The first official performance numbers of the GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card have been leaked over at Chinese forums. NVIDIA would be launching the GeForce GTX 1060 next week at a price point of $249 US which will be targeted at mainstream PC builders. The GeForce GTX 1060 is based on the GP106 GPU which we detailed with in our previous post that you can check out over here.

Faster performance at a decent price is the main goal of the GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Performance Leaked - Faster in DirectX 12, DirectX 11 and VR Games Compared To RX 480

The GeForce GTX 1060 is based on a new Pascal chip known as GP106. This chip is built for wide applications and we first saw it inside the Drive PX 2 boards at GTC 2016. The first consumer product to feature this chip is the GeForce GTX 1060 which will be available in a couple of days at a starting price of $249 US for custom and $299 US for the reference (Founders Edition) variants. The GeForce GTX 1060 is built to tackle the Radeon RX 480 but so far, we have only known the specifications.

Chinese forums have leaked the first performance numbers of the graphics card but before getting into those, let's take a quick look at the specifications once more.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Graphics Card Specifications:

The GeForce GTX 1060 has 1280 CUDA cores, 80 TMUs and 48 ROPs. The GTX 1060 is clocked at speeds of 1506 MHz base and 1708 MHz boost clock which delivers a texture fill rate of 120.5 GTexels/s. The GeForce GTX 1060 also features a 6 GB GDDR5 VRAM buffer that runs across a 192-bit bus interface.

The memory is configured to run at 8000 MHz which is the fastest speed available for GDDR5 memory. GDDR5X is the next phase for GDDR5 memory but comes at a higher manufacturing costs which are not feasible for cards lined up in the budget market.

The GP106 GPU is a very efficient core and features a TDP of just 120W which is the same as its GM206 GPU based predecessor (GTX 960). The card is powered by a single 6-Pin connector while custom models with enhanced PCB and cooling will feature either single 8-Pin or dual 6-Pin connector configurations. The GTX 1060 also features three Display Port 1.4, a single HDMI 2.0b and DVI port for display outputs.

NVIDIA GeForce 10 Pascal Family

Graphics Card Name NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 3 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 NVIDIA Titan X NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti NVIDIA Titan Xp Graphics Core GP107 GP107 GP107 GP106 / GP104 GP106 GP106 / GP104 GP104 GP104 GP104 GP102 GP102 GP102 Process Node 14nm FinFET 14nm FinFET 14nm FinFET 16nm FinFET 16nm FinFET 16nm FinFET 16nm FinFET 16nm FinFET 16nm FinFET 16nm FinFET 16nm FinFET 16nm FinFET Die Size 132mm2 132mm2 132mm2 200mm2 200mm2 200mm2 314mm2 314mm2 314mm2 471mm2 471mm2 471mm2 Transistors 3.3 Billion 3.3 Billion 3.3 Billion 4.4 Billion 4.4 Billion 4.4 Billion 7.2 Billion 7.2 Billion 7.2 Billion 12 Billion 12 Billion 12 Billion CUDA Cores 640 CUDA Cores 768 CUDA Cores 768 CUDA Cores 1152 CUDA Cores 1280 CUDA Cores 1280 CUDA Cores 1920 CUDA Cores 2432 CUDA Cores 2560 CUDA Cores 3584 CUDA Cores 3584 CUDA Cores 3840 CUDA Cores Base Clock 1354 MHz 1392 MHz 1290 MHz 1506 MHz 1506 MHz 1506 MHz 1506 MHz 1607 MHz 1607 MHz 1417 MHz 1480 MHz 1480 MHz Boost Clock 1455 MHz 1518 MHz 1392 MHz 1708 MHz 1708 MHz 1708 MHz 1683 MHz 1683 MHz 1733 MHz 1530 MHz 1583 MHz 1582 FP32 Compute 1.8 TFLOPs 2,3 TFLOPs 2.1 TFLOPs 4.0 TFLOPs 4.4 TFLOPs 4.4 TFLOPs 6.5 TFLOPs 8.1 TFLOPs 9.0 TFLOPs 11 TFLOPs 11.5 TFLOPs 12.5 TFLOPs VRAM 2 GB GDDR5 3 GB GDDR5 4 GB GDDR5 3 GB GDDR5 6 GB GDDR5 6 GB GDDR5/X 8 GB GDDR5/X 8 GB GDDR5 8 GB GDDR5X 12 GB GDDR5X 11 GB GDDR5X 12 GB GDDR5X Memory Speed 7 Gbps 7 Gbps 7 Gbps 8 Gbps 8 Gbps 9 Gbps / 10 Gbps 8 Gbps 8 Gbps 11 Gbps 10 Gbps 11 Gbps 11.4 Gbps Memory Bandwidth 112 GB/s 84 GB/s 112 GB/s 192 GB/s 160 GB/s 224 GB/s / 240 GB/s 256 GB/s 256 GB/s 352 GB/s 480 GB/s 484 GB/s 547 GB/s Bus Interface 128-bit bus 96-bit bus 128-bit bus 192-bit bus 160-bit bus 192-bit bus 256-bit bus 256-bit bus 256-bit bus 384-bit bus 352-bit bus 384-bit bus Power Connector None None None Single 6-Pin Power Single 6-Pin Power Single 6-Pin Power Single 8-Pin Power Single 8-Pin Power Single 8-Pin Power 8+6 Pin Power 8+6 Pin Power 8+6 Pin Power TDP 75W 75W 75W 120W 120W 120W 150W 180W 180W 250W 250W 250W Display Outputs 1x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 1x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 1x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b

1x DVI 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b 3x Display Port 1.4

1x HDMI 2.0b Launch Date October 2016 May 2018 October 2016 September 2016 August 2018 July 2016 June 2016 October 2017 May 2016 August 2016 March 2017 April 2017 Launch Price $109 US $119 US-$129 US $139 US $199 US TBD $249 US $349 US $449 US $499 US $1200 US $699 US $1200 US

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Official Performance Figures

The GeForce 1060 official performance figures comprise of benchmark results in DirectX 12, DirectX 11 and VR gaming. There are a variety of games tested on both 1080p and 1440p which will be the ideal resolutions to test this card. The card is not only compared to the Radeon RX 480 but also the GeForce GTX 960 since it uses a GM206 GPU core which the GP106 is succeeding.

Note: Both cards were tested at stock clocks for comparison. We would still advise to wait for independent reviews to hit the web on 19th June for a better look at performance.

First up, we have the DirectX 12 performance figures in three games. In Ashes of Singularity which is a title very optimized for AMD cards due to their enhanced Async compute architecture, the GeForce GTX 1060 is total 5% ahead of the RX 480 at 1080p and 4% ahead on 1440p. In Forza 6 Apex, the card is 21% faster at 1080p and 12% faster at 1440p. Rise of the Tomb Raider was also tested which uses a mix of AMD and NVIDIA optimizations. It has 24% better performance for the GTX 1060 at 1080p and 18% better performance than the RX 480 at 1440p. All games were tested on max settings with a combination of Antialiasing.

Next up, we have several DirectX 11 titles being tested. In Crysis 3, the GTX 1060 is 23% (1080p) and 19% (1440p) ahead of the RX 480, In Fallout 4, the GTX 1060 is 5% (1080p) ahead but shows no performance leverage over the Radeon card at 1440p which is a bit interesting. GTA V shows the biggest increase of 33% using max settings at 1080p and up to 30% increase at 1440p over the Radeon RX 480. Metro Last Light shows an average 23% gain, Shadow of Mordor shows an average 11% gain and Witcher 3 shows an average 12% gain in performance over the Radeon RX 480 at both resolutions.





Tom Clancy's Division showed the minimum gains at both resolutions with 1% gain at 1080p and 3% gain at 1440p. Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark shows that NVIDIA still has the lead in geometry and tessellation performance ran on the GPU.



NVIDIA GeForce 1060 Has Better VR Capabilities Than RX 480

The SteamVR performance test was also shown off where the Radeon RX 480 score 6.6 points while the GTX 1060 scored 8.2 points which is a good increase over its competition. This means that the card offers faster VR performance than other $250 US based solutions coming in from competitors. Along with SMP support, the GTX 1060 could become a great budget solution for VR gamers. We also have a custom GTX 1060 model round up article coming in shortly so stay tuned.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Overclocked to 2126 MHz and Tested in 3DMark Firestrike

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 has also been tested in 3DMark Firestrike with an overclock of 2126 MHz which is a significant clock bump over the reference model. We are looking at more than 400 MHz clock bump but we can't tell if this is the custom model or the reference models. The card can also boost higher than its the original boost frequencies around 1911 MHz making it score better points than the Radeon RX 480 graphics card.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 2 GHz OC 3DMark Firestrike Test: