Is the GTX 1060 worth buying this holiday season?

The GTX 1060 is one of the most popular graphics cards ever made. The GPU topped the Steam Hardware Survey charts for over five years until it was recently replaced.

The graphics card comes in two variants (3 GB and 6 GB). The GPU has long been discontinued by Nvidia. The only way gamers can buy it is via the second-hand market.

It is worth noting that the 1060 is not a high-performing graphics card. It was recently replaced by an even slower GTX 1650 on Steam's charts. This shows that gamers prefer value for the money they spend over the number of pixels a graphics card can push out every second.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer

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The GTX 1060 is a great gaming graphics card, but its days are finally over

Nvidia's 60-class graphics cards are a proven formula. They are the best-selling graphics cards of any given generation. This is because these GPUs can run almost any modern AAA title in the highest settings possible at FHD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution.

Most gamers do not want to spend thousands of dollars on a gaming PC. The 60-class GPUs, therefore, perfectly fit into most gaming rigs.

The three-generation- old GTX 1060 is no exception to this formula. Back in the day, it was exceptionally powerful and could make every video game run smoothly in the highest settings.

This GPU is based on the Pascal-based GP106 graphics processor that packs 1280 CUDA cores, 80 Texture Mapping Units (TMUs), 48 Render Output Units (ROPs), and 10 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs). It is paired with either 3 GB of GDDR5 video memory or 6 GB of GDDR5 memory.

The 6 GB variant is the mainstream version of the card, and it sells more units. Upon launch, it was priced at $299.

According to TechPowerUp's graphics computing aggregates, the GTX 1060 6 GB graphics card is slightly faster than the AMD Radeon RX 480, another six-year-old graphics card. It is also slightly slower than the Radeon RX 5500 XT and the RX 6500 XT.

Thus, the graphics card can still hold up pretty well in modern AAA games if gamers are willing to drop the settings and sacrifice visual fidelity.

However, this does not make the GTX 1060 6 GB a desirable card. The GTX 1650 Super, which is more readily available in the market, can deliver much better performance than this aging GPU.

In addition to this, it is very hard to score a GTX 1060. Thus, it makes much more sense for gamers looking for a new card in the second-hand market to buy a 6500 XT or a 1650 Super. These GPUs are much newer. Thus, gamers will have a significantly lower chance of picking up an extremely dusty graphics card or one with damaged parts.

Additionally, the 1650 Super and the 6500 XT will be supported by the graphics card manufacturers for much longer than the GTX 1060 6 GB GPU.

Thus, it is evident that the GTX 1060's days are finally over. Nvidia and other competitors have come up with modern options that make more sense than this aging GPU. It is no wonder that it was recently replaced in the Steam charts.