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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X: a hypothetical updated classic in 2025

April 2025

In the world of graphics cards, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 has become a legend due to its balance of price and performance. In 2025, the company surprised fans by releasing an updated version — GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X. This model combines a proven architecture with modern enhancements. Let's explore what it offers and who it is suitable for.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Pascal Architecture: Nostalgia with an Upgrade

The updated GTX 1060 retained the Pascal architecture but received a technological "tuning." The chips are manufactured using a 16nm process at TSMC (as with the original GTX 1060), ensuring energy efficiency. However, it integrates optimizations borrowed from Turing and Ampere: improved texture blocks and increased frequencies.

Support for Modern Features (with caveats)

Despite the GTX suffix, the card partially supports DLSS 2.0 through drivers. This was made possible by NVIDIA's software adaptations, but ray tracing (RTX) remains unavailable due to the lack of dedicated RT cores. Technologies like FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) from AMD also work, broadening game compatibility.

2. Memory: GDDR5X instead of GDDR5

Type and Volume

The graphics card comes with 8 GB GDDR5X — an unexpected move for the budget segment. The bus remains 192-bit, but memory frequency has been increased to 10 Gbps per pin (compared to 8 Gbps of the old version). This provides a bandwidth of 240 GB/s (up from 192 GB/s on the GTX 1060 6 GB).

Impact on Performance

The increased volume and speed of memory reduce the "bottleneck" in modern games with high-detail textures. For example, in Horizon Forbidden West (2024) at 1080p, the card shows 15% fewer FPS drops compared to the 6 GB version.

3. Gaming Performance: A Modest Worker at 1080p

Average FPS Metrics (2025)

- Cyberpunk 2077: 45–50 FPS at high settings (1080p, DLSS/FSR Quality).

- Call of Duty: Black Ops VI: 70–80 FPS (1080p, medium settings).

- Valorant: 160–200 FPS (1080p, ultra).

- Starfield: Enhanced Edition: 40–45 FPS (1080p, medium settings + FSR 2.2).

Resolution Support

- 1080p: Optimal for most games.

- 1440p: Requires reducing settings to medium (e.g., 50–55 FPS in Apex Legends).

- 4K: Only for undemanding titles like CS2 or indie games.

Ray Tracing

The absence of RT cores makes ray tracing impractical. Enabling RT effects (via software emulation) drops FPS to 15–20 frames, which is unacceptable.

4. Professional Tasks: Basic Capabilities

Video Editing and Rendering

Thanks to 8 GB of memory and 1280 CUDA cores, the card handles editing in DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro for FullHD projects. Rendering in Blender (Cycles) takes 2-3 times longer than with the RTX 3060, but it is suitable for learning or smaller tasks.

Scientific Calculations

Support for CUDA and OpenCL allows the GPU to be used for simple simulations in MATLAB or Machine Learning (e.g., training neural networks on medium-sized datasets). However, 8 GB of memory limits work with large models.

5. Power Consumption and Thermal Output

TDP and PSU Recommendations

The card's TDP is 130 W (10 W higher than the original). A power supply of 450–500 W with a 6-pin connector will be required for stable operation.

Cooling

The graphics card is available in versions:

- Standard Cooling (2 Fans): Load temperature — 72–75°C.

- Passive (Single-Fan): Suitable for compact cases but heats up to 80°C at peak.

Case Recommendations

- Minimum case size: Mid-Tower.

- Required 2-3 intake fans to avoid thermal throttling.

6. Comparison with Competitors

AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT 8 GB (2024)

- Pros: Support for FSR 3.0, lower price ($160).

- Cons: Weaker in DX11 games (20–25% worse in The Witcher 3).

NVIDIA RTX 2050 Refresh (2025)

- Pros: DLSS 3.5, RT cores.

- Cons: 6 GB of memory, price $220.

Conclusion: GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X ($180) is the choice for memory volume versus modern features in competitors.

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply

- Minimum: 450 W (80+ Bronze).

- Recommended models: Corsair CX450, Be Quiet! System Power 10.

Compatibility

- Platforms: Works with PCIe 3.0/4.0, but motherboards older than 2016 may require BIOS updates.

- Processors: Optimal — Ryzen 5 5500 or Core i5-12400F.

Drivers

NVIDIA supports the card through Game Ready Drivers, but new features (like DLSS 4.0) are unavailable. For stability, use Studio Drivers.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Affordable price ($180).

- 8 GB of memory for 1080p gaming.

- Low power consumption.

Cons:

- No hardware ray tracing.

- Outdated architecture.

- Limited performance at 1440p.

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X For?

This graphics card is the ideal choice for:

- Gamers with a 1080p 60 Hz monitor seeking to play at high settings without chasing ultra graphics.

- Streamers who value stability in less demanding projects.

- PC building enthusiasts on a budget ($500–600 for the entire PC).

In 2025, the GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X represents a blend of nostalgia and pragmatism. It may not impress with innovations, but it offers reliability and sufficient power for everyday tasks.

Basic

Label Name

NVIDIA

Platform

Desktop

Model Name

GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X

Generation

GeForce 10

Base Clock

1506MHz

Boost Clock

1709MHz

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

8GB

Memory Type

GDDR5X

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.

256bit

Memory Clock

1001MHz

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.

256.3 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.

109.4 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.

136.7 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.

68.36 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.

136.7 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.

4.287 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.

1280

L1 Cache

48 KB (per SM)

L2 Cache

2MB

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

4.287 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

GeForce MX570 A

4.636 +8.1%

Radeon RX 470D

4.408 +2.8%

GeForce GTX 1060 8 GB GDDR5X

4.287

Tesla K80

4.195 -2.1%

GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh

4.136 -3.5%