ROG Strix GTX 1060 review and gaming performance tested by meankeys

Thanks to meankeys from the ROG forum for sharing his thoughts on the ROG Strix GTX 1060 and gaming performance! Here is the forum thread if you'd like to join the discussion! 

 

Today I had the opportunity to test drive the ROG STRIX GTX 1060. This card is the 6 GB Overclocked Gaming edition. ROG currently produces three flavors of this card. The ROG STRIX GTX 1060, GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080.
The price to performance ratio is unbeatable as the GTX 1060 has almost all the features as the GTX 1070 & 1080. 

By default, it runs with a base clock of 1,620MHz and a boost clock of 1,848MHz. However, using ASUS' GPU Tweak II software, you can also switch the card from this Gaming Mode to a slightly faster OC Mode, where the clocks are 1,645MHz base and 1,873MHz boost.

This is a 9 percent increase over reference clocks going by the base clock, and is the highest out-of-the-box speed currently available. This is also the mode I have used for testing. 

The shroud also sports ASUS' Aura RGB lighting system, which you can configure to any color you want and to one of six effects using the dedicated app. 

As with the GTX 1070, this card uses non-standard outputs. Specifically, ROG swaps one of the three DisplayPorts for a second HDMI output, the idea being that anyone using a VR headset can also use a HDMI-connected TV without ever having to disconnect one or the other. I thought it was a nice feature. ROG has also upgraded the 6-pin power input of the reference card to an 8-pin one, giving the card a total potential power draw of 225W. Given its 120W TDP rating, this is more than you'll ever need for overclocking. 

The gaming system I will be using to test drive the ROG STRIX GTX 1060

• Rampage IV Extreme Black Edition
• i7 3930K
• 16 GB G.Skill Trident X
• Kingston SSD

The games I tested with:

• Battlefield 4
• TitanFall
• Need for Speed (Most wanted)

I will be using my normal gaming setup and I will be comparing the ROG STRIX GTX 1060 to my ROG STRIX GTX 1080 using the same settings.

Three ASUS 24” monitors @ 5760X1080p with high to very high video settings.

One thing I will mention about these cards is they truly are silent running and run much cooler than any of my other graphics cards. (R9 390X – R9 295X2 – 980 Ti). The fans don’t even turn on till about 60°C and even then they run at a very low RPM. 

First I installed my ROG STRIX GTX 1080 OC and played each game for about an hour or so taking note of the graphics card temperature and the FPS (frames per second).

• Battlefield 4 card temperature: Idle 30°C – Load 63°C – FPS average 132+
• TitanFall card temperature: Idle 30°C – Load 58°C – FPS average 146+
• Need for Speed (Most Wanted) card temperature: Idle 30°C – Load 58°C – FPS average 124+

Then I installed the ROG STRIX GTX 1060 OC and played each game for about an hour or so taking note of the graphics card temperature and the FPS.

• Battlefield 4 Card temperature: Idle 26°C – Load 57°C – FPS average 122+
• TitanFall Card temperature: Idle 26°C – Load 41°C – FPS average 132+
• Need for Speed (Most Wanted) card temperature: Idle 26°C – Load 62°C – FPS average 112+

As you can see the GTX 1060 faired very well against the GTX 1080. Mileage may vary depending on system configuration. I am very happy with the performance of the ROG STRIX GTX 1060. The games played smooth and fluid. Graphics were clean and sharp. For a tight-budgeted build I would recommend the ROG STRIX GTX 1060. Although priced a bit higher than the competition. TheROG STRIX cards makes up for the cost with its quality and built-in features. If you plan to run SLI at some point you may want to consider the ROG STRIX GTX 1070 or 1080 as the 1060 does not offer SLI. This card ran very cool and silent. I contribute this to the user defined fan control built in to GPU Tweak II
It is very easy to use. Let’s take a look. Open GPU Tweak II. Go to Professional Mode then Fan Speed. Left Click the little cog to the right of (user define) this will open the User Define Settings.

You can left click any were on the red line and will create a red box marker. If you left click and drag the red box to whatever temp or fan speed you like.

You may select multiple fan speed points to totally customize you gaming performance needs to keep your graphics card cool and quiet.

No matter what ROG product you select you can trust the quality and performance to be there when you need it. In-game or out ROG gets my stamp of approval. Enjoy!

Mkeys