EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming Review: Mini But Mighty Pascal

How We Configured Our Test Systems: We tested the graphics cards in this article on a Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5P motherboard powered by an Intel Core i7-5960X octal-core processor and 16GB of Corsair DDR4 RAM. The first thing we did when configuring the test system was enter the UEFI and set all values to their "high performance" default / auto settings and disable any integrated peripherals that wouldn't be put to use. The memory's X.M.P. profile was enabled to ensure optimal memory performance and the solid state drive was then formatted and the latest build of Windows 10 Professional x64 was installed and fully updated. When the installation was complete, we installed all of the drivers, games, and benchmark tools necessary to complete our tests.

HotHardware's Test System Intel Core i7 Powered

Hardware Used: Intel Core i7-5960X (3GHz, Octa-Core) Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5P Radeon RX 480 Radeon R9 390 Radeon R9 Nano EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GeForce GTX 960 GeForce GTX 980 (OC) GeForce GTX 1070 16GB Corsair DDR4-2133 OCZ Vertex 4 Integrated Audio & Network

Relevant Software:  Windows 10 Pro x64 (10586) Benchmarks Used: Unigine Heaven v4 3DMark "Fire Strike" Thief Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor Ashes Of The Singularity Hitman 2016 Steam VR Performance Test FRAPS

Unigine Heaven Benchmark Psuedo-DirectX 11 Gaming

Unigine's Heaven Benchmark v4.0 is built around the Unigine game engine. Unigine is a cross-platform, real-time 3D engine, with support for DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11 and OpenGL. The Heaven benchmark--when run in DX11 mode--also makes comprehensive use of tessellation technology and advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion). It features volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm and a dynamic sky with light scattering as well.

Unigine Heaven

The EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming performed well in the Unigine Heaven benchmark, slotting in just ever-so-slightly behind the more expensive Radeon R9 Nano, but well ahead of the Radeon RX 480.

Futuremark 3DMark FireStrike Synthetic DirectX 11 Gaming

3DMark Fire Strike has multiple benchmark modes: Normal mode runs at 1920x1080, Extreme mode targets 2560x1440, and Ultra mode runs at a 4K resolution. GPU target frame buffer utilization for normal mode is 1GB and the benchmark uses tessellation, ambient occlusion, volume illumination, and a medium-quality depth of field filter. The more taxing Extreme mode targets 1.5GB of frame buffer memory and increases detail levels across the board. Ultra mode is explicitly designed for high-end single GPU and CrossFire / SLI systems. GT 1 focuses on geometry and illumination, with over 100 shadow casting spot lights, 140 non-shadow casting point lights, and 3.9 million vertices calculated for tessellation per frame. And 80 million pixels are processed per frame. GT2 emphasizes particles and GPU simulations.

3DMark Fire Strike

The EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming trails the Radeon R9 Nano by a wider margin in the Fire Strike Ultra test, but the overall trend remains the same. EVGA's GTX 1060 card drops in just behind the R9 Nano, but ahead of the Radeon R9 390 and Radeon RX 480.