It’s been months since NVIDIA released their Turing based GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards. Taking a complete departure from traditional GPU design and creating a hybrid architecture that includes a range of new technologies to power the next-generation immersive gaming experiences.
The key highlight of the GeForce RTX 20 series was the enablement of real-time raytracing which is the holy grail of graphics and something NVIDIA spent 10 years to perfect. In addition to raytracing, NVIDIA also aims to place bets on AI which will play a key role in powering features such as DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling, a unique way of offering the same quality as the more taxing MSAA AA techniques at twice the performance.
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I’ve looked and compared the performance of several GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2070 custom variants and consider them to be a good gain over their predecessors, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070 Ti. When it comes to pricing, the GeForce RTX 20 series are some of the most costly cards NVIDIA has offered to consumers.
Today, I will be taking a look at the GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card which is the $350 US solution and the least expensive of the Turing RTX 20 series family which was launched a few weeks back. Featuring the same Turing GPU architecture, the RTX 2060 can be seen as the mainstream option which is meant to replace the GTX 1060 for a slightly higher price. In fact, the GeForce RTX 2060 is priced just $30 US lower than the introductory price of the GeForce GTX 1070 while costing $20 US more than the GeForce GTX 970. Considering this, we can tell that the price jump for each graphics card of the performance tier has seen a jump.
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NVIDIA GeForce GPU Segment/Tier Prices
In this review, I will be tested two fully custom GeForce RTX 2060 designs. The reference variants are great with their new cooling design and good looking shrouds but AIBs have some really great custom solutions out there, several of which I have already compared next to each other and with the reference variants.
With just a few bucks of asking price over the reference models, the custom variants offer a range of features such as triple fan coolers, bulky heatsinks, and custom PCBs allowing for better heat dissipation, higher air flow and more overclocking performance and clock stability at their respective boost clocks which will be higher compared to the reference variants. The main barrier with overclocking on Turing GPUs is by far the power limit and those that offer the highest power limits out of the box are generally the ones with the best overclocking potential and performance output.
The models I will be testing today are the MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z and the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming OC Pro. The MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z retails for $390 US while Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro also retails for $390 US. I will be comparing both cards next to each other to find out which offers a better value proposition based on performance, overclock capabilities and cooling performance.
In case you want to read our full NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture deep dive, head over to this link.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 Series Graphics Cards Official Specifications
