GeForce GTX 1060 launched in 2016 at $249
The GeForce GTX 10 Series is still remembered as one of NVIDIA’s strongest gaming lineups, both for performance and pricing. The GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti remain the models most associated with Pascal among hardware enthusiasts. However, it was the GeForce GTX 1060 that secured the architecture’s place in mainstream gaming PCs.
NVIDIA released the GeForce GTX 1060 on July 19, 2016, exactly ten years ago. Partner cards started at $249, while NVIDIA sold the Founders Edition for $299. The company promoted the card as offering GeForce GTX 980-class performance, despite launching at less than half of the older GPU’s original $549 price.
© NVIDIA GTX 1060 remained the top Steam GPU for 59 months
The GTX 1060 later became the most common graphics card in Valve’s Steam Hardware Survey. It moved into first place in December 2017 and remained there through October 2022. This gave the GTX 1060 an uninterrupted run of 59 monthly surveys, equal to four years and eleven months. The GTX 1650 finally moved ahead in November 2022 with a 6.27% share, compared with 5.77% for the GTX 1060.
© NVIDIA The original GTX 1060 6GB used the GP106-400 GPU with 1,280 CUDA cores, 80 texture units and 48 render output units. It featured a boost clock of 1,708 MHz and 6GB of 8Gbps GDDR5 memory connected through a 192-bit interface. NVIDIA rated the card at 120W, and the reference design required one six-pin power connector.
From 3GB GDDR5 to 6GB GDDR5X
The lineup expanded one month later with the $199 GTX 1060 3GB. This was not only a version with less memory, as NVIDIA also reduced the GPU to 1,152 CUDA cores and 72 texture units. A faster 6GB model with 9Gbps GDDR5 followed in 2017, using the GP106-410 processor. NVIDIA also produced a 5GB GP106-350 version for Chinese internet cafés, with 1,280 CUDA cores, 40 ROPs and a narrower 160-bit memory bus.
The final additions included a 6GB GDDR5X version based on a cut-down GP104 processor, while retaining the 1,280-core configuration. NVIDIA also offered the P106-100 for cryptocurrency mining, using the same 1,280-core GP106 configuration and 6GB of GDDR5 memory but without standard gaming display functionality. Few graphics cards received as many configurations or remained at the top of Steam for as long as the GTX 1060.
The gallery below has 35 AIB cards from our database . That’s not even 1/3 of all models. Did you own any of these cards?
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 desktop variants | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz.com | GTX 1060 6GB | GTX 1060 6GB 9Gbps | P106-100 | GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5X | GTX 1060 5GB | GTX 1060 3GB |
| GPU | GP106-400 | GP106-410 | GP106-100 | GP104 | GP106-350 | GP106-300 |
| CUDA cores | 1280 | 1280 | 1280 | 1280 | 1280 | 1152 |
| TMUs | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 72 |
| ROPs | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 40 | 48 |
| Base clock | 1506 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1506 MHz |
| Boost clock | 1708 MHz | 1708 MHz | 1708 MHz | 1708 MHz | 1708 MHz | 1708 MHz |
| Memory | 6GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5X | 5GB GDDR5 | 3GB GDDR5 |
| Memory speed | 8Gbps | 9Gbps | 8Gbps | 8Gbps | 8Gbps | 8Gbps |
| Memory bus | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 160-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 192 GB/s | 216 GB/s | 192 GB/s | 192 GB/s | 160 GB/s | 192 GB/s |
| TDP | 120W | 120W | 120W | 120W | 120W | 120W |
| Launch price | $249 / $299 FE | Partner-specific | Crypto | Partner-specific | China-only | $199 |
Source: NVIDIA
