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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB GP104

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB GP104: A Review of an Outdated Fighter in 2025

April 2025

Despite the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB being a graphics card released back in 2016, it still attracts interest from budget users. However, in 2025, its capabilities are significantly limited by modern standards. In this article, we will explore whether this model is suitable for you today and what compromises you will have to make.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Pascal Architecture: A Modest Foundation

The GTX 1060 3 GB is built on the Pascal architecture, which was groundbreaking at its time due to the 16nm manufacturing process (by TSMC). However, it's important to clarify: the original GTX 1060 uses the GP106 chip, while the GP104 designation refers to more powerful GPUs (like the GTX 1080). When discussing a custom variant of the GTX 1060 on GP104—this is a rare modified version that may differ in the number of CUDA cores (for example, 1280 instead of 1152).

Unique Features: There Are Almost None

The card belongs to the GTX series rather than the RTX series, lacking hardware support for ray tracing (RTX) and DLSS. Technologies like AMD's FidelityFX are also unavailable—these are purely third-party solutions. The only advantage is support for DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1, which allows for running modern games but with simplified graphics.

2. Memory: The Main Limitation

Type and Size: GDDR5 and Only 3 GB

The graphics card is equipped with GDDR5 memory with a 192-bit bus. The buffer size is 3 GB, which is critically low in 2025 even for 1080p. For instance, games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Hogwarts Legacy require at least 4–6 GB for medium settings.

Bandwidth: 192 GB/s

This parameter looks weak in 2025 compared to GDDR6 (up to 600 GB/s in budget models like the RX 6500 XT). In games with high texture detail, stuttering may occur due to insufficient memory and its operating speed.

3. Gaming Performance: Only 1080p on Low Settings

Average FPS in 2025

- Fortnite (Epic Settings, 1080p): 40–50 FPS (no DLSS, 720p resolution through FSR 2.0—up to 60 FPS).

- Apex Legends (Low, 1080p): 70–80 FPS.

- Counter-Strike 2 (Medium, 1080p): 120–140 FPS.

- The Last of Us Part I (Low, 1080p): 25–30 FPS (due to VRAM shortage).

1440p and 4K: Not Recommended

Even 1440p in modern projects becomes an unmanageable task. For example, Starfield at 1440p will yield no more than 20 FPS on low settings.

Ray Tracing: Not Available

The GTX 1060 has no hardware blocks for RT cores. Software emulation through DirectX Raytracing (DXR) reduces FPS to 5-10 frames, making it useless.

4. Professional Tasks: Only Basic Capabilities

Video Editing and Rendering

In programs like Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, the card can handle editing at 1080p, but a 4K timeline will lag. CUDA acceleration is supported, but due to the low core count (1280), rendering will take 2-3 times longer compared to modern GPUs.

3D Modeling

Blender or Maya will run, but complex scenes with high-resolution textures will cause lags. For training neural networks or scientific calculations via CUDA/OpenCL, the card is not suitable—its computational power is too weak (4.4 TFLOPS compared to 20+ TFLOPS in new models).

5. Power Consumption and Heat Generation

TDP: 120 Watts—Easy for Building

The card does not require powerful cooling. Even a standard cooler can handle the load, maintaining a temperature around 70–75°C. Any case with rear panel ventilation will suffice.

Power Supply Recommendations

A power supply of 400–450 Watts is sufficient (for example, the Corsair CV450). The main requirement is the presence of a 6-pin PCIe connector.

6. Comparison with Competitors

AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (4 GB GDDR6)

- Pros: Support for FSR 3.1, higher performance in DX12/Vulkan.

- Cons: Limited PCIe x4 bus.

- Price: $160 (new models, 2025).

NVIDIA GTX 1650 Super (4 GB GDDR6)

- Pros: More VRAM, better optimization for older games.

- Cons: Lack of hardware AV1 decoding.

- Price: $170–180.

Conclusion: The GTX 1060 3 GB lags behind even budget newcomers of 2025, but it may be cheaper (around $130–150 for a new one, if found in stock).

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply

- A minimum of 450 Watts with an 80+ Bronze certification.

- Check connectors: 6-pin PCIe is mandatory.

Compatibility with Platforms

- Motherboard: Even a PCIe 3.0 x16 will do (performance will barely be affected).

- Processor: Avoid pairing with modern Ryzen 5 7600X or Core i5-13400F—this will create a “bottleneck”.

Drivers

NVIDIA officially discontinued support for the GTX 10 series in 2024. The last available drivers are from the 545.xx branch. Don’t expect optimizations for new games.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Low price (if you find a new one).

- Energy efficiency.

- Quiet operation.

Cons:

- 3 GB VRAM is critical for modern games.

- No support for DLSS/FSR 3.0 and ray tracing.

- Outdated drivers.

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the GTX 1060 3 GB Suitable for in 2025?

This graphics card is a choice for:

1. Budget gamers willing to play at low settings in 1080p.

2. Owners of old PCs who need to upgrade the GPU without replacing the power supply.

3. Office tasks: Document work, video streaming, browser applications.

However, if your budget allows you to spend $180–200, it's better to opt for the RX 6500 XT or GTX 1650 Super—these will provide more future-proofing. The GTX 1060 3 GB in 2025 is a GPU for those seeking a temporary solution or nostalgic for games from the 2010s.

Basic

Label Name

NVIDIA

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

December 2016

Model Name

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB GP104

Generation

GeForce 10

Base Clock

1506MHz

Boost Clock

1708MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

7,200 million

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

16 nm

Architecture

Pascal

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

3GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

192bit

Memory Clock

2002MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

192.2 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

81.98 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

123.0 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

61.49 GFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

123.0 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

4.014 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count

Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

1152

L1 Cache

48 KB (per SM)

L2 Cache

1536KB

TDP

120W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

3.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_1)

CUDA

6.1

Power Connectors

1x 6-pin

Shader Model

6.4

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

300W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

4.014 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Quadro M5000

4.167 +3.8%

Data Center GPU Flex 140

4.074 +1.5%

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB GP104

4.014

GeForce GTX 980MX

3.842 -4.3%

Radeon RX 6400

3.636 -9.4%