Verdict and Conclusion
Without spending an arm and a leg for the best performing graphics card, the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X is just wonderful. Coping well with the vigours of modern gaming, the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X handled everything we threw at it. Even with the reduced CUDA cores and memory bus, you just don’t feel as if you bought a sub-standard graphics card and yearn for more.
MSI has done a fantastic job here, not only on how well the graphics card looks, but also on eeking out as much performance you can get out of a GTX 1060. With its Twin Frozr VI cooler and Torx 2.0 fans, the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X coped well with moderate overclocks without the need to head into watercooling, the fans don’t spin until it hits 60C. Having said that, the GTX 1060 runs pretty cool as stock, and unless you’re looking at doing some PCB-burning extreme overclocks, you won’t need to get the liquid coolant out.
And if you want to overclock even more with the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X, there’s always a quick selection of the OC Mode in the MSI Gaming App, achieving slightly more performance:
And because the GTX 1060 runs so cool, there has only been the odd moments when the Torx 2.0 fans have ever spun up, they just normally sit there stationary generating no noise at all.
As the little baby of the Pascal range, the GTX 1060 is very affordable and should be the very minimum of any modern day PC build spec, but due to MSI releasing this graphics card in the Gaming X range, meaning overclocked out of the box, there is a slight premium that you will have to pay. Priced at around US$300, the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X is well worth the extra you need to pay.
Don’t be confused as MSI has released another version of the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X with half the memory at 3Gb which is much cheaper still. Buy now at Amazon – https://goo.gl/Ewk5BE
Pros:
- Great performance for the price you pay
- VR-Ready
- Easy overclocking
- MSI software means easy further tuning
- Great looking graphics card
- RGB LED effect
- Runs cool
- Little to no noise
Cons:
- Premium you pay for the Gaming X range
