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Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition (6GB GDDR5)

Today, we’ll be taking a look at the Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition, featuring 6GB of GDDR5 ram, Ice Storm cooling and Freeze-Tech. It supports GameWorks, VR Works, G-Sync, DX12 and it’s also VR-Ready.

Over the past couple of months we’ve reviewed the Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 AMP Extreme Edition (8GB GDDR5X), which was a beast of a card both in price and performance. It outperformed everything we’ve tested to date. Then Zotac released their GeForce GTX 1070 AMP Edition (8GB GDDR5), which offered amazing performance at a price which was a little more attainable but still pricey. Now, we have a more affordable 10-series card from Zotac, which some believe offers the best price/performance ratio … meet the Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition (6GB GDDR5).

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Buy now at Amazon – https://goo.gl/egJ1xD

As with all 10 series GeForce cards from Nvidia, the GeForce GTX 1060 uses the same 16nm FinFET process and Pascal architecture. You’ll notice from the photo below, the GPU is marked GP106-400. The original GPU runs at speedy 1506 MHz and can be boosted to 1708 MHz while memory clock operates at a blistering 8 GHz! Same as the GTX 1070. Sadly however, the Geforce GTX 1060 does not support SLI multi-GPU configurations. More at Nvidia’s website.

With a lower number of CUDA cores (1280), less video memory (6GB GDDR5) and lower memory bus (192-bit), the GTX 1060 is aimed at the mainstream market, for gamers who are after decent performance at a price that won’t hurt their pocket.  Having said that … the performance should still be pretty good, and should be more than enough to run all the latest games at ultra settings.

 

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For those who don’t know who Zotac is, here’s a little blurb taken from their website

BRAND STORY

ZOTAC, the creator of the Original Mini PC, derives its name from the words “zone” and “tact”, aptly referencing our skill & expertise in the zones of PC components, systems, and manufacturing. Combining both function and design, ZOTAC strives to create the latest technological products that epitomize form, utility, and style.

Innovation, Quality and responsibility

ZOTAC believes being at the forefront of innovation is the key to the future. Our dedication to produce quality products us the backbone of our business model, and we work round-the-clock to ensure all our products are up to then our rigorous standards.

 

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The first thing you’ll notice about the Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition is the size of the card. Measuring just 210mm x 128mm, it’s shorter and much more compact than other GeForce GTX 1060s we’ve seen. This means it could be installed in many ways … including HTPC builds, modding projects and much more.

Zotac have increased the base clock rate of the GTX 1060 from 1506MHz to 1556MHz, and with Zotac’s Firestorm overclocking utility, you can further increase the clock speeds to a whopping 1771MHz or higher!

Here’s a quick comparison of the GeForce GTX 10 series from Nvidia (default reference specs) …

 

  GeForce GTX 1080 GeForce GTX 1070 GeForce GTX 1060 GeForce GTX 980
Architecture Pascal Pascal Pascal Maxwell
CUDA Cores 2560 1920 1280 2048
Frame Buffer 8GB GDDR5 / GDDR5X 8GB GDDR5 6GB GDDR5 4GB GDDR5
Base Clock Speed 1607 MHz
1506 MHz
1506 MHz
1126 MHz
Boost Clock Speed 1733 MHz 1683 MHz
1708 MHz
1216 MHz
Memory Speed 10Gbps 8 Gbps 8 Gbps 7Gbps
Memory Bus 256-bit 256-bit 192-bit 256-bit
DX12 Support Yes Yes Yes Yes
Vulkan API Yes Yes Yes No

 

We’ll be comparing the Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition with a MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X, as well as its bigger brother, the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080. We’ll also be testing this card using a number of benchmarks, including 3DMark Time Spy (DX12) and DOOM (Vulcan).

Ok, let’s not waste any more time and start by looking at the specifications of Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition in our next page.

 

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2 comments

Radek 6 November 2017 at 20:20

single mem thermal pads are on the wrong side of radiator

Reply
Funky Kit 13 November 2017 at 00:38

hahaha … you’re right, I just noticed that 🙂

Reply

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