Power phase of GPU

[sharantk]

What is meant by power phase of the GPU? I found that the EVGA GTX 1060 variants with different power phases 3+1, 4+1 and 6+1.
Does the better value help to protect the card and last longer?
Which one should I choose?
1. SSC
2. SC

 

[TechyInAZ]

More power phases allows you to increase voltage on your card for more overclocking potential. This is one reason why ultra cheap 1060s won't be able to overclock as high as higher end boards because of the power requirements.

 

[sharantk]

But the SC has the boost clock of 1835MHz with 3+1 phase and able overclock to 2000+ MHz with the single fan cooling. Will it cause any damage if I use the card overtime?

 

[Math Geek]

won't damage the card but what you will notice is how smooth the fps stays. more phases keeps the power more consistent so you won't see as much variance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3047729/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1000-series-megathread-faq-resources.html#17902600 this thread has all the specs on all the cards along with reviews where available. lots of differences for sure but overall, most of the cards seem to perform the same no matter what they have under the hood.

the extra phases do have a benefit but not enough to spend a lot of extra cash on. $20 for a custom board is worth the cost (sc model is a reference board with custom cooling) to get the ssc card in my opinion. but the $20-40 more for the ftw card seems like a waste to me.