MSI GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING X PLUS Review

3DMark Firestrike from Futuremark is a Semi-synthetic DirectX11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. Firestrike performs advanced geometry, illumination and particle tests with its Graphics benchmark and performs physics simulations using the CPU. For our video card test, the graphics card score and overall scores are recorded from the FireStrike test.

Timespy is an additional test in 3DMark which represents DirectX 12 game play.

Futuremark has a VR benchmark as well. There are two tests the orange room and the blue room. The orange room test is designed to test the “everyday” PC where as the blue room test is built to really beat up on high end PCs (SLI/Crossfire). Trying to run the blue room benchmark failed on this system as it could not maintain the required FPS. Not only can you benchmark your PC but you can connect your headset and interact with the environment outside of the benchmarking mode.

Unigine Valley 1.0 and Heaven 4.0 are GPU intensive synthetic benchmarks that utilize tessellation, advanced lighting, dynamic environments and other DirectX11 graphical features. Both of these are excellent for video card stability and temperature testing and even supports Stereo3D and multi-monitor benchmarking. NOTE: These tests incorrectly identify the 1070 as having 4GB of ram. This is an issue with the software, not the GPU.

New to our benchmark suite is Unigine’s Superposition benchmark. The benchmark features both a monitor benchmark but also a VR load as well. I used the 1080p high, 1080p extreme, and VR optimal settings (set for HTC Vive) for the benchmarks. Superposition also allows you to explore the environment in VR Mode with your headset connected.

Another new test for us is Basemark’s VRScore. VRScore 1st plays the benchmark on your monitor and with the headset connected, plays the benchmark through the headset. VRScore is built off of Crytek’s Cryengine technology. There is also an online database so that you can compare your system scores to other similar configured PCs.