A little confusingly named, the GTX 1060 3GB will not only have a small frame buffer than the 6GB variant, but also only 1152 CUDA Cores compared with 1280 on the larger model.
A little confusingly named, the GTX 1060 3GB will not only have a small frame buffer than the 6GB variant, but also only 1152 CUDA Cores compared with 1280 on the larger model.
Confirming long-standing rumours, NVIDIA have today announced their newest entrant to the GTX 10-series – the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. Based on the same GP106 as the GTX 1060 6GB, it nonetheless features key differences which distinguish it from the model with a larger frame buffer, as well as a lower price tag.
The most noteworthy modification on NVIDIA’s lowest cost Pascal GPU is a reduced number of CUDA cores, down to 1152 from 1280 (i.e. 10% fewer cores). Unsurprisingly this is likely to be a little confusing to a few customers, hence the clear delineation between 6GB and 3GB SKUs. Although the frame buffer is reduced to 3GB, the card will still feature GDDR5 memory clocked at 8Gbps and accessed across a 192-bit bus. As a result of the changes 1080p performance should remain strong in today’s games, but very high image quality settings and resolutions past 1440p could cause the card to struggle.
Reference clock speeds are unchanged at 1506MHz Base, 1708 MHz Boost, and of course factory overclocks from AIBs are likely to push the GPU well beyond reference specifications. The TDP is effectively unchanged at 120W and so the card will require a single 6-pin PCI-E connector. Like the GTX 1060 6GB, this new SKU will also not feature SLI capability.
NVIDIA have also made it known that there will be no Founder’s Edition for this card. Partners such as ASUS, Gainward, MSI and GIGABYTE will have free rein to make use of their own coolers without a Founder’s Edition looming over all.
The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB will be released in the coming weeks priced from £189.99 (MSRP), ~£50 cheaper than the GTX 1060 6GB. It will be going head to head with AMD’s Radeon RX 480 reference card and partner versions of the RX 470, and could be a cracking buy for those with a budget tighter than a full-fat GTX 1060 6GB would allow.
