GPUs Graphics Reviews

Pascal-Roundup #2: Nvidias GeForce GTX 1060 in comparison

A special feature of this roundup, whose individual product pages can of course be regarded as individual tests, is the intentional focus on workmanship and technical equipment as well as the most important features such as power consumption,... With the GeForce GTX 1060 Superclocked (6GB), EVGA has a GeForce GTX 1060 in its portfolio that roughly relies on Nvidia's reference board, but which interprets the cooler in such a way that there are no overhangs like the Founders Edition. This creates a rec... With the GeForce GTX 1060 Phoenix GS, Gainward is more aimed at the more demanding user, but without getting lost in the extensive overclocking craze. As a kind of "luxury label" from Palit, one naturally also resorts to the company's own Ressourc... The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming is certainly not the low-cost model of the manufacturer, but rather rather targets the rather price-conscious gamer, who despite the rather moderate price does not want to do without certain extras. Dami... The inno3D GTX 1060 Gaming OC is not the flagship of inno3D, but rather the butter-and-bread card in the GTX-1060 portfolio - and that's a good thing. Because she represents the more affordable representatives of this class and is thus... In the future, one will have to pay more attention to the designation or the specified memory in the 1060s - because with 1152 instead of 1280 shaders, the GP106-300 GPU offers exactly 10 percent less theoretical computing power than the normal GP106-400. To... With the GeForce GTX 1060 after the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080, MSI is now the third graphics card with the new cooler, which appears almost oversized on this card. The advantage is obvious, because it is possible to... Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060, like its two larger sisters, GeForce GTX 1070 and GeForce GTX 1080, is banking on the new Edge design - but this time in a slightly more cost-friendly version. The appearance is for a reference map - par... The Palit GeForce GTX 1060 SuperJetstream is almost identical to the Gainward GeForce GTX 1060 Phoenix GS, but varies in some minor details. We will also deal with this in the following places. Otherwise, the genes are similar ... With the GeForce GTX 1060 XLR8 OC Gaming, PNY offers a simpler model that focuses on the most moderate cost possible. Nevertheless, the factory clock has been raised properly and is otherwise quite optimistic about the performance... We test all cards in a completely warmed-up state to eliminate unfair differences in boost time. For this purpose, all benchmarks generally run with six runs - the first of which always to reheat the respective map. ... Power consumption First of all, we compare all graphics cards in the main areas of gaming loop, stress test and idle in direct comparison in a gallery, which compares all results in exactly this order as balk... EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Superclocked The rather inexpensive EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Superclocked uses the board of reference design as a template, has a very compact cooler and can score points due to its small dimensions whenever it is available for...

The inno3D GTX 1060 Gaming OC is not the flagship of inno3D, but rather the butter-and-bread card in the GTX-1060 portfolio – and that's a good thing.

Because it represents the more affordable representatives of this class and is therefore certainly also interesting for the readers, for whom the 40 to 50 euros for the respective sprout model is too much.

However, it will be interesting to see where inno3D has put on the red pencil or where certain features might be missing in favor of a lower price. Technically feasible is such a card in any case, because in the class below 150 watts power consumption, cooling is probably more of a secondary topic.

External structure and connections

The radiator cover is made entirely of black plastic and is not really unsightly with the red applications. The additionally set in piano lacquer optics, on the other hand, are rather unnecessary and a fingerprint scanner of the very first quality. So install – and then polish it again.

With its 820 grams, the card is a real lightweight and measures a reasonable 28 x 12.5 x 3.5 cm (LxHxT, installation dimensions). So it occupies two full slots and is therefore neither particularly space-saving nor oversized – simply average. The rotor blades of the two simple fans have a diameter of nine centimeters, which is also average.

The back of the board is covered by a one-piece backplate, which has ventilation openings, but is completely functional due to the lack of areas connected to thermal guide pads. With this backplate you have to plan another five millimeter sdepth on the back, if you use the first motherboard slot. For multi-GPU systems, however, the GTX 1060 is uninteresting due to the lack of SLI function.

The top of the card bears the unilluminated inno3D lettering and is characterized by the visible cooling fins, the 8-pin PCIe power supply connection sits unturned at the end of the card, which explains on the one hand the slat recess above the socket and is technically due to the fact that you rely on Nvidia's reference board of the GeForce GTX 1070. But there's more to it.

The vertical slat alignment ensures that hardly any waste heat is carried out of the housing via the slot aperture, although their air openings actually imply exactly this. Due to the simpler heatpipe arrangement, however, the vertical slat guide is more cost-effective, even if this initially leaves the waste heat rather in the housing and relies on an airflow that is used in the housing.

The slot aperture carries the usual five outputs, a maximum of four of which can be used together as part of a multi-monitor setup. In addition to the dual-link DVI-D (an analog signal is not looped through), there is an HDMI 2.0 output and three DisplayPort 1.4 ports on the back.

Board and assembly

A glance at the board ensures a real déja vu, because inno3D relies on the longer reference board of the GeForce GTX 1070. The placement is of course a little simpler, but since the GP106 GPU is pin-compatible, no further chin-ups are necessary for the use of the board.

Like the reference design of the GeForce GTX 1070, the 5+1 phase system relies on the uP9511P from uPI Semiconductor Corp as a PWM controller. All five phases are fed from the PCIe connector, only the memory is supplied in a separate phase via the motherboard slot, which is also responsible for supplying the other components. More on this in the measurements of power consumption and flowing currents.

The voltage of the five GPU phases and the memory phase is controlled by dual-N-channel MOSFETs of the no-name class, which also require an external gate driver. The coils used are also more likely to be in the lower price segment as simple clones of Foxconn's Magic series.

Below the GPU, two capacitors are soldered to intercept and smooth voltage peaks – exactly the same principle as Nvidia's Refrenz.

Of course, it is also noticeable that in the GTX 1060 only six of the eight existing memory fields are filled with modules. These are Samsung modules of the type K4G80325FB-HC25, each with a capacity of eight gigabit (32x 256 MBit) and can be operated with voltages between 1,305 and 1,597 volts, depending on the required clock. In total, this results in a total memory of six gigabytes.

Clock rates, voltages and power consumption

Before we get to the power consumption, let's look at the speeds of boost clock and adjacent GPU core voltage. Here you can see very nicely the connection between clock frequency and voltage, whereby the clock curve breaks more clearly during gaming with fully warmed up card. Clock rates and voltages behave very similarly as curves.

While the boost clock drops from 1974 MHz to an acceptable 1949 MHz as an average after heating and under load, the measured voltage values look quite similar. If initially up to 1.043 volts are reached, this voltage then drops to an average of one volt later, whereby the course of the break-ins is largely the same as that of the boost clock.

These voltage curves and the flowing currents then result in the power consumption, which we can measure very well with our exact equipment at all connections. The lowest GPU clock for idle measurement is approx. 203 MHz.

We worked with a variable low-pass filter for the measurements, so that we only mention possible, very short load peaks on the margins (greyed out bar), because they are hardly relevant in practice and have also irritated many readers.

Loading of the power supply connections

But let's go into a little more detail and look at the load sharing at maximum gaming load and the stress test. Since inno3D no longer actively uses the 3.3V motherboard connector on the GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming OC, we have dispensed with this voltage rail in the diagrams.

We can see here the successful division, which – as already mentioned above – also shows very clearly the weighting towards the PCIe connection:

Here's another clickable diagram with the respective history curves for gaming and stress testing:

Since the standards (PCI SIG) refer only to the flowing currents, we now look at the following diagrams, because the power consumption is only half the rent. With well below three amperes on the motherboard slot, however, you are definitely on the safe side (PCI-SIG standard: max. 5.5 ampere):

Of course, there are still clear large screens for the measured currents:

Cooling system and temperatures

The Gretchen question is: What is the good of the cooler of the Value card, which according to Aufruck is supposed to embody the "Herkulez Design" on the backplate? By the way, the backplate serves purely for stabilization as well as optical aspects and is therefore no help from a cooling point.

The backplate is screwed to the back of the radiator as well as to the front side with the board. The spacers, which are almost three millimetres high, allow at least some airflow between the back of the board and the backplate.

The not all-too-powerful cooler has horizontally aligned fins, two angled and nickel-plated 6 mm heatpipes above the base plate and four 6 mm nickel-plated heatpipes in straightening card end, all made of sintered composite material – the days of vulnerable axial grooves or inserted tissue are long gone. The Heatsink, like the base plate, is made of aluminium only for cost reasons.

Here, too, the heat sink for the voltage converter MOSFETs, which performs its service absolutely convincingly, is also commendable. However, the coils are not cooled.

With the 60 to 61°C gaming loop (closed casing maximum 63°C), the cooler performs its service surprisingly confidently and truly acceptable.

The measurements with the removed backplate and the directly mounted cooler also show that inno3D relies on reserves: Both the gaming loop and the stress test show no abnormalities – except for the extremely low temperatures in the area of the Voltage converters due to the VRM heat sink built into the cooler.

Whether gaming loop or stress test – the cooling concept is fully effective and ensures one of the coolest circuit boards in the entire test field.

The bottom line is that you have to pay respect to this cooling, even if you already feel the price pressure in some places. For the time being, this has no effect on performance.

Noise

An exemplary implemented hysteresis is a matter of honour with inno3D as with older models, only the speeds of up to 1400 rpm give an idea of how the excellent cooling performance comes about. Here we see a lot of air down, because even fan speeds of approx. 1000 rpm would be easy enough to keep the GPU below 75°C and thus significantly reduce noise emissions.

Due to the semi-passive mode, the noise in the idle is not measurable anyway, so we have completely dispensed with this measurement.

The noise of 35.7 db(A) does not make the map appear loud or really quiet, but is a lacklustre average. However, if you want to be much quieter, you can achieve a significant improvement with the help of third-party tools such as the MSI afterburner, as the cooling potential is large enough.

We only see clear vibrations in the low-pitched range, although the price point of the card is unlikely to be much better.

Technical data and interim conclusion

Let's take a look at the technical data and individual details of the graphics card:

 

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About the author

Igor Wallossek

Editor-in-chief and name-giver of igor'sLAB as the content successor of Tom's Hardware Germany, whose license was returned in June 2019 in order to better meet the qualitative demands of web content and challenges of new media such as YouTube with its own channel.

Computer nerd since 1983, audio freak since 1979 and pretty much open to anything with a plug or battery for over 50 years.

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