MSI GTX 1060 GAMING X Review

👤by David Mitchelson Comments 📅25-07-16
Conclusion

It goes without saying, the GTX 1060 is now the graphics card to own for mid-range gaming. Following NVIDIA’s launch, gamers can now enjoy gaming at 1080p at an acceptable price-point. The Founder’s Edition with its reference cooler offered up a competitive solution so can the might of MSI’s Twin Frozr 6 improve on things?

The Twin Frozr cooling solution has been with us throughout many NVIDIA generations and MSI has given the GTX 1060 special treatment by attaching their sixth iteration – Twin Frozr 6. This cooler will shift GPU temperatures down to around 7-10C lower than the Founders Edition while maintaining low noise operation; something which will be a significant concern for many users. Built into the cooler is an LED lighting system which can be modified via MSI’s Gaming App, but if flamboyance isn’t your thing these can be completely disabled.


GAMING X offers good performance in DX11 and DX12 titles and as pointed out in our NVIDIA FE review, 1080p is the sweet spot for this card. Bearing a factory overclock we would have liked to see a bigger performance increase over the reference design but rest assured, there is still plenty of headroom to nudge those frequencies up even more, beyond the factory overclocks. Thanks to the Military Class components and 8-pin PCI Express connection over the original 6-pin, all of the ingredients are there for a modification, should the user desire.

The GAMING X is marginally more expensive than the FE but we believe the extra cost is well worth it considering the superior cooling solution. This card is priced at £299 GBP / $280 USD and is backed by an attractive 3 years’ warranty plus a 2 year license of XSplit Gamecaster/Broadcaster.

If you’re planning to upgrade from a previous generation, the MSI GTX 1060 GAMING X is a brilliant graphics card for 1080p needs. Thanks to the Twin Frozr 6 cooling solution, temperatures are impressive and noise is significantly reduced!

VIDEO REVIEW - VORTEZ TV


Pros
+ Attractive to the eye
+ Customisable LED lighting
+ Comes with factory overclock
+ Low-noise
+ Effective cooling
+ Overclocks even further
+ Good performance
+ DirectX 12 ready
+ 3 years’ warranty
+ 2 year XSplit license

Cons
- Marginal performance gains over Founders Edition
- medicore factory overclock


Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.

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