The Nvidia GTX 1060 India Launch, Specs, Features, and More
The Nvidia GTX 1060 was unveiled by Nvidia hurriedly on 7th July 2016 to counter the AMD RX480. The best part of the new graphics card is the India Price of Rs. 22,900 (Zotac Mini GTX 1060).
Considering the recent increase in prices due to cryptocurrency mining it is going to be difficultt to get a GTX 1060 under 30k price range.
Notably, Nvidia shared the graphics card price on the Nvidia India Facebook page, so it is confirmed that it costs less than the AMD RX 480 (4GB version) (available for Rs. 24999 in India).
The GTX 1060 comes as the high-end gaming solution and competes with the AMD RX 480. As per Nvidia press release information, it is 10 to 15% faster than the AMD RX 480.
Globally the Nvidia GTX 1060 is available for $230 to $249 ( Rs. 16000) (in the US and other countries). Read Detailed Review – Review Galax Nvidia GTX 1060 EXOC: Superb Performer
The pricing is not competitive in India compared to the US but reasonably better than the AMD RX 480 price in India.
Nvidia has done better this time for the pricing. We were expecting AMD to price the RX 480 lower, but they failed at it. In fact, AMD disappointed Indian PC Gamers with the astronomical price tag.
Later, they reduced the price by Rs. 2,000 after a lot of hues and cries. AMD RX 480 went on sale on 29 June 2016, and Nvidia did not wait long to share the news about the GTX 1060.
It is a brilliant strategy by Jen Hsun Huang to unveil it as early as possible. Many gamers would go with the Nvidia card over the AMD, at least in India, considering the price difference.
Nvidia GTX 1060 Hardware Specs
The Nvidia GTX 1060 is based on the Pascal architecture similar to the Nvidia GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070 graphics cards. It is manufactured from the 16nm manufacturing process. The GPU is actually smaller compared to the GTX 1070 and uses the GP 106 architecture compared to the GP 104 used in the GTX 1070.
The Nvidia GTX 1060 comes with 1,280 CUDA cores (half the GTX 1080), a boosted clock speed of 1.7 GHz. Also, as per my conversation with Nvidia India, they stated it could easily overclock above 2.0 GHz, impressive work.
Besides, the Graphics card has 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, which comes with 192 Bits of the memory bus and consequently offers 8 GB /s of memory bandwidth.
Notably, the GPU has a very low 120W TDP and comes with a single 6 pin connector. Nvidia has recommended a 400 Watts quality power supply that will be sufficient to run the GTX 1060. On the safer side, a 500 Watts will be an ideal scenario. Gone are the days when PC gamers use to buy the 700 Watts PSU to run the AMD R9 290X for the same performance.
Also, the GTX 1060 has five display outputs: HDMI, DVI, and a trio of DisplayPorts. Stats aside, the graphics card promises to meet the performance target of the Nvidia GTX 980, which is an insanely fast GPU.
Furthermore, it comes with a base clock of 1506 and a boost clock of 1708. Additionally, it has support for the Vulcan API as well as the DirectX 12.
Nvidia promises a VR-ready gaming experience, and if you are planning to add a VR headset to your gaming RIG in the near future, it can be a real companion.
KEY Specs Comparison Nvidia GTX 1060 Vs. 1070 Vs. 1080
| Graphics Card | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics Core | GP104 | GP104 | GP106 |
| Manufacturing Process | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET |
| Transistors | 7.2 Billion | 7.2 Billion | TBD |
| Base Clock | 1607 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1506 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1733 MHz | 1683 MHz | 1708 MHz |
| FP32 Compute | 9.0 TFLOPs | 6.5 TFLOPs | TBD |
| CUDA Cores | 2560 CUDA Cores | 1920 CUDA Cores | 1280 CUDA Cores |
| V-RAM | 8GB GDDR5X | 8GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 |
| Bus Interface | 256-bit bus | 256-bit bus | 192-bit bus |
| Power Connector | Single 8-Pin Power | Single 8-Pin Power | Single 6-Pin Power |
| TDP | 180W | 150W | 120W |
| India Launch Date | 10th June 2016 | 10th June 2016 | 19th July 2016 |
| Launch Price | Rs. 63250 | Rs 40800 | Rs 23000 |
Nvidia has launched the new Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card on 19th July 2016 in India, and the card is now available for purchase.
The Graphics card is significantly faster in comparison to the Nvidia GTX 970 and, more importantly in comparison, the AMD RX 480. Nvidia promised that the graphics card would be as fast as the GTX 980, and the benchmark results show that it is nearly the performance in most gaming titles.
It is a good thing to keep promises. Update 25-July 2016 (India Launch Details)
Gaming Benchmarks Nvidia GTX 1060
The early benchmark performance for the Nvidia GTX 1060 suggests that the graphics card is 3X faster than the GTX 960 in the VR performance.
Also, it is 2X faster in the gaming performance it titles such as Tomb Raider and close to 2X in the Witcher 3 and Overwatch.
Gaming Benchmark Nvidia GTX 1060 and AMD RX 480
Data Source – hardware Canucks, Techpowerup, Tomshardware, Pc perspective.
The early benchmarks show that the Nvidia GTX 1060 is about 10% faster than the AMD RX 480, which is a good thing for the Nvidia GTX 1060.
The major flaw is the lack of support for SLI for Nvidia GTX 1060. You cannot run it in SLI. Nvidia says the best way to run the mid-range GPUs is a single card solution, and SLI is meant for enthusiast-level performance cards.
Personally, I would buy a single fastest card and think this is a good approach for most Gamers in India. Having said that, having more choices is always good. I don’t really understand Nvidia’s point to remove support for SLI.
Contrastingly, the AMD RX 480 supports crossfire, and the Dual RX 480 is as fast as a single GTX 1080.
