{"id":102002,"date":"2016-08-28T17:43:37","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T15:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=102002"},"modified":"2016-08-28T17:44:38","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T15:44:38","slug":"nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-6gb-versus-3gb-which-should-you-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/102002-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-6gb-versus-3gb-which-should-you-buy","title":{"rendered":"Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB versus 3GB – which should you buy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nvidia has rolled out its\u00a0second budget-oriented Pascal card, the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB.<\/p>\n

This cut-down version of the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB aims to deliver 1080p performance at a cheaper price point than ever before.<\/p>\n

Although this may be true internationally, prices can be vastly different in South Africa.<\/p>\n

We thought we’d compare the performance and local pricing of the two graphics cards in order to determine which is the better GPU to buy in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\n

Specifications<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Although the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB has half the VRAM of the 6GB model, it is also different in a far more important way.<\/p>\n

The lower-end graphics card features less CUDA cores, which\u00a0means that the two graphics cards will differ in performance somewhat.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
Specifications<\/div>\n<\/th>\n
\n
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB<\/div>\n<\/th>\n
\n
GeForce GTX 1060 6GB<\/div>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
CUDA Cores<\/strong><\/td>\n1,152<\/td>\n1,280<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Boost Clock<\/strong><\/td>\n1,708MHz<\/td>\n1,708MHz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Speed<\/strong><\/td>\n8Gbps<\/td>\n8Gbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Amount<\/strong><\/td>\n3GB GDDR5<\/td>\n6GB GDDR5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Bandwidth<\/strong><\/td>\n192GB\/s<\/td>\n192GB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TDP<\/strong><\/td>\n120W<\/td>\n120W<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Performance<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Below is the performance comparison of the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and 3GB graphics cards, using benchmarks from Guru3D<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In order to avoid any inconsistencies, both graphics cards we compared were MSI Gaming X models.<\/p>\n

The performance differences shown below are accounted for by a difference in both number of stream processors and VRAM amount.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
Real 1080p Performance<\/div>\n<\/th>\n
\n
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB<\/div>\n<\/th>\n
\n
GeForce GTX 1060 6GB<\/div>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
DX12 – Rise of the Tomb Raider<\/strong><\/td>\n70<\/td>\n81<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DX12 – Hitman<\/strong><\/td>\n52<\/td>\n67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DX12 – Total War: Warhammer<\/strong><\/td>\n68<\/td>\n73<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OpenGL – Doom<\/strong><\/td>\n103<\/td>\n113<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DX11 – Far Cry Primal<\/strong><\/td>\n66<\/td>\n73<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DX11 – The Division<\/strong><\/td>\n58<\/td>\n66<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average FPS<\/strong><\/td>\n69.5<\/strong><\/td>\n78.8<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
Synthetic Benchmarks<\/div>\n<\/th>\n
\n
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB<\/div>\n<\/th>\n
\n
GeForce GTX 1060 6GB<\/div>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
3DMark FireStrike<\/strong><\/td>\n11,368<\/td>\n12,010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FireStrike Extreme<\/strong><\/td>\n5,855<\/td>\n6,211<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FireStrike Ultra<\/strong><\/td>\n2,988<\/td>\n3,207<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Pricing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

International MSRP<\/strong><\/p>\n