Nvidia's entry level GPU, the GP106 will not be landing in the pre-Computex Pascal event according to a report by Sweclockers. The GPU, which will be powering the Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 graphics card will be landing sometime later this year in the fall. This budget price point will be targeting the entry-level market, and replacing the older GM206 variant. This is also thought to be the same GPU that is powering the Nvidia Drive PX 2 board shown at GTC 2016.

Nvidia's Pascal flagship Geforce GTX 1080 and Geforce GTX 1070 will be launching soon.

Nvidia launching the Pascal GP106 powered, Geforce GTX 1060 graphics card in the fall

Not much information is known about the GP106 at this point apart from the few scattered die shots given below (courtesy of VideocardZ). The die size appears to be around 200mm² and if the GPU has two Global Processing  Clusters then we can expect around 1280 CUDA cores (256 CUDA Cores per Streaming Multi Processor and 5 SMPs per GPC). The Nvidia GTX 1060 should work only on power provided by the PCIe by design but will probably have an optional 6 pin connector added by AIBs to ensure overclocking headroom. Even though the GP106 is near the bottom of the barrel of the Pascal lineup, depending on the clocks, it could still pack a lot of punch thanks to the use of 16nm FinFETs. The time has come when entry level actually means entry level and not a downright horrible gaming experience.

Comparison of the die believed to be GP106 versus the Maxwell based GM206. @VideocardZ

• GP100: First generation Pascal flagship which will replace the GM200 die. Powers the "Tesla P100" based DGX-1 board.

• GP104: First generation high end Pascal GPU which will replace the GM204. Thought to power the GTX 1080/GTX 1070.

• GP106: First generation mid end Pascal GPU which will replace the GM206. Thought to power the GTX 1060 and the Drive PX2.

• GP107/108: First generation low end Pascal GPU which will replace the GM107/GM108 chips respectively.

 

While we don't know the exact price of this particular GPU, since we are looking at the general price range of GTX 960, the GTX 1060 should be priced anywhere between $179 to $229. The product placement of this particular GPU is for budget gamers (as opposed to HTPC builds). Keep in mind that there is a further cut down version of the chip, known as the GP107/GP108. These are the variants which will only be useful for HTPC purposes and not any real gaming. Because of this, we can consider the GP106 the last piece of the Pascal lineup that is of any interest to the gaming public.

Various entries for potential Pascal based graphic cards were spotted at 3D Mark a while ago. And if they are anything to go by, Pascal architecture has incredible potential. Which means the GTX 1060 will be nothing to sneeze at. If clocked high enough, the card could even be powerful enough to near the VR minimum spec (GTX 970 performance levels) which will allow Nvidia to market an additional VR ready GPU. The Total Available Market for VR is currently limited by the amount of high end cards on the market right now (GTX 970/R9 290 and above). If entry-level GPUs like the GP106 can reach the VR minimum spec (roughly 3.5 TFLOPS) then it will expand the market potential by several factors - driving the growth of VR on PC and matching the value proposition of products like the PSVR.