While the GTX 1080 is already on sale and GTX 1070 will be released in around 10 days, it seems like there might be a third GTX 10xx card in store for Nvidia fans. A German website Hardwareluxx has spotted a new roadmap on Inno3D that shows the transition from GeForce GTX 900 series to GTX 10 series of graphic cards. Excitingly, the new roadmap gives a strong, almost unofficially confirmed hint about the existence of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which will be the third Pascal card from the company.
As you can see in the transition roadmap image above, the flagship GTX 1080 stands at the top and beats the Titan X. Below it is obviously the GTX 1070 that equals or even beats the GTX 980Ti in some aspects. Then there’s a third GTX 10xx unnamed card in the list, and we can’t think of any other name than the GTX 1060.
The Nvidia GTX 1060, as suggested by the roadmap, will perform better than the GTX 970. But it will be slightly slower as compared to the GTX 980 card. As for the GTX 1060 specs, not much is known yet. Citing some initial GP104 leaks, WCCFTech reported that earlier rumors suggested that there would be three GP104 SKUs in the GeForce Pascal lineup.
The aforementioned leak had given out the codenames of the SKUs, with the first one “GP104-400-A1 SKU” powering the GTX 1080, and the second one “GP104 -200-A1 SKU” powering the GTX 1070. The third Pascal GP104 SKU came with the codename “GP104-150-A1”, and it is possible that the GTX 1060 might get this third SKU.
Speculations suggest that the third GTX 10xx model might also get named as the GeForce GTX 1060 Ti and could come with a leaner GP104 SKU. Nvidia could then launch the weaker GP106-based GTX 1060 later. But this is just a speculation, so take it with a grain of salt. It is expected that the GeForce GTX 1060 will perform better than GTX 970 while using lesser power than 150W and retailing at a lower price, probably between $229-$279 US.
Would you buy the GTX 1060? If yes, then why? Comment below.