Gtx 1060 Xtreme Gaming 6g “Firmware” Update

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G

Later on reviewing its GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070, MSI is presenting usa with a third graphics card armed with the same cooler. Naturally, on a GeForce GTX 1060, it feels a little oversized. The big thermal solution’southward reward is quite obvious though; it’s probably going to be fifty-fifty quieter than either of the ii higher-terminate models. Otherwise, this card looks pretty similar. The well-nigh apparent difference is its lack of an SLI connector.

Even if there’southward not a lot near the card’s appearance to introduce, our performance results are withal worth going into depth on. And at that place’due south an important caveat we need to present upfront:

We exam all samples every bit they make it, out of the box, exactly equally most gamers use them. Arranged control software or third-political party tools are deliberately avoided. Once once again, MSI tried to exploit this policy past delivering a so-called golden sample with a modified firmware, just every bit information technology did in the case of our GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G. The sample employs college clock rates (and possibly a higher ability target) than the BIOS you’d receive from an off-the-shelf board.Therefore, we cannot grant this card any award, no matter how expert the technical implementation may exist. In addition, nosotros also have to disqualify this card from our comparative summary; it just wouldn’t be fair to the other contenders.

Technical Specifications

More:
All-time Graphics Cards

More:
Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table

More than:
All Graphics Content

Exterior & Interfaces

Similar to its higher-finish relatives, this card’s fan shroud is made of relatively thin plastic. Underneath, yous’ll find a massive frame that improves the structure’s stability.

Weighing 35.4 oz (1003 grams), the GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G isn’t light (it’s only about 100g lighter than the GTX 1080 version). The card measures 28.4cm long, xiii.5cm alpine, and 3.5cm broad, monopolizing two full expansion slots and plenty of area vertically, coming off the motherboard. This is due to the big fan blades, which stretch out to a diameter of 9.5cm.

The back of the board is covered by a unmarried-slice plate with some ventilation holes. Unfortunately, at that place are no thermal pads connecting it to the circuit lath, so the plate does nothing to assistance with cooling. Because of the backplate, though, you must plan for an additional one-fifth of an inch (5mm) of clearance to avoid collisions with your CPU’s libation, particularly in small form factor cases. A lack of SLI support means you lot don’t have to worry nigh fitting two GeForce GTX 1060s dorsum to back in a case.

MSI’due south logo on the top of the menu lights up. Again, the ii 6mm heat pipes make a prominent appearance, as does an 8mm pipe. The viii-pin power connector sits on the cease of the card, turned by 180°.

The blackness and bright red colors follow MSI’s corporate design, while, again, the card’s shape resembles GeForce GTX 1070 and 1080 boards in the Gaming X line-upwardly.

The rear of the carte is completely open. The cooler’s fins are positioned horizontally, directing airflow towards the slot encompass and the rear. This pattern has the advantage that a lot of its heated air gets blown out the back of your chassis.

The slot encompass sports v connectors, 4 of which can exist used concurrently in a multi-monitor setup. There’south ane dual-link DVI-D connector without an analog signal, joined by two HDMI ii.0 connectors and three DisplayPort ane.4 outputs.

Where y’all don’t notice display outputs, the rest of the subclass features openings to facilitate airflow. If MSI chose to leave off the seldom-used DVI connector, there’d be even more infinite for ventilation. Every bit you may have noticed, Nvidia went that route with its recent GeForce GTX 1080 Ti announcement, bundling a DP-to-DVI dongle for those who however need the interface.

Board & Components

All five phases are powered through the auxiliary connector. The retentivity modules take their ain phase supplied through the motherboard’s PCIe slot.

The GPU power supply’s five phases are controlled by a uP9511P made by uPI Semiconductor Corp. Dual N-channel MOSFETs in the M381 line are used for the high and low side voltage converters. This setup eliminates the demand for separate gate drivers, which saves both space and money.

The retention’s single phase has one small uP1641P also supplied by uPI Semiconductor Corp. It’south joined by a different voltage converter, the SM7320, which is too a dual N-aqueduct MOSFET.

MSI uses the same coils we’ve seen for years. Their quality is but what you’d wait from a mass-market product in this category with decent encapsulation. That’southward to say they’re better than Foxconn’southward Magic coils.

Two capacitors are added right below the GPU to smooth out voltage peaks. This design is like to Nvidia’s reference implementation.

Only half-dozen of the eight available memory emplacements are populated with Samsung K4G41325FC-HC25 modules (32x 128 Mb). Their voltages range between 1.305 and 1.597V, depending on clock rate. Altogether, this amounts to just 3GB of graphics memory.

Power Results

Before addressing power consumption directly, let’due south take a look at the relationship betwixt clock rate and voltage. In the example of MSI’s GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G, this illustrates that frequency doesn’t drop significantly during gaming, even afterwards an imposed warm-upwardly catamenia.

Our observed GPU Heave rate falls from 2000 MHz to a nonetheless-respectable 1974 MHz over fourth dimension and under load. The curve’south slope is mirrored in our voltage readings. A 1.05V starting bespeak pulls back ever-and so-slightly to 1.043V past the end of our run.

The lowest GPU clock charge per unit measured at idle is about 240 MHz.

We took our measurements using a variable low-pass filter, so we mention brusque load peaks only equally a side note (meet the grayed-out bar in the chart below), since those peaks are rarely relevant in practice.

Power Connector Load

Since MSI’s GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G doesn’t employ the motherboard slot’s 3.3V rail, we left information technology out of our nautical chart.

The ability distribution nosotros observe shows a heavy bias toward the auxiliary power connector, which supplies just under 100W.

Hither’s the data for the gaming and stress tests:

Power consumption on its ain only tells united states role of the story. The PCI-SIG specifies a maximum of 5.5A at the motherboard slot, and we’re showing a reading under 3A, which puts MSI’southward GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G in the green.

Of grade, we have the information for measured currents besides:

The Libation & Its Performance

Behind every successful loftier-operation graphics card is a well-designed libation. In this case, MSI’due south implementation is pretty elaborate given the GP106 GPU’southward thermal ceiling. In contrast to MSI’due south GeForce GTX 1070 and 1080 Gaming Ten boards, the 1060 Gaming X relies on a closed frame that non only keeps the board prissy and stable, but also helps cool the memory modules and VRMs.

Thermal pads provide the bridge necessary to transfer oestrus from the memory and power circuitry, though we would take preferred a thinner and more efficient design. After all, MSI uses low fan speeds that don’t move much air.

The frame is screwed to the backplate, and ~3mm-tall spacers allow some air to flow between the plate and PCB.

As mentioned, this cooler is almost identical to the ane used on the GTX 1070 and 1080 Gaming cards. Information technology uses the aforementioned horizontally-oriented fins and heat pipe configuration. The direction they face up is more or less irrelevant, since they’re made of sintered composite material.

A massive nickel-plated sink takes the heat from those pipes and dissipates it out through aluminum fins.

The libation does its job almost inaudibly. And yet it performs incredibly well, enabling readings around 145°F (63°C) during our gaming loop, and topping out at 149°F (65°C) in a closed case.

Our measurements with the backplate and stabilizing frame removed show that MSI won’t let this bill of fare get up in flames. The gaming loop and stress test fail to plow up any apparent issues.

It becomes clear during our gaming test sequence that the lower five voltage regulator phases handle nearly of the load, while the memory’due south VRM remains fairly absurd thanks to its less demanding task.

In the terminate, MSI’s cooling solution does a peachy chore (every bit it should, since it was designed for loads almost 100 percent higher).

Sound Results

Thank you to an exemplary implementation of hysteresis and fan speeds effectually 800 RPM, this carte du jour is almost inaudible.

When the GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G is idle, its noise is not measurable due to a semi-passive fashion. Thus, we abstained from taking those readings.

Since this carte’s fans are the same ones used to absurd MSI’southward GeForce GTX 1070/1080 Gaming boards (meaning they’re almost overkill), our examination chamber remains frighteningly quiet. An first-class 29.iii dB(A) consequence drops beneath the threshold of minimal background dissonance for a room within a serenity apartment.

All nosotros plant were minimal vibrations in the low-frequency range caused past the slow-spinning fan motors. That’s basically nit-picking though, since these vibrations aren’t audible.

More:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Roundup

More than:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Roundup

MORE:
All Graphics Content