It’s been months since NVIDIA released their Turing based GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards. Taking a complete departure from traditional GPU design and creating a hybrid architecture that includes a range of new technologies to power the next-generation immersive gaming experiences.
The key highlight of the GeForce RTX 20 series was the enablement of real-time raytracing which is the holy grail of graphics and something NVIDIA spent 10 years to perfect. In addition to raytracing, NVIDIA also aims to place bets on AI which will play a key role in powering features such as DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling, a unique way of offering the same quality as the more taxing MSAA AA techniques at twice the performance.
I’ve looked and compared the performance of several GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2070 custom variants and consider them to be a good gain over their predecessors, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070 Ti. When it comes to pricing, the GeForce RTX 20 series are some of the most costly cards NVIDIA has offered to consumers.
Today, I will be taking a look at the GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card which is the $350 US solution and the least expensive of the Turing RTX 20 series family which was launched a few weeks back. Featuring the same Turing GPU architecture, the RTX 2060 can be seen as the mainstream option which is meant to replace the GTX 1060 for a slightly higher price. In fact, the GeForce RTX 2060 is priced just $30 US lower than the introductory price of the GeForce GTX 1070 while costing $20 US more than the GeForce GTX 970. Considering this, we can tell that the price jump for each graphics card of the performance tier has seen a jump.
NVIDIA GeForce GPU Segment/Tier Prices
| Graphics Segment | 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titan Tier | Titan X (Maxwell) | Titan X (Pascal) | Titan Xp (Pascal) | Titan V (Volta) | Titan RTX (Turing) |
| Price | $999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $2999 US | $2499 US |
| Ultra Enthusiast Tier | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
| Price | $649 US | $649 US | $699 US | $999 US | $999 US |
| Enthusiast Tier | GeForce GTX 980 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce RTX 2080 |
| Price | $549 US | $549 US | $549 US | $699 US | $699 US |
| High-End Tier | GeForce GTX 970 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce RTX 2070 |
| Price | $329 US | $379 US | $379 US | $499 US | $499 US |
| Mainstream Tier | GeForce GTX 960 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce RTX 2060 |
| Price | $199 US | $249 US | $249 US | $249 US | $349 US |
In this review, I will be tested two fully custom GeForce RTX 2060 designs. The reference variants are great with their new cooling design and good looking shrouds but AIBs have some really great custom solutions out there, several of which I have already compared next to each other and with the reference variants.
With just a few bucks of asking price over the reference models, the custom variants offer a range of features such as triple fan coolers, bulky heatsinks, and custom PCBs allowing for better heat dissipation, higher air flow and more overclocking performance and clock stability at their respective boost clocks which will be higher compared to the reference variants. The main barrier with overclocking on Turing GPUs is by far the power limit and those that offer the highest power limits out of the box are generally the ones with the best overclocking potential and performance output.
The models I will be testing today are the MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z and the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming OC Pro. The MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z retails for $390 US while Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro also retails for $390 US. I will be comparing both cards next to each other to find out which offers a better value proposition based on performance, overclock capabilities and cooling performance.
In case you want to read our full NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture deep dive, head over to this link.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 Series Graphics Cards Official Specifications
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Architecture | Turing GPU (TU106) | Turing GPU (TU106) | Turing GPU (TU104) | Turing GPU (TU102) |
| Process | 12nm NFF | 12nm NFF | 12nm NFF | 12nm NFF |
| Die Size | 445mm2 | 445mm2 | 545mm2 | 754mm2 |
| Transistors | 10.6 Billion | 10.6 Billion | 13.6 Billion | 18.6 Billion |
| CUDA Cores | 1920 Cores | 2304 Cores | 2944 Cores | 4352 Cores |
| TMUs/ROPs | 120/48 | 144/64 | 192/64 | 288/96 |
| GigaRays | 5 Giga Rays/s | 6 Giga Rays/s | 8 Giga Rays/s | 10 Giga Rays/s |
| Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 6 MB L2 Cache |
| Base Clock | 1365 MHz | 1410 MHz | 1515 MHz | 1350 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1680 MHz | 1620 MHz 1710 MHz OC |
1710 MHz 1800 MHz OC |
1545 MHz 1635 MHz OC |
| Compute | 6.5 TFLOPs | 7.5 TFLOPs | 10.1 TFLOPs | 13.4 TFLOPs |
| Memory | Up To 6 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 11 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Speed | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps |
| Memory Interface | 192-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 352-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 336 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 616 GB/s |
| Power Connectors | 8 Pin | 8 Pin | 8+8 Pin | 8+8 Pin |
| TDP | 160W | 185W (Founders) 175W (Reference) |
225W (Founders) 215W (Reference) |
260W (Founders) 250W (Reference) |
| Starting Price | $349 US | $499 US | $699 US | $999 US |
| Price (Founders Edition) | $349 US | $599 US | $799 US | $1,199 US |
| Launch | January 2019 | September 2018 | September 2018 | September 2018 |
[nextpage title=”MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z Overview”]
The MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z is the top variant within MSI’s RTX 2060 family. This graphics card utilizes the most advanced version of the iconic Twin Frozr cooling system known as the Twin Frozr VII. This graphics card is available in the market for $389.99 US right now which makes it $40 US more expensive than the reference MSRP. The good thing with this graphics model though is that it excels upon the standard reference models in all possible ways.
In terms of specifications, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 features 1920 CUDA cores, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The Turing TU106 die used on the graphics card is based around a 12nm process and has a die size of 445mm2. The core clocks for the card are maintained at 1365 MHz for base and 1680 MHz for boost. The MSI Gaming Z model is clocked up to 1830 MHz (boost) which will be providing better gaming performance than the reference model. The chip additionally comes with 5 Gigarays of ray tracing performance and a total of 6.5 TFLOPs of FP32 compute output. The cards feature a 6 GB GDDR6 memory interface running along a 192-bit wide bus interface. The reference model is powered by a single 8 pin connector and has a TDP of 160W.
The Gaming Z design is built upon the foundations of the previous Gaming Z layout with dual Torx 3.0 fans that come with Zero Frozr technology and the dispersion fan blade design, allowing higher airflow to reach the heatsink underneath the shroud. The card features a custom 5+2 phase power design on the PCB and is powered by a single 8 connector. The custom PCB is fitted with an anti-bending bracket which offers better durability.
Following are some of the features of the MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z before we go into detail:
Features
Core/Memory
- Boost Clock / Memory Speed
1830 MHz / 14 Gbps - 6GB GDDR6
- DisplayPort x 3 / HDMI x 1
Twin Frozr 7 Thermal Design
- TORX Fan 3.0
– Dispersion fan blade: Steeply curved blade accelerating the airflow.
– Traditional fan blade: Provides steady airflow to massive heat sink below. - Mastery of Aerodynamics: The heatsink is optimized for efficient heat dissipation, keeping your temperatures low and performance high.
- Zero Frozr technology: Stopping the fan in low-load situations, keeping a noise-free environment.
RGB Mystic Light
- Customize colors and LED effects with exclusive MSI software and synchronize the look & feel with other components.
Dragon Center
- 1 click to optimize all you need for smooth gaming.
[nextpage title=”MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z Package”]
The MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z graphics card comes within a standard cardboard based package. The front of both packages has a large “GeForce RTX” brand logo along with the “MSI” logo on the top left corner. A picture of the graphics card can be seen on the front which as I’ve said before, is a nice touch from MSI.
The packaging has put a large emphasis on the RTX side of things as the first feature enlisted by AIBs will be Ray Tracing, followed by GDDR6, DirectX 12 and Ansel support. NVIDIA has bet the future of their gaming GPUs on Ray Tracing support as these are the first cards to offer support for the new feature.
The back of the box is very typical, highlighting the main features and specifications of the cards. The three key aspects of MSI’s top tier custom cards are its Torx 3.0 fan design, the upgraded & much efficient Twin Frozr 7 heatsink design and support for the Mystic Light RGB implementation.
There’s also a focus towards GeForce.com on each AIB card through which users can download the latest drivers and GeForce Experience application which are a must for gamers to access all feature set of the new cards.
There’s a letter case within the box which is etched with the MSI logo. This box contains the card accessories and the graphics card itself is hidden behind it.
The card is nicely wrapped within an anti-static cover which is useful to prevent any unwanted static discharges on various surfaces that might harm the graphics card. The card accessories include a Molex power connector which isn’t of much use in high-end systems since the PSUs already have the required cables.
Useful manuals and installation guides are packed within an MSI labeled letter case. There is an MSI Quick Users Guide, a Support bracket installation guide, a sticker letter, the MSI DIY comic, and a single drivers disk. It’s best to ignore the driver disk and install the latest software and graphics drivers directly from the NVIDIA and MSI official web pages as the ones shipped in the disks could be older versions and not deliver optimal performance for your graphics cards.
Out of the package, the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Armor OC comes in a stylish black and white color scheme and looks quite decent. The card resembles the previous Armor series but I can tell that the shroud design has clearly received some big updates so let’s find out if the new RTX 2070 can hold up with the competition.
[nextpage title=”MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z Closer Look + Teardown”]
The MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z is a very compact graphics card and it looks to be a great solution for many gaming PCs and even the more small form factor designs. Even with such a small design, MSI has packed a lot in this graphics card such as the enhanced Twin Frozr 7 heat sink, the dual Torx 3.0 fans and a custom PCB which is far better than the one featured on the Founders Edition. The cards weigh in at just 957 grams and have dimensions of 247 x 129 x 52 millimeters.
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. You don’t have to worry about installation as this compact graphics card would fit nicely inside almost any case you can think of.
The back of the card features a solid backplate which looks stunning and offers a premium look. This is, in fact, the same brushed metal design which I saw on the RTX 20 Gaming X Trio variants from MSI. The one used by MSI on the RTX 2060 Gaming Z is a more compact version of that and it looks even better.
In terms of design, we are looking at an updated version of the Twin Frozr heatsink for MSI RTX 20 series cards which is now in its seventh variation. The first iteration of the Twin Frozr heatsink goes all the way back to the GeForce 200 series era and you can tell that this heatsink design has come a long way since.
Compared to the MSI Gaming X Trio, the Gaming Z with Twin Frozr looks vastly similar but unique too. It has the same fans, a similar shroud, and a smaller backplate, all within a compact design. I personally think that the compact version looks much better than its bigger and beefier sibling that is used on the higher-end cards.
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 brushed silver finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic.
There are 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 MSI Dragon logo on the back which looks stunning. MSI is also using heat pads beneath the backplate which offer more cooling to the electrical circuitry on the PCB.
Coming to the fans, the card features the Torx 3.0 system. Both fans combine traditional and dispersion fan blade technology to offer better cooling performance.
The dispersion fan blade technology has a steeper curved blade that accelerates airflow and as such increases effectiveness in keeping the GPU cool. All fans deploy double ball bearing design and can last a long time while operating silently.
MSI also features their Zero Frozr technology on the Tri Frozr heatsink. This feature won’t spin the fans on the card unless they reach a certain threshold. In the case of the Tri Frozr heatsink, that limit is set to 60C. If the card is operating under 60C, the fans won’t spin which means no extra noise would be generated.
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.
With the outsides of the card done, I will now start taking a glance at what’s beneath the hood of the RTX 2060 Gaming Z. I can see that MSI has made no compromise with this graphics card even though its a much smaller version of the Gaming X Trio series cards. The same heatsink technology is used on Gaming Z.
The large fin stack runs all the way from the front and to the back of the PCB and is so thick that you can barely see through it. It also comes with the wave-curved fin stack design which I want to shed some light on as it is a turn away from traditional fin design and one that may actually offer better cooling to a GPU like the Turing TU106.
Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is comprised of 4x 6mm concentrated copper squared shaped heat pipes with a more concentrated design to transfer heat from the copper base to the heatsink more effectively.
The base itself is a solid nickel-plated base plate, transferring heat to the heat pipes in a very effective manner. To top it all off, MSI uses their exclusive Thermal Compound X which is said to offer higher thermal interface and heat transfer compared to traditional TIM applications.
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.
I/O on the MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z graphics card includes three Display Port 1.4a and a single HDMI 2.0b.
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z PCB Teardown
MSI makes use of a 5+2 phase PWM design that includes their Military Class components such as Hi-C Caps, Super Ferrite Chok, s and Japanese Solid Caps.
Following are a few close-up shots of the reference PCB which is being offered under the hood of the Gaming Z series graphics cards.
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z Mystic Light RGB
MSI RTX 20 Gaming series cards utilize their Mystic Light RGB technology to offer you a visually pleasing lighting experience on your graphics cards. There are a total of 17 different RGB effects which you can choose from and the cards have five RGB accent points, three on the front one on the back and one light bar surrounding the side of the card which looks really good. There’s also the ability to set the speed and brightness at which the RGB LEDs operate.
You can fully customize the RGB lights to your preference using the MSI Mystic Light application from MSI’s web page.
Following is what the graphics card looks like when lit up.
[nextpage title=”Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro Overview”]
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro holds the second place in Gigabyte’s lineup for the RTX 2060 graphics card. It is excelled by the faster AORUS Xtreme variant but still holds on its own with an impressive triple-fan WindForce design and a custom PCB design which is meant for overclocking. The card retails for $390 US which is the same price as the MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z that I will be testing alongside it.
In terms of specifications, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 features 1920 CUDA cores, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The Turing TU106 die used on the graphics card is based around a 12nm process and has a die size of 445mm2. The core clocks for the card are maintained at 1365 MHz for base and 1680 MHz for boost. The MSI Gaming Z model is clocked up to 1830 MHz (boost) which will be providing better gaming performance than the reference model. The chip additionally comes with 5 Gigarays of ray tracing performance and a total of 6.5 TFLOPs of FP32 compute output. The cards feature a 6 GB GDDR6 memory interface running along a 192-bit wide bus interface. The reference model is powered by a single 8 pin connector and has a TDP of 160W.
The ASUS Gaming OC Pro graphics cards are fitted with the latest version of the Windforce 3X cooler. The Windforce 3X is the triple fan design which features three 82mm fans. These fans come with a unique blade fan design with the airflow being split by a triangular edge on the fan blade, guiding it smoothly through the 3D stripe curve on the fan surface. This helps enhance air flow by a good bit over traditional fan designs.
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.
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.
In addition to the main GPU heatsink, there’s a second additional heatsink for the VRAM and MOSFETs which offers higher dissipation power when it comes to the cooling design. Finally, we have a metal black plate which to our surprise comes with heat pads to ensure smooth heat transfer on the back.
The card comes with a fully custom PCB design and has a 6+2 Phase Ultra Durable design that utilizes premium components to deliver better overclocking and core stability when running graphics intensive applications.
Following are some of the features of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro before we go into detail:
Features
- Powered by GeForce RTX 2060
- Integrated with 6GB GDDR6 192-bit memory interface
- WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System with alternate spinning fans
- RGB Fusion 2.0 – synchronize with other AORUS devices
- Metal Back Plate
- Core Clock: 1830 MHz (Reference card: 1680 MHz)
[nextpage title=”Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro Package”]
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro graphics cards come in a standard cardboard box package. The front of the package has a large “GeForce RTX” brand logo along with a “Gigabyte” logo on the top left corner and the iconic Gigabyte robot eye in the middle.
The packaging has put a large emphasis on the RTX side of things as the first feature enlisted by AIBs will be Ray Tracing, followed by GDDR6, DirectX 12 and Ansel support. NVIDIA has bet the future of their gaming GPUs on Ray Tracing support as these are the first cards to offer support for the new feature.
The back of the box is very typical, highlighting the main features and specifications of the cards. The key aspects of Gigabyte’s Gaming custom cards are its Windforce 3X cooling system, the pure copper heatsink, protection metal backplate, and the new RGB Fusion 2.0 LED lighting.
There’s also a focus towards GeForce.com on each AIB card through which users can download the latest drivers and GeForce Experience application which are a must for gamers to access all feature set of the new cards.
Outside of the box, the graphics card and the accessory package are held firmly by foam packaging. The graphics card comes with a few accessories and manuals which might not be of much use for hardcore enthusiasts but can be useful for the mainstream gaming audience.
The card is nicely wrapped within an anti-static cover which is useful to prevent any unwanted static discharges on various surfaces that might harm the graphics card.
Useful manuals and installation guides are packed within a Gigabyte labeled letter case. There are a Quick Guide and a single drivers disk. It’s best to ignore the driver disk and install the latest software and graphics drivers directly from the NVIDIA and Gigabyte official web pages as the ones shipped in the disks could be older versions and not deliver optimal performance for your graphics cards.
The Windforce 3X design hasn’t changed much from the previous variant and it still stacks in three fans on the top.
[nextpage title=”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.
ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 2070 STRIX OC PCB Teardown
MSI makes use of a 19 phase PWM design that includes their Military Class components such as Hi-C Caps, Super Ferrite Chok, s and Japanese Solid Caps. The card also uses the K4Z80325BC-HC14 GDDR6 memory from Samsung that operates at 14 Gbps along a 352-bit wide memory interface.
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.
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.
[nextpage title=”Test Setup”]
We used the following test system for comparison between the different graphics cards. Latest drivers that were available at the time of testing were used from AMD and NVIDIA on an updated version of Windows 10. All games that were tested were patched to the latest version for better performance optimization for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.
GPU Test Bench 2019
| CPU | Intel Core i9-9900K @ 4.70 GHz |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | AORUS Z390 Master |
| Video Cards | MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Armor OC ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 2070 STRIX OC MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 TI OC ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 OC AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 Xtreme MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 2080 DUKE OC NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Titanium MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Armor X OC MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Lightning OC Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 64 (Reference Air) XFX Radeon R9 Fury X Liquid Cooled |
| Memory | G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series 32GB (4 X 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz |
| Storage | Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB) |
| Power Supply | ASUS ROG THOR 1200W PSU |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit |
- All games were tested on 2560×1440 (2K) and 3840×2160 (4K) resolutions.
- Image Quality and graphics configurations have been provided in the screenshots below.
- The “reference” cards are the stock configs while the “overclock” cards are factory overclocked configs provided to us by various AIB partners.
[nextpage title=”MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z & Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro Benchmarks (VULKAN)”]
DOOM
In 2016, Id finally released DOOM. My testing wouldn’t be complete without including this title. All cards were capable of delivering ample frame rates at the 1440p resolution using Nightmare settings, so my focus turned to 4K.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Wolfenstein is back in The New Colossus and features the most fast-paced, gory and brutal FPS action ever! The game once again puts us back in the Nazi-controlled world as BJ Blazkowicz. Set during an alternate future where Nazis won the World War, the game shows that it can be fun and can be brutal to the player and to the enemy too. Powering the new title is once again, id Tech 6 which is much acclaimed after the success that DOOM has become. In a way, ID has regained their glorious FPS roots and are slaying with every new title.
Ultra HQ-AF, Vulkan, Async Compute On *if available, Deferred Rendering and GPU culling off
We tested the game at Ultra settings under the Vulkan API which is standard. Async Compute was enabled for graphics cards that support it while deferred rendering and GPU culling were disabled.
You can read our detailed analysis of GPU Culling and Deferred Rendering graphical settings for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus here![nextpage title=”MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z & Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro Benchmarks (DirectX 12)”]
Ashes of The Singularity: Escalation
NVIDIA and AMD have been tweaking the performance of their cards for Ashes of the Singularity since the title released. It was the first to make use of the DirectX 12 API and the first to leverage from the new Async compute technology that makes use of the DX12 renderer to improve performance.
Battlefield 1
Battlefield 1 takes us back to the great war that was meant to end all wars aka World War 1. Using the latest Frostbite tech, the game does a good job at looking gorgeous in all ways possible. From the open world environments to the intense and gun-blazing action, this multiplayer and single player FPS title is one of the best Battlefields to date.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Humanity is at war with itself and divided into factions. On one end, we have the pure and on the other, we have the augmented. That is the world where Adam Jensen lives in and this is the world of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game uses the next generation Dawn Engine that was made by IO interactive on the foundation of their Glacier 2 engine. The game features support of DirectX 12 API and is one of the most visually intensive titles that taxes the GPU really hard.
Hitman (2016)
With the latest drivers, NVIDIA has managed to up the performance of their Pascal and Maxwell parts in Hitman (2016). The game has been a major win for AMD graphics cards that still show a strong gain in performance when switching over from DX11 to DX12, but NVIDIA is slowly catching up with their drivers.
Shadow of The Tomb Raider
The Rise of The Tomb Raider
The rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the most beautiful games that I have played recently and was patched to the DX12 API. The game features a wide variety of settings and we chose Very High, HBAO+ without any AA.
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Assassins Creed: Origins
Assassins Creed Origins is built by the same team that made Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. They are known for reinventing the design and game philosophy of the Assassins Creed saga and their latest title shows that. Based in Egypt, the open-world action RPG shows its graphics strength in all corners. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 engine which boosts the draw distance range and delivers a very impressive graphics display.
We tested the game at maxed settings with TAA enabled and 16x AF. Do note that the game is one of the most demanding titles out in the market and as such tweaks and performance issues are being patched out.
Far Cry 5
Far Cry 5 is a standalone successor to its predecessor and takes place in Hope County, a fictional region of Montana. The main story revolves around doomsday cult the Project at Eden’s Gate and its charismatic leader Joseph Seed. It uses a beefed up Dunia Engine which itself is a modified version of CryEngine from Crytek.
Final Fantasy XV
Grand Theft Auto V
GTA V is the most optimized gaming title that has been made for the PC. It’s so optimized, it even runs on my crap GT 840M based laptop with a smooth FPS on a mix of medium/low settings. I mean what???
Aside from being optimized, GTA V is a great game. It was the Game of The Year for 2013. At 1440p Ultra quality, the game gave us smooth frames on all cards tested.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Using the new Anvil Next engine that was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Ghost Recon: Wildlands goes wild and grand with an open-world setting entirely in Bolivia. This game is a tactical third-person shooter which does seem an awful lot similar to Tom Clancy’s: The Division. The game looks pretty and the wide-scale region of Bolivia looks lovely at all times (Day/Night Cycle).
The Witcher 3 Game of The Year Edition
Witcher 3 is the greatest fantasy RPG of our time. It has a great story, great gameplay mechanics and gorgeous graphics. This is the only game I actually wanted to get a stable FPS at 4K. With GameWorks disabled, I gave all high-end cards the ability to demonstrate their power.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Being a huge fan of the Mass Effect series, I was highly anticipating the arrival of Andromeda to store shelves. Now that it’s here, I put the fastest gaming card to the test. Using Frostbite, the latest Mass Effect title looks incredibly gorgeous and the open world settings on the different planets immerses you a lot.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War
The successor of 2014’s epic, Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War continues the previous game’s narrative continuing the story of the ranger Talion and the spirit of the elf lord Celebrimbor, who shares Talion’s body, as they forge a new Ring of Power to amass an army to fight against Sauron. The game uses the latest Firebird Engine developed by Monolith Productions and is very intensive even for modern graphics cards.
Watch Dogs 2
Finally, we have Watch Dogs 2. Gone is Aiden Pearce as the new game takes us away from Chicago and puts us in the shoes of Marcus, a seasoned hacker in San Francisco. Running off the Disrupt engine, the game is based on the DirectX 11 API and is a graphics hungry monster. You can see the results for yourself below:
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No graphics card review is complete without evaluating its temperatures and thermal load. Both graphics cards that I tested are using advanced custom cooling solutions which come with silent and performance profiles. The cards were tested with the performance profile to see their full potential. The MSI Gaming Z variant comes with a dual-fan cooling system while the Gigabyte OC Pro comes with a triple fan cooling system. Both cards come with PWM cooling and an anti-bending plate that keeps the card sturdy and durable in the harshest environments inside your PC.
Note – We tested load with Kombuster which is known as a ‘power virus’ and can permanently damage hardware. Use such software at your own risk!
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I compiled the power consumption results by testing each card under idle and full stress when the card was running games. Each graphics card manufacturer sets a default TDP for the card which can vary from vendor to vendor depending on the extra clocks or board features they plug in on their custom cards. The default TDP for the RTX 2060 is 165W (Founders Edition) while the cards I tested feature custom designs and higher power input than the standard FE variant. Noteworthy here is that the GeForce RTX 2070 comes in with just a 15W higher TDP compared to the RTX 2060 whereas, in the previous generation, the difference was close to 30W.
Also, it’s worth noting that the 12nm FFN process from TSMC is a refinement of their 16nm FF node. NVIDIA is cramping even larger amount of transistors and more cores than their previous cards, making it one of the densest chip built to date. It’s likely to consume a lot of power and the results are reflective of that.
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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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