ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1060 Review

ROG STRIX-GTX1060-O6G-GAMING is one of the fastest NVIDIA GTX 1060 graphics cards on the market; being equipped with the DirectCU III cooler also means that temperatures and noise should be kept under control.

Product on Review: ROG STRIX GTX 1060 OC
Manufacturer & Sponsor: ASUS
Street Price: UK £298.99 @ CCL Computers – US: $320

The release of NVIDIA’s 10-series Pascal-based graphics cards has been one of their strongest demonstrations to date; particularly for the mid-high end which has likely been heightened due to AMD’s delay with their next-gen series. The GTX 1060 has remained a dominating mid-range part within the graphics sector and it goes without saying that any gamer with the intention to play the latest titles maxed out at 1080p would be well-advised to consider such a graphics card.

Today we’ll be reviewing our fifth GTX 1060 by way of the STRIX GTX 1060 OC. This graphics card sits inside the Republic of Gamers (ROG) lineup and therefore has some rather special features which include the renowned DirectCU III cooler bearing a triple fan configuration, Aura RGB lighting, and a substantial factory overclock to both the GPU and memory.

On paper, this graphics card is shaping up to be one of the fastest GTX 1060s on the market. Is it worth your hard-earned cash? Let’s find out!

ROG on their STRIX GTX 1060 OC

ROG Strix GeForce® GTX 1060 gaming graphics cards are packed with exclusive ASUS technologies, including DirectCU III Technology with Patented Wing-Blade Fans for 30% cooler and 3X quieter performance, and Industry-only Auto-Extreme Technology for premium quality and the best reliability. Aura RGB Lighting enables a gaming system personalization and VR-friendly HDMI ports let gamers easily enjoy immersive virtual reality experiences. ROG Strix GeForce® GTX 1060 also has GPU Tweak II with XSplit Gamecaster that provides intuitive performance tweaking and instant gameplay streaming.

Technical Specifications

Below are the technical specifications surrounding GTX 1060 OC, supplied directly from ASUS:

GPU
GeForce® GTX 1060
CUDA cores
1280
Video Memory
6GB GDDR5
Memory Bus
192-bit
Engine Clock
Base: 1645 MHz
Boost: 1873 MHz
Memory Clock
8208 MHz
PCI Express
3.0
Display Outputs
2x DisplayPort 1.4
2x HDMI 2.0b
1x DL-DVI
Recommended Power Supply
400W
DirectX
12 API feature level 12_1
OpenGL
4.5
Cooling
Triple fan – Direct CU III
Slot Size
Dual Slot
Supported OS
Windows 10 / 8 / 7
Card Length
29.8 x 13.4 x4 cm
Accessories
4x ROG fabric cable ties
Software & driver CD
User Manual
World of Warships Promo Card

Packaging & Bundle

Our GTX 1060 arrives with STRIX-themed packaging showing some strong emphasis on ASUS Aura lighting. The front of the box is short on any detail but the rear of the box makes up for this by covering the fundamental features along with the technical specifications.

Inside, there is an inner box which contains the card and the accessories. The card is encased with some foam padding and there is a small assortment of bundled items. They are as follows:

• Driver/Software CD
• 4x fabric cable ties
• Installation Guide
• World of Warships Promotional Card

Closer Look

The basis for the STRIX 1060 is the now well-known DirectCU III cooling solution. Adopting a triple fan configuration, this cooler consumes the card. Later in the article we’ll analyse the different aspects of our cooler in plenty of detail.

Overall the design with the plastic shroud looks aggressive, appealing to the eye and will likely pair up with other hardware very well – especially since we can modify the LED lighting strips (seen around the cooling fans), using ASUS Aura software.

The actual size of this graphics card is:

29.8 x 13.4 x4 cm which is considerably bigger than the reference GTX 1060 – this should be taken into account for those with a smaller computer case.

Flipping the card over, on the reverse we have a large steel backplate which protects the components on our graphics card and also prevents it from flexing or bending. Having such a feature on a graphics card is encouraging as it provides rigidity and prevents potential damage. There are pockets of ventilation for significant components.

Unlike other STRIX cards such as the 1070, 1080, our 1060 features no LED-ready ROG logo. ASUS has chosen to omit such a feature on this mid-range card.

As seen on other DirectCU III coolers, the STRIX 1060 arrives with three WingBlade cooling fans which ASUS claim will deliver 30% better cooling and 3X quieter performance. During light load these cooling fans will cease to spin – rendering the card completely silent.

Running along the edge, ASUS has placed Republic of Gamers branding which also synchronizes with the LED lighting.

Being a GTX 1060, our STRIX card lacks the SLI ports as NVIDIA has reserved such functionality for the GTX 1070 and above.

The GTX 1060 arrives with an assortment of video out ports which include:

• 1x Dual Link DVI-D port (Up to 3K)
• 2x DisplayPort 1.4 (8K @ 60Hz)
• 2x HDMI 2.0 port (4K @ 60 Hz) (VR + display)

The inclusion of 2x HDMI over 3x DisplayPort + 1x HDMI means that users can still use one of the HDMI ports for display while using the other HDMI port for a VR headset.

The selection of ports here should entertain most users, it’s great to see DP 1.4 being used as this now supports up to 8K output and was only released a matter of months ago.

Compared to the Founders Edition, the STRIX GTX 1060 carries some extra ports for PCI power – 8-pin over 6-pin – the reason for this is likely due to the extra phases, extended factory overclock and lighting.

Like other STRIX cards the 1060 has tiny LEDs next to the PCI express connections – these LEDs indicate whether the plug is connected properly. A white LED signifying a good connection while RED showing a problem.

At the end of the card there are two fan headers. The idea being – you can connect up cooling fans which are nearby for targeted cooling when the graphics card is under heavy load. Usually fans which are connected using the headers on the motherboard will factor in CPU temperatures – this nifty inclusion will help to drive down temperatures specifically when the GPU is being taxed.

Test Setup & Methodology

How we test graphics cards

Testing a graphics card is an extremely lengthy process. We sometimes see reviews where a graphics card has been tested using out of date equipment, out of date games and even out of date drivers. While the latter can be excused due to the sheer amount of driver updates making a thorough review impossible we will however notify the reader when we have used a different driver to the normal for example a pre-release driver. For the most part however we will always use the same hardware and latest drivers so this does certainly need to be taken into consideration when viewing our testing results. Each game and benchmark is tested times with the lowest and highest scores omitted out of the 5 results and the average then taken from the three remaining to give us our final result for each resolution and setting used.

Hardware

Taking Intel’s High-End Desktop platform, our hardware utilises the Intel X99 chipset. Combined with this we use the Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to a realistic and achievable 4GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB (4x4GB) of DDR4 at 2666MHz and a 750GB SSD there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

High End Graphics Cards on test:
ASUS STRIX GTX 1060 (NVIDIA 376.33)
ASUS STRIX GTX 1070 (NVIDIA 372.54)
GIGABYTE GTX 1060 G1 GAMING (NVIDIA 372.54)
GIGABYTE GTX 1070 G1 GAMING (NVIDIA 372.54)
GIGABYTE GTX 1080 G1 GAMING (NVIDIA 372.54)
PowerColor RED DEVIL RX 470(Crimson 16.8.1)
PowerColor RED DEVIL RX 480 (Crimson 16.7.2)
ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme (NVIDIA 368.81)
ASUS STRIX GTX 1080 (NVIDIA 368.81)
Gainward GTX 1070 Phoenix Golden Sample (NVIDIA 368.81)
MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X (NVIDIA 368.64)
Gainward GTX 1060 Phoenix Golden Sample (NVIDIA 368.64)
NVIDIA GTX 1060 (NVIDIA 368.64)
NVIDIA GTX 980Ti OC (NVIDIA 368.81)
NVIDIA GTX 980 (NVIDIA 368.81)
NVIDIA GTX 970 (NVIDIA 368.81)
AMD Radeon RX 480 CrossFire (Crimson 16.7.2)
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Crimson 16.7.2)
XFX R9 FURY (Crimson 16.7.2)
AMD Radeon R9 390X (Crimson 16.7.2)

Special thanks go to Epiphan, Intel, Corsair, MSI and AOC for providing the extreme spec components used for our test bench:

Motherboard: MSI X99A Workstation
CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition @ 4GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair LPX Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 2666MHz 16-17-17-35 C1
Power Supply – CORSAIR HX1050
Hard Drive – Samsung 840 EVO 750GB
Cooler – CORSAIR Hydro Series™ H105 240mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Monitor – AOC 28″ 4K U2879VF
Capture Card – Epiphan AV.io 4K

Benchmarks
If you are a regular reader of our reviews you will know we like to test the latest hardware with the latest games and benchmarks on the market. Here are the games we’ve chosen:

DOOM (OpenGL 4.5 & Vulkan)
Total War: Warhammer
Rise of the Tomb Raider
HITMAN
DiRT Rally

To capture framerates we use a combination of in-game benchmark tools, FRAPS and PresentMon.

We also take into consideration the benchmarkers out there so have included three of the more popular synthetic benchmarks available:

Unigine: Valley
Unigine: Heaven 4
Futuremark 3DMark Firestrike
Futuremark 3DMark Time Spy

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Power, Temperatures, Acoustics

To test for power consumption, we take a measurement from the plug socket. It is important to note that the figures below represent total system power use and not just the GPU. The CPU was always in a fixed state (4GHz overclock) so did not affect the additional power load when the GPU was placed under 100% load using Heaven 4.0 which was ran for 20 minutes at which point a load reading was taken. Idle readings were taken 5 minutes after system boot to ensure any background services and applications had loaded.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests we set Heaven 4.0 running continuously for ~30 minutes recorded the peak/maximum GPU temperature.

Acoustics

Although the Direct CU III cooler carries a triple fan arrangement these fans generate very little noise when the system is fully loaded (during games). So there are no concerns whatsoever about noise!

Overclocking

To overclock the GTX 1060 OC we used the MSI Afterburner Tool since it gives extensive options for modifying the GPU and memory clock.

Overclocking the card was easy but there wasn’t as much headroom since this graphics card already has quite a generous factory overclocked applied to it already. Our result took the GPU clock up to 1785MHz (2013MHz Boost) and modifying the memory clock up to 2120MHz. By tweaking both these elements of the card, we are able to tap into better 3D performance. Below is an example of how the overclock compares to the stock settings in Unigine Heaven 4.0.

DX12: 3DMark Time Spy

With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, 3DMark Time Spy is the ideal benchmark for testing the DirectX 12 performance of the latest graphics cards.

DX11: 3DMark FireStrike

Fire Strike is the new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is Futuremark’s most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

DX11: Unigine Heaven 4.0

Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms.

DX11: Unigine Valley

Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.

DX12: DOOM OpenGL 4.5

By default DOOM utilises an OpenGL 4.5 renderer, and is one of relatively few Windows PC titles to not use DirectX 12. It tests how well NVIDIA and AMD’s GPUs deal with a less mainstream approach, especially in regards to driver optimisations, and like all of id titles stretches graphics quality to the limit.

DX12: DOOM Vulkan

id have also released an optional Vulkan rendering path for DOOM. This API is a development of AMD’s Mantle low level which has been taken on board by the Kronos Group for implementation as the next generation of Open graphics APIs. Like DirectX 12 Vulkan is capable of Asynchronous Compute in specific configurations.

DX12: Total War: WARHAMMER

Total War: WARHAMMER is a pseudo Real-Time Strategy title which leverages DirectX 12 to render huge numbers of complex units on screen at any one time.

DX12: Rise of the Tomb Raider

Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider is the sequel to 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot. An enormously challenging title graphically, the developers also released an optional DirectX 12 render path for Windows 10 users. Although it has undergone a number of iterations this rendering pathway notably doesn’t currently utilise the full capabilities of DirectX 12.

DX12: HITMAN

Yet another DirectX 12 title, 2016’s Hitman from Square Enix and developer IO Interactive has a more robust DirectX 12 implementation than Rise of the Tomb Raider. We’ve tested at a full range of resultions, from 1080p through to 4K, which provides a look at the impact of GPU speed and memory utilisation.

DX11: DiRT Rally

Overall Performance

Here we take a look at the overall performance of the graphics card. This figure is determined by finding the average FPS across all of the settings used in a particular benchmark(game) to give us an overall value.

Value For Money

We make a simple calculation for this set of results. For each game we add all of the resulting FPS totals together and then divide by the four sets to give us an overall performance figure. While the figures alone do not give you an accurate picture of how the card will perform in any given scenario, they do tell you, when averaged, which GPU is the more capable across all of the benchmarks and settings tested.

Conclusion

NVIDIA’s GTX 1060 is the go-to graphics card for mid-range gamers who principally desire to run the latest gaming titles at 1080p maxed out and the ROG team has taken this platform to another level with their factory overclocked STRIX edition.

As with all the STRIX graphics cards under ROG’s belt, the GTX 1060 carries the DirectCU III cooling solution which being in its third iteration has a strong reputation because it gets the results – we found the temperatures on this card to be the lowest recorded for the GTX 1060 and this was achieved without causing unnecessary noise. Furthermore, although a portion of users aren’t concerned by the visual appearance of their hardware, this card with its cooler is aesthetically stunning and it will contribute to an impressive looking theme for those wanting to take some extra care with the overall design of their system.

Compared to the other GTX 1060s we’ve reviewed from GIGABYTE, MSI and Gainward (as well as the Founders from NVIDIA), this is the fastest version both in terms of the GPU clock speed and memory clock speed. The ROG team has applied a 10% overclock to the GPU and a 3% increase to the memory from the stock settings and while this is encouraging on paper, it’s just as impressive when we take things to the gaming arena. Such modifications saw a significant boost to performance against the other 1060s – providing up to 15 extra fps against the Founders Edition. We were also able to nudge the GPU/memory frequencies even further and push for an even greater overclock; demonstrating just how capable these STRIX offerings really are.

One particular favourite of ours is the inclusion of the twin fan headers on the end of the graphics card. This may only be a small inclusion but for anyone who knows – fan headers on motherboards are often in short supply and what’s more is if chassis fans are connected up to these headers, if the graphics card temperature jumps up, the fans will synchronise and spin faster to help flush away the heat.

The STRIX GTX 1060 can be purchased in the UK for £298.99 @ CCL Computers and in the US: $320. Comparing to other 1060s, this price is reasonable based on the substantial overclock and custom design that ROG delivers. This card comes with a generous 3 years warranty which should sweeten the deal even more.

The STRIX GTX 1060 OC is the fastest 1060 we’ve had the pleasure of looking at. A significant factory overclock pushes up the frame rate in-game and the well-equipped DirectCU III cooler brings down the temperatures without compromising on noise. Go get one!

Pros
+ Appealing to the eye
+ Features Aura lighting
+ Includes dual fan headers
+ Arrives with a decent GPU/mem overclock
+ Manually overclocks beyond
+ Quiet & effective cooling
+ Excellent performance
+ DirectX 12 ready
+ Reasonable price
+ 3 year warranty

Cons
– Large
– Heavy

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