MSI GeForce GTX 1060 OC 6 GB Review

Name: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 OC 6 GB
Brand: MSI

W1zzard

on Aug 19th, 2016,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: MSI

(33 Comments) »

Introduction

When NVIDIA announced the GeForce GTX 1060, the company allowed its add-in card (AIC) partners to launch their custom-design cards right away. The company set the MSRP of this SKU at US$249 and is selling its reference-design "Founders Edition" SKU at $299, a $50 premium. This allows its partners to position their custom-design cards at either around the $249 baseline price or the $299 Founders Edition one.

The GeForce GTX 1060 is NVIDIA's response to the Radeon RX 480, which offers performance rivaling that of $350 products from the previous generation, at an attractive $229 price point. It is based on the newer 16 nm GP106 silicon, which is the third ASIC built on the "Pascal" architecture. This chip features half the SIMD machinery of the GP104 silicon on which the GTX 1080 is based, but has 75% of the raster operation machinery and memory configuration.

The MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming 6GT OC is a cost-optimized variant of the GTX 1060 that's retailing at the MSRP pricing of $249. It is still overclocked out of the box and comes with a dual-fan cooler.

GeForce GTX 1060 Market Segment Analysis
	GeForce GTX 970	Radeon RX 480	Radeon R9 390X	GeForce GTX 980	GeForce GTX 1060	MSI GTX 1060 6GT OC	Radeon R9 Fury	Radeon R9 Fury X	GeForce GTX 980 Ti	GeForce GTX Titan X	GeForce GTX 1070
Shader Units	1664	2304	2816	2048	1280	1280	3584	4096	2816	3072	1920
ROPs	56	32	64	64	48	48	64	64	96	96	64
Graphics Processor	GM204	Ellesmere	Hawaii	GM204	GP106	GP106	Fiji	Fiji	GM200	GM200	GP104
Transistors	5200M	5700M	6200M	5200M	4400M	4400M	8900M	8900M	8000M	8000M	7200M
Memory Size	4 GB	4 GB / 8 GB	8 GB	4 GB	6 GB	6 GB	4 GB	4 GB	6 GB	12 GB	8 GB
Memory Bus Width	256 bit	256 bit	512 bit	256 bit	192 bit	192 bit	4096 bit	4096 bit	384 bit	384 bit	256 bit
Core Clock	1051 MHz+	1120 - 1266 MHz	1050 MHz	1126 MHz+	1506 MHz+	1544 MHz+	1000 MHz	1050 MHz	1000 MHz+	1000 MHz+	1506 MHz+
Memory Clock	1750 MHz	2000 MHz	1500 MHz	1750 MHz	2002 MHz	2002 MHz	500 MHz	500 MHz	1750 MHz	1750 MHz	2002 MHz
Price	$265	$199 / $239	$310	$360	$249 / $299	$249	$530	$600	$440	$1150	$379 / $449

Packaging

You will receive:

Graphics card
Driver CD + documentation

The Card

MSI's cooler design is low-cost, but doesn't look too bad, which is due to white highlights near the cooler's edges. A backplate is not included. Dimensions of the card are 29 cm x 14 cm.

Installation requires two slots in your system.

Display connectivity options include a DVI port, an HDMI port, and a DisplayPort. Unlike previous NVIDIA cards, the DVI port no longer includes the analog signal, so you'll have to use an active adapter. NVIDIA also updated DisplayPort to be 1.2 certified and 1.3/1.4 ready, which enables support for 4K @ 120 Hz and 5K @ 60 Hz, or 8K @ 60 Hz with two cables.

The GPU also comes with an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 2.0b compatible, which supports HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies. The GPU video encoding unit has been updated to support HEVC at 10-bit and 12-bit.