Msi Geforce Gtx 1060 Directx 12 Geforce Gtx 1060 Gaming 6g Review
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G Review
Manufacturer: MSI
UK price (every bit reviewed): £299.99 (inc VAT)
The states price (every bit reviewed): $299.99 (ex Revenue enhancement)
With the GTX 1060 at present well and truly launched, there's a whole host of board partner cards aiming to win you over. In fact, we saw one just a few days ago, but the Asus GTX 1060 Strix OC proved to exist besides expensive to recommend, despite solid performance and an attractive characteristic fix. MSI is another popular brand, and in for review today is its GTX 1060 Gaming Ten 6G. At £300, it has a toll advantage over the £330 Strix card, but that'due south non to say it's inexpensive – it even so has a 30 percent markup over the most bones GTX 1060 models which can be institute for £230.
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As nosotros discovered in our GTX 1080 Gaming 10 8G review, the Gaming X SKU in MSI's GPU families denotes a card that has a backplate (without RGB lighting), Twin Frozr Half dozen cooling and a factory overclock. For the GTX 1060, this is MSI's highest-end version of the card.
The card's engine clock isn't as high equally we saw on the Asus bill of fare, but at 1,569MHz base it'southward all the same higher than the majority of cards out at that place. This is only the default speed (Gaming Style) too; downloading the MSI Gaming App lets you lot upgrade at the click of a button to OC Manner, where the clock speed is 1,594MHz base (a six pct increase over reference) and 1,809MHz boost. A third status, Silent Style, can also exist triggered giving you the reference clocks of 1,506MHz (ane,708MHz boost). Nonetheless, every bit is our usual practice, we have tested in OC Fashion for all tests, since while it'south not the card'southward true default country it's however a readily available out-of-box setting.
OC Manner as well nets you a tiny bump in memory frequency, with the effective speed increasing from 8Gbps to 8.1Gbps. In Gaming Way and Silent Mode it will stay at the default 8Gbps.
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Physically, the bill of fare's height is what stands out the nearly. Information technology'due south 140mm tall, then users with narrow or certain small grade cistron cases volition need to pay attending. The 277mm length is roughly a 20mm saving on the Asus Strix carte du jour, and near 25mm longer than the Founders Edition, just honestly most cases these days take plenty of room for GPUs then this is unlikely to be a deciding factor. Build quality is once more good, with the metallic backplate providing welcome stability and taking the bill of fare's weight to over 1kg.
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RGB lighting is hiding around every corner these days, it seems, and the GTX 1060 Gaming X is no different, with the ruby-red stripes on the front fascia being backlit by them. Colours and effects are again controlled through the Gaming App – it's a functional bit of software but we'd love to run across MSI integrate it into the Afterburner overclocking utillity.
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Different Asus, MSI has stuck with the reference set of display outputs – iii DisplayPorts, one HDMI and one DVI-D. It has, still, similar Asus and other partners, upgraded the solitary 6-pivot PCI-East power connector to an eight-pivot 1 for actress power headroom.
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The Twin Frozr VI cooler hither is very like to the one MSI used on its GTX 1080 Gaming X, just non identical. The main deviation is that it has fewer heat pipes, dropping from six to iii (one 8mm, 2 6mm). These are crowded together directly above the GPU, although they don't make direct contact with it. Instead, a contact plate is used, and this transfers heat to the estrus pipes, which are themselves square-shaped on the bottom for maximum transfer. A contact plate besides acts as a heatspreader, which is sensible on a chip this small – The GTX 1060 actually outputs more than watts per mm2 than the GTX 1070 and fifty-fifty the GTX 1080. On the GTX 1060 Strix OC, Asus but reused the libation from the GTX 1070 Strix OC, which used direct contact heat pipes. However, despite having five heat pipes and a massive fin stack, only one and a half of the heat pipes physically touched the GPU, and the fans actually span up faster on the less powerful bill of fare, suggesting some pattern inefficiencies. Hopefully that won't exist the case hither.
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Otherwise there'southward lilliputian new with this cooler. It has Airflow Control Technology, substantially small deflectors said to thrust air more than direct at the heat pipes. MSI has directly cooling for all retention chips and MOSFETs besides with a dedicated cooling plate, and the direction of the fins hateful that some air volition exhaust through the rear I/O, but the open shroud means a lot will stil be dumped in your case. Cooling is achieved with a pair of MSI's Torx ii.0 fans which are a massive 100mm across and characteristic an alternating bract design to boost airflow while directing it downwards. Naturally, the fans are semi-passive so you'll enjoy full silence in idle periods.
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The custom PCB plays dwelling to a 5+1 phase ability pattern, which should be plenty for a card of this calibre. As e'er with MSI's Gaming range, it also uses the company'due south Military Class iv components, which come with a variety of claimed improvements many of which are said to boost overclocking potential.
Specifications
- Graphics processor Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, 1,549MHz (ane,809MHz boost)
- Pipeline 1,280 stream processors, eighty texture units, 48 ROPs
- Retentiveness 6GB GDDR5, 8.1GHz constructive
- Bandwidth 194.4GB/sec, 192-bit interface
- Compatibility DirectX 12, Vulcan, OpenGL 4.v
- Outputs/Inputs 3 10 DisplayPort ane.4, Dual Link DVI-I, 1 x HDMI ii.0b
- Power connections 1 x 8-pin PCI-E, top-mounted
- Size 277mm long, 140mm tall, dual-slot
- Warranty Three years
Source: https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/graphics/msi-geforce-gtx-1060-gaming-x-review/1/