A modder known by the name TrashBench recently broke multiple overclocking records by pushing the now archaic NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 to the very pinnacle of its performance. The modder managed to overclock the card to run at a speed of 2,202MHz, through some very creative use of copper heatpipes and numerous clamps.
For context, the GTX 1060 out of the box had a default boost clock of 1,709MHz. TrashBench has clearly managed to break past that barrier by pushing the boost clock a further 507MHz. What’s more, they simply stuck to using the card’s stock BIOS and stock voltage to perform this feat. As you’d imagine, keeping the card cool while making it run at such speeds would be challenging, and air cooling just wouldn’t cut the mustard. That’s where things get interesting.
TrashBench essentially stripped their GTX 1060 off its original cooler shroud and proceeded to attach what can aptly be described as an assortment of copper pipes, all procured from their local DIY store. And to hold them firmly in place on top of the GPU core, VRMs, and VRAM, TrashBench made use of several G-Clamps. In addition, a water block and pump were attached directly to the card PCB, with the other end of the copper pipes feeding through a jerry can as a reservoir, filled with ice water.
On another note, TrashBench’s was using a Core i5-12600KF. The end result of the DIY cooling and overclocking was 3DMark Fire Strike scores that consistently broke the record of overclocking in that category six times over, with the final score on the benchmark being 14,302. By comparison, the GTX 1060 with its default air cooler achieves 12,675 points. Overall, that’s a 13% improvement to its performance.
Ultimately, TrashBench notes in their video that their next fun project would be to mess with the GTX 1080 Ti, and even teased the possibility of adding voltage mods to their overclocking.
(Source: TrashBench via Reddit, Tom’s Hardware)
