GeForce GTX 1060 Revisit: A Good Buy in 2021?

[Steve]

For around $300 on the second hand market, the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB should deliver solid performance for 1080p PC gaming and then some. Let's check out how this oldie plays current generation games.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2274-geforce-gtx-1060-revisit/

 

[QuantumPhysics]

In 2020 (2021) you should be going after nothing less thn a 3000 series.

If you are buying a laptop, get a 3050Ti t the least.

If you are building a desktop, your target should be the 3090.

At the least, your desktop needs a 3070 or 3080.

 

[Shadowboxer]

If the cards are the same price I’d pick the 1060 on account of better driver support. The article even noted a bug that prevented the Rx 580 performing in dirt 5. From my experience the older the game and cards the more bugs you will find. No mans sky was almost unplayable on an rx 580 last year when I still had one.

Also the 580 was released in 2016. Considering cards released in 2013 are now being discontinued by AMD, you will likely only get 3 years of driver support.

But really just go and buy a second hand Nintendo switch and some games for about the same price as one of these cards. PC gaming is for the super rich currently, it’s just not worth forking out the money required just to play games.

 

[Michael Baker]

In 2020 (2021) you should be going after nothing less thn a 3000 series.

If you are buying a laptop, get a 3050Ti t the least.

If you are building a desktop, your target should be the 3090.

At the least, your desktop needs a 3070 or 3080.

Good luck with that.

 

[G0DofPaiN]

In 2020 (2021) you should be going after nothing less thn a 3000 series.

If you are buying a laptop, get a 3050Ti t the least.

If you are building a desktop, your target should be the 3090.

At the least, your desktop needs a 3070 or 3080.

Right. Why spend $300 when you can spend $3000? Price is just a number. The more 3090s you buy, the more you save, practically you are robbing Nvidia.

 

[Shadowboxer]

Right. Why spend $300 when you can spend $3000? Price is just a number. The more 3090s you buy, the more you save, practically you are robbing Nvidia.

Tbh, Nvidia are being robbed but by the scalpers.

 

[Dimitriid]

If you get a 1060 and it turns out it's the 3gb version then the story would be fairly different. Although maybe not so much: I'm not sure if the 1060 wouldn't just choke on performance before it chokes on lack of vram with the most intense games 2021 has to offer.

Still the fact that after all these years there's a not-insignificant chance that you get burned by Nvidia's intentionally misleading naming scheme and pick up the much worst 3gb version is probably reason enough for me to avoid it altogether: If I need a "Get ripped off less than a new GPU" card which is the angle of this article/video here I'd go for a 1050ti instead: it will probably play anything the 1060 can play with only some minor tweaking to some settings to get there in passable framerate (60 average or at least minimums above 30)

 

[pildorman321]

Embarrassing that this card consumes 80 - 150W less that any custom 3060 - 3060 TI - 6700 XT !!

 

[Shadowboxer]

If Techspot are listening can we have a benchmark of doom eternals new RTX patch please? I’m curious as to how my hardware will hold up with DLSS on or off. I wouldn’t even mind if you left out the Radeon ray tracing benchmarks as nobody uses it. I understand you guys passionately hate Nvidia and ray tracing but the tech community doesn’t so we would like coverage please. There’s no mention of doom eternal on this website today but almost every other tech website is talking about it. It’s more important than benchmarks of an old 2016 GPU that’s in far less demand than modern RTX parts. You guys did inform us the patch was coming after all.

 

[enemys]

If Techspot are listening can we have a benchmark of doom eternals new RTX patch please? I’m curious as to how my hardware will hold up with DLSS on or off. I wouldn’t even mind if you left out the Radeon ray tracing benchmarks as nobody uses it. I understand you guys passionately hate Nvidia and ray tracing but the tech community doesn’t so we would like coverage please. There’s no mention of doom eternal on this website today but almost every other tech website is talking about it. It’s more important than benchmarks of an old 2016 GPU that’s in far less demand than modern RTX parts. You guys did inform us the patch was coming after all.

I use RT on my Radeon 6900XT - it's got comparable RT performance to 2080Ti, so in most games it performs well enough even without DLSS available. And well, if Doom Eternal RTX is so important and everyone is talking about it, then surely there'll be plenty benchmarks to read on those other sides.

Your bitter and unpleasant tone aside, I'd welcome such benchmark, too, but I'm not sure they'll do it. IIRC TechSpot only does a couple single game benchmarks a year, so I wouldn't get your hopes up. For that sites like TechPowerUp, Digital Foundry or even Notebookcheck could be a better fit.

 

[Bulllee]

If Techspot are listening can we have a benchmark of doom eternals new RTX patch please? I’m curious as to how my hardware will hold up with DLSS on or off. I wouldn’t even mind if you left out the Radeon ray tracing benchmarks as nobody uses it. I understand you guys passionately hate Nvidia and ray tracing but the tech community doesn’t so we would like coverage please. There’s no mention of doom eternal on this website today but almost every other tech website is talking about it. It’s more important than benchmarks of an old 2016 GPU that’s in far less demand than modern RTX parts. You guys did inform us the patch was coming after all.

Really you should work that one out yourself.
Usually the best way forward.

 

[BadThad]

Good article, thanks! I would remind people about the RX470/480 since they are essentially the same as as the RX570/580.

The state of things are so bad we're considering old mid-range cards now. SAD!

 

[duckofdeath]

Just to get it out there enough: Do not buy any current generation AMD or Nvidia when the stock comes back in. That's an RX 6xxx or an RTX 30xx.

There is no way for you to check if you're getting a re-boxed mining card.

Just skip this year and wait for the next. Let the industry deal with the landfill waste and other consequences.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I finally got a RTX card that arrived on my doorstep yesterday. Granted it's only a 3060, but it's a much needed upgrade and I got it for MSRP. Now I have a spare 980Ti not being used.

So, you guys can buy one of my 980Ti AMP Omega cards for $300. They perform the same as a 1070 when overclocked (even surpass what some 1070s can do).

Personally, I wouldn't drop $300 on a 1060....helI, I wouldn't drop $300 on a 980Ti in this day and age. I will say, however, if you have one of these cards still, they do give stellar performance at 1080p.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Buy now, cry later.

 

[Dennis83]

In 2010 I got a gtx 460 for probably 200/250, sold it for about 80ish in 2016 when I got a gtx 1070 for 400. the performance difference was huge and very satisfying which is why I found it ok to pay a bit extra, but I would not have thought that 5 year old graphic card would still sell for an amount of 300. I am not that into gaming anymore so I figure why get a new graphic card when I do not have the same fun playing those newer games.

If I was interested more in gaming the price I would pay for a gtx 3080 level gpu is 500 to 550. ram should be at 16gb.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Just to get it out there enough: Do not buy any current generation AMD or Nvidia when the stock comes back in. That's an RX 6xxx or an RTX 30xx.

There is no way for you to check if you're getting a re-boxed mining card.

Just skip this year and wait for the next. Let the industry deal with the landfill waste and other consequences.

I thought that too, but apparently competent miners will undervolt. Makes sense since memory bandwidth is more important than core clocks and power savings mean higher ROI.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Follow-up performance reviews never get old.
Thanks for this one.

I had the GTX 1060 6GB for maybe 2 months before I sold it last year. It was a great 1080p card.

 

[Aryassen]

If you get a 1060 and it turns out it's the 3gb version then the story would be fairly different. Although maybe not so much: I'm not sure if the 1060 wouldn't just choke on performance before it chokes on lack of vram with the most intense games 2021 has to offer.

Still the fact that after all these years there's a not-insignificant chance that you get burned by Nvidia's intentionally misleading naming scheme and pick up the much worst 3gb version is probably reason enough for me to avoid it altogether: If I need a "Get ripped off less than a new GPU" card which is the angle of this article/video here I'd go for a 1050ti instead: it will probably play anything the 1060 can play with only some minor tweaking to some settings to get there in passable framerate (60 average or at least minimums above 30)

I used both (in parallel, for over a year), and I can confirm that the 3GB 1060 is significanlty more powerful than a a 4GB 1050ti. They are in a different league, no matter the tweaking, and the +1GB VRAM didn't help the 1050ti much in my case. The 3GB version of the 1060 was always a compromise, but I found that I could live with that, as in most cases, it wasn't powerful enough for the VRAM munching options at 1080p anyway (at least for the games I have played), and it could deliver high settings consistently for 1080p/60 accross a number of games. I have moved on eventually to a GTX 1070 (which I still own, and it seems I will own for a while...), but I quite liked the 1060 3GB for the years I was using it (1440p would be most probably a different story)

 

[Aryassen]

Follow-up performance reviews never get old.
Thanks for this one.

Indeed...I love these revisits, so one more thanks to Steve for taking the effort

 

[hover389]

"it’s true that the GTX 1060 will require more CPU power than the RX 580 due to the architectural differences"

I've never heard this before. So Nvidia drivers have more overhead than AMD drivers or what does he mean?

 

[mbk34]

This is one of the first reviews I've read on Techspot where I actually owned the hardware being reviewed. Hopefully you'll soon do a review of the i5-3570K to see if I made the right choice there as well. When prices come down I might upgrade but I don't feel in a rush.

 

[Dimitriid]

I used both (in parallel, for over a year), and I can confirm that the 3GB 1060 is significanlty more powerful than a a 4GB 1050ti. They are in a different league, no matter the tweaking, and the +1GB VRAM didn't help the 1050ti much in my case. The 3GB version of the 1060 was always a compromise, but I found that I could live with that, as in most cases, it wasn't powerful enough for the VRAM munching options at 1080p anyway (at least for the games I have played), and it could deliver high settings consistently for 1080p/60 accross a number of games. I have moved on eventually to a GTX 1070 (which I still own, and it seems I will own for a while...), but I quite liked the 1060 3GB for the years I was using it (1440p would be most probably a different story)

I am sure that was the case at launch don't get me wrong.

But if we're evaluating in 2021 then 20% less performance than a 1060gb means you go down from 40 FPS average is 32 FPS average. If you average 60 FPS then 20% less performance is 48 FPS

Since the performance overall for 2021 games is much lower then it's that much easier for a 1050ti to make up the difference to reach "playable" thresholds like 30fps, 45fps, 60 fps, etc. Compared to launch performance.

Also remember that we're talking 6 year old cards: the assumption going in is that this is a very bad purchase to begin with, it's just that at this very specific moment in time the newer cards are a far worst purchase since they're also overpriced but you are paying way the hell more for a card.

So for me at least, if the logic is
1) Make a really bad purchase of a 3070/6700xt but that has good performance
2) Make a bad purchase of a 1060 that's too old and too expensive but gets you in games at 40 FPS average or
3) Make a bad purchase of a 1050ti that's also too old and too expensive but gets you in games at 32 FPS average

Then for me, option 3 still wins even if it's at a 20 or 30% performance disadvantage. This is basically just a slightly better purchase than a 1030 but it's still not something you would normally chose if given decent options (In which case integrated for low needs or waiting for at least a 3050 would be the decent options)

 

[Steve]

If Techspot are listening can we have a benchmark of doom eternals new RTX patch please? I’m curious as to how my hardware will hold up with DLSS on or off. I wouldn’t even mind if you left out the Radeon ray tracing benchmarks as nobody uses it. I understand you guys passionately hate Nvidia and ray tracing but the tech community doesn’t so we would like coverage please. There’s no mention of doom eternal on this website today but almost every other tech website is talking about it. It’s more important than benchmarks of an old 2016 GPU that’s in far less demand than modern RTX parts. You guys did inform us the patch was coming after all.

Personally, I can't be bothered because I passionately hate Nvidia, Ray Tracing and even the tech community. So they're getting nothing out of me. Instead, I'm going to revisit the GeForce 256 SDR and bash Nvidia for the lack of Windows 11 driver support.

In all seriousness though (not that your comment deserves it) I doubt we'll be revisiting Doom Eternal, the interest in that game from the tech community is now very low so it probably won't be worth the investment and it doesn't excite me personally so motivation is also low.

Indeed...I love these revisits, so one more thanks to Steve for taking the effort

Thank you guys and I feel the same way, it's always interesting playing around with older hardware in new games.

 

[Rdmetz]

Just to get it out there enough: Do not buy any current generation AMD or Nvidia when the stock comes back in. That's an RX 6xxx or an RTX 30xx.

There is no way for you to check if you're getting a re-boxed mining card.

Just skip this year and wait for the next. Let the industry deal with the landfill waste and other consequences.

Why?

My 3080ti ftw3 ultra from evga came brand new in box last week as did the 3070ti for my girls dad and now the 3080ti xc3 that my friend had me let him have off my notify's today will likley be brand new when it arrives tomorrow as well.

And that xc3 3080ti just went up on the notify system this morning.

It hasn't been hard to get a card from the get go if you were willing to put in some effort.

Day 1 3080 and day 1 3090 plus several more of the course of about 6 weeks back then for a total of 9 friends / family members with cards all without paying scalpers or turning to some expensive bot service.

These 3 recent cards are again coming within days of release because I was willing to get up at the crack if dawn and fight for a couple minutes to get a web notify page to load.

Not all my cards came from evga notify either. There for shuffle everyday and ventured out to sites like Adorama in the early days when everyone else was hitting Amazon or newegg.

Not bragging just trying to point out that if you were patient and did your due diligence it's been possible to gets cards without turning to the dark side.