Shootouts

Battle of the mainstream cards: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 shootout (Updated)

By Koh Wanzi - 17 Dec 2016

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

At first glance, the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G strikes you as a card that has a lot of girth to it. At 140mm wide (or high), it is the broadest card of the lot, although the ASUS card isn’t far behind at 134mm.

This probably won’t be an issue unless you own the most narrow of PC cases, but it’s nonetheless something to take note of.

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

The card ships in Gaming mode, but you can boost it up to a 1,594MHz base clock and 1,809MHz boost clock in OC mode. Here’s a quick look at the card’s specifications:

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G GPU-Z

MSI’s Twin Frozr VI cooler (first seen on the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z) also happens to be the most eye-catching of the three. Instead of the subtle orange accents or all-black design of the Gigabyte and ASUS cards, the MSI card features bright red design flourishes and aggressive ridges that light up when the card is plugged in.

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

The two 100mm fans are larger than the 90mm ones on Gigabyte’s dual-fan cooler as well, effectively covering a larger area on the underlying heatsink. The Torx 2.0 fans are upgraded versions of the older Torx fans found on previous generation cards, featuring an alternating blade design that helps to increase air flow while channeling it over the heatsink.

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

The heatsink itself relies on three heatpipes – one 8mm and two 6mm – to channel heat away from the GPU. These do not make direct contact with the GPU, relying instead on a GPU contact plate that transfers heat to them. Still, they have been squared off at the bottom to maximize the surface area in contact with the heatpipes and improve the efficiency of heat transfer.

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G heatpipes

This is actually a key point of difference between this and the ASUS card. The latter reuses the cooler from the GeForce GTX 1070 Strix OC, including all five direct contact heatpipes. But because of the smaller size of the GP106 GPU die (compared to GP104), not all of the five heatpipes actually make contact with the GPU chip. While that didn’t seem to be an issue in our thermal tests, it looks like MSI was trying to circumvent this with a GPU contact plate that can make full contact with the chip.

The Twin Frozr VI cooler was also the quietest of the lot with the fans set to maximum, so it looks like the MSI is doing something right with the larger Torx 2.0 fans and dual-fan configuration that helps keep noise to a minimum.

MSI has employed a 5+1 phase power design, which is more than enough for a 120 watt card. To further boost the card’s overclocking potential, MSI has also installed an 8-pin PCIe connector in place of the 6-pin one.

The 8-pin power connector provides more power for overclocking over the 6-pin one.

Unlike ASUS, MSI has chosen to make stick with the same selection of display outputs as the reference Founders Edition card. It has just one HDMI port, but three DisplayPort connectors and a DVI output. Ultimately, while NVIDIA has touted the VR capabilities of the GeForce GTX 1060, we’re not sure that users who buy the 1060 are going to immediately hop aboard the VR train. As a result, it’s probably not much of a loss that MSI has stuck with the standard connectors. Furthermore, a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter will work just as well should the need arise.

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G display connectors

The MSI Gaming App lets you switch between the different clock speed profiles, and they’re the first thing you see when you fire up the app. Clicking the LED icon also brings up the lighting control panel, where you can customize the RGB lights to suit your preference.

Compared to the other two, the interface of the Gaming App feels comparatively more clunky and less intuitive. For instance, it’s not immediately apparent what the icons at the top do, and we had to click them to find out. Still, once you figure everything out, there are nifty features available, like an OSD that displays GPU information that works in games like Overwatch.

MSI Gaming App

MSI Gaming App

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