The graphics card is one of the most expensive parts of building a PC. As a result, many people look for older cards such as the GTX 1060, which also has the added benefit of having a lower TGP or power consumption than most modern-day graphics cards.
Even though the GTX 1060 might not be able to play your newest and most favorite games at 4k with hundreds of FPS, it will still be capable of running most games at a lower resolution such as 1080p just fine.
With that being said it is very important to know how much power the GTX 1060 uses and what kind of power supply you will need to run a computer with this GPU.
How Many Watts Does The GTX 1060 Use?
The GTX 1060 has a TGP or Total Graphics Power of 120 Watts, which is the typical wattage it produces. When gaming you should also expect this card to use an average of 114 watts However, when idle The GTX 1060 only uses 8 Watts of Power.
Even though the GTX 1060 isn’t as good as the newest generation cards, by lowering the graphics on your games you will still be able to game, and you will still have the benefit of a low power draw.
When idle the GTX 1060 only produces 8 watts of power, which is increased by 1 when you add a second monitor to the mix. Only producing 9 watts with a second monitor is very good.
When you are looking and comparing a GPUs power consumption, you want to look at the GPus TGP or Total Graphics Power, which shows the base power draw you will get when using your GPU for things such as gaming
When talking about power consumption, you might hear the phrase “TDP” used interchangeably with the phrase “TGP”. Essentially TGP and TDP are the same things, but TDP is the total power consumption of a component and TGP is the total power consumption of a GPU specifically.
You should also note that the TGP of a GPU isn’t the true maximum power draw of the specific graphics card, and the power consumption can be increased when computing graphically intensive tasks and while overclocking.
The actual maximum of the GTX 1060 is around 136 watts, but this will only happen under extreme load and overclocking
What Power Supply Do I Need For My GTX 1060?
With the GTX 1060, the minimum recommended power supply wattage is 350 watts, but from my experience, you should always look for a bigger power supply than what is recommended on the market.
The reason for this is that you never know what you might encounter with power spikes, upgrades, and overclocking.
I would recommend that you get a power supply that is at least 400 watts. That way you have room for upgrades in the future, and if you are planning on overclocking this will provide you with the proper wattage to do so.
Although there are many power supply brands and different qualifications out there I would recommend you go for something that is at least 80 Plus certified that comes from a trusted brand such as EVGA, or Corsair.
This will provide you with power supply hardware that is very reliable and can save you on your energy bill as well.
However, it is pretty difficult to find an 80 Plus Certified power supply that is 350-400 watts of power. So, if you are really concerned about getting an 80 Plus Certified PSU, then getting a 500-600 watt power supply might be a good decision for you.
Spending the extra money to make sure you have a qualified power supply unit will actually save you money in the long run because it will use less electricity when plugged in and you are guaranteed that your hardware won’t be damaged as long as you take proper care of it yourself.
The reason for this is that a power supply unit that is not certified can take a significant amount of electricity out of your wall that doesn’t do anything. Not only that, but power supplies from a brand that isn’t trusted can damage other parts of your computer, or have underlying issues that you will experience sooner or later.
GTX 1060 Power Consumption Compared To Other GPUs
The GPUs power consumption is compared using TGP. It is essential to know and compare your graphics cards to other similar models because it will help you get a grasp on the amount of power your system is going to use.
Here is a comparison of a few graphics cards that are around the performance range of the GTX 1060.
With a 50-watt difference between the GTX 1060 and the RTX 2060 Nvidia has done a good job of making each generation of their 60 GPUs fairly power efficient.
Although there is a 50-watt increase you have to keep in mind that the RTX 3060 has a lot better and more modern technology that for most GPUs would have an even more significant increase in power consumption.
However, by looking at this table you can see that the GTX 1060 and all GTX-60 GPUs from Nvidia were made for the average gamer making them produce decent performance, without consuming too much of your electricity due to a lower power draw.
If you want to compare more graphics cards on their power consumption and TGP I have provided a database where you can look at dozens of different GPUs and their power consumption, that way you don’t have to do the research yourself.
Check out the Database.
I have also provided the average power consumption when gaming, as well as the average power consumption when idle, that way you can get a better understanding.
