ASUS GTX 1060 O6G impressions

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SLCPUNK

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Aug 2, 2016
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Hey guys,

I picked up an ASUS GTX 1060 last week and wanted to share my impressions with you guys. This was part of an overall system overhaul, so it might be good to tell you what I was upgrading from. My previous system, as best I can remember, was about 4 years old and had the following components:
  • Core i3 at 2.3 Ghz
  • 16GB RAM (1300mhz?)
  • 120GB SSD + 500GB 7200RPM HD
  • EVGA Radeon 7850 2GB
I bumped up my CPU to an i5 6500, my RAM up to DDR4 2333mhz and swapped out the 7850 for the GTX 1060. And here are my thoughts so far after having gamed with it for a few hours (only Doom 2016 and DOTA2 so far).
  • Quiet - to me this card is essentially silent, in or out of a game. The 7850 was horribly loud to the point that I had to wear headphones when I gamed. This card makes nearly no noise, and that is a huge selling point for me.
  • Fast - I game at 1440p, and the card is incredibly smooth in Doom. It doesn't ever feel like there is any lag to speak of, and I've got most everything turned up. DOTA2 obviously isn't a demanding game, but my FPS did improve from about 80 with everything maxed to over 200.
  • Low power - I was able to keep my old 500w PSU thanks to this card drawing almost no power, and I believe drawing less than my old 7850. For those of you on a budget like myself that helps a lot to be able to keep older components.
  • Attractive - just personal preference, but I love the white shroud. I picked the card up because I wanted a 1060 and finding one in stock felt impossible at times. I felt lucky when this one came in stock at Newegg and picked it up pretty fast.
  • A little overpriced - Considering these can be found at $250 I feel this one is a little overpriced, but honestly, the cooler is significantly bigger than the reference, so maybe when I try overclocking that will justify the extra cash.
I haven't yet overclocked this card, but I can post some results when I finally do. Until then, here's a couple shots of the card in my new setup.
IMG_20160807_164051.jpg
IMG_20160807_164057.jpg
 
can you take that side off?....the reflection ruins the pictures :vomit:
 
I don't understand the point of paying any premium than 250 on the gtx 1060. They all seem to run cool and overclock well. I would recommend getting ones at 250. 40 dollars is a hefty premium.
 
primetime said:
can you take that side off?....the reflection ruins the pictures :vomit:
Click to expand...

Here you go. Apparently curved acrylic is particularly reflective. I'm thinking of getting a strand of LEDs to offset the reflection.

IMG_20160808_003650.jpg

and I need to rewrap those drives...
 
I wonder... How's the fan speed in RPM under full load?
 
Tup3x said:
I wonder... How's the fan speed in RPM under full load?
Click to expand...

If I understand your question, I see the fans hit about 1,200-1,400 RPMs in Doom at 1440p. In DOTA2 the fans stay at around 900. Both of those speeds are silent, or at least I can't hear them. My card hits about 80c.

I upped my clock to 2100Mhz and the fan speeds and temperature didn't change.
 
SLCPUNK said:
If I understand your question, I see the fans hit about 1,200-1,400 RPMs in Doom at 1440p. In DOTA2 the fans stay at around 900. Both of those speeds are silent, or at least I can't hear them. My card hits about 80c.

I upped my clock to 2100Mhz and the fan speeds and temperature didn't change.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... Judging by the fan speed it should be pretty quiet card indeed. 80c seems rather extreme though but that depends on case cooling too.
 
I was looking at this card actually even though I never bought any ASUS product before my current Z170 board.
I've read the horror stories on RMA's etc.

That said the patented blades and being shorter, I think around 9.5 inches means it will just come to the board edge and not extend.

As for price, it's still BS that almost all of the AIB cards a going for $40+ over MSRP.

As I am currently only playing some older games but would like to max settings @1440 and this card should suffice.

By current I mean Oblivion, Skyrim, ME 2, 3 and DA2 ;)

I'll get around to 2015-16 games in a couple of years.
 
I was looking at one of these cards as well. Do you need to install the Asus software to use the Gaming Mode or Boost Clock speeds?
 
bigdogchris said:
I was looking at one of these cards as well. Do you need to install the Asus software to use the Gaming Mode or Boost Clock speeds?
Click to expand...

The card will boost on its own without any additional software. To access the slight bump in MHz with OC mode profile, you need to use the GPU Tweak software.
 
ep0x73 said:
I was looking at this card actually even though I never bought any ASUS product before my current Z170 board.
I've read the horror stories on RMA's etc.

That said the patented blades and being shorter, I think around 9.5 inches means it will just come to the board edge and not extend.

As for price, it's still BS that almost all of the AIB cards a going for $40+ over MSRP.

As I am currently only playing some older games but would like to max settings @1440 and this card should suffice.

By current I mean Oblivion, Skyrim, ME 2, 3 and DA2 ;)

I'll get around to 2015-16 games in a couple of years.
Click to expand...

It'll handle those just fine. My 7850 did just fine with those, even after pretty heavily modding Skyrim (which I highly recommend).

I agree with you on the $40 extra. If it hadn't been for the white shroud and the improved heatsink I think I'd have avoided it and just gone with the stumpy little 1060 from EVGA.
 
Tup3x said:
Hmmm... Judging by the fan speed it should be pretty quiet card indeed. 80c seems rather extreme though but that depends on case cooling too.
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought the same thign about the 80c especially reading reviews. I think the main problem is that the fans aren't getting quite enough air flow. I'm going to try increasing my intake fan speed and see if that helps. That said, the card is super quiet and completely stable, so I'm not too worried about it.
 
Gigabyte has a 1060 windforce that is just shy of 9 inches long coming out eventually, hopefully and that is what I will likely get.
So far I've had good luck with Gigabyte products.
It also has a backplate and clock/counter spinning fans which is an interesting concept.
20160721165413_big.png

20160721193151_big.png
 
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SLCPUNK said:
Here you go. Apparently curved acrylic is particularly reflective. I'm thinking of getting a strand of LEDs to offset the reflection.

View attachment 6345

and I need to rewrap those drives...
Click to expand...
looks great except for that horrible stock intel cooler! much improved picture! you must upgrade that cooler or we boot your membership! lol
 
primetime said:
looks great except for that horrible stock intel cooler! much improved picture! you must upgrade that cooler or we boot your membership! lol
Click to expand...

Haha. I was thinking of getting a water cooler for the CPU, but I don't intend to overclock, and I need all the money I can pull together to finish building my desk and office. Maybe I'll worry about the heatsink when the system needs to be faster to handle new games.
 
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