Upon the formal unveiling of the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti last month there was a curious footnote concerning faster memory for two of NVIDIA's well established GPUs. News on NVIDIA's updates to the GTX 1060 and 1080 product spec has been gradually percolating alongside more significant releases over the last six weeks, but now their partners are loosening their lips a little and revealing some of the variants we can expect to see in the near future.
As reported on TechPowerUp, GIGABYTE have just announced the Aorus GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Xtreme Edition, a new card which will feature the brand new 9Gbps GDDR5 memory specification. Sporting a meaty dual-fan cooler which is more compact in design than the longer triple-fan Windforce variant unwrapped at the beginning of April, it's positioned at the head of their refreshed GTX 1060 range.
Switching from a three 80mm fan configuration to two 100mm fans isn't the only physical difference between the two cards. In order to accommodate the fans the card itself is taller, peaking quite a bit above the typical limit of the PCI-Express bracket, and thicker than typical dual-slot cards. Both will be a concern if you're planning a build into a particularly small chassis, but lack of SLI support makes the usual dual-GPU issues moot.
In addition to the cooler Aorus have also equipped the card with a backplate, acting as both a heatspreader and protective cover for components on the rear of the PCB.
GIGABYTE have integrated two distinct performance modes into the Aorus GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Xtreme Edition. Gaming Mode, presumably designed to balance performance with noise, hits a base and boost clock of 1620 MHz and 1847 MHz respectively; meanwhile an OC Mode squeezes out a couple more bins in reaching 1645 MHz base and 1873 MHz boost. Rolling in the new 9026 MHz memory, that's a healthy improvement over the 1708 MHz Boost / 1506MHz Base / 8008Mhz Memory of NVIDIA's reference launch specs for the GTX 1060.
As you would expect from Xtreme Edition this card is decked out in features for gamers of all stripes. Perhaps the most intriguing is a nod towards VR with not one but two HDMI passthrough ports, allowing more convenient use of chassis HDMI via front panel I/O for VR headsets. RGB Lighting, 2017's hottest tech trend, is also factored into the shroud and controller software.
More information on the Aorus GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Xtreme Edition can be found at the official site. Specifications for the standard Aorus GeForce GTX 1060 6GB with 9Gbops memory and triple-fan cooler can also be found here. Sadly GIGABYTE haven't announced pricing or availability as yet, but it's unlikely to be far off.
