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

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro Closer Look + Teardown

Gigabyte’s Windforce 3X heat sinks are some of the beefiest heatsink cooling solutions that I have ever tested. The card measure in at 280.35 x 116.45 x 40.24 mm and comes in the standard 2 slot design.

You would have to keep in mind the height when going for a dual slot card solution as your case or motherboard PCIe slot combination may not allow such setup. The cooling shroud extends all the way to the back of the PCB and it requires a casing with good interior space for proper installation.

The back of the card features a solid backplate which looks stunning and offers a premium look. There’s a lot of nifty features about this backplate which I will come back to shortly.

In terms of design, we are looking at an updated version of the Windforce 3X series heatsink which is now in its seventh variation. The first Windforce graphics card shipped back in the Fermi, NVIDIA GeForce 400 series era so this cooler has seen some massive changes over the years. The one on the GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro and WindForce OC series is the most refined version of the heatsink ever produced.

The new heatsink looks like a more sleeker variant of the previous Windforce with the main changes being the shroud and heatsink design. In addition to the heatsink and shroud changes, you also get a slight bit of RGB in the new shroud which is compliant with Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion lighting system and is fully user-customizable.

Coming to the fans, the card actually features two different fan designs which utilize the Unique Blade Fan design. The airflow is split by the triangular fan edge, and guided smoothly through the 3D stripe curve on the fan surface, effectively enhancing the airflow.

In addition to the standard fan spin, Gigabyte Windforce fans have an alternate spinning mode. It leads the middle fan to spin in a clockwise manner while the two fans on the side spin in anti-clockwise mode. This helps reduce airflow turbulence and allow more airflow to be blown away from the card, effectively increasing heat dissipation.

The fans are fully compliant with the 3D Active Fan technology which will allow the fans to stay in idle mode until the temps exceed a certain threshold. This threshold is based on both the GPU load and the temperatures, allowing for smooth and quiet operation under lower application loads.

I am back at talking about the full-coverage, full metal-based backplate which both card use. The whole plate is made of solid metal with rounded edges that add to the durability of this card. The matte black finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic.

There are small cutouts in screw placements to easily reach the points on the graphics card. There are open vents for the hot air to move out from the back too. We can also see the Gigabyte logo in the middle. Gigabyte is also using heat pads beneath the backplate which offer more cooling to the electrical circuitry on the PCB.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 and GeForce RTX 2070 graphics cards don't feature any NVLINK connector as they don't support Multi-GPU functionality. This has been done for many reasons as two RTX 2070s have a potential to outperform the RTX 2080 Ti in optimized titles which may end up cannibalizing its sales. The other is the optimization factor and we know that multi-GPU support isn't the best around these days so NVIDIA has only kept it for users who are willing to pay a premium on their higher end cards.

Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is comprised of composite heat pipes which combine thermal conductivity and phase transition to efficiently manage the heat transfer between two solid interfaces which increases cooling capacity. The base of the heatsink is a direct touch heat pipe surface.

The heat pipes made direct contact with the GPU die, allowing for faster dissipation of heat from the core. Gigabyte is one of the few GPU manufacturers who is still using direct contact surfaces while others have switched over the nickel plated, cold plates. It will be interesting to see how this heatsink performs compared to the nickel plated designs we have tested more recently.

The MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z has a single 8 pin power connector to boot. The card is rated at a TDP of 190W officially by MSI. There is also a smart power LED indicator over the power ports to let you know whether your card is connected perfectly or is there any issues with the PCIe based power delivery.

I/O on the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro includes three Display Port 1.4a and a single HDMI 2.0b.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro PCB Teardown

Gigabyte makes use of an 8 phase PWM design that includes their Ultra Durable components such as Hi-C Caps, Super Ferrite Chok, s and Japanese Solid Caps. The card also uses the Micron GDDR6 memory that operates at 14 Gbps along a 192-bit wide memory interface.

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Following are a few close-up shots of the reference PCB which is being offered under the hood of the RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro series graphics cards.

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Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro With RGB Fusion 2.0

Gigabyte Gaming OC series cards utilize their RGB Fusion technology to offer you a visually pleasing lighting experience on your graphics cards. The entire side logo comes with RGB Fusion Light support. You can fully customize the RGB lights to your preference using the Gigabyte RGB Fusion application from Gigabyte’s web page.

Following is what the graphics card looks like when lit up.

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