1060 gddr5x vs gddr5: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Gets GDDR5X in Fifth Makeover

20 мая, 2023

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Gets GDDR5X in Fifth Makeover

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Nvidia is back at it again, revealing last week the fifth variant of its popular GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card. Priced at $299, the card differs from past approaches in that it’s outfitted with faster GDDR5X memory instead of the GDDR5 used in the other four variants.

(Image credit: Nvidia)

Graphics card manufacturers often rewarm their silicons to produce multiple variations of the same product if it’s doing particularly well in sales. Although both AMD and Nvidia are guilty of this practice, the latter takes it to another level with the GeForce GTX 1060. If four different versions of the GeForce GTX 1060 wasn’t enough, Nvidia has now added a fifth. Who can blame them? From a price-to-performance perspective, the GeForce GTX 1060 is hard to beat and very popular among gamers. In fact, the graphics card has been the reigning champion on Steam’s Hardware & Software Survey for a while now. 

AMD is expected to usher in its Radeon RX 500-series refresh very soon. It seems Nvidia is preparing to compete. The Geforce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X can serve as Nvidia’s answer to AMD’s upcoming Radeon RX 590 graphics card.  

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Header Cell — Column 0 GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 9Gbps GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GeForce GTX 1060 5GB GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
Architecture (GPU) Pascal (GP104) Pascal (GP106) Pascal (GP106) Pascal (GP106) Pascal (GP106)
CUDA Cores 1,280 1,280 1,280 1,280 1,152
TMUs 80 80 80 80 72
ROPs 48 48 48 40 48
SM 10 10 10 10 9
Base Clock  1,506MHz 1,506MHz 1,506MHz 1,506MHz 1,506MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1,708MHz 1,708MHz 1,708MHz 1,709MHz 1,708MHz
Memory Clock N/A 2,257MHz (9,028MHz effective) 2,002MHz (8,008MHz effective) 2,002MHz (8,008MHz effective) 2,002MHz (8,008MHz effective)
Memory Capacity 6GB GDDR5X 6GB GDDR5 6GB GDDR5 5GB GDDR5 3GB GDDR5
Memory Bus N/A 192-bit 192-bit 160-bit 192-bit
Memory Bandwidth N/A 216. 7 GB/s 192.2 GB/s 160.2 GB/s 192.2 GB/s
TDP 120W 120W 120W 120W 120W

The GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X is reportedly built around a cut-down version of the Pascal GP104 silicon, which is present in the GeForce GTX 1070, GTX 1070 Ti and GTX 1080, instead of the GP106 silicon that was employed in previous GeForce GTX 1060 models.

Nvidia didn’t disclose memory clock information for the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X. But since Micron provides Nvidia with GDDR5X memory chips for its GeForce GTX 1080, 1080 Ti, Titan X and Titan Xp graphics cards, we dropped by the U.S. memory manufacturer’s website to check its GDDR5X catalog. Micron currently offers GDDR5X memory chips rated at 10Gb/s, 11Gb/s and 12Gb/s. We expect the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X’s memory will probably come clocked at 10Gb/s, since faster memory chips would increase the graphics card’s pricing. On the performance front, the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X should perform a little faster than previous models. 

Join the experts who read Tom’s Hardware for the inside track on enthusiast PC tech news — and have for over 25 years. We’ll send breaking news and in-depth reviews of CPUs, GPUs, AI, maker hardware and more straight to your inbox.

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

NVIDIA Stealthily Launches GeForce GTX 1060 With 6GB GDDR5X To Counter AMD Polaris Refresh

homeNews

NVIDIA is all about its GeForce RTX series with real-time ray tracing and DLSS support right now, but rumors of AMD getting ready to introduce a refreshed Polaris GPU may have prompted to the company to upgrade one of its Pascal parts. So far there has not been any official announcement or fanfare, but a visit to NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1060 product page shows that some models are now shipping with GDDR5X memory.

For anyone keeping count, that now makes four different GeForce GTX 1060 models. They include a 3GB model that uses GDDR5 memory clocked at 8Gbps, the original GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 8Gbps, a later revision of the 6GB model with the GDDR5 memory goosed to 9Gbps, and now a version of the 6GB card that uses potentially faster GDDR5X memory.

We say it’s potentially faster and not definitively faster because the product page isn’t entirely clear on that aspect. Have a look…

Source: NVIDIA

NVIDIA’s specifications chart doesn’t differentiate memory speeds between the GDDR5 and GDDR5X versions, and simply lists 8Gbps. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean the GDDR5X variant will not be clocked a little faster, as NVIDIA doesn’t differentiate between 8Gbps and 9Gbps GDDR5 variants either. It’s all a little confusing at the moment.

Here’s a handy bullet list to make things a little easier (visually):

  • GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5 @ 8Gbps
  • GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 @ 8Gbps
  • GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 @ 9Gbps
  • GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X @ ???

All four variants shuttle data through a 192-bit memory pipe. We don’t know what speed the GDDR5X memory is running at on the new GeForce GTX 1060 SKU, but a visit to Micron’s website shows that it offers GDDR5X memory in 10Gbps, 11Gbps, and 12Gbps speeds.

For reference, NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080 originally shipped with 8GB of GDDR5X memory running at 10Gbps, then later gave its partners the option to select faster 11Gbps GDDRX memory. So, what does this tell us about the GeForce GTX 1060 with GDDR5X memory? Let’s do some math. To calculate memory bandwidth, you divide the memory interface width (192-bit) by 8, then multiply the result with the memory clock frequency.

  • 192 / 8 = 24. 24 x 10,000 = 240,000 (240GB/s)
  • 192 / 8 = 24. 24 x 11,000 = 264,000 (264GB/s)
  • 192 / 8 = 24. 24 x 12,000 = 288,000 (288GB/s)

So there are the three possibilities. For reference, the original GeForce GTX 1060 has a memory bandwidth of 192GB/s, and the 9Gbps variant has a memory bandwidth of 216GB/s.

That’s a lot to digest. To the point, the more memory bandwidth, the better. It’s especially helpful for running games at higher resolutions, and can enable a higher level of detail, depending on the game. If GeForce GTX 1060 cards with GDDR5X memory cost around the same as the GDDR5 variants, then it becomes an even better bang-for-buck option.

«New» NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB with GDDR5X Memory — Benchmark

Glane
Knowledgeable