MSI RTX 2060 Gaming Z 6G Review

1. Introduction2. MSI RTX 2060 Gaming Z 6G3. Testing Methodology4. 3DMark Fire Strike & Time Spy (1080p, 1440p, 4K)5. 3DMark Port Royal (1440p DXR)6. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (1080p, 1440p, 4K)7. Far Cry 5 (1080p, 1440p, 4K)8. Ghost Recon: Wildlands (1080p, 1440p, 4K)9. Middle Earth: Shadow of War (1080p, 1440p, 4K)10. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p, 1440p, 4K)11. Battlefield V w/ DXR (1080p, 1440p, 4K)12. Final Fantasy XV w/ DLSS (4K)13. Clock Speed14. Temperatures15. Acoustics16. Power Consumption17. Overclocking: 3DMark and Games18. Overclocking: Thermals, Acoustics, Power19. Closing Thoughts20. View All Pages

For our temperature testing, we measure the peak GPU core temperature under load, as well as the GPU temperature with the card idling on the desktop. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. An idle reading comes after leaving the system on the Windows desktop for 30 minutes.

With a peak GPU temperature of 66C, the Gaming Z 2060 runs very cool out of the box. It is not massively cooler than the Founders Edition card – the difference is just 2C – but it is still a win for MSI here. The ASUS Strix model, which ran at 55C or 61C depending on the BIOS used, is definitely a cooler running card – but then again, it is also significantly larger. In any case, a peak of 66C is a top result for any card, and it's no different for this MSI.

Moving onto the thermal gun, again we have excellent results here – the hottest spot on the card came from the aluminium fin stack, with a peak of just over 74C, while the rear of the card peaked at 65.5C. Both results are very good and well within tolerances for a graphics card.

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