RTX 2060 Unveiled [Best Budget Ray Tracing Card at $349 only]

Myths and rumors regarding RTX 2060 are finally over as the card has been finally unveiled by Nvidia at CES 2019. GeForce RTX 2060 is a higher mid-range graphics card and the fourth card in the RTX 20 series lineup. It is positioned below RTX 2070 and is said to be an upgrade over the older GTX 1060, which is a very popular mid-range graphics card in the GTX 10 series. The major confusion regarding RTX 2060 was whether it will support Ray Tracing or not. Now, the answer is finally here as the card is fully capable of supporting Real-Time Ray Tracing and it also supports DLSS or Deep Learning Super-Sampling, which is AI-based Anti-aliasing technology that offers much better performance over the older Anti-aliasing technologies (TAA, etc.). Let us now discuss this card in detail along with its specifications and comparison to its competitors.

RTX 2060 Specifications, Comparison & Benchmarks

Here is a brief overview of the RTX 2060 card along with its specifications and a comparison to the RTX 2070, GTX 1060, GTX 1070, and GTX 1070 Ti cards.

GPU

Like other RTX 20 series cards, RTX 2060 is built on the Turing GPU architecture having 12nm FinFET manufacturing process. The card uses TU106 GPU which is the same GPU used in its immediate bigger brother, which is RTX 2070. It comes with 1920 CUDA Cores, 240 Tensor Cores for AI / Deep Learning, and 30 RT Cores for Ray Tracing. The Founders Edition variant of this card has a base and boost GPU clock speeds of 1365 MHz and 1680 MHz respectively. So, in short RTX 2060 is basically a cut-down version of RTX 2070, having the same TU106 GPU chip.

Memory

RTX 2060 comes with 6GB GDDR6 memory having a speed of 14 Gbps and a memory interface of 192-bit. The card offers a total memory bandwidth of 336 Gb/s which is around 100 Gb/slower than of RTX 2070. I think 6GB of VRAM is a bit on the lower side for a card of this price and performance, especially in 2019 where video memory usage of the latest AAA games can go way past above 6GB at 1440p and 4K resolutions. However, it is still enough for playing the latest games at maximum graphics settings at 1080p resolution.

Important Note: It must be noted that RTX 2060 will also be available in 4GB and 3GB variants too, so be careful when choosing one as you do not wish to buy these lower memory models for gaming.

Design & Cooling

The Founders Edition RTX 2060 card comes with the same dual-fan cooler that you can see in RTX 2070 and other RTX 20 series cards. It has a full-body aluminum shroud and features a Vapor chamber design with black painted Heatsink and dual-axial 13-blade fans for providing maximum cooling performance. The card has a dual-slot design and is pretty compact in size. This makes it easy to fit in most of the small form factor builds. The build quality of the card is great as always and it does look very attractive. RTX 2060 from Add-in board partners or third-party graphics card manufacturers will come with a custom-designed cooling solution, RGB lighting, higher clocks, and maybe some other features too. Some of the top add-in board partners for Nvidia include ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY, and Zotac.

Features

The card supports Real-Time Ray Tracing through RT cores and has got AI and Deep Learning capabilities because of the Tensor cores. It supports all the major APIs that include DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan, OpenCL, etc. It also supports NVIDIA Ansel, G-Sync, HDCP 2.2, GPU boost, and is VR Ready card. RTX 2060 does not support SLI multi-GPU setup which is also the case with RTX 2070. The card comes with a USB-Type C port that supports VirtualLink for hooking up your next-generation virtual reality (VR) headsets. Other output ports include two DisplayPort 1.4a ports, one HDMI 2.0b, and a DVI-D port.

Note: Besides G-Sync, it also supports VESA Adaptive-Sync in some monitors through Driver support. Adaptive Sync is basically a different name for FreeSync, which is an AMD variable refresh rate (VRR) technology over DisplayPort to eliminate screen tearing in games.

Performance

RTX 2060 is around 50% to 60% faster than GTX 1060 (6GB) and 10% to 12% faster than the GTX 1070. It is around 15% lower than its immediate bigger brother, which is RTX 2070. The only card that RTX 2060 comes really close with is GTX 1070 Ti. In some gaming benchmarks RTX 2060 is a bit faster than GTX 1070 Ti while in other games, it does lose out by a small margin. RTX 2060 is also a great budget option as a workstation graphics card. It is generally better than its Pascal counterparts when it comes to workstation tasks and professional-level work.

It would be really silly to compare RTX 2060 against GTX 1060 as both these cards are in a different league, both in terms of price and performance. So, here I am going to compare it with its real rival, which is the GTX 1070 Ti.

Some Gaming Benchmarks

Battlefield V (with Ray Tracing On/Off)

Power Consumption

RTX 2060 has a power consumption figure of 160 Watts which is on the lower side if we compare it to its closest competitor GTX 1070 Ti which has a power consumption of 180W. The card requires only one 8-pin PCI-Express power connector and a 500W PSU for its working.

Check out: Best Budget Power Supply for Gaming PC

Price & Availability

RTX 2060 Founders edition is priced at $349 MSRP which I think is pretty reasonable for a Ray Tracing card of this caliber. It is considerably cheaper than GTX 1070 and GTX 1070 Ti which costs $399 and $449 respectively. Yes, it is a bit expensive than GTX 1060 (at $299 or less), but you will get about 50% more performance over it on average which makes RTX 1060 a much better deal at its price. Also, you will get around 85% of RTX 2070 performance, which is a much costlier card at $599. The price can vary a bit for RTX 2060 cards from other third-party graphics card manufacturers or add-on board partners of Nvidia.

Check out: Best RTX 2060 Cards for 1440p Gaming & Ray Tracing

Specifications

GeForce RTX 2060 Specifications
GPU Architecture	Turing
GPU Chip Name	TU106
CUDA Cores	1920
Tensor Cores	240
RT Cores	30
RTX-OPS	37T
Giga Rays/s	5
GPU Clock	1365 / 1680 MHz
Memory Clock	14 Gbps
Memory Size	6GB GDDR6
Memory Interface	192-bit
Memory Bandwidth	336 GB/s
Bus Interface	PCI Express 3.0
DirectX	12
OpenGL	4.5
PCI-E Connectors	8-pin x 1
Power Consumption	160W
Output Ports	DisplayPort x 2, HDMI x 1, USB Type-C, DVI-DL x 1

Comparison with other cards

RTX 2060 vs RTX 2070

	RTX 2060	RTX 2070
GPU Name	TU106	TU106
CUDA Cores	1920	2304
Tensor Cores	240	288
RT Cores	30	36
RTX-OPS	37T	45T
Giga Rays/s	5	6
GPU Clock	1365 / 1680 MHz	1410 / 1710 MHz (OC)
Memory Clock	14 Gbps	14 Gbps
Memory Size	6GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6
Memory Interface	192-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	336 GB/s	448 Gb/s
PCI-E Connectors	8-pin x 1	8-pin x 1
Power Consumption	160W	185W

RTX 2060 vs GTX 1060 vs GTX 1070 Ti

	GTX 1060 6GB	GTX 1070	GTX 1070 Ti	RTX 2060
Architecture	Pascal	Pascal	Pascal	Turing
CUDA Cores	1280	1920	2432	1920
Tensor Cores	NA	NA	NA	240
RT Cores	NA	NA	NA	30
GPU Clock	1506 / 1708 MHz	1506 / 1683 MHz	1607 / 1683 MHz	1365 / 1680 MHz
Memory Clock	8 Gbps	8 Gbps	8 Gbps	14 Gbps
Memory Size	6GB GDDR5	8GB GDDR5	8GB GDDR5	6GB GDDR6
Memory Interface	192-bit	256-bit	256-bit	192-bit
Memory Bandwidth	192 Gbps	256 GB/s	256 GB/s	336 GB/s
SLI support	No	Yes	Yes	No
Power Consumption	120W	150W	180W	160W

Final Thoughts & Should you Buy it?

At MSRP of $349, RTX 2060 is really a great bargain and is the cheapest Ray Tracing card that you can buy right now. Also, it has got Tensor cores too for AI and Deep Learning stuff, and for DLSS support in the latest games. It is as fast or even better than GTX 1070 Ti and also costs $100 less than it. Yes, some might argue that 6GB VRAM is a bit on the lower side but it is much faster in operation it makes up for that shortcoming. Considering all the factors, I think RTX 2060 is a great product and I would definitely prefer it over the GTX 1070 Ti for gaming and other needs. The card gets a thumbs up from me and is greatly suited for 1440p gaming at max settings, and you can even game at 4K with this card by toning down some graphics settings.