ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review

And today marks the introduction to Nvidia’s latest member, the GeForce GTX 1060 and what we have in goldfries’ lab is the one from ZOTAC – the AMP Edition.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review

The Zotac GTX 1060 AMP is a small card with dual-fan cooling. How small? Just look at the size of the unit against the PCI-E bracket and PCI-E connector at the bottom.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review

There’s no backplate for this model, unlike the GTX 950 AMP Edition that I reviewed before and I must say that the GTX 950 looks a lot nicer.

Anyway the GTX 1060 model here requires only a single 6-pin PCI-E connector.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review

At the back, the usual I/O ports and what you can see here are copper heatpipes stretching across the bottom area.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review

Below is the GPU-Z screen capture.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review

Test Setup

Processor Intel Core i7-5960X @ 4.5Ghz
RAM Apacer Blade Fire 2x 8GB DDR4 3000Mhz
Motherboard ASRock X99 OC Formula
Power Supply Cooler Master V850
Operating System Windows 10 64bit

Overclocking

I managed to add over 200Mhz to the default core clock but there were a few games that the card seem to fail completing benchmarks, so I finally settled in with 150Mhz. As for memory, I added some 200Mhz to it with no issue.

Benchmarks

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Heaven 4.0
*NOTE : Details are set to maximum.

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 62 15
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP OC 65 16
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Reference 32 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Reference 54 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Reference 65 17
Zotac GTX 1070 FE 92 24
AMD RX 480 52 14

Metro Last Light

Heaven 4.0

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 85 29.5
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP OC 90 32
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Reference 53 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Reference 80 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Reference 88 34
Zotac GTX 1070 FE 120 44
AMD RX 480 80 26

Shadow of Mordor

Heaven 4.0
Settings : Set to ULTRA, V-sync off.

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 89 32
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP OC 96 34
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Reference 42 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Reference 71 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Reference 92 38
Zotac GTX 1070 FE 132 52
AMD RX 480 90 33

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite
Settings are at
2 – UltraDX11_DDOF | 2 – Custom | 1 – 16:9 | 4 – FullHD / 4K

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 114 38
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP OC 119 40
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Reference 73 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Reference 112 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Reference 123 43
Zotac GTX 1070 FE 137.44 55
AMD RX 480 110 35

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V
Settings : Every option to the MAX setting available.

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 45 30
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP OC 48 33
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Reference 23 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Reference 37 N/A
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Reference 50 35
Zotac GTX 1070 FE 61 44
AMD RX 480 37 27

The Division

The Division
Settings : Set to ULTRA, V-sync OFF.

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 58 22
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP OC 61 24
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Reference 61 N/A
Zotac GTX 1070 FE 82 33
AMD RX 480 56 23

Ashes of the Singularity (DX12)

Ashes of the Singularity
Settings : Set to CRAZY

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 36 24
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP OC 38 26.3
Zotac GTX 1070 FE 48 33
AMD RX 480 33 24

Hitman (DX12)

Ashes of the Singularity
Settings : Maximum

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 63 31
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP OC 66 34
Zotac GTX 1070 FE 70 42

Here’s an overview of the relevant performance based on available data, the first 5 games and in DirectX 11 at Full HD resolution.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review

Temperature

Furmark Burn-in Test was used to stress the card. Fan settings are at Auto. Room set to ~25c.

Card Idle(°C) Load (°C)
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP 41 77
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP (Full RPM) 36 75

The fan hovers at around 85% on AUTO settings when on high load but what’s great about it is that it’s still pretty quite, even at 100% RPM it sounds like the noise level of Founders Edition cooler at 50% – 60% RPM.

Power Consumption

The stress was done with Furmark Burn-in Test. Power consumption reading was taken from the watt-meter, actual power draw by the entire system from the wall point. I’m using an Cooler Master V850 with around 90% efficiency and the estimated system power draw (CPU, not including GPU) during Furmark test is 107w.

Card Zotac GTX 1060 AMP
Furmark Burn-in 202
Estimated Actual System Draw 183
Estimated Card Power Draw 76

The Verdict

The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition retails at RM 1,399 – So how does it fare against the AMD RX 480? It costs a bit more but you get quite a lot more performance out of it and it doesn’t draw as much power as the RX 480. Unlike the RX 480 that requires some voltage boost just to overclock (and resulting in more heat) the GTX 1060 overclocks without needing voltage adjustment and gains quite a performance boost out of it without suffering from additional heat.

Put it simple – you have a winner here, the once rather attractive AMD RX 480 now looks pale in comparison as GeForce GTX 1060 cards now reigns in its stead.

If you are a GTX 970 or GTX 980 card owner, or even R9 390 or R9 390X owner – don’t bother because you will be side-grading. For some games it is an upgrade but the improvement is not significant.

goldfries recommended

One thought on “ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition Graphics Card Review

Comments are closed.