). Not bad!

For VR (virtual reality), the GTX 1060 SC includes two HDMI 2.0 output connectors.

For graphics developers, this kind of card is nice because it has all latest features (OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan, D3D12), it is powerful and can be seen as a reference card (not too powerful and not too weak) for tuning graphics application workload.