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Over the last 3 months, we have seen the introduction of RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080 and RTX 2070, and it is safe to say it has been a bit of a turbulent launch for Nvidia's Turing architecture. Today, we have another card to add into the mix – the RTX 2060 Founders Edition 6GB.
The first thing to say is that this is very much an RTX card – unlike some of the rumours, the chip still sports Tensor and RT cores, so if you want to use DLSS or real time ray tracing at home, the RTX 2060 marks the cheapest way to do so.
Pricing has definitely been another area of contention for the 20-series, and this RTX 2060 Founders will set you back £329. Considering the GTX 1060 Founders could be had for £249, and with the GTX 1070 previously available for £379, this 2060 is priced closer to the 1070, though it does seem to slot in between the two.
I wouldn't say this is necessarily a bad thing, but potential buyers do have to change how they perceive each model series. The xx60 series, for instance, isn't the cheaper, bang-for-buck favourite that it used to be – it wasn't long ago that GTX 960s could be had for £160, for instance. Now, it is very much a mid-range option and we are expecting to see aftermarket cards priced up to £400.
So, what do you get for your money? If you're looking for a crude summary, saying that ‘RTX 2060 is essentially GTX 1070 Ti with support for ray tracing' isn't far wrong at all. Starting with your every day gaming performance – leaving RTX features for now – at 1080p, the 2060 is on average 1.5% faster than the 1070 Ti, while it is 2.4% faster at 1440p. If we compare the 2060 with the 1070 (non-Ti), it is 14.9% faster on average at 1080p, and 17.9% faster at 1440p.
Then there are the RTX features to consider – namely, real time ray tracing and DLSS. Admittedly, at the moment there is only one game that makes use of ray tracing, and only one that makes use of DLSS. But in Battlefield V, the RTX 2060 is capable of maintaining above 60 FPS when playing with DXR Ultra at 1080p. It definitely takes a significant performance hit going from DXR off to DXR Ultra, but it is still playable which, for me, is the key thing.
Nvidia has done an excellent job with this generation of Founders cards, and that has not changed with the 2060. It runs very cool, very quiet and our sample also overclocked well – to the point where it was almost averaging 2GHz under load. With custom 2060 solutions expected to come in at £350+, I would say manufacturers will likely have a hard time justifying the extra expense over a Founders – but we will have to wait and see.
So overall, I have to say the RTX 2060 Founders Edition is probably the easiest of the new 20-series cards to recommend. It's essentially brought GTX 1070 Ti performance levels, cards which would typically cost £420+, and offered it for £329, with the added bonus of some (admittedly minimal at this point in time) RTX support with ray tracing and DLSS.
It's still perhaps not as big a performance increase as some would have hoped for, particularly considering it comes with a new, higher price for the xx60 series – almost the same money 2 years ago would have got you a GTX 1070, and this is about 15-18% faster. So it's certainly a decent improvement, but Turing's focus on ray tracing means we still aren't seeing the same sort of real-world performance jumps as we have seen previously from Nvidia.
That being said, this is still best the card around if you are looking to spend £330-350, so it earns our recommendation. I look forward to seeing what third party manufacturers will do with their custom cards in the coming weeks.
At the time of writing we don't yet have a buy link for the 2060, but we will update this article when we do. Overclockers UK will also be stocking a variety of aftermarket cards, and we will provide links to those when we have them.
Update: There is now a wide range of custom RTX 2060 cards available from Overclockers UK, starting at £349.99 HERE.
Pros
- Compact and premium design.
- Very cool and quiet under load.
- Lowest power draw yet from an RTX card.
- Works for high refresh-rate 1080p gaming, or 1440p/60FPS gaming.
- Battlefield V with DXR Ultra runs at 1080p 60FPS.
Cons
- Higher price than ever for a xx60 series card.
- Only two games currently support RTX features.
- Not as big a leap forward from GTX 1070 as some might have hoped.
KitGuru says: For those with around £330 to spend on a new graphics card, RTX 2060 is the way to go. It does come with a higher price compared to previous xx60 series cards, but if you're looking for a new mid-range card now – this is the one to get.
