Video cards of the GeForce GTX 1060 series remain the most popular solutions from NVIDIA, providing fairly high performance in Full HD. Domestic buyers are mainly interested in budget models of this series, without three-story coolers and backlighting. In this review, we will look at the affordable version of the GeForce GTX 1060 from ASUS. Let’s see what the ASUS Dual GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card is capable of at nominal and overclocked, let’s compare its performance with the Radeon RX 580.

ASUS DUAL-GTX1060-6G

This model belongs to the Dual series and is equipped with a cooler with two fans. Also a distinctive feature of this ASUS line is the white color of the case. The latter is critical for those who have other ASUS components with white elements and want to keep the same style of their PC.

The video card comes in a medium sized box. The set of accessories is traditionally limited to a disk with software and brief instructions.

ASUS Dual occupies two slots. The black fans match the white case. The printed circuit board is also traditional black.

The total length of the device is 24 cm.

In the corner is one power connector for six pins. The warranty seal on one of the cooler screws prevents the user from disassembling the device.

It should be noted that visually this model does not differ from ASUS DUAL-GTX1060-O3G. An identical cooling system is used, and the design of printed circuit boards differs minimally.

There are five connectors for image output: DVI, two DisplayPort and two HDMI.

The outer plastic case with fans can be removed without dismantling the heatsink. This is convenient if you need to clean the cooling from accumulated dust after a long period of operation.

The design of the radiator involves two heat pipes, the surface of which is in direct contact with the GPU chip.

The tubes pierce an array of thin plates of small height. The overall dimensions of the heatsink are small, but for solutions of the GeForce GTX 1060 series, this is quite enough.

The power supply transistors have a separate finned heatsink. It is small in size, but it is well blown.

The board resembles the PCB of the mentioned 3 GB card, there are slight differences in the wiring. High-quality electronic components are used, which are also used in top-end ASUS products.

The graphics processor is powered by a four-phase voltage converter.

The GP106-400-A1 processor offers a complete configuration of computing units (1280 CUDA-cores and 80 TMUs). Six gigabytes of memory has the same number of Micron 8BA47 D9TCB chips.

Operating frequencies correspond to standard values. These are the base processor frequency of 1506 MHz and the average Boost Clock of 1709 MHz, the effective memory frequency of 8000 MHz.

Under gaming load, the real frequency did not drop below 1873 MHz, peak values ​​reached 1911 MHz. On an open bench, a long test in Final Fantasy XV and tests in Subnautica only warmed up the core to 71 ° C (at 24 ° C indoors). The fans ran below 1600 rpm with minimal noise.

Use in a closed enclosure may be associated with high temperatures. However, it is clear that ASUS Dual will retain acceptable temperature and noise characteristics in any operating conditions.

The overclocking results of this video adapter can be called good. The resulting frequencies are higher than what the simplest solutions in this series show, but we also had faster instances.

ASUS Dual managed to overclock to 1706 MHz at the base frequency with peak values ​​up to 2101 MHz. The memory worked without failures at frequencies up to 9180 MHz.

In the long test of Final Fantasy XV, the real core frequencies were kept at the level of 2063-2076 MHz, in other games they did not fall below 2076 MHz.

To maintain stability, it was necessary to improve cooling through manually increasing the speed of the fans. It was enough to bring them to 1800-1900 rpm, which is associated with a certain noise, but does not cause discomfort. Reducing the overall heat had a positive effect on memory stability, perhaps the better airflow for the VRM cooling also played a role.