I would warn anyone away from buying the $300 Founders (reference) 1060 after an image of the PCB leaked:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1605250/tpu-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-founders-edition-pcb-pictured/0_20
This looks really cheap, especially compared to the 480. A few worrying design choices we can see for people who may not be familiar with PCB design:
- 3-phase VRM power delivery (Left of GPU. 480 has 6-phases. These dictate power delivery/overclock)
-
6-pin power stuck to the cooler (replacing the cooler will be a nightmare)
- 2 slots for VRAM memory modules are empty. Either this was originally meant to feature 8GB memory but NV rush changed plans to release a cheaper product to combat the 480, or there will be a 1060 Ti in the future with 8GB and they are just using the same PCB for both).
Nvidia charging a premium for this is slightly scandalous. This card hasn't got the usual Nvidia polish for whatever reason.
For comparison, here is the 480s reference PCB, which is apparently a cheaper product ($240):
You can see the 6 VRMs to left of GPU (and 8x 1GB GDDR5 VRM modules).
I would not touch a reference Funders edition with a barge pole at this point. They are charging a premium for a PCB that would be suitable for a $150 graphics card.
I'm hoping the custom cards are released on the same day so I can choose a card with a non-budget PCB.