Overclocking
Overclocking the base GPU on a reference board is important as it provides meaningful clues into how far partners are likely to push their OC variants. Our results, obtained without meddling with the voltage, show a boost speed of 1,919MHz and an effective memory clock of 9,208MHz.
Perusing logs shows the sample card hit a rock-solid 2,050MHz under real-word boost conditions while maintaining an 80°C target temperature. Such a frequency bodes well for differentiation for partner cards. We're likely to see someone ship a model with a 1,850MHz rated boost and 8,500MHz memory - Palit, perhaps?
We're getting just over 10 per cent extra performance, pushing the numbers above a GTX 980 OC in every case.
So just as a GTX 1070 OC draws performance parallels with a GTX 980 Ti OC from the last generation, we believe that GTX 1060 OC cards will match the speed of GTX 980 OC cards. This, quite likely, is exactly how Nvidia has envisioned it: planned obsolescence of older, more expensive technology while keeping pure performance the same.
