Budget-friendly GTX 1060 3GB does sound interesting for gamers. However, is that really what you need?
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB of VRAM benchmark review
Coming out earlier than the low-end variant, the 6GB model of GeForce GTX 1060 is $50 pricier than the 3GB. It has 1,280 CUDA cores, 1,708MHz boost clock, and 8 GBps memory speed with texture units of 80.
It is no surprise that the 6GB version handles higher resolutions and the gap in frame rate is noticeable.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB of VRAM benchmark review
GTX 1060 3GB packs less CUDA cores as Nvidia trimmed it down to 1152. The texture units receive a drop to 72. Overall, the 10 percent deficit means slightly lower performance when it comes to playing top-tier 1080p games. MyGaming went through the details and found that there are significant difference between both graphics card. For instance, when used for playing "Hitman" and "Rise of The Tomb Raider" - there is a considerable drop on the 3GB VRAM performance.
Now of course, many users would like the idea to buy the cheaper graphics card variant and overclock it. However, the GTX 1060 3GB might not have the power to push things through. And the 3GB graphics card might not also be a good investment as many of the current released games use 4GB VRAM. Still, the 3GB is great for those with much tighter budget who plans to upgrade from the older Nvidia.
On a side note, there are many alternatives of video cards out there that perform better with more reasonable price than the GTX 1060 3GB variant, for instance, the 4GB RX 470. Or, you can opt for GTX 1060 6GB variant with a few extra dollars but you get a more capable spec in return.
Thus, GTX 1060 3 GB or 6GB VRAM, the choice might not be that hard to make at all.
