Hot on the heels of their first two next-generation offerings, the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, nVIDIA has announced their first midrange component in their first line of video cards to make use of the Pascal architecture: the GTX 1060.
In an announcement on their website, nVIDIA unveiled the GTX 1060, the latest member of the Pascal family of graphics cards. Powered by a new GP106 chip manufactured on the same 16nm fabrication process on which the other cards are based, the GTX 1060 is claimed to deliver the performance of the last-gen flagship, the GTX 980, at a price point of only $249, and with double the energy efficiency. The new card will also be VR-ready, and will come with support for the latest DirectX 11 and 12 games.
The GTX 1060 will have 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM with 8Gbps of bandwidth, and will run at a boost clock of 1.7GHz. The GPU sits on a 192-bit bus, compared to the 256-bit widths on the GTX 1080 and 1070, and a marked improvement over the 128-bit bus of the GTX 960 that it's intended to replace. It comes with 1280 CUDA cores, and is rated for 120W like the GTX 960, allowing it to be powered by just a single 6-pin PCIe power connector.
GTX 1060 board partners will start releasing cards with custom coolers on July 19, with GeForce Partners such as ASUS, MSI, Zotac, EVGA, and more producing cards with an MSRP of around $249. The GPU will also come in a Founder's Edition board just like its more powerful siblings, to be sold for $299 beginning July 19, and featuring a specially-designed power supply and a blower-type reference cooler.
Unlike other Pascal cards, though, the GTX 1060 FE won't be produced by board partners, instead being sold directly through the nVIDIA website. It's described as a "Special Limited Founder's Edition," which suggests that availability will be more limited than the other devices.