Further experiments:

CSGO 1080p for 30 minutes while youtube runs on monitor 2. GPU temps in the 74 range with fan speed auto up to 63%. (ambient temp 23c)

I can't get the fan to run at full speed probably because I have an 80MM case fan blowing in directly at the card. I will have to remove that fan and see what it can do on it's own.


I also found out that there is not only the SC version but also a SSC version (super super clocked!) with a twin fan long card setup. My search is still on to find a donor card to pull a better heat sink and fan from that would relatively bolt on.

 

After a deeper dive, I find that my particular 1060 GTX is the 2nd worst one available (dell being the first). I have made every attempt to try and cool it down with even an extra fan pointed at it.

I upgraded the fan itself to see if I could lower temperatures but it still will not budge from it's maximum. The heat sink is clearly too small. Every other GTX 1060 that I have seen has a larger GPU heat sink.

I was able to fix my overclocks though. I can now run a stable 1800mhz at a cool 74c. I don't need to, but it's nice to know that it is stable enough to run it. My settings in MSI afterburner needed some adjustments.

Once I find a larger heat sink to throw on it, I'll be done with this card. Even with it's maximum potential limited, I do enjoy the zero fan speed when not gaming for ultra comfort.

update 5/25

It was suggested to me that I should run COD warzone to test the limits of the card. After what seemed like an eternity to download and get it setup, I took it for a spin.
The card actually went full tilt and ran at 2000mhz during the entirety of the playtime which was close to an hour. However, this was late at night when temperatures are cooler. My ambient was 25c and the card ran under 75c

Unfortunately I was only getting 40fps. I have to figure out the settings on this game, as I picked quality when it first installed but I can't seem to find now how to set it to performance. My mistakes aside, I was really happy to run at 2000mhz during the entire test at a respectable temperature.

2000mhz constant is higher than the SC and the SSC boost clock of 1800+.

Also check out my new bequiet fan that I installed which gets (possibly) a higher flow rate at a lesser sound level.

 

Conclusion:

It can work. To prove this I purchased another 1060 single fan which looks basically brand new. Since it is the same card, I wanted to apply the same settings and see if my modifications made any difference or if I was peeing in the wind.

The stock card with my OC settings throttles down to 1400Mhz at the same fan speed (70% locked) during a furmark test. At 100% fan speed it will do 1900mhz BUT the fan is obviously spinning out of what would be considered normal.

By comparison, my modded 1060 can hold 1900-2000mhz for an hour of gaming at even 65% locked fan speed which is not loud at all with the bequiet fan.

Also the newer 1060 that I bought seems to have a slightly larger heat sink. One thing that I find interesting is that the "new" one shows up as a 1060 on GPUZ while my older one shows up as 1060 GAMING in the heading.



PS. To be fair the 1060 I bought could have old thermal paste while mine is new, so I will have to check that and verify results a 2nd time.

 

UPDATE:

After some comparison, I found that the new 1060 I bought was a V2. Same card, but with HYNIX memory instead of micron. From what I have read, hynix is no bueno for overclocking. However, the newer card had a larger heat sink and a plate with thermal pads that covers the memory chips.

After reading story after story of the hynix issues from miners, I decided to stick with the older micron card. So I moved the larger heat sink and memory plate to my card. Everything bolted on except I had to bring the newer shroud over. It had clearance issues with the DVI port, so I had to trim it.

At first glance, they look the same. I noticed right away that my idle GPU temps were higher. This makes sense as now the heat sink is absorbing heat from the memory plate.

The good news is that now I can overclock the memory more. With the old setup anything over +200 on the memory would instantly freeze the card. Also before i had to be at 70% fan speed to keep an OC stable.

Today I was able to go +300 on the memory after about a 30 minute test all was clear. I then turned off the 70% fan and left it on auto. It stayed at about 40% for the rest of the testing.

So putting a larger heat sink and a memory plate (or at least connecting the memory to the heat sink) does help with memory cooling as expected.

The only sad part is that the hours that I have spent doing all of this would have easily paid for a 1060 SC or SSC and I would have save myself alot of time.

Always remember, you get what you pay for.

 

Update 3:


You might be getting sick of this topic by now, but my quest to install a bigger heat sink and twin fans continues.

I actually can't find an SC or SSC model for a good price, so I am trying to see how far I can take the 1060 standard.

I found a GTX 950 ASUS STRIX Twin Fan card for $25. It has a nice big fin style heat sink. I was not sure, but I bet that the 950 heat sink could fit on the 10 series card.

To my delight, the heat sink was a direct fit, but I had to use the outside larger hole pattern. The memory heat plate that I had installed will not longer fit, so it had to go.

The twin fans plugged right into the stock connector. Unfortunately, it would not boot. As I had discovered in previous testing, the standard 1060 small card will not power 2 fans. It must be a protection or something, because it will start but will not finish booting. I ended up mounting a single 92mm fan instead which would sort emulate the SC version of the card.

I was able to run cooler and quieter, but the looks were not appealing. I was hoping to have a nice shroud like the SSC version.


Update 4:


So, I had to go back to the drawing board. After more searching, I found a 970 EVGA card that had an EVEN bigger heatsink. It fit just barely, but over hangs the card by quite a bit. To my delight, the twin fans did finally work with the stock card. So it has now because a 1060 SSC+ in some ways.

It runs very cool and quiet. I was able to push my overclock just a tad higher. I hit a record 5150 score in Furmark 1080p while at a comfortable 68c. The overclock was +260 gpu and +400 mem. For reference my initial tests when I first started were in the 4300 score range.

The best part about this mod is that it still supports zero fan mode. So, with the larger heat sink, it takes longer to get hot enough to engage the fans. Even when they do, it rarely goes past 50% which has very little sound.

I have reached near the end of what is possible on the stock card/fans. I would like to cool the memory chips more, but as of now the fans are blowing down directly on them.