The GTX1060 GPU is a significant upgrade from the past series of GeForce 900 series cards. However, when talking about mining, all of the listed specs for frames per second and number of monitors supported etc, doesn’t mean much. What I can tell you is that for ethereum mining, the GTX1060 is not the fastest card out there, but it also isn’t the most expensive. And when compared with power usage, the GTX1060 is actually pretty amazing for mining Ethereum!
Original MSRP for the 1060 6GB cards was set at $249 USD, but as mining demand has increased, the price has risen and fallen inline with mining profitability. Currently, cards are selling for anywhere from $50-$100 USD above MSRP which sucks if you just want it for gaming… sorry guys.
Check out our Ethereum Mining GPU comparison below, or go to our main GPU comparison page to choose a different GPU series or different coin for mining.
Ethereum Mining GPU Comparison
GTX 1060 6GB GPU Mining Comparison type:
Best Hashrate Per $Compare based on user submitted hash resultsBest Price
Compare Mining GPU Prices
When the GTX 1060 graphics card was first released, it was touted as the “most advanced GPU architecture ever created.” According to the official NVidia site for the GTX1060 the card delivers up to 3 times more performance than the previous generation of cards (the 9xx series).
For mining ethereum with the previous GTX 960, you could expect a hashrate of anywhere between 10 to 13 mH/s, and with the GTX1060 6GB cards, out of the box they can do 18-20 mH/s – definitely an improvement! And, with overclocking, the 1060 series graphics card can manage up to 25 mH/s. While it isn’t 3x the speed that NVidia is claiming when using the card for gaming, it is about double the speed of the previous generation of cards.
GTX 1060 Mining Speed Comparison
After searching long and hard for ethereum hashrates and GPU prices, I created the ethereum mining gpu comparison chart. The system automatically checks price and inventory levels for the different models of GTX 1060 GPUs every hour, so that the list is always the most up to date.
Another difficult we had in choosing a card was that each manufacturer seemed to get a slightly different hashrate when using the best GPU for mining ethereum. So, after spending hours scouring Bitcoin and Altcoin forums and compiling the results, the chart for mining hardware comparison ethereum is listed by the cost per mH/s for the cards that are currently available.
How to Ethereum GPU Comparison Chart
If you’re looking for the fastest and best GPU for mining ethereum, then simply look for the GPU with the highest hashrate speed listed in the “top mining hashrate speed” column of the mining gpu comparison list. The ‘top mining hashrate speed’ is the fastest mH/s I was able to find posted online for that specific GTX 1060 6GB etherem mining graphics card.
If you want to get the best deal on a 1060 6GB ethereum mining GPU, then look for the lowest ‘$ per mH/s’ value in our GPU comparison chart. Although the card with the lowest value in that column may not be the fastest mining card, it is the cheapest card when calculated based on how many megahashes per second and compared to the price of the GTX 1060 6GB GPU.
The best price available is listed beside the GPU name, but if you want to see where else the card is available, as well as specific settings for the best GPU hash rates, you can click the blue link below the card name to get full availability, price, and hash rate details. We also have the sources listed just in case you need more information – with the idea you could contact that forum user, or even reply to their post to get more details.
What about the different GTX 1060 memory types?
Depending on the manufacturer of the RAM on the specific GTX 1060 6GB gpu you receive from the place you purchase it, it may come with 1 of 3 different brands of RAM. Those companies are Samsung, Hynix, and Micron.
For some reason, the ethereum mining GPUs that come with Hynix memory are more difficult to overclock, and typically result in a lower overall hashrate for that gpu.
Unfortunately there is no way to tell what brand of memory your GPU will have without installing and running the GPU-Z application (which you can download here). Of course, once the box has been opened and the GPU installed, most retailers won’t accept returns – there’s a reason it’s been called the silicon lottery!
There have been attempts to log the type of memory and the serial number to try and determine if there is a correlation, but with so many different producers of the GTX 1060 GPUs (EVGA, MSI, Zotac and more), it’s never been really successful.
Some users online are reporting that cards purchased in Europe don’t seem to come with Samsung memory and either have Hynix or Micron, while in North America, cards typically have Samsun or Hynix memory.
There are also other ethereum miners who say that depending on your desires for the GTX 1060 6GB ethereum mining GPU, the brand of memory might not make as much difference as you’d first think. For example, if you are looking for the top ethereum hashrate no matter what the electricity usage, than Samsung memory will provide 1 mH/s to 3 mH/s more than Hynix memory. But, if you’re looking to undervolt the GTX 1060 for maximum efficiency by backing off the power usage, then the actual mining speed difference could be under 1 mH/s different.
GTX 1060 6GB Ethereum Mining causing GPU Shortage
Once you get outside of the altcoin mining scene, there’s tons of news and user complaints online about how there is such a shortage in availability of these graphics cards caused by people using them to mine Ethereum. This shortage is causing the price to be inflated, and has many gamers and other PC enthusiasts that aren’t using the GPUs for mining quite upset.
I think, if there’s such a shortage, and since the Hynix memory is just as fast as the Samsung and Micron memory when used in gaming applications, then manufacturers should mention on the outside of the GTX 1060 box what type of memory is used in that particular GPU.
I guess this wouldn’t solve the problem completely, because in theory as demand dropped for the Hynix GPUs, the price would also drop. But at some point, Ethereum miners would start buying the GPU anyways because it would be more profitable than the faster (and slightly more expensive) GTX 1060 cards with Samsung or Micron memory.
Need help building your GTX 1060 Mining Rig?
Check out the build I did, as well as the step by step I took to increase the hashrates and lower the power usage on my GTX 1060 6GB cards.
Also, here are a couple of YouTube videos where they discuss how they built their mining rigs with the GTX 1060 ethereum mining cards.