NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Cards Based On Pascal GP104 GPU Reportedly Incoming
While it didn't seem to be a major focus of NVIDIA's when it launched the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, the same model card also has a 3GB card available, which can be found virtually anywhere today. So how's such a card making headlines today? Because soon, according to the latest rumor, the chip inside that model will be changing.
Both the 3GB and 6GB GTX 1060s launched with the GP106 architecture, not the GP104 architecture of the high-end GTX 1070 and GTX 1080. If this rumor proves true, though, the GTX 1060 3GB will begin to be built on GP104 chips that are not up to snuff for either GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 duty. In effect, imperfect chips for those top-end cards could be repurposed for the GTX 1060.
This wouldn't be the first time this sort of hardware trickery has happened, and it surely won't be the last. Because cores will be disabled on these chips through the BIOS, there's a possibility that consumers could reenable them through a software flash. This could give enthusiasts willing to take a risk the potential of unlocking a higher-performing card.
It's hard to say whether or not this will actually happen, as NVIDIA could very well make it "impossible" to pull off. The company might have chosen the 3GB model specifically because of this, though: if cores can in fact be restored, then it means that people will still be limited by the 3GB framebuffer. Otherwise, someone could make a "light" version of the GTX 1070 in an ideal situation.
