ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
The GeForce GTX 1060 is the second GPU with the Pascal architecture that I’ve had the opportunity to review. The GTX 1060 is Nvidia’s answer to AMD’s RX480 GPU. Here soon we should have a 480 in our hands for some head to head testing. The GTX 1060 is also poised to be the mainstream GPU offering from Nvidia. The Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP! Edition is the top offering in their 1060 line up.
Most consumers choose to spend between $250-$350 for their graphics cards. The Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP! Edition tips the scales at a paltry $279 USD. Considering that most consumers run their graphics cards at 1920×1080 and given the performance of this GPU at that resolution, I feel this is an awesome value. At 1920×180, most of the games I tested were very playable at 1920×1080 with the graphics quality options turned up. There are a few games such as The Witcher 3 or Crysis 3 that will need some tweaks to bring the performance to the playable level. Even jumping up to 2560×1440 resulted in playable frame rates, again quality settings would need to be reduced in order to hit the magic 60 FPS. Zotac’s GTX 1060 AMP! edition GPU is a no-frills card and at $279 is supposed to be. The inclusion of things such as LED lighting and a back plate would push the price of the card up and would reduce it’s value. I think Zotac has a very solid product with this GPU. Price and performance wins this GPU the must have award.
4GB RX 480 is only $199, and offers similar performance to the $279 GTX 1060 card.
RX 480 is the better value, by far.
Well…4GB version doesn´t “exists” right now and no, it really has not the same performance. 8GB version is for the same price.
” it really has not the same performance.”
RX 480 with 4GB runs most games at 1080 high-detail at 60 frames/sec or better.
There is NO reason to waste $280-$320 for a GTX 1060 card. It only has 192-bit memory, and is way overpriced.
dave doesnt know how all this computer stuff works clearly…
I know that 1080p gaming at 60 frames/sec works perfectly on the RX 480 4GB card.
Why let NVidia rip you off for the GTX 1060? It’s totally not worth the money! If I I were gaming at 1440p, GTX 1070 is a fine card. 1060 is pointless.
I was wondering about the lighting settings in the witcher 3, since the ultra preset doesnt modify the lighting
Newegg has a very nice MSI RX 470 4GB card in stock, right now, for $199.
The RX 470 is perfect for 1080p gaming. Why spend 300 bucks for GTX 1060? That’s a rip off.
#DavetheIdioticAMDfanboy
You’re paying 40% more for 35% more performance and 50% more VRAM, sounds like a good deal to me.
“40% more for 35% more performance and 50% more VRAM”
RX 470 runs games butter-smooth at 1080p. 40% more money, 50% more VRAM doesn’t mean squat! Can you tell the difference between 60 fps and 80 fps? Nope!
People that overpay for 1060 cards are just flushing money down the toilet.
shut up Dave
It’s october dave, and there are still rx 480’s for $200… (i live in US)
Cheapest around are $230, which at that point, you might as well go for 1060.
I smell a red fan.
Does it support Motherboard Express card slot 2.00…?
@Leon – PCI-Express 3.0 devices are backwards compatible with PCI-Express 2.0 slots and PCI-Express 2.0 devices are also forward compatible with PCI-Express 3.0 slots.
Does the Zotac 1060 AMP have VRM cooling pads?
On the Zotac 1060 it actually has a small heatsink for the VRM. The pads that help the heat transfer process from the VRM to the heatsink.
My benchmark scores for the GTX 1060 are WAY higher than the ones in this article, I think something else is dragging down the benchmarks.