1060 6gb or 3gb?

[chazus]

I'm picking up a new GPU to replace my old geforce 660. Primarily I play WoW, Destiny 2 (When its out), Star Citizen (When it comes out), D3, HotS. Nothing fancy, 60hz monitors, 1080p. I won't be upgrading to 1440p or 120/144hz any time soon I'm fairly certain. Running a 3570K @ 4.6ghz.

Is 6gb going to benefit me at all, or will the 3gb versions do me fine? I don't necessarily need to pinch pennies, but I also don't want to spend an extra $40 if it doesn't help.

[Deleted]

Is texture quality important to you? You can (almost) always reach the same fps numbers and often the same frame times with 3 GB, if you are willing to lower texture quality one or two notches.

That said - bias incoming - it's a smallish investment in the future and I would't touch a 3GB card at the end of 2017 with a ten foot pole. Especially as somebody who is willing to skip a few generations and use a gforce 660 till now; and therefor is likely to use the next GPU for quite a while as well.

[Kagthul]

The 6GB is also marginally faster. It has a few more CUDA cores enabled.

All of those games will play just fine at max settings at 1080p... except Star Citizen, which really wants the most GPU you can throw at it. Itll probably still look OK at whatever settings the 1060 can manage, though.

FWIW, i'd wait a few more days and see if nVidia drops the 1070Ti.

If they do, itll force the price of the 1070 down, and that may be a more worthwhile purchase since it is quite a bit more powerful than the 1060.

[draynay]

If penny pinching isn't a huge deal its probably worth mentioning that the Destiny 2 deal is back with 1080s.

[chazus]

I can't imagine the 1070 being pushed down any further than $330-350. Even the cheapest is $380 now, and that's way over my desired budget. Even $250 is a bit of a splurge for me. In the past, I've owned a 260, 460, 660, and been quite happy with them.

To be fair, I've played both the Destiny 2 beta and what exists of Star Citizen, and my 660 handled it well enough (For me). I know I'd upgrade regardless, and Destiny 2 is basically giving me an excuse to do so.

- - - Updated - - -

If penny pinching isn't a huge deal its probably worth mentioning that the Destiny 2 deal is back with 1080s.

Penny pinching isn't a huge deal... But there's a difference between "not penny pinching" and "Literally more than double what I was planning". That, and I already own Destiny 2 so any deals wouldn't be useful.

[ShadowHopper]

Running a lot of the same games on a 6 gig 1060 and its smooth sailing. Glad i got it 6 months ago, looks like its 50$ more.

[Jtbrig7390]

Personally I say just get the 6GB and have the wiggle room.

Destiny 2 maxed out (besides AA because it was broke) was about 3GB. I was able to get locked 1080p/60fps on a 970 but that was tapping that card out(I think it was around 3.3GB Vram used). If AA get's fixed before/at release then 3GB will be maxed out easy. Of course you can run less settings and achieve the same fps/res. But it takes really nothing to max the game out so why not do it

For me personally I rather spend the extra $40 and have wiggle room to do whatever.

edit: If the difference in price is as small as you say it is.

[draynay]

Penny pinching isn't a huge deal... But there's a difference between "not penny pinching" and "Literally more than double what I was planning". That, and I already own Destiny 2 so any deals wouldn't be useful.

Still seemed worth mentioning, even if it wasn't helpful

[potis]

At 1080p and the games you mentioned, 3GB or 6GB version is irrelevant, plus their actual difference in performance is in the single digits and usually below 5%.

Depending on the country, there is no excuse to buy a 6GB version, or well, "Shadows of War ULTRA TEXTURES PCMR REDDIT RACE" etc.

You can find decent 1060 3GB here from 211 to 230e, cheapest 6GB decent variant is 320-340e, i can use that 110e and add another 100 next year to get the whatever xx60 comes out :S

[endersblade]

If the difference is only $40, then future proof. 6GB allows you to run more textures if you play games like Skyrim/Fallout 4 that allow texture mods. Otherwise better safe than sorry - while most of what you listed won't cap out the 3GB, better to have 6GB and not need it than to need and not have it. Things start crashing once you run out of VRAM, and nobody likes crashes!

[chazus]

I ended up picking up the MSI 6gb OC realizing I had been gifted $50 in amazon cash from my birthday a while back. That on top of a $50 tip a guy gave me for fixing pawn shop printer system, it ends up being the same price (to me) as the 1050ti. I can probably get $100 out of my 660 on ebay as it is, too, so it's nearly free at the end of the day.

[Vargur]

I'm picking up a new GPU to replace my old geforce 660. Primarily I play WoW, Destiny 2 (When its out), Star Citizen (When it comes out), D3, HotS. Nothing fancy, 60hz monitors, 1080p. I won't be upgrading to 1440p or 120/144hz any time soon I'm fairly certain. Running a 3570K @ 4.6ghz.

Is 6gb going to benefit me at all, or will the 3gb versions do me fine? I don't necessarily need to pinch pennies, but I also don't want to spend an extra $40 if it doesn't help.

GTA5 can use close to 4GB on my ASUS 960 Strix, 6GB is a no brainer choice, really.

[Jtbrig7390]

I ended up picking up the MSI 6gb OC realizing I had been gifted $50 in amazon cash from my birthday a while back. That on top of a $50 tip a guy gave me for fixing pawn shop printer system, it ends up being the same price (to me) as the 1050ti. I can probably get $100 out of my 660 on ebay as it is, too, so it's nearly free at the end of the day.

Nice hope ya enjoy it