FRONTPAGE MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G Video Card Review

[Overclockers.com]

Today I bring you the latest, custom GPU from MSI, based on the newly released NVIDIA GTX 1060, the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G! There have been a number of improvements made by MSI to this model of 1060 including, but not limited to, a custom PCB, a dual-fan heatsink, and an 8-pin power connection (in lieu of a 6-pin)! The TwinFrozr heatsink and ZeroFrozr technology should help keep this bad boy both cool and quiet no matter what you're using it for. Before I get to rambling, let's take a deeper dive into the card!

Click here to view the article.

 

[Janus67]

Great review Austin

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Thanks Janus!!

 

[Evilsizer]

good job!

a few questions, do you know if the FE has the same number of phases or less then what the MSI has? it looks like there is room for another phase where those 5 are but whats the one up top in that pic? i thought the top one would be dedicated to the ram with the other 5 to the gpu, but with an extra one open near the 5 and that one up top. it seems there might be a another version coming with some OCing options or even more boosted then this one. would be nice to see some ocing options since NV wont allow SLI on these cards. IMO the whole pricing structure in general is messed up, i think the base even FE models should be closer to $200. with more oc'd/boosted cards coming in at or slightly above MSRP.

*edit*
i get these are not easy to do at all, i wish someone could have lent you a GTX960. Since the 1060 is the 960's replacement, seeing how much faster it is vs a 960 would have been welcomed.

*edit 2*
ok so i found this

A four phase power supply is responsible for supplying the GP106 GPU with power. An additional power phase is dedicated to the board’s GDDR5 memory.

GTX1060FE

just a suggestion but saying "MSI has X and standard for the FE cards is 4+1" just as a reference so people can see its not a FE design msi has. im still thinking there will be a card setup as a 6+2 down the road if not out/coming out soon one that is more ocnig friendly with gpu voltage/ram voltage control. maybe someone can find out if at all possible...

*edit3*
sorry for so many edits but i think that one to guru3d is wrong, i found two reviews with tear downs.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1060/5.html
http://hothardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-review

both show max 3 phases on the FE board, if you noticed there are 2 missing spots on the board for ram ic's. does this mean there is room for two more 1gb ic's to be installed making a 8gb FE card. better question, did they have to leave those two off due to power cause of the design having a max of 3 phases.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Thanks evil! I'll do my best to answer your questions, some are stretching what I know though.

The FE has less power phases, this is a custom pcb model.
I was able to overclock, completely stable, to +150/+150 with Afterburner. This was on top of MSI's overclock.

I would love to have access to a 960 as well, but it wouldn't have been a blip on the radar for the 1060.

I typically do mention the stock design of the VRM, but I had no access to the information at the time of writing.

It's possible the pcb was repurposed by MSI from a higher model of GPU, I haven't checked THAT closely with their other models yet, though. It would explain the missing phases and the blank memory spots.

 

[Evilsizer]

no worries, im starting to notice some reviews our there are using non-FE cards and some FE cards with different coolers like an evga one i read. its kind of interesting how its a mixed bag and no all FE reviews like with the 1070/1080. i guess it does also show, who is let into NV's world in a way with who has what cards as well as more detailed info.

i guess this means people need to keep there eyes out for a 8gb model down the road, makes sense to do that way.

 

[EarthDog]

no worries, im starting to notice some reviews our there are using non-FE cards and some FE cards with different coolers like an evga one i read. its kind of interesting how its a mixed bag and no all FE reviews like with the 1070/1080. i guess it does also show, who is let into NV's world in a way with who has what cards as well as more detailed info.

i guess this means people need to keep there eyes out for a 8gb model down the road, makes sense to do that way.

Yes and no about NVIDIA's world... everyone had the same information given to them AFAIK. We received the reviewer packs, high res pics etc, just like everyone else. The difference is NVIDIA told their AIBs to send the cards to some reviewers this time around. There seems to be fewer FE reviews than AIB reviews out there from a quick google. How some got them? No idea. But the FE is only available at NVIDIA.com while the 1070/1080 FE's are available everywhere. In other words, this launch was different on many fronts. Not sure it really shows some kind of pecking order?


There will not be an 8GB 1060... you can't really do that on a 192bit bus (without splitting the memory speeds - which is silly and causes issues Read: GTX 970).

Now, there are rumors of a 3GB model that may/may not be cut down performance wise...but how do you put 8GB on a 192bit bus? The math doesn't work out without some significant retooling of the memory bus.

 

[Evilsizer]

well since there is alot i dont know about the new 1060, who is to say they didnt disable part of the memory controller. why the 2 extra pads for memory IC's left blank? does this mean they can get the same witdh with all pads in use, using lower density ic's. assuming they are going to use all those pads for the 3gb model, which might be possible. even so about specs, msi has two blank spots, if guessing the memory controller is disabled this way for 6gb. that means a 8gb card would be 256bit, 32bit wide for each memory ic. i guess i think of them putting on ram ic's for gpus like sticks of ram, sticks still only have 32bit width per channel to work with but yet so many ic's per stick. i guess i wonder why they couldnt stack two gpu-ram ic's to one 32bit channel or would that then make each ram ic 16bit width for it to use. i blanks to fill in so alot of guessing on stuff.

 

[EarthDog]

Extra pads? Maybe they are using an existing PCB.

Perhaps in the future you may see an 8GB 1060 Ti with a 256bit bus (as there is a fair amount of performance gap there), but you will not see a 1060 with 8GB. Again, there are rumors there will be a cut down 1060 with 3GB.

 

[Evilsizer]

Extra pads? Perhaps they are using an existing PCB.

right i figured they made one pcb that would be used for a few different 1060's. i call them pads, im not sure what they are called other wise. as there are maybe what 2-3 dozen tiny points for solding for the memory ic's.
in the pic here to the left of the gpu, two places missing ram ic's
http://www.overclockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_5376.jpg

yes i figured a higher end card might come with more ocing possibilities. as you also notice near the power section is missing or left blank of one more phase for ram as well as the gpu. as i mentioned above about that but, a 1060Ti, would nv do that? what core count would it have then with a 256bit memory unless its just a matter of enabling the extra 64bits on the FW side.

my thought about the 3gb card is wouldnt they use less ic's not more? i mean i dont know where to look up specs for this stuff but does each ic have its own width for a connection or am i missing something still. having that many pads for 3gb just seems backwards if they are to use the same density ic's as on the 6gb model, do they even make less dense ic's this late in GDDR5 maturity. yea im going back and forth a bit, for 3gb will they use more ic's or less, depends on the density of the ic. cuts both ways if someone has less dense ic's for a much cheaper price then they will use them same for higher dense ones. i mean if your buying more of the higher dense ic's then you would think costs would be even cheaper then having two sets of ic's on hand for 3gb vs 6gb.

 

[EarthDog]

I guess what I am trying to say is that you are looking at the extra space for memory ICs and power delivery different than I am. That does't tell me anything, honestly. At least nothing with any certainty. It could have been left over 1070 boards so to keep costs down, MSI used those?

If it used more power, why wouldn't they just add them on? Sure they would do that... No idea what the core count would be, but there are multiples between teh shader count and ROPS that could make it possible, no?

As far as 3GB, maybe they use less dense ICs? Or simply less... perhaps with a different board as well. Who knows.

My point is that there will not be a 1060 that is 8GB. The rumor has it a cut down 3GB version may be in the works (maybe a 1050?)...I can also see a 1060Ti due to the large performance gap between it and the 1070. How that magics happens, I don't know.

EDIT: Reference PCB is a shorty 3+1 phase it seems..: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1060/5.html

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I guess what I am trying to say is that you are looking at the extra space for memory ICs and power delivery different than I am. That does't tell me anything, honestly. At least nothing with any certainty. It could have been left over 1070 boards so to keep costs down, MSI used those?

This is what I was getting at.