NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB: specs and benchmarks

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Summary

NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB sales 19 July 2016 at a recommended price of $299 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a Pascal architecture and made with 16 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 6 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 8 GHz are supplied, and together with 192 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 192.2 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 250 mm. 1x 6-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 120 Watt.

It provides good gaming and benchmark performance at 26.45% of a leader's which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

RTX 4090GeForce RTX4090
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General info

Some basic facts about GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking185
Place by popularity11
Value for money3.26
ArchitecturePascal (2016−2021)
GPU code nameGP106
Market segmentDesktop
Release date19 July 2016 (7 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$299
Current price$911 (3x MSRP)of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores1280of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
Core clock speed1506 MHzof 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Boost clock speed1708 MHzof 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors4,400 millionof 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology16 nmof 4 (GeForce RTX 4080)
Power consumption (TDP)120 Wattof 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate136.7of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)
Floating-point performance4,375 gflopsof 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Size and compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16
Length250 mm
Width2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory typeGDDR5
Maximum RAM amount6 GBof 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Memory bus width192 Bitof 19000 (GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB)
Memory clock speed8000 MHzof 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)
Memory bandwidth192.2 GB/sof 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI+
G-SYNC support+

Technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

VR Ready+

API support

APIs supported by GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX12 (12_1)
Shader Model6.4
OpenGL4.6
OpenCL1.2
Vulkan1.2.131
CUDA6.1

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

GTX 1060 6 GB 10252

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 1060 6 GB 55893

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 1060 6 GB 17401

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 1060 6 GB 12984

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 1060 6 GB 77035

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

GTX 1060 6 GB 437988

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 1060 6 GB 9091

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04

Benchmark coverage: 3%

GTX 1060 6 GB 103

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 sw-03

Benchmark coverage: 3%

GTX 1060 6 GB 46

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 snx-02

Benchmark coverage: 3%

GTX 1060 6 GB 6

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 catia-04

Benchmark coverage: 3%

GTX 1060 6 GB 51

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 creo-01

Benchmark coverage: 3%

GTX 1060 6 GB 35

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 medical-01

Benchmark coverage: 3%

GTX 1060 6 GB 32

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 showcase-01

Benchmark coverage: 3%

GTX 1060 6 GB 64

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 energy-01

Benchmark coverage: 3%

GTX 1060 6 GB 6

SPECviewperf 12 - Showcase

Benchmark coverage: 2%

GTX 1060 6 GB 64

SPECviewperf 12 - Maya

This part of SPECviewperf 12 workstation benchmark uses Autodesk Maya 13 engine to render a superhero energy plant static scene consisting of more than 700 thousand polygons, in six different modes.

Benchmark coverage: 2%

GTX 1060 6 GB 103

SPECviewperf 12 - Catia

Benchmark coverage: 2%

GTX 1060 6 GB 51

SPECviewperf 12 - Solidworks

Benchmark coverage: 2%

GTX 1060 6 GB 46

SPECviewperf 12 - Siemens NX

Benchmark coverage: 2%

GTX 1060 6 GB 6

SPECviewperf 12 - Creo

Benchmark coverage: 2%

GTX 1060 6 GB 35

SPECviewperf 12 - Medical

Benchmark coverage: 2%

GTX 1060 6 GB 32

SPECviewperf 12 - Energy

Benchmark coverage: 2%

GTX 1060 6 GB 6

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD92
1440p49
4K32

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 40−45

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 72
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 45−50
Battlefield 5 106
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 78
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
Far Cry 5 82
Far Cry New Dawn 81
Forza Horizon 4 100
Hitman 3 80−85
Horizon Zero Dawn 55−60
Red Dead Redemption 2 56
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 68
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 61
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 45−50
Battlefield 5 86
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 64
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
Far Cry 5 75
Far Cry New Dawn 75
Forza Horizon 4 93
Hitman 3 80−85
Horizon Zero Dawn 55−60
Metro Exodus 43
Red Dead Redemption 2 30
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 58
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 76
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 38
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 45−50
Battlefield 5 78
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
Far Cry 5 70
Far Cry New Dawn 69
Forza Horizon 4 73
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 44
Watch Dogs: Legion 50−55

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 41
Hitman 3 45−50
Horizon Zero Dawn 35−40
Metro Exodus 26
Red Dead Redemption 2 19
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 34

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 32
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27−30
Battlefield 5 58
Cyberpunk 2077 16−18
Far Cry 5 47
Far Cry New Dawn 50
Forza Horizon 4 57
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 35−40
Watch Dogs: Legion 21−24

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 22
Hitman 3 24−27
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
Metro Exodus 16
Red Dead Redemption 2 12
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 17
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 29

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 14−16
Battlefield 5 31
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
Far Cry 5 23
Far Cry New Dawn 26
Forza Horizon 4 38
Watch Dogs: Legion 12−14

Relative perfomance

GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.


AMD Fiji 106.73
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB 100

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB is Radeon R9 FURY X, which is slower by 2% and lower by 6 positions in our ranking.

R9 FURY XRadeon R9FURY X
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Here are some closest AMD rivals to GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB:

AMD Fiji 106.73
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB 100

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

GTX 970GeForce GTX970
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R9 FuryRadeon R9Fury
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GTX 780 TiGeForce GTX780 Ti
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RX 590Radeon RX590
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R9 390XRadeon R9390X
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GTX 980GeForce GTX980
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Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB according to our statistics.

User ratings: view and submit

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.


4.2 11042 votes

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Questions and comments

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