Asus 1060 6 GB Review - Ultimate 1080p Gaming Video Card!

When Nvidia unveiled their GTX 10 series line, it shook the world with its significant performance per dollar ratio and significant increase in performance from the previous generation. With our home rig itself equipped now equipped with the earlier version of the Asus GTX 1060, we are interested in finding out if the new 9 Gbps GDDR5 is worth the money for those who want the best bang per buck 1080p gaming!

Asus 1060 6 GB review

Asus GTX 1060 6 GB Specs

Bus Standard: PCI Express 3.0

OpenGL: OpenGL 4.5 

Video Memory: 6 GB GDDR5

GPU Clock: 1809 MHz 

GPU base Clock: 1594 MHz

CUDA cores: 1280

Memory Clock: 9026 MHz

Memory Interface: 192 bit

Digital MAX: Resolution: 7680 x 4320

DVI Output: 1x Native DVI-D

HDMI Output: 1x Native HDMI 2.0

HDCP compliant: YES

DisplayPort: 2x Native DisplayPort 1.4

Power Connectors: 6 pin

Software Bundled: Asus GPU Tweak II & Driver

Dimension: 212 x 111 x 38 mm

Price: PHP 16,999 at Villman

Disclaimer: This unit was borrowed from Asus Philippines for our honest and unbiased review. This is not a sponsored post.

Unboxing

What's inside?

It comes with a beautiful box that contains all the regulatory texts and symbols along with the marketing details and of course the picture of the video card itself. Inside it is an inner carton box that is branded with a shiny gold Asus logo. Inside the inner box is the foam containing the video card wrapped in thick protective packing plastic. Under the foam are the documentation and driver CD.

Build Quality / Design

Shroud and heat sink

Build quality wise, this is better than most of the other third party entry level 1060 6 GB we've encountered. Each part that we could see and touch out of the box looks and feels solid and premium compared to the low-cost variants. The fans, the front fan shroud, the back plate, the ports and the circuit board all look a cut above against the more popular low cost counterparts.

Heat pipes and shroud

Ports everywhere!

Neat branding

Pretty back plate

What surprised us is that coming from the earlier version of the Asus GTX 1060, the new one is way smaller. This means two things: The new 1060 6 GB is more power efficient, and you can use this on smaller form factor cases! (Even prebuilt ones with enough space inside the case) 

Of course, we'll be testing the actual performance later to see if it is better in over all value.

Performance

Before we discuss performance, we need to look at differences of clock and memory speeds between the new Asus GTX 1060 6 GB 9GBps, Asus GTX 1060 6 GB Dual fan OC which we own, and the Founders Edition. You can overclock the regular 1060 6 GB to match the new 9 Gbps’ clock speeds.  

The following are the noticeable changes from the previous GTX 1060 6 GB from Asus to this model:

Comparison

1. IP5X fans that have been certified to be dust and small particles resistant hopefully leading to longer life span 

2. 9 Gbps memory out of the box without the need for overclocking which means it is a 1000 MHz above stock memory frequency

3. Thinner profile and heatsink where the DUAL Fan OC, is 5mm thicker than the standard dual PCI-E lane width, so it hits my Wi-fi card.

4. A custom PCB with back plate and an exposed heatpipe and fins for passive cooling.

Benchmark results

Benchmark scores

We tested the 1060 6 GB 9 Gbps GDDR5 with the following games: Blizzard's Overwatch, Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Siege, DOOM 2016 Demo and Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Four of the most popular and four of the most demanding games today. These are the results of our gameplay statistics.

For Overwatch, we prepared recorded footage that shows the in-game data and long story short, the GTX 1060 6 GB 9gbs GDDR5 ran Overwatch on 1080p Ultra with consistent 100+ frames per second with no noticeable framerate drop at any point. 

For Rainbow Six Siege, we were playing at 1080p Very High (Highest Setting) with standard textures at a smooth and consistent 100+ FPS while we played DOOM 2016 at ultra at 1080p with consistent 100+fps!

In Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the game was at its highest setting at 1080p but would stay at 50 to 70fps with some occasions reaching 100fps.

In terms of cooling, the shroud that holds the two fans looks sturdy and it never makes noise loud enough to penetrate the case and into the room where the CPU is in. The fans themselves got an upgrade from the earlier version from Asus but the temperatures reamins the same.

In idle usage where the GPU isn't used too much the temperature is stable at 34 to 36 degrees Celsius while in maximum gaming load, the temperatures reach up to 62 degrees Celsius which is fair for most cards in this price range. In fact, we were surprised, we were expecting it to be at 70 degrees. 

The Strix counterpart maxes at 58 degrees Celsius primarily because of the dual heat pipes but makes it more expensive than the expedition. A difference of 4 degrees isn't too much if you consider that the Expedition was made to operate continuously for long hours of play.

Verdict

It is way smaller than the earlier Asus GTX 1060 6 GB

The GTX 1060's performance at 1080p is the best bang per buck in the market. With the an estimate price of just around PHP 17K, it is no question that if you are looking for 1080p gaming at 60 to 100 fps in 2017 that remains quiet and does not get so hot, this is the video card for you! 

Build / Design - 4

Cooling - 4

Performance - 4.5

Average - 4.25 / 5