MSI GTX 1060 ARMOR 3GB OC Mining Performance Review
We all know the 6GB version of the card (if you don’t, do check my review here) but how does its younger brother, the 3GB version perform?
In this review, I will talk about the main pros and cons of the card, as well as what you should expect from it when mining.
Overview
The MSI GTX 1060 ARMOR 3GB was made for gamers who play on 1080p or less. There is a wide array of people who are stuck on games from previous generations and the 3GB version was supposed to help them enjoy their games on ultra settings on a budget.
Knowing that, it’s no surprise the GTX 1060 3GB features one less SM core than the full version, as well as 11% less rated compute performance (from 4.4 to 3.9 TFLOPs).
That being said, the 3GB version’s power consumption is about 5% higher than that of the 6GB version when under full load (the former having a consumption of ~200W). Base clocks remain the same, though. Does that mean that the 3GB version has better cooling?
Yes, it does. I’ve got the MSI GTX 1060 Armor, which is probably the most expensive model on the market. I can tell that they price difference is justified, though. MSI made a lot of progress in cooling system design and their 1060 GPUs are equipped with the best cooling the company can offer. The GPU is not only cool but it is also quite silent compared to most other cards.
After inspecting the fans I can conclude that they will more likely serve for years before needing replacement. That’s definitely a pro for a mining GPU and it adds to its resale value too.
Recommended Hardware for 6x GTX 1060 3GB Mining Rig
- Motherboard: ASRock H81 PRO BTC, GIGABYTE GA-H110-D3A, Biostar TB250-BTC PRO
- CPU: Intel Celeron G1840 for ASRock H81 PRO BTC, Intel Celeron G3900 for Gigabyte H110-D3A & Biostar TB250-BTC PRO
- RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 for ASRock H81 PRO BTC, Kingston Technology HyperX FURY 2400MHz DDR4 for Gigabyte H110-D3A & Biostar TB250-BTC PRO
- SSD: ADATA SU700 120GB
- PSU: 2x 650w EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G3, 80+ GOLD 650W
- Dual PSU Adapter: Add2PSU Multiple Power Supply Adapter
- USB Risers: USB Riser VER 008 PCI-E 16x to 1x 60cm USB 3.0 Extension Cable
- Power Button: 2 Pin SW PC Power Cable on/off Push Button ATX Computer Switch Wire 45cm
- Energy Meter: TP-Link HS110 Smart Plug w/ Energy Monitoring
Unboxing MSI GTX 1060 3GB Armor
Mining Hashrate & Power Consumption
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Armor Ethereum Hashrate Stock Clocks (Micron Memory)
System power draw is 80W
Ethereum Only
Ethash Ethereum Classic (ETC), Ubiq (UBQ), Expanse (EXP), Soilcoin (SOIL) etc..
Hashrate 24 MH/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 65
- Power Draw 90w
Ethereum Dual Mining Decred and Siacoin
Ethereum 22.3 Mh/s – Decred 223 Mh/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 65
- Power Draw 90w
- -dcri 30
Ethereum 22.3 MH/s – Pascal Lite 222 Mh/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 65
- Power Draw 90w
- -dcri 30
Ethereum Dual Mining LBRY Credits and Pascalcoin
Ethereum 23 Mh/s – LBRY Credits 21.9 Mh/s
- Clocks +1500/+750
- Power Limit 65
- Power Draw 900w
- -dcri 30
Ethereum 22.3 MH/s – Pascal 224 Mh/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 65
- Power Draw 90w
- -dcri 30
Ethereum Dual Mining Blake2s and Keccak algorithms
Ethereum 24 Mh/s – Verge (Blake2s) 320 Mh/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 65
- Power Draw 90w
- -dcri 30
Ethereum 22.3 MH/s – Smartcash (KECCAC) 224 Mh/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 65
- Power Draw 90w
- -dcri 30
ZCash (Equihash) Mining Performance
MSI GTX 1060 3GB Armor ZCash Mining Hashrate Performance & Power Consumption
Equihash algorithm: Zencash (ZEN), Zclassic (ZCL), Hush (HUSH), Komodo (KMD)
Download and extract Bminer: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1707546.0
Hashrate 320 Sol/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 75
- Power Draw 100w
Bitcoin Gold Mining Performance
MSI GTX 1060 3GB Armor Bitcoin Gold Mining Hashrate Performance & Power Consumption
Equihash algorithm: Zencash (ZEN), Zclassic (ZCL), Hush (HUSH), Komodo (KMD)
Download and extract EWBF Cuda Miner 0.3.4b BTG: https://github.com/poolgold/ewbf-miner-btg-edition/releases
Hashrate 295 Sol/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 75
- Power Draw 100w
Nexus Mining Performance
MSI GTX 1060 3GB Armor Nexus Mining Hashrate Performance & Power Consumption
Hashrate 90 – 95 Mh/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 75
- Power Draw 100w
Monero Mining Performance
MSI GTX 1060 Armor 3GB Monero Mining Hashrate Performance & Power Consumption
CryptoNight algorithm: Monero (XMR), Electroneum (ETN), Bytecoin (BCN), Sumokoin (SUMO), Karbo(KRB), DigitalNote (XDN)
Hashrate 548 H/s
- Clocks +150/+750
- Power Limit 75
- Power Draw 60w
Nicehash Mining Performance
MSI GTX 1060 3GB Armor Nicehash Mining Hashrate Performance & Bitcoin Profitability
In Conclusion
Back when the card just hit the shelves, the price of the GTX 1060 3GB was around $200 USD. Nowadays, the card price doubled or even tripled, depending where you buy it. So does that mean that the GTX 1060 3GB can still be considered a viable option for a mining rig? I guess, yes. While it is definitely not the best option out there, it is still okay, mostly because some of the GPU-minable altcoins keep skyrocketing in price.
For instance, those of us who have spent some GPU power mining Ethereum a year ago can now reap the results and sell the coins at a whooping $1330 USD/ETH. I am not saying this will happen to all minable altcoins out there however if it happened more than once, it is very probable that it will happen again.
