The Test

For our review of the GTX 1060, we’re using NVIDIA’s 368.81 driver. Our 2016 benchmark suite is otherwise identical to how it was described in our GTX 1080 review.

Meanwhile I’ve gone ahead and included a spectrum of cards, not only contemporary competitors like the Radeon RX 480 8GB, but also historical cards such as the GTX 760 and GTX 660, to give us an idea of how performance has improved in this segment over the generations.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4960X @ 4.2GHz
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200i
Hard Disk: Samsung SSD 840 EVO (750GB)
Memory: G.Skill RipjawZ DDR3-1866 4 x 8GB (9-10-9-26)
Case: NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition
Monitor: Asus PQ321
Video Cards: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1060 OC
AMD Radeon RX 480
AMD Radeon R9 390
AMD RAdeon R9 380X
AMD Radeon R9 290
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Video Drivers: NVIDIA Release 368.81
AMD Radeon Software Crimson 16.7.2 (RX 480)
AMD Radeon Software Crimson 16.7.1 (All Else)
OS: Windows 10 Pro
Meet the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1060 OC Rise of the Tomb Raider
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  • thkg - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link

    Well the price landscape is not all accurate.
    The cheapest 1060 you can buy right now cost $299 (the FE model).
    You right now can buy a RX 480 8G from newegg for $239 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
  • Ryan Smith - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link

    The pricing situation is complex at best, and frustrating at worst. At various times when I wrote this article $249 GTX 1060s and $239 RX 480s went in and out of stock. At the moment it was published, all 480s were out of stock and $249 and $279 1060s were in stock.

    The article is written with the best general advice I can give, which is based on the idea that manufacturers are frequently restocking the MSRP parts. But since things fly off the shelves so quickly, there's no real consistency day to day. (Or even hour to hour; that 480 is out of stock already). Ultimately you can get a $249 1060 about as easily as you can get a $239 480, which is to say not very (and it's not as if higher priced cards are usually any more available).
  • eddman - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link

    Really?!! Do you know what shortage is? I clicked on that link and it said... not available.

    There ARE 1060s at $250 already. They are just hard to get.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
  • eddman - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link

    Wrong link for the second one. This is it:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
  • eddman - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link

    It seems my brain isn't cooperating. Those links are correct. This is the additional link:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
  • Fnnoobee - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link

    Really, Anandtech? Date of this review is Aug. 15 and yet you're using Nvidia's latest driver but AMD Crimson 16.7.1? Really?! I could see if you published this around July 19 (you know, when the card actually hit shelves), but 16.7.2, which fixed the power draw and thermal issues on RX 480 and increased performance overall across the board, released July 7, almost a month ago! 16.7.3 released July 29, which other than providing bug fixes added a significant 10 percent performance boost for RoTR which you benchmarked. I could see if you were ignorant of these releases but you even published an article on your site on July 29. I knew right away before even looking at the details of your test set up when I saw your benchmarks on RoTR, because they're far lower than numbers I've consistently achieved on the benchmark at the same settings you have on my RX 480 at stock clocks (OC I achieved about 6-7 percent more). If you can't be bothered to properly update your tests to the latest drivers and software for both product lines so ALL products get a fair shake, why even bother reviewing or comparing a product in the first place? It smacks of laziness and not being very fair and objective.
  • Ryan Smith - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link

    Thanks. 16.7.1 is actually a typo. All testing was done against 16.7.2 for the RX 480.

    As for 16.7.3, this came out much too late to be included in this review (since it takes longer than a week to produce). However I will need to go back and update the RX 480 results for that driver build for the forthcoming 470/460 reviews.
  • bill44 - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link

    Before I read it, does it mention audio and supported audio sampling rates?
    @Ryan Smith
    I know.........not at hand.......blah, blah.
    No one knows, it's not on the spec sheet, not in reviews, nowhere to be found.
  • Ryan Smith - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link

    I don't have that information or a means to test it. But was there a specific sampling rate you're looking for?
  • bill44 - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link

    Thank Ryan.
    Yes please, 88.2KHz and 176.4KHz. Likelihood is that the other sampling rates will be supported.

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