Question Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs 6GB, 2021 Revisit.

[mohit9206]

Old thread from 2016 - https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/eurogamer-gtx-1060-3-gb-vs-6-gb.2484900/

Some people in the old thread were confident that 3GB would not be an issue in the future while some were sure about it. Although the cards are 5 years old, its obvious which camp has been proven correct. 1060 6GB is a viable card today for gmaing 5 years after launch while the same cannot be said for the 3GB variant.You can go through the old thread to read some of the hot takes and interesting responses and see how things have turned out. Ofcoursethe 3GB model was $50 cheaper but in the long run it would have made itself more than worth it.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Wish more reviewers did non-standard revisits/reviews like this on a regular basis.

Fun to see how old hardware holds up or how performance has scaled though generations, etc.

 

[NTMBK]

Glad I bought the 6GB model!

 

[aigomorla]

the 6gb 1060 is still a beast for lower mid range cards period.
Considering before crypto madness the card listed @ evga for 269.00 after discounts.

 

[jpiniero]

Wish more reviewers did non-standard revisits/reviews like this on a regular basis.

Fun to see how old hardware holds up or how performance has scaled though generations, etc.

I think the reason they don't is because people normally wouldn't care. It's a 5 year old card.

 

[Leeea]

I think the reason they don't is because people normally wouldn't care. It's a 5 year old card.

I think it is because the money, hype, and marketing is all focused on the new stuff. People care about the old stuff, it is just the ad money is all in the new market.


I think Hardware Unboxed is doing this because he is patron supported rather then purely ad supported. The people paying for the content are interested in older hardware, and he is just reflecting that.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I think the reason they don't is because people normally wouldn't care. It's a 5 year old card.

-A lot of people hold on to hardware for a lot longer than most suspect I think. Fair point that maybe those people aren't the ones that go and read reviews, but nevertheless.

In this day and age, between GPU prices and release dates getting completely out of whack, retro reviews to see where their old hardware actually stacks up today would be more appreciated than it might normally be.

Bigger issue I suppose is most HW sites raffle off or swap their review hardware, I doubt a lot of these "Labs" are sitting around with a library of old hardware to test.

 

[Leeea]

A lot of people hold on to hardware for a lot longer than most suspect I think. Fair point that maybe those people aren't the ones that go and read reviews, but nevertheless.

In 2015 I purchased an rx380. I gave it to a grand kid, who is using it to this day. I think he is using it for Overwatch last I heard.

I was erked when I saw AMD was planning to drop support for it in a few months.

 

[jpiniero]

I was erked when I saw AMD was planning to drop support for it in a few months.

Windows 11 was likely part of that.

 

[Leeea]

Windows 11 was likely part of that.

Erked about win11 to. The whole TPM thing is bogus and leaves a lot of people I know behind. At least win 10 has another 5 years in it.

I have fantasies about Linux, but last time I tried I found it annoying.

 

[jpiniero]

Erked about win11 to. The whole TPM thing is bogus and leaves a lot of people I know behind.

That was sort of the point. Gets people to buy new machines, less stuff for everyone to support.

 

[Leeea]

That was sort of the point. Gets people to buy new machines, less stuff for everyone to support.

Maybe, but am thinking of just telling people to run win 10 forever until something breaks. Basically the XP zombie problem, but with win 10. I suspect a bunch of those machines have more then a decade left, and it is just a shame to generate all that e-waste. Hopefully an ad blocker will keep the wolves at bay for a while.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I think the reason they don't is because people normally wouldn't care. It's a 5 year old card.

Mine is chugging along just fine. It'll still run anything, if you temper your exceptions. Not bad for a 5 year old card.

 

[Ranulf]

Ahh, fun memories from the old thread there. Another reminder that the gtx 960 2gb/4gb cards lasted a whole 1.5 years before being replaced with the 1060 3gb/6gb cards.

 

[Dribble]

To be fair the 3gb's 17 game average at medium settings is 64fps average with a 52fps min. That's still quite viable.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I think Hardware Unboxed is doing this because he is patron supported rather then purely ad supported. The people paying for the content are interested in older hardware, and he is just reflecting that.

Correct.

Generally it’s a lot of pain and time needed to properly test older versus newer hardware, so few people do that. You also need tons of extra space and whatnot. You don’t want to reuse the same box for every configuration 😁

 

[PingSpike]

I usually end up watching shoddy youtube videos that do comparisons of older cards, because frankly it seems to be the only source that does those kinds of comparisons. Its important to me because I shop a lot in the used market and also want to know how much of an upgrade new cards are over old cards. I'm actually less interested in the comparison of flag ships since there's plenty of those comparisons already.

 

[Iron Woode]

if you are into older games then the 3gb is fine if that is all you can afford.

I have the Gigabyte Windforce 1060 3gb OC and it plays older games great at 1080P: Doom 2016 at ultra settings averages 120fps.

I keep that card as a backup now.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

These types of discussions leave me conflicted.

One part of my mind says: The numbers don't do the real gaming differences justice. And while popular, testing racing games and esports makes it worse . Those genres are mostly designed to run on a potato. By using them in the average fps charts it puts the 3GB above a 60fps average over 17 games. Which has people going

But in reality, you went from high refresh gaming in one title, to slideshow that looks terrible in another. Take those out and my brain says -

But the other side of my mind says:

We have been through not one, but TWO, mining booms since those cards came out. If you bought either at the original MSRP/RRP -

And even the 3GB will provide a fun experience in more than 99 percent of PC games ever made. Because stats say whatever we want them to.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

We have been through not one, but TWO, mining booms since those cards came out. If you bought either at the original MSRP/RRP -

Quite right.

Bought my 1060 6GB (ROG Strix OC) on launch day for MSRP. One of my best tech purchases ever.

...and that's over 30-odd years, so that's saying something.

 

[solidsnake1298]

My 1070 and my wife's 1060 6GB have lasted us a long time, both purchased less than a year after their launches. This is, by far, the longest I've used a graphics card. Both because I've been happy with the performance (except in Cyberpunk) and because, until this latest generation, there hasn't been a big enough increase in performance to justify replacing them.

My current concern is that with the release of a new generation of consoles the graphical fidelity of new games will soon jump dramatically, necessitating a new graphics card to maintain 144+FPS at non-potato graphics settings. I was willing to keep the graphics fidelity up in Cyberpunk at the expense of frame rate because it was single player. But with BF2042 coming soon I am hoping that the requirements are low or the game is optimized so I don't need to upgrade, with prices being what they are.

I've even floated the idea of upgrading to a used 1080Ti to get me by for another year or two. But even those are super expensive for how old they are. Especially for EVGA made cards.

The 10 series, especially the 1060 6GB and up, really were great cards. Even today.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

My 1070 and my wife's 1060 6GB have lasted us a long time, both purchased less than a year after their launches. This is, by far, the longest I've used a graphics card. Both because I've been happy with the performance (except in Cyberpunk) and because, until this latest generation, there hasn't been a big enough increase in performance to justify replacing them.

My current concern is that with the release of a new generation of consoles the graphical fidelity of new games will soon jump dramatically, necessitating a new graphics card to maintain 144+FPS at non-potato graphics settings. I was willing to keep the graphics fidelity up in Cyberpunk at the expense of frame rate because it was single player. But with BF2042 coming soon I am hoping that the requirements are low or the game is optimized so I don't need to upgrade, with prices being what they are.

I've even floated the idea of upgrading to a used 1080Ti to get me by for another year or two. But even those are super expensive for how old they are. Especially for EVGA made cards.

The 10 series, especially the 1060 6GB and up, really were great cards. Even today.

- Hell, even the upper tier Maxwell 9xx series cards are nothing to sneeze at.

My 980 Ti boosts and holds at almost 1500Mhz core, which is like an absurd 25% OC over the reference model and puts the card in 1070 stock performance territory. Picked it up for $330 bucks a month or two after the 1070 launched.

Its really only showing its age years later on the more demanding modern AAA games (and thanks to DX12 and Vulkan breathing new life into these older cards, even that isn't always the case).

NV really outdid itself with Maxwell, but in retrospect NV really did let their GPU performance languish in the absence of competition from AMD (albeit not to the extent of Intel).

 

[Stuka87]

One issue with this comparison is that its not a test of only VRAM. The 3GB model has a slower GPU (by 10%) than the 6GB model. A better test is the 4GB RX480 vs the 8GB. Though testing has also shown that going from 3 to 4GB can actually make a decent difference in many games that are right on the edge with 3GB.

 

[Mopetar]

Now seems like a bad time to upgrade unless you have nothing better to do with your money, like putting it into a neat little pile and setting fire to it.

If FSR actually manages to get some broader adoption I think the Pascal cards will be able to go for a bit longer. Or just due what I do when my card gets long in the tooth and the settings down or lower the resolution. A fun game is still fun even at medium settings.

Honestly though a lot of my favorite games as of recent have been indie titles or games that don't need a lot of graphical power to run. If you're fine not running the latest AAA games at ultra settings a 1070 or even a 1060 is still a fine card. I'm still getting by well enough on Polaris and that's just as old. The 8 GB was probably a good choice.

 

[BFG10K]

We're seeing exactly the same thing play out now with certain individuals claiming 8GB is just fine, despite multiple examples today proving it's not enough.

"War. War never changes".