NIVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1060 GPU aims to be the mid-tier graphics card from the Pascal generation offering similar or even better performance than last year’s flagship models like the GTX 970M and 980M. However, the GPU will be used in high-end laptop configurations.
The graphics card is based on the GP106 chip built on the 16nm FinFET manufacturing process from TSMC paired with up to 6GB GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 8000 MHz effective on a 192-bit interface but this particular model sports 3GB of GDDR5. On contrary to the desktop 3GB variant, this one utilizes the full 1280 CUDA cores intrinsic to the GP106. The GPU also features the same amount of CUDA cores as its desktop counterpart (1280) and it’s clocked at the same frequencies – 1506 – 1708 MHz.
Depending on the cooling solution, the GPU can be found in large 17 and 15-inch notebooks but some slimmed-down 14-inch notebooks are also an option. The TDP of the GPU is somewhat lower than the last generation GTX 970M.
You can find all available laptops with GeForce GTX 1060 here: Buy from Amazon.com
Laptops with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3GB GDDR5)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3GB GDDR5) - benchmark tests
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3GB GDDR5) vs competitors:
| # | GPU | Memory bus | Performance score |
In laptops starting at... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20. | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5) | 192-bit | 3.0/10 | $358.00 |
| 21. | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (8GB GDDR5) | 256-bit | 2.9/10 | Check price |
| 22. | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3GB GDDR5) | 192-bit | 2.9/10 | $799.90 |
| 23. | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q (6GB GDDR5) | 192-bit | 2.8/10 | $729.00 |
| 24. | AMD Radeon RX 580 (4GB GDDR5) (Laptop) | 256-bit | 2.7/10 | $1379.97 |
| 25. | 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M (4GB GDDR5, SLI) | 256-bit | 2.6/10 | Check price |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3GB GDDR5) - gaming tests
We’ve tested NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3GB GDDR5) on…
| # | Laptop | 3DMark Fire Strike (G) | Unigine Heaven 3.0 | Unigine Heaven 4.0 | Unigine Superposition | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | ASUS FX502VM (6th Gen Intel Core) | 11610.00 | 3558.00 | 2743.00 | 0.00 | N/A |
I am confused as to how a GPU with less RAM is better than one with twice the RAM.
Benchmarks don’t usually take into account the amount of VRAM as it doesn’t directly affect the chip’s performance. The synthetic benchmarks test don’t use the whole memory available and measure the performance of the chip only and, of course, VRAM speeds. That’s in most cases, the GPU with less VRAM shows better scores than the one with more VRAM. But as you can see, the performance difference is absolutely negligible and I’m pretty sure you won’t tell the difference in real-life usage.