NVIDIA’s GTX 1060 is the go-to graphics card for mid-range gamers who principally desire to run the latest gaming titles at 1080p maxed out and the ROG team has taken this platform to another level with their factory overclocked STRIX edition.

As with all the STRIX graphics cards under ROG’s belt, the GTX 1060 carries the DirectCU III cooling solution which being in its third iteration has a strong reputation because it gets the results – we found the temperatures on this card to be the lowest recorded for the GTX 1060 and this was achieved without causing unnecessary noise. Furthermore, although a portion of users aren’t concerned by the visual appearance of their hardware, this card with its cooler is aesthetically stunning and it will contribute to an impressive looking theme for those wanting to take some extra care with the overall design of their system.

Compared to the other GTX 1060s we’ve reviewed from GIGABYTE, MSI and Gainward (as well as the Founders from NVIDIA), this is the fastest version both in terms of the GPU clock speed and memory clock speed. The ROG team has applied a 10% overclock to the GPU and a 3% increase to the memory from the stock settings and while this is encouraging on paper, it’s just as impressive when we take things to the gaming arena. Such modifications saw a significant boost to performance against the other 1060s – providing up to 15 extra fps against the Founders Edition. We were also able to nudge the GPU/memory frequencies even further and push for an even greater overclock; demonstrating just how capable these STRIX offerings really are.


One particular favourite of ours is the inclusion of the twin fan headers on the end of the graphics card. This may only be a small inclusion but for anyone who knows – fan headers on motherboards are often in short supply and what’s more is if chassis fans are connected up to these headers, if the graphics card temperature jumps up, the fans will synchronise and spin faster to help flush away the heat.

The STRIX GTX 1060 can be purchased in the UK for £298.99 @ CCL Computers and in the US: $320. Comparing to other 1060s, this price is reasonable based on the substantial overclock and custom design that ROG delivers. This card comes with a generous 3 years warranty which should sweeten the deal even more.

The STRIX GTX 1060 OC is the fastest 1060 we’ve had the pleasure of looking at. A significant factory overclock pushes up the frame rate in-game and the well-equipped DirectCU III cooler brings down the temperatures without compromising on noise. Go get one!


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