Gadgetory

ah right okay so firstly welcome to harbor unboxed today's video was meant to be a crazy over-the-top home theater PC build so absurd that it's something and expect to Linus to build I do still plan to make that video later this week but there's been something else on my mind for a while now and I just haven't had the time required to address it at least until now over the weekend we were hit with two extremely hot days in a row and this meant getting the jobs done that I had planned to do around the house this wasn't going to be much fun on 40 degree days and for the American viewers that is 40 degrees Celsius so I stayed inside with the aircon blasting out cool air I was slightly tempted to just play video games all day but the urge to reinvestigate how the three gigabyte gtx 1060 is getting on almost 18 months since it was first released was just too tempting I know there's something wrong with me anyway as I said this is something I've been wanting to do for a while now so I jumped at the opportunity and ran a boatload of benchmarks before we get to the results though there is some information I want to go over and explain the reason why I'm making this video and also give you some history on the three gigabyte 1060 and talk about some other comparisons I've made in the past with it it's a bit long-winded I'll admit but I think it's important stuff that needs to be addressed before we can jump into the benchmark results let's quickly talk about the three gigabyte 1060 it was released back in August of 2016 as a cut-down version of the original six year bot model not only did it pack half as much of a ram but the coil count was reduced by 10% down to eleven hundred and fifty to cause the gddr5 memory was also clocked 11% lower and this reduced the peak memory bandwidth to 192 gigabytes per second the upshot tool is being of course a reduced price and this saw the three gigabyte model come in at just $200 u.s. while the six gigabyte model cost two hundred and fifty dollars u.s. so that's a 20% saving though good luck finding either of them for that price in the US right now anyway the 20% saving from the six gigabyte was enticing and yet many blasted in video for creating a three gigabyte version simply claiming it was garbage the main criticism being the heavily reduced to vram capacity and the wiry he was that before long presumably sometime in 2017 games would regularly push the three gigabyte 1062 and beyond its limits resulting in a stuttering mess back in late 2016 we found that the three gigabyte 1060 was a superior performer when compared to AMD's four gigabyte Radeon rx 470 then in mid 2017 we compared the three gigabyte 1060 head-to-head in 29 games to the 4 gigabyte rx 570 and here I couldn't really pick a winner they really were much the same in terms of performance however before any of those comparisons were made we did compare the three gigabyte and 6 gigabyte 1060 models back in September of 2016 and found that on average the 3 gigabyte model is just 7% slower at 1440p remember it does feature 10 percent fewer cores so this result isn't entirely unexpected therefore we concluded that the 3 gigabyte 1060 looks like a great value option but couldn't really predict how far into the future it would remain a solid choice recently we've got a little bit of insight into this with my system memory or RAM benchmark if you haven't seen that video I do recommend checking it out there's some very interesting results in that one in particular pertaining to this video was the three gigabyte and six gigabyte gtx 1060 testing with various amounts of ram if you load up a system with 16 gigabytes of high-speed ddr4 3,200 memory you'll still really struggle to find situations where the 3 gigabyte gtx 1060 looks bad I should note this is how we compared the 3 gigabyte and 6 gigabyte versions back in 2016 using a high-end desktop rig with 16 gigabytes of ddr4 memory what I found more recently and I don't mean this is a new thing I just discovered it just happens to be something we looked at recently anyway what I found was when using the 3 gigabyte 1060 which often offloads game data and assistant memory as it maxes out the vrm with just 8 gigabytes of system memory that's often filled and that means the data is then transferred to a local Drive in our case a solder s day that last bit is the most crucial part of all this generally speaking dual channel ddr3 200 memory is good for a transfer speed of around 30 to 40 gigabytes per second and while that's pretty fast it's much slower than 192 gigabytes per second that the gddr5 memory onboard provides but still 30 to 40 gigabytes per second isn't too bad meanwhile a good solder SSD can shift out it between a hundred to 500 megabytes per second so that means best-case it's something like 60 times slower than system memory or Ram we've 16 gigabytes of RAM installed that slowdown is never really seen but with just 8 gigabytes of memory having a store all the necessary windows data and then the base game assets once you start offloading from the vram things fill up fast and this was seen in my recent RAM video in summary we saw in testing with battlefield 1 that the 6000 buck GTX 1060 saw RAM usage peak at about 8.5 gigabytes despite only using 3.6 gigabytes of vram however with the 3 gigabyte gtx 1060 we saw ram usage hit 10 gigabytes as the 3 gigabyte ram buffer was maxed out this caused issues with just a gigabytes of ram as the additional data was offloaded to the page file which is stored on a sadder SSD in our case anyway and that's something that was avoided with 16 gigabytes of ram the solution then was pretty simple get 16 gigabytes of ddr4 memory mat though isn't really a cost-effective solution when the entire purpose of buying a 3 gigabyte gtx 1060 is to save $50 and when you consider that 8 gigabytes of ddr4 currently cost $90 it's not really a saving even back in early 2016 a gigabytes of ddr4 still cost around $50 however as I noted in that video all the testing was done using maximum quality settings and this isn't what the 3 gigabyte gtx 1060 was really intended for it's a cut-down product aimed at budget consumers after all so I wanted to investigate further using more realistic test conditions alongside some less realistic conditions for this 3 gigabyte vs. 6 gigabyte gtx 1060 comparison we won't be using a core i7 8700 k clocked at 5 gigahertz with 16 gigabytes of ddr4 3,200 memory rather this time we're going to be using core i3 8100 with 8 gigabytes of ddr4 2,400 memory both graphics cards will feature the same 1.6 gigahertz base clock with the gddr5 memory clocked at 2 gigahertz to try and make the comparison all about the memory buffer as much as we can of course the 60 gigabyte model does have 11% more cores so we're gonna have to be wary of that when analyzing the results all up we have a dozen games to get through each with 8 individual results based on an average of 3 runs for this benchmark I will be displaying the 0.1% low 1% low and average frame rates there's loads of juicy benchmark results check out so let's get into it first up we have assassin's creed origins so let's break down the numbers starting from the top we have the medium quality textures enabled now please note that the very high preset was enabled for all of these tests I've simply just lowered the texture option from high to medium as this reduces VRAM usage there are other options that will also reduce VRAM usage but we're going to focus exclusively on texture quality for this video so on average the 6 gigabyte model was 5% faster about what you'd expect given it has 10% more cause that margin is extended slightly for the 1% low result to a 6 percent margin and then 15 percent for the 0.1% low as the vram capacity difference comes more into play here interestingly with the high quality textures enabled the margins do remain much the same at 1080p moving to 1440p there's 6 gigabyte model is now up to 23% faster when looking at the frame time results and this very clearly is down to the increased vrm then with the high quality textures enabled we see the margin grew to 44% therefore as you might expect the 3 gigabyte model isn't really cutting it at 1440p that's it even the 6 gigabyte model couldn't average 60 FPS using the very high quality preset so you'll likely want to reduce the quality settings and this will help to bring the three bigger byte version back into play though you could leave the texture settings higher on the 6 gigabyte model anyway some interesting results there but let's move on to battlefield one to see what it has in store for us here we see the 3 gigabyte model is hanging in there very well even at 1440p looking at the 1080p results first we see the 6 gigabyte model is up to 10% faster and again it has 10% more cause so it's not really a shocking result then 1440p the margin creeps up to 14% for the average frame rate though just 12% for the 0.1% low result finally with the ultra quality textures enable at 1440p the six key bart model is now 18 percent faster although the three gigabyte model is being slowed down by its limited vrm capacity the performance was still very good and we do see a tight group in between the 0.1% and 1% low results next up we have Call of Duty World War 2 and we know this game to be very heavy on memory usage and we're certainly seeing evidence of that here although the average and 1% low results at 1080p use and the higher quality textures were very similar on both models the 6 gigabyte 1060 produces a noticeably better point 1% result oddly though as we move to the extra quality settings that large discrepancy for the 0.1% data seen previously isn't actually seen here as the 60 byte version was just 13% faster although the 3 gigabyte 1060 was able to hang in there at 1080p to deliver a satisfactory gaming experience once we hit 1440p it kind of all falls apart the average frame rate looks quite good but we see that the 1% low result falls away quite considerably however it's the 0.1% data that reveals the true problem unplayable stuttering and that's exactly what we experienced when testing the three gigabyte gtx 1060 was never intended for high quality 1440p gaming so that result isn't really that damning for the cut-down graphics card moving on we have Deus Ex mankind divided and this is a title we tested with the ultra quality preset enabled which is probably a little too extreme for any variety of the GTX 760 but it will also help to show any weaknesses of the three gigabyte model but 1080p results look pretty good to be honest and here both models deliver a very similar experience once we move to 1440p though things do start to change that said the high quality textures work well enough with the three gigabyte gtx 1060 it's not until we enable the ultra textures that the three gigabyte model starts to fall well behind that said the experience wasn't that great on the 60 gigabyte version either and you'll certainly want to tweak the quality settings at this resolution for a better experience now we have some duet for results and for this one I've enabled the highest quality preset in the game and then tested it with the default ultra textures as well as the High Court livvie textures as you can see the three gigabyte gtx 1060 offered basically the same experience as a six gigabyte model so bang for your buck the three gigabyte version is really superior in this title we saw no noticeable slowdowns even at 1440p with the game maxed out moving on a Far Cry primal this title has also been tested using the ultra quality preset and we have tested this with the high abnormal quality texture settings here the experience again is much the same using either the three gigabyte or six gigabyte version of the gtx 1060 on our budget system using the core i3 8100 with a gigabytes of ddr4 2,400 memory we again find no real difference between these two graphics cards this time when testing with fir on art using the extreme preset the three gigabyte gtx 1060 performed admirably even at 1440p as we see a strong average framerate and frame time performance praised another new title released in mid 2017 again the three gigabyte gtx 1060 does very well particularly at today p even at 1440p with the medium quality textures enabled performance was excellent and right we'd expect it to be in relation to the six gigabyte model even with the high textures enabled the results were still decent despite the 6p white version offering 33% better 0.1% low performance moving on we have Rainbow six siege and here the tan EP results once again look great the three gigabyte model is competing very well with bigger brother even at 1440p the results look good with the higher-quality texture option enabled it's not until we enable the very high quality textures that three gigabyte model starts our drop off and stuttering becomes a bit of an issue Star Wars Battlefront 2 is the most recently released game that I've tested with and boy does this one look impressive the visuals are incredible and the textures look amazing using the ultra quality preset but with the textures back down one notch from the ultra to high setting we saw a very strong performance on the three gigabyte gtx 1060 overall smoothness was just as good as the six gigabyte model and I wasn't able to spot any differences between the two when gaming it was really a similar story even with the ultra quality textures enabled though the three gigabyte model did take a bit of a hit for the 0.1% low result trailing the six gigabyte model by ACE 19% margin I did use both cards quite extensively and at times the frame rates were a little less fluent with a three gigabyte model but honestly it was very difficult to spot any differences however once we pump the resolution up to 1440p the difference became very apparent the 16-year bar model wasn't exactly perfect but it was a mostly smooth experience the three gigabyte model oh that was very stuttering and I'd say overall it didn't really offer playable performance the second last game that we're going to look at is titanfall 2 and here the 3 gigabyte model did struggle a little bit using the maximum in-game quality settings we set the texture quality to high and then very high starting with the high results at 1080p the 6 gigabyte model was 7% faster for the average frame rate 9% faster for the 1% low and 24% faster for the 0.1% low result the high texture option suggests a minimum 4 gigabyte vram buffer to be on offer and that is a bit of a problem for the 3d about gtx 1060 although overall performance was very good and i didn't notice any stuttering we were right on the edge here increasing the texture quality with the very high setting tank 2/3 gigabyte model and while the 1% low and average frame rate looked good stuttering was an issue at times and this is indicated by the 0.1% low result then at 1440p you will want the 6 gigabyte model as we continued to see stuttering with 3d white version finally we have Ghost Recon wildlands which was tested using the higher quality preset and this sets the textures to high however let's start by looking at what happens when we reduced the texture setting to medium here the 3 gigabyte model was very similar to the 6 gigabyte version while it was 7% slower on average the frame time results were all very much the same the same thing we're seeing when using the high quality textures and in fact we even see a similar story at 1440p so that's very interesting well we've now looked at a dozen games using various texture quality settings at 1080p and 1440p for the most part the results confirmed what we already knew the 3 gigabyte gtx 1060 is a great value 1080p graphics card and for those wanting the game at 1440p well you'll have to compromise a bit more when it comes to the quality settings before we get into that though let's just take a look at the average data across the 12 games tested here we see that for the most part the three gigabyte GT x10 60 is still getting the job done at 1080p and isn't much slower than the 60 gigabyte version in fact it was just six to seven percent slower overall and again given it packs 10 percent fewer cause this is exactly what you'd expect to see that margin does however open up to 26% 1440p when using the second highest quality texture settings and then 36 percent slower once using the highest quality textures the margin is of course just part of the issue the real problem is the stuttering and that can be seen when running out of vram and this was often noticeable at 1440p okay so yes I've said the word gigabyte a good many times in this video and some clever soul is likely going to point that fact out in the comment section below so I'd just like to quickly say gigabyte gigabyte gigabyte and gigabyte okay now that's out of the way let's talk about the gtx 1060 with 3g bees for 1440p testing where it often fell flat on its face it's really of no consequence I mean after all who was buying a cut-down version and expecting higher quality 1440p performance hopefully not many still it's interesting to note that when we last ran these tests back in late 2016 we were only able to find a single scenario at 1440p with a three gigabyte version fell behind and that was when playing Mirror's Edge catalyst using the hyper quality settings those results they were almost have no consequences the six gigabyte model really couldn't provide playable performance under those conditions however now over a year later we are seeing some games that are perfectly playable on the six gigabyte model at 1440p but not so much on the three gigabyte version games such as call of duty world war 2 titanfall 2 and Star Wars Battlefront 2 for example what we aren't seeing though is a single game where the three gigabyte model can't deliver perfectly smooth performance using respectable quality settings at 1080p if you look at the VRAM usage or rather allocation and many of the recently released titles you'd assume that there's no way the three gigabyte model is going to cut it for example I whipped out the GTX 1080 Ti with its massive 11 gigabyte memory buffer and looked into how much via Ram modern games for allocating a 1080p with the visual quality settings maxed out here we see that most games consumed around the reader for gigabytes of vram at 1080p when maxed out and this is why the three gigabyte 1060 was right on the edge in a lot of the games tested for the games allocating four gigabytes of vram you'll likely get away with a three gigabyte gtx 1060 but once it starts climbing well above that with just eight gigabytes of system memory you're going to notice massive slowdowns and as a result frame stuttering so does a three gigabyte gtx 1060 suck well no not at all as a budget-friendly 1080p gaming graphics card it's actually very good despite what some people will tell you there's really nothing wrong with a three gigabyte 1060 anyone buying this cut-down model are getting just that and with that should expect that there'll be some compromises that need to be made as games get prettier and eat up more via RAM you have to start lowering memory intensive quality settings in order to maintain a smooth playable performance the three gigabyte gtx 1060 was designed to compete with the Radeon rx 470 and it did that very well and it still manages to go toe-to-toe with the updated rx 570 so hating on the three gigabyte model simply because it has a limited three key about vram buffer there's a bit silly in my opinion unless you're annoyed that it's still called a gtx 1060 despite having cause disabled in that case i do agree it is a bit of a poor choice by Nvidia to do that it really should have been called something different maybe even just like the gtx 1060 alle three gigabyte or something along those lines to make it a bit clearer to the consumer that this is a cut-down model wrapping things up it appears that 18 months later the three gigabyte gtx 1060 is still going strong and serving 1080p game as well and really it should continue to do so for some time to come I hope you enjoyed this video as is often the case with our videos a huge amount of time and effort was invested so if you'd like to support us directly gain access to our discord chat and get behind the scenes content then consider supporting us directly via patreon just recently I gave patrons our behind-the-scenes look at my studio and we provided a few updates in regards to the channel Tim and I also do a monthly live stream with a QA so it's a lot of fun and worth checking out if you enjoy our content anyway that's going to do it for this one I mean Irish stave say again next time