MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X Graphics Card Review

Overclocking and Overclocked Performance

As per usual with the new overclocking procedure, we always display the maximum clock speeds before and after a manual boost has been applied. When using the OC profile, the graphics card hits a peak boost clock of 1961.5MHz while the memory performs up to 2025MHz. This is maintained with a 38% fan speed and 1.0430V VDDC.

Overclocking the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X was really simple and I managed to increase the core by 93MHz with a 108% power limit. Furthermore, the memory remained stable when applying a huge 717MHz overclock. Please note, these numbers refer to increases compared to the Gaming mode as the OC profile automatically enhances the core by 25MHz and memory by 50MHz. Once overclocked, the boost clock went up to a maximum of 2037.5MHz and the memory reached 2363.8MHz. As you can see, the RPM values altered slightly and the thermal output increased by a small amount.

Here we can see the final results from manual overclocking:

3DMark

After the substantial overclock was applied, the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X outperformed an R9 Nano running at stock settings.

During 1440p testing, the overclocked GPU maintained its strong position and once again edged the R9 Nano.

Saying that, the graphics card dropped behind the R9 Nano when tackling the 4K Fire Strike Ultra benchmark.