NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GDDR6 Graphics Card Review FT. MSI Gaming Z and Gigabyte Gaming OC Pro

Conclusion

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 officially brings Turing down to the mainstream segment and below the sub-$500 US market tier. Based on the same Turing GPU architecture as the higher-end cards and retaining support for ray-tracing, the RTX 2060 succeeds its predecessor, the GTX 1060 but will it be as much of a success given that its priced $100 US higher. That's what I tried to find out but to look at what makes an NVIDIA GPU popular in this segment is to go all the way back to the GeForce 900 series era.

When NVIDIA introduced the GeForce GTX 970, it instantly became a hit with its price close to the $350 US figure. The GTX 970 was the most popular card in the GeForce 900 family and there were many reasons for that. It offered competitive performance to the then aging AMD R200 series card and was extremely efficient and ran much cooler. Furthermore, it offered 4 GB (or 3.5 GB as later found out) of memory, same as the higher end GTX 980. Fast forward to 2016, NVIDIA released the $250 US GeForce GTX 1060 which became another hit and the most popular graphics card on the Steam database. The 6 GB variant was the more popular of the many variants that we would get to see later on and custom variants with pricing close to the $300-$350 US price range were instantly sold out across the globe.

Well, the RTX 2060 aims to be a similar card but with a starting price of $350 US and more for custom models, it is already higher than its predecessors but looking at the performance numbers, at $390 US (for the custom models I tested) and outperforming the GTX 1080 in several titles is a big deal. Both cards are based on a custom design with the MSI RTX 2060 Gaming Z (1830 MHz) at $390 US and the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro (1830 MHz) also at $390 US.

The performance of both cards is same with a margin of error here and there. When it comes to design, the RTX 2060 Gaming Z from MSI has a 5+2 phase design and dual fan cooler while the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro has an 8 phase design and triple fan cooler. The heatsink on the MSI model is more refined with a better-looking cooler shroud and great RGB lighting but the Gigabyte model delivers much better cooling results.

The performance upgrade from a GeForce GTX 1060 would be very noticeable if you're upgrading from a GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card while over a GTX 1070 Ti or GTX 1080, the new cards feel like a side-grade.

I think what all of us are overlooking here is the performance versus the AMD parts. The RX Vega 56 features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and is priced around $350-$400 US. Compared to the Vega 56, the RTX 2060 offers better power efficiency, nicer thermals, and better performance. The RTX 2060 actually has the performance caliber of an RX Vega 64 which retails for a much higher price and mostly only available in the reference blower styled cooler with the more lucrative custom models priced way higher over the $500 US+ range.

The AMD cards do offer higher VRAM which makes them a better product for longevity when it comes to upcoming gaming titles since the 6 GB G6 VRAM on the RTX 2060 may end up being lacking but with technologies such as enhanced memory compression by NVIDIA, they may be able to offset the difference by a bit. It is really shocking that NVIDIA **60 class graphics cards are now ending up as fast as AMD's high-end products.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card are great for 1080p and even 1440p gaming. They are priced lower than all other Turing options and run cool and extremely efficient. The pricing is a bit high but based on the performance metrics which excel the GTX 1080 in almost all of the titles tested, the RTX 2060 has the potential of becoming a great mainstream performance card. And considering that, I would like to give both cards, MSI RTX 2060 Gaming Z and Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro, our Great Value award.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro Final Conclusion

MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z Final Conclusion

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