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NVIDIA brings a new level of performance to the masses with the GeForce GTX 1060

By Koh Wanzi - on 7 Jul 2016, 9:00pm

NVIDIA brings a new level of performance to the masses with the GeForce GTX 1060

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 

NVIDIA today took the wraps off the GeForce GTX 1060, its brand new mid-range Pascal card. According to NVIDIA, the GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition offers performance on the same level as the GeForce GTX 980 at just US$299, putting previously flagship-level performance within reach of the vast majority of gamers.

While the GeForce GTX 1070 and 1080 technically offer good value for their respective prices – the Founders Edition of both cards retail for US$449 and US$699 respectively – they can still hardly be considered mass market cards. That’s where the GeForce GTX 1060 comes in.

In fact, it would appear to be going head to head with AMD’s top Polaris card, the Radeon RX 480. Just as the latter wants to make VR-ready hardware more accessible, so does the GeForce GTX 1060. It even features the same Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) technology as the higher end Pascal cards, which allows it to project a single image simultaneously to both eyes.

The card also follows in the footsteps of its bigger brothers in reaping the benefits of the more efficient 16nm FinFET process. The card has a TDP of just 120 watts, which is actually lower than the Radeon RX 480’s 150 watts (incidentally, the RX 480 isn’t quite on the same level as the GeForce GTX 980).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060

NVIDIA’s newest card features 1,280 CUDA cores and 6GB of GDDR5 memory running at 8Gbps. High clock speeds have also come to characterize NVIDIA’s Pascal cards, and the GeForce GTX 1060 is no exception, with a base clock of 1.506MHz and boost clock of 1,708MHz. And while the GeForce GTX 1070 and 1080 were based on the GP104 chip, the GeForce GTX 1060 is built on a new GP106 chip.

There’s apparently also a decent amount of overclocking headroom available on the card, and NVIDIA says you can expect to hit speeds of up to 2GHz.

Custom versions of the card from NVIDIA’s partners will be available starting 19 July from brands including ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and Palit. These will be cheaper than the Founders Edition cards with a starting price of just US$249.

Having said that, NVIDIA appears to be taking a slightly different strategy with the GeForce GTX 1060. While Founders Edition versions of the 1070 and 1080 are available from add-in board partners, the GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition will only be available to buy direct from NVIDIA itself.

NVIDIA also took the opportunity to provide updates on Ansel, its in-game photography tool. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst will support Ansel with immediate effect, while support for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will come later this month.

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