Gigabyte GTX 1060 D5 6GB Video Card Review

Even though the Gigabyte GTX 1060 is based on a reference design PCB there are some custom elements on the board including Ultra Durable components and headers used to control the RGB lighting effects. 

There are four spring screws and three standard screws holding the Windforce 2X cooler in place.  Removing these will release the cooler but leaves the backplate attached.  Four additional screws are used to secure the backplate to the PCB and are accessible once the cooler has been removed.

The Windforce has become a common cooling solution on all of the high-end Gigabyte video cards and is often regarded as one of the coolest factory heatsinks on the market today.  Each video card gets a special heatsink design with some very obvious differences between the designs. 

This version features a twin heatpiple cooler with core contact heatpipes and cold plates for both the memory and VRM.  This ensures that the GPU gets priority cooling while still addressing the cooling needs of the memory and VRM.

One of the limiting factors that determine how much a video card can be overclocked has always been the size of the VRM.  On the Gigabyte GTX 1060 you will find a total of 6 power phases along with a very interesting capacitor line to help smooth the power delivery.  A few of the memory pads are not populated indicating that there is an option to have more memory on this PCB or could have been a left over from the design it was sampled from.