I just picked up a pair (2)
Zotac ZT-P10610A-10L - their Mini-ITX (6.85"/174mm long) nVidia GTX 1060 3GB GDDR cards at Micro Center here in the USA for US$139/each (no rebate, out-the-door price).
Micro Center has had them $50 off (US$149) over the past week (and still the price). It only requires one (1) 6-pin PCIe as the TDP is 120W.
Most benchmarks show even the 3GiB GDDR5 in the 1060 can best the 4GiB GDDR5 in the 970 in nearly all benchmarks (or is very close), even with quality turned way up. The 6GiB GDDR5 version can help a bit more, but usually not much at all. One would be better off going the GTX 1070 8GB for not much more than the GTX 1060 6GB prices out there. I wouldn't use it for VR or 4K, but for 2-2.5K, this card is just fine.
Not Elite benchmarks, but here are the 2K (1080p) and 2.5K (1440p) benchmarks for OpenGL and Vulkan in No Man's Sky and Doom. As you can see, the GTX 1070 8GB really pulls away, making it worth the upgrade over the GTX 1060 6GB, but the GTX 1060 3GB is right there, and almost always edges out the GTX 970 4GB. One has to really go 4K or run 2.5K at extreme graphics, to really make the GTX 970 meet the GTX 1060 3GB.
Full review at TechPowerUp.COM:
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https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zot ... Mini_3_GB/