EDIT: I get a respectable +195 on the core, and +600 on the memory overclocking this card. (stock voltage). Card still runs cool. This is stable. Well, at least after several hours of Witcher 3 gameplay I was getting no artefacts or glitches. Incidentally, this doesn't have the micron memory and does use Samsung (as checked by GPU-Z). Something I was worried about. Also, the box says "made in China". So the rumours about all MSI cards made in China using micron memory are false. Just putting that out there.
Recently moved from a 21:9 2560x1080 29" Ultrawide to a 21:9 3440x1440 34" Ultrawide. That's a jump from 2.7 million pixels to 4.9 million pixels. My AMD R9 280x just didn't have either the horsepower nor the vRam to cope. Other items in my rig are an i7 4790k @ 4.6, and 16Gb of 2166Mhz DDR3 RAM, and all games are ran from SSD's.
Personally, I go for a solid 60fps more than anything. I'm quite happy to turn down some of the settings. There are two that I like to have as high as I can. Textures. Post Processing. Closely followed by ambient occlusion. On my R9 in GTA5, I could only have High for both. At 2560x1080.
I can't tell you how many reviews I watched on youtube, how many reviews I read online. With 3440x1440 you're getting close to 4K territory. Something even a single 1080 can struggle with, max settings, on some games. I even considered waiting a month to purchase the 1080. But genuinely couldn't justify spending almost double the money (+£300 at the time of writing) just so I could have ultra shadows and a few additional level of AA, especially as my eyes are getting old, and add their own AA to everything around me anyway. So I decided to get the 1070 instead, and put the £300 to one side and eventually pick up the 1270 in a few years.
An extra £300 just to have shadows on ultra, instead of high? Your call. Don't get me wrong, this card CAN run modern with ultra shadows on games, Witcher 3, GTA V, Doom, at 3440x1440 (4.9 megapixels) but just NOT at CONSTANT 60FPS. You will get some lows around 45fps. Still VERY playable. I imagine if you're gaming at 2560x1440 then YES you WILL get 60FPS with drops to around 55 every so often. That's not bad.
2560x1080 or 1920x1080, and this card will run any game at everything on ultra at 60FPS.
So what did I need to sacrifice to get 60FPS in Witcher 3/GTA V?
Shadows. And AA. Just a notch down on both. Usual suspects aren't they. Can you actually tell the difference between soft shadows and nVidia Soft Shadows? I can't. Can you tell the difference between very high grass and high/normal grass? Yes. If you stop. And look at the grass. I suppose if I were playing a grass simulator, I'd be gutted.
Hey, that's just my personal opinion. I'll think nothing less of you if ultra shadows & ultra grass is your bag. If that's the case, and you're planning to play the latest titles at higher than 2560x1440 with everything on ultra, including shadows, grass, at a minimum of 60FPS, you need to get the 1080, or even wait to the get the 1080ti.
That's just how it is. All the older games, well, they all run maxxed out at 3440x1440 with everything cranked right up, solid 60FPS.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hear me. But what about THIS CARD, what about THIS PARTICULAR model. Is this any good?
Well, the thing is, there's not much difference between ALL the 10 series cards. nVidia has seen to that. They are pretty much ALL locked down, they are all capped unless you're into extreme modding. If you're thinking how well this does this overclock? That's just a lottery. You don't know until you buy, and that goes for all the OEMs.
I just purchased this because it was the cheapest from a decent brand name. The cooling is sufficient, so long as you have decent cooling in your case. If you have a case smaller than a full size ATX, say, a midi ATX, you'll probably need more case fans. If you have micro/mini ITX, then you don't want this card. This card dumps it's heat into your case. That's no good for a case that's got poor ventilation. You need the blower style instead. Go pick up the founders edition instead. That will dump air OUTSIDE your case, not inside it. Likewise if you're going SLI, then you should go with the blower style, unless you have side fans, otherwise that first card will be dumping all it's hot exhaust right into the intake of the second card, witch will end up throttling, and taking down the first card with it too.
Okay, okay, I'm still not saying what about THIS card.
It's the cheapest one I could find at the time of writing. It doesn't have RGB. But that's okay, I have a fractal R9 windowless case. It only uses ONE 8 pin power. Yay for not having RGB lights. Could be a problem for overclocking. But when they're locked anyway by nVidia to a max. And it's a lottery draw. Meh.
It DOES have a front shield, that covers all the VRM's, acting like a heatsink, which is good. The fans do not spin until it reaches a certain temp. I'm sat here now and I literally CANNOT hear my PC at all. The only thing in there I know is spinning is my Noctura CPU cooler. Under load, whilst playing GTA V, after an hour, my PC was almost silent. Very impressed. This is WAY quieter than my R9, it uses LESS power as well. Amazing.
Before you do install this, or any card. Boot into safe mode, and use DDU, to properly remove all traces of you existing drivers, (after downloading the relevant driver first), it will give you an option to clean drivers and power down, so you can swap GPUs. That way you don't get any issues with previous drivers or registry crud that cause FPS issues, lockups, BSODs.
Would I recommend this card.
Yes, absolutely. If you game at 2560 x 1440 or below. You'll get solid 60fps, everything maxxed out.
If you game above that, you'll get solid 60fps, everything maxxed out except a few things taken down a notch.
If you game at 4k or above, nah, this isn't the card for you.
If backplates, RGB lighting, are important for you, spend an extra £50/£60 and get a different model.
For everything else. Buy this one.
| Brand | MSI |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 28 x 12 x 4 cm; 1 Kilograms |
| Item model number | V328-012R |
| Manufacturer | MSI COMPUTER |
| Series | GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming 6GB |
| Color | Black |
| Processor Speed | 1746 GHz |
| Processor Count | 1 |
| Memory Clock Speed | 8000 MHz |
| Hard Drive Size | 6 GB |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Nvidia |
| Graphics Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Graphics Card Description | MSI Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 6Gb Gaming |
| Graphics RAM Type | GDDR5 |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 6 MB |
| Graphics Card Interface | PCI Express |
| Number of HDMI Ports | 1 |
| Wattage | 400 watts |
| Operating System | Yes |
| Supported Software | Yes |
| Are Batteries Included | No |
| Item Weight | 1 kg |
