NVIDIA P106-100: A GTX 1060 Without Display Outputs or Gaming Drivers

The NVIDIA P106-100 was released in June 2017 for cryptocurrency mining. Its specifications are nearly identical to those of the GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB: a GP106 processor, 1280 CUDA cores, and 6 GB of GDDR5. However, the P106-100 has no display outputs, gaming drivers require modifications, and the PCIe interface is limited on many units.

In 2026, the P106-100 can be found on the used market for $30-50, compared with $50-70 for a standard GTX 1060 6 GB. The savings are small, while compatibility problems are significantly more common.

Differences from the GTX 1060

The P106-100 is built on the 16 nm Pascal architecture. It has 10 streaming multiprocessors (SMs), 80 texture units, and 48 raster operations pipelines. Its clock speeds are 1506-1709 MHz, and its 192-bit memory interface provides 192 GB/s of bandwidth. Power consumption reaches 120 W, with power supplied through a single 6-pin connector.

Theoretical FP32 performance is 4.375 TFLOPS, virtually the same as that of the GTX 1060 6 GB.

Why the P106-100 Is Worse for Gaming

Because it has no display outputs, the P106-100 must send rendered frames through PCIe to the processor’s integrated graphics or to another graphics card connected to the monitor.

On many P106-100 units, the interface operates in PCIe 1.1 x16 mode, with bandwidth of about 4 GB/s. On a standard GTX 1060 with PCIe 3.0 x16, the figure is 15.75 GB/s.

This results in three limitations:

• In demanding games with low FPS, the losses may be small.
• In lightweight games with high FPS, frame transfers can noticeably reduce performance.
• Performance depends on the driver, the PC configuration, and the image-output method.

Even with the same GPU power, gaming performance may differ.

Performance

In 3DMark Time Spy, the P106-100 scores 4126 points, compared with 4099 for the GTX 1060 6 GB. The difference is less than 1%.

The GTX 1660 is approximately 34% faster than the P106-100 in Time Spy. The RX 570 and GTX 1060 are at a similar performance level.

Results in games are less predictable. With modified drivers, the P106-100 is suitable for older and less demanding titles at 1920 x 1080. Modern games may require low settings or may fail to launch altogether.

There is no hardware ray tracing or DLSS. FSR and some XeSS modes are available in supported games.

CUDA and Neural Networks

The P106-100 supports CUDA Compute Capability 6.1. In Blender, it scores about 391 points, compared with 802 for the Tesla P40. That is sufficient for simple rendering and experimentation.

Neural networks are more complicated:

• There are no Tensor Cores, and FP16 performance is 1/64 of FP32 performance.
• Small LLMs fit in the 6 GB of memory. Models with 7-8 billion parameters require aggressive quantization and a limited context.
• CUDA Toolkit 13.0 no longer supports compilation for Pascal. Building programs requires CUDA 12.x.

The card is suitable for older CUDA applications and educational tasks. For modern local LLMs, it is limited by its memory capacity, speed, and gradually shrinking software support.

Drivers and Compatibility

Gaming on the P106-100 requires modified drivers. Installation may require additional steps involving digital signatures and display-output configuration.

In October 2025, NVIDIA ended the release of Game Ready drivers for Pascal. Supported GeForce cards will receive security updates through October 2028, but these guarantees do not automatically apply to the mining-oriented P106-100.

NVENC is usually unavailable, so you should not count on hardware video encoding without checking the specific card.

Is the P106-100 Worth Buying in 2026?

At $20-30, the P106-100 makes sense as an inexpensive CUDA accelerator or an experimental card. Gaming requires a compatible configuration and driver setup.

At $40-50, it is not a worthwhile purchase. A GTX 1060 6 GB for $50-70 has display outputs, official drivers, and requires no workarounds. A GTX 1660 for $90-100 delivers approximately one-third higher performance in Time Spy.

Before buying, check the memory, cooling, and stability under load. The P106-100 was originally intended for prolonged mining operation, so the condition of the specific unit matters more than its age.

For a standard gaming PC, the GTX 1060 is preferable. The P106-100 is worth buying only because of its low price and if you are prepared to resolve compatibility problems yourself.