Nvidia unleashes the least expensive member of the Pascal-based family yet, the GTX 1060. This $250 USD card is said to be faster than last years monster, the GTX 980, a card that still costs around $400. The new card is said to run at just 120W and will be launching on July 19th.
As of yet the full details on the new card have not been released, but Nvidia has said the card is based on the new GP106 chip, rather than the GP104 seen in the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. The GTX 1060 boasts 1280 CUDA cores, 6GB DDR5 Ram running at 8GHz, and will have a clock speed of 1.7GHz. The fun does not stop there; Nvidia claims that the GTX 1060 can be overclocked to 2GHz making it the perfect card for the person who likes to push their PC to the limits. The best part yes, it will all run on a single 6-pin connector.
Much like the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, the GTX 1060 will be available from OEM card makers such as Gigabyte, MSI, and Asus, as well as directly from Nvidia in a more $299 USD Founders Edition. The extra $50 will net you a fuel FET power supply along with the nicer fan that is similar to the ones seen on the higher end of the Pascal lineup.
As with other members of the Pascal family, buying the OEM card will net identical performance at significant savings, but ultimately it is personal preference. Nvidia is promising that the Founders Editions and the partner cards will be launching July 19th. Due to the supply limitations, we have already seen with the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 it may not be easy for the end consumers to get one right at launch.
The GTX 1060 follows the latest AMD card, the RX 480 just a week ago, that offers similar performance to the GTX 970 at just $200. With Nvidia normally waiting months between releases of the high-end cards and the mainstream range, this move is a bit of a surprise. It is clear Nvidia is not willing to give an inch to AMD with VR pushing consumers to buy new cards for their VR rigs.