NVIDIA P106-100 Review- GPU Benchmark and Specs Review

The return on investment (ROI) period for mining cards has gotten longer, making it more challenging for miners to mine effectively. As a result, NVIDIA produced a series of devices like Nvidia P106-100 to provide the highest mining performance for large-scale operations with the aim of making mining economical.

The P106-100 is essentially an Nvidia GTX 1060 with an optimized BIOS used for cryptocurrency mining and gaming. It has the same Pascal P106 GPU with 1280 CUDA cores as the previous model. However, a couple of changes and modifications come with the Nvidia P106-100. Keep reading to find a detailed review of this mining device.

What is Nvidia P106-100 6GB GPU Mining Card?

NVIDIA’s P106-100 is a professional graphics card that was released on June 19th, 2017. Built on the 16 nm technology and centred on the GP106 graphics processor, the card supports DirectX 12 in its GP106-100-A1 form.

The GP106 graphics processor is a medium-sized chip with a 200 mm2 die area and 4,400 million transistors. There are 1280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs in total.

NVIDIA has integrated 6 GB GDDR5 memory with the P106-100, which is interconnected via a 192-bit memory interface. The GPU operates at a frequency of 1506 MHz, which may be increased to 1709 MHz, and memory operates at 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective).

The Nvidia GP106 GPU is used in the P106-100 (GeForce GTX 1060). It’s essentially the same card but with a couple of changes:

The display output on the P106-100 card has been disabled was disabled at the factory.This card has no HDMI, DVI, or any other output type.

NVIDIA P106-100 In-Depth Review

1. Design

In comparison to many recent GPUs, the P106-100 GPU mining card is rather small. This makes it simpler for you to construct your mining rig. This makes it simpler for you to construct your mining rig.

Since you have a lot of cooling space, it is easier t to handle the rig cooling. If you find cooling a problem in the winter, you should wait till summer. This is because when the temperature outside reaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit, you might experience a serious problem.

Despite this, every P106-090 card runs surprisingly great. It is difficult to find a graphics card that can go beyond 50’C, even at full hash power. On the other hand, overclocked GeForce GTX 1070 or Radeon RX580 GPUs will frequently exceed 70°C.

It comes with an interface of PCIe 3.0×16, a length of 250mm and supplementary power connectors of 1×6-pin.

2. Technical Specifications

This is crucial data that defines the videocard’s capabilities. The easier the device manufacturing process was, the better it would be. The power frequency of the core determines its speed (direct correlation), whereas transistors execute signal elaboration. Generally, the more transistors, the faster the computations are carried out.

So, here are the technical specifications of the Nvidia p106 device;

Pipelines: 1280Core clock speed: 1506 MHzBoost Clock: 1709 MHzTransistor count: 4,400 millionManufacturing process technology: 16 nmPower consumption (TDP): 120 WattTexture fill-rate: 136.7Floating-point performance: 4,375 g-flopsPipelines / CUDA cores: 1280Boost clock speed: 1709 MHzNumber of transistors: 4,400 millionThermal design power (TDP): 120 Watt

3. Performance

This card was created with the goal of finding the right balance between performance and durability. It provides  23 – 23MH/s single-mining ETH with Claymore V11.0 in Ubuntu at default factory settings without any optimization or overclocking.

This is a decent performance, but it is far from the quickest. It is similar to an AMD RX570 or RX580 without first being overclocked, and BIOS modified. The BIOS employs a new set of memory timings tailored to this model’s GDDR5 6GB memory chips.

Cryptomined built a rig out of 6 MSI P106-100 miners’ hash rates and tested it with Ethereum and ZCash.

4. Memory

The internal memory is designed to store data while computations are being performed. Modern games and professional graphic apps place high demands on memory volume and capacity. The greater the value of this option, the more powerful and speedy the videocard.

The parameters of the memory installed in the P106-100 include;

Memory type: GDDR5Maximum RAM amount: 6 GBMemory bus width: 192 BitMemory clock speed: 8008 MHzMemory bandwidth: 192.2 GB/s

5. Video Outputs and Ports

Generally, all modern videocards have a variety of connection types and extra ports. Understanding these characteristics is critical for preventing issues when connecting the videocard to the display or other external devices. Here are the types and number of video connectors present on P106-100;

Display connectors: No outputs

6. Price

It is difficult to compare pricing today because the high demand for mining GPUs has caused the GTX 1060 to cost roughly twice as much as it did before the surge. As of today, a GTX 1060 costs $519. Of course, if you can find a used one, you may save around $100. 

The enormous price difference is primarily due to the hyper-inflated demand for GPUs rather than the actual pricing of the GTX 1060. 

Pros and Cons of Nvidia P106-100

NVIDIA P106-100 6GB Vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB

NVIDIA P106-100 6GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB video cards are both known for impressive features in categories like video outputs and pots, API support, memory, profitability, technical data, requirements, and dimensions. However, they differ or vary slightly, with each of them having pros and cons.

So, here are several reasons why you should consider the NVIDIA P106-100 mining device;

A newer video card (Launch Date- June 19th, 2017 vs. July 19th, 2016)About 38% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop – Face Detection mPixels/s (163.993 vs 119.148)About 24% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop – Ocean Surface Simulation Frames/s (1705.321 vs. 1373.562)About 7% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop – T-Rex Frames/s (9.266 vs 8.694)Around 3.5x better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop – Video Composition Frames/s (76.32 vs 21.766)Around 3% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 – Car Chase Offscreen Fps (12824 vs. 12442)Approximately 3% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 – Car Chase Offscreen Frames (12824 vs. 12442)

On the other hand, here are some of the reasons why you should consider Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB mining device;

Around 99% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 – T-Rex Frames (3340 vs. 1680)About 99% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 – T-Rex Fps (3340 vs. 1680)Approximately 98% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 – Manhattan Frames (3691 vs. 1860)About 98% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 – Manhattan Fps (3691 vs. 1860)69% better performance in Passmark-G3D Mark (10093 vs. 5967)2.3x better performance in PassMark -G2D Mark (763 vs. 339)Around 2% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop – Bitcoin Mining mHash/s (454.799 vs. 448.036)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on NVIDIA P106

1. Is P106 good for mining?

The Nvidia p106 GPUs are a decent option for mining Etherium. It holds a listed hash rate of around 24MH/s, although the lowest of Nvidia’s Turing-powered CMP cards comes in with a hash rate of 26MH/s.

2. What is the best GPU card for Ethereum mining?

The most dedicated GPU for Ethereum mining is the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. It is also one of the least expensive choices as it outperforms more pricey models, especially when mining Ethereum. In addition, it uses less than 120W and exceeds 60 MH/s.

Image Credit: bitcoininsider.org