The reference version of GTX 1060 comes with a price of $249 and features 6GB of VRAM. With that announcement, it will obviously not take long for other manufacturers to come up with their own non-reference design, with one in particular being the GALAXY GTX 1060 HOF Edition. Because of its improved cooler and higher clock speeds, this version is expected to be pricier than the reference one, but that will be a story for another time. First, let us look at the design of the card and see what makes it different from the regular version.
With a regular GTX 1060 features just a single 6-pin power connector, the lack of power consumed will be directly proportional to the amount of current flowing into the component. While the GPU can be overclocked, it’s the GALAXY GTX 1060 HOF Edition that will provide gamers with a larger and more stable overclock since it features a 8 + 6-pin power connector, so with more current flowing into the GPU, you will be able to tweak it accordingly.
It’s not just the power connectors that come into play when you want to overclock the GPU, but the components that are responsible for providing stable current to the GPU and memory chips. The GALAXY GTX 1060 HOF Editions possess a 6 + 2 phase VRM design, with 6 phases designed to deliver current to the GPU, while the remaining 2 will be targeting the memory chips. A higher number of phases will mean that less amounts of current will be distributed equally, and that also means the phases will have a lower temperature because of less current distributed, which will allow gamers to report a higher stable overclock.
The base GPU clock speed of GALAXY GTX 1060 HOF runs at 1582MHz, while the 1797MHz has been reported as the Boost clock speed of the GPU. Comparing them against the reference version, you are getting nice little advantage over the regular GTX 1060, which only suggests that you’ll be able to reach a much higher and much more stable overclocking result.
The custom cooler might be a mouthful, but the bulky PCB coupled with the large custom backplate will make the entire GPU rigid enough to withstand all of that load. GALAXY has not reported the release date of the graphics card, but it could be released next month.