NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Review: Pascal Value And Performance Per Watt

Performance Summary: The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 is a very strong graphics card in its price segment. Throughout our testing, it offered performance that just missed the mark set by the pricier Radeon R9 Nano, and it often outran the 8GB Radeon RX 480. The GeForce GTX 1060 held onto its largest leads over the Radeon RX 480 in the DirectX 11 tests, though the Radeon had a clear edge in OpenCL and managed to pull ahead of the GTX 1060 in Thief and in some DirectX 12 tests (like Hitman). The GeForce GTX 1060, however, consumes significantly less power than the AMD Radeon RX 480 and it is quieter too. Versus a factory-overclocked GTX 980, the 1060 typically trails by a few percentage points in DirectX 11 tests, but the 1060 pulled ahead in DirectX 12.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 is a very compelling product. For under $300 it offers additional features and performance that’s in-line with much more expensive products in many scenarios. The GeForce GTX 1060 is also power friendly, quiet, and highly overclockable. Taking all of that into consideration, the GeForce GTX 1060 is easily one of the most attractive graphics cards for gamers that can’t afford higher-end flagship offerings like the GTX 1070 or 1080.

While the GeForce GTX 1060 has a few clear advantages over the recently-released Radeon RX 480 as well, it is not necessarily the fatal head-shot that some have claimed. The Radeon RX 480 supports traditional CrossFire, whereas the GTX 1060 does not support SLI. 8GB RX 480 cards have more breathing room for future games at high resolutions, and the RX 480 performed in-line with or better than the GTX 1060 in our DirectX 12 tests. Technically, if we're strictly talking about suggested pricing, the Radeon RX 480 is also less expensive, but with all of the price gouging going on at the moment due to the Radeon’s limited availability and with the GTX 1060 just launching today, drawing any final conclusion on pricing is premature.

Though the Founder's Edition arrives at $299, we're told, custom cards from NVIDIA's partners will start at $249. A wide variety of cards are due to hit today, from most of the major players.  The list of cards launching today include...

• EVGA GTX 1060 edition: $249
• EVGA GTX 1060 Superclocked (SC) Edition: $259
• ASUS STRIX-GTX1060-6G-GAMING: $329
• ASUS Turbo Edition: $249
• PNY GeForce GTX 1060: $259
• MSI GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING X 6G: $289
• MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming 6G: $279
• MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Armor 6G OC: $259
• MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GT: $249
• Gigabyte GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD: $289
• Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP 6GB: $279
• ZT-P10600A-10L ZOTAC GTX 1060 Mini 6G: $249

With the sole exception of the ASUS STRIX, all of these partner boards are priced lower than the Founder's Edition. As we mentioned, the Founder's Edition will only be available on NVIDIA's website, so if you're a purist that wants exactly what NVIDIA designed, you won't find it through traditional retail channels -- that's what the partner boards are for.

We were impressed by the GeForce GTX 1060. Not only because it represents a great value, but because it hits many high points -- the card is fast, cool, quiet, overclockable, and it arrives in a price segment that's affordable for many PC gamers. You can't ask for much more than that.