Nvidia RTX 2060 Founders Edition 6GB Review

1. Introduction2. Nvidia RTX 2060 Founders Edition 6GB3. Testing Methodology4. 3DMark (1080p, 1440p, 4K)5. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (1080p, 1440p, 4K)6. Far Cry 5 (1080p, 1440p, 4K)7. Ghost Recon: Wildlands (1080p, 1440p, 4K)8. Middle Earth: Shadow of War (1080p, 1440p, 4K)9. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p, 1440p, 4K)10. Battlefield V w/ DXR (1080p, 1440p, 4K)11. Final Fantasy XV w/ DLSS (4K)12. Clock Speed13. Temperatures14. Acoustics15. Power Consumption16. Overclocking: 3DMark and Games17. Overclocking: Thermals, Acoustics, Power18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

Following on from the launch of the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti in September, and then the RTX 2070 a month later, it's not exactly a surprise that the RTX 2060 is the next Turing-based graphics card to be released by Nvidia. Essentially a cut-down RTX 2070, based on the same TU106 GPU, this card does indeed have the necessary RT and Tensor cores to make use of RTX features like ray tracing and DLSS – contrary to some rumours, this is very much an RTX card, not a return to GTX nomenclature.

Just how effective the card is when it comes to real time ray tracing, we will have to see – and there is still only one game on the market that actually supports the technology. But with this Founders Edition retailing for $349 – or £329 for us in the UK – is the all-round performance enough to justify the price?

With its previous RTX 20-series cards, Nvidia complicated matters by releasing reference specifications for its cards, but then selling the Founders Edition models with a factory overclock – so they are not reference cards. If you want a reference-clocked RTX 2080, for instance, you would have to buy a cheaper aftermarket card.

With the RTX 2060 Founders Edition 6GB, the company has changed tack again – so this Founders Edition is based on reference speeds, thus it does not come factory overclocked. Third party vendors like ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI will be releasing their own reference and factory overclocked models very shortly.

That means baseline RTX 2060s – which at the time of writing, only seem to be available with 6GB VRAM – will be clocked at 1680 MHz, though GPU Boost will still raise this frequency dynamically when the card is under load. It will be interesting to see what kind of factory overclocks Nvidia's partners can supply with their custom cards.

GPU	RTX 2080 (FE)	GTX 1080	RTX 2070 (FE)	GTX 1070	RTX 2060 (FE)	GTX 1060
SMs	46	20	36	15	30	10
CUDA Cores	2944	2560	2304	1920	1920	1280
Tensor Cores	368	N/A	288	N/A	240	N/A
Tensor FLOPS	85	N/A	63	N/A	51.6	N/A
RT Cores	46	N/A	36	N/A	30	N/A
Texture Units	184	160	144	120	120	80
ROPs	64	64	64	64	48	48
Rays Cast	8 Giga Rays/sec	0.877 Giga Rays/sec	6 Giga Rays/sec	0.65 Giga Rays/sec	5 Giga Rays/sec	0.44 Giga Rays/sec
RTX Performance	60 Trillion RTX-OPS	8.9 Trillion RTX-OPS	45 Trillion RTX-OPS	6.5 Trillion RTX-OPS	37 Trillion RTX-OPS	N/A
GPU Boost Clock	1800 MHz	1733 MHz	1710 MHz	1683 MHz	1680 MHz	1708 MHz
Memory Data Rate	14 Gbps	10 Gbps	14 Gbps	8 Gbps	14 Gbps	8 Gbps
Total Video Memory	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR5X	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR5	6GB GDDR6	6GB GDRR5
Memory Interface	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	192-bit	192-bit
Memory Bandwidth	448 GB/sec	320 GB/sec	448 GB/sec	256 GB/sec	336.1 GB/sec	192 GB/sec
TDP	225W	180W	185W	150W	160W	120W

To give you a run over the rest of the specs, as mentioned the RTX 2060 uses a cut-down version of the TU106 GPU found in the RTX 2070. That means it has 6 less SMs, with a total of 30, with 1920 CUDA cores compared to the RTX 2070's 2304. With Turing, each SM houses a single RT core, so 30 SMs = 30 RT cores for the 2060.

We have the same GDDR6 memory as all of the other RTX cards – meaning a 14 Gbps data rate – but obviously 6GB in capacity here. This operates over a 192-bit bus, and the total memory bandwidth is 336.1 GB/s.

Lastly, TDP for this Founders Edition card is rated at 160W, so we would expect other reference-clocked cards to have the same TDP, but factory overclocked models will probably be closer to 200W.

Just like the other 20-series cards manufactured by Nvidia, the RTX 2060 Founders Edition 6GB ships in a dark grey box with the ‘GeForce RTX' branding dominating the bottom left corner.

Inside, the only included extras are two small booklets – one quick start guide and one support guide.

In terms of the card itself, it uses the same cooler and design of the RTX 2070 Founders Edition, which is itself a slightly smaller version of the 2080 and 2080 Ti cards.

That means we have the same premium construction – it's mostly aluminium across the board – with two dual axial fans, instead of the previous blower-style (radial) fan Nvidia used on its previous designs.

To put the size of the card into perspective, I have compared it to the RTX 2080 Founders Edition above – which itself is pretty compact compared to a lot of the aftermarket cards we are now used to seeing.

Essentially, the 2060 Founders is a very dinky card. With the same dimensions as the 2070 Founders, it measures 228.6mm long, with a width of 112.6mm and standard dual-slot thickness. It still feels hefty in the hand thanks to its metal body – it weighs almost a kilo – but realistically, this is a card that will fit in the vast majority of cases out there.

As for the PCB, it appears to be identical to that of the 2070 Founders – but with two GDDR6 memory chips missing. That does mean it uses the same 6+2 power phases to feed the GPU and memory, while the power connector is soldered to the end of the board. There is also no NVLink connector – SLI is now restricted to only 2080 and 2080 Ti cards.

The cooler, although cosmetically similar to the 2070, doesn't make use of a vapour chamber this time around – instead it relies on heatpipes and an aluminium fin stack. Do bear in mind, though, that since it uses two axial fans – instead of a single blower-style fan – it will exhaust more hot air inside your case than the previous Nvidia design.

On the front side of the card, the GeForce RTX branding sits right in the middle – this of course lights up in Nvidia Green once your system is powered on.

The silver backplate uses the same design as all the other 20-series cards, with the card name – ‘RTX 2060' – placed right in the middle, surrounded by some lines etched into the metal which adds some interest.

As we saw from our look at the PCB, the single 8-pin power connector is placed on the end of the card – so even though the Founders Edition itself is just under 230mm long, you will need to allow for an extra few centimetres of clearance in your case for the PCIe power cable and connector.

I/O is also the same as the 2070 Founders, meaning we have 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x DVI-D, and then 1x USB-C VirtualLink connector.Our newest GPU test procedure has been built with the intention of benchmarking high-end graphics cards. We test at 1920×1080 (1080p), 2560×1440 (1440p), and 3840×2160 (4K UHD) resolutions.

We try to test using the DX12 API if titles offer support. This gives us an interpretation into the graphics card performance hierarchy in the present time and the near future, when DX12 becomes more prevalent. After all, graphics cards of this expense may stay in a gamer’s system for a number of product generations/years before being upgraded.

We tested the RX Vega64 and Vega56 using the ‘Turbo‘ power mode in AMD’s WattMan software. This prioritises all-out performance over power efficiency, noise output, and lower thermals.

As mentioned, Nvidia's RTX 2060 Founders Edition cards are reference spec, meaning this card has a boost clock of 1680MHz.

Driver Notes

We had originally planned to do a complete re-test of all of our graphics cards, using the latest drivers, before the 2060 launch. Unfortunately we were left with very little time ahead of this 2060 launch, so have had to make do with the following driver situation (see below).

Over the next week, however, we will be re-testing all of our cards so future reviews of aftermarket models, for instance, will be using the latest drivers.

• All AMD graphics cards were benchmarked with the Adrenalin 18.11.1 driver.
• Nvidia graphics cards (apart from RTX 20 series cards) were benchmarked with the Nvidia 399.24 driver.
• RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti cards were benchmarked with the Nvidia 411.63 driver.
• RTX 2070 cards were benchmarked with the Nvidia 416.33 driver.
• RTX 2060 was benchmarked with the Nvidia 417.54 driver supplied to press ahead of launch.

Test System

We test using the Overclockers UK Germanium pre-built system. You can read more about it over HERE. It is important to note we have had to re-house the components to an open-air test bench to accommodate our new GPU power testing (more on that later) but the core of the system is unchanged and the performance figures you see presented here are what you can expect from the Germanium.

CPU	Intel Core i7-8700K Overclocked to 4.8GHz
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming
Memory	Team Group Dark Hawk RGB 16GB (2x8GB) @ 3200MHz 16-18-18-38
Graphics Card	Varies
System Drive	Patriot Wildfire 240GB
Games Drive	Crucial M4 512GB
Chassis	Streacom ST-BC1 Bench
CPU Cooler	OCUK TechLabs 240mm AIO
Power Supply	SuperFlower Leadex II 850W 80Plus Gold
Operating System	Windows 10 Professional

Comparison Graphics Cards List

• Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition (FE) 11GB
• ASUS ROG RTX 2080 Ti Strix 11GB
• Nvidia RTX 2080 Founders Edition (FE) 8GB
• Gigabyte RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8GB
• Palit RTX 2080 GameRock Premium 8GB
• ASUS ROG RTX 2080 Strix OC 8GB
• Gigabyte Aorus RTX 2080 Xtreme 8GB
• MSI RTX 2070 Gaming Z 8GB
• MSI RTX 2070 Armor 8GB
• Palit RTX 2070 GameRock Premium 8GB
• Zotac RTX 2070 OC Mini 8GB
• Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition (FE) 11GB
• Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8GB
• Palit GTX 1070 Ti Super Jetstream 8GB
• Nvidia GTX 1070 Founders Edition (FE) 8GB
• Nvidia GTX 1060 Founders Edition (FE) 6GB
• Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti XTREME Gaming 6GB
• AMD RX Vega 64 Air 8GB
• AMD RX Vega 56 8GB
• Sapphire RX 590 Nitro+ Special Edition (SE) 8GB
• XFX RX 590 Fatboy 8GB
• Sapphire RX 580 Nitro+ 8GB
• ASUS RX 570 ROG Strix Gaming OC 4GB

Software and Games List

• 3DMark Fire Strike & Fire Strike Ultra (DX11 Synthetic)
• 3DMark Time Spy (DX12 Synthetic)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX12)
• Far Cry 5 (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands (DX11)
• Middle Earth: Shadow of War (DX11)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Battlefield V w/ RTX (DX12)
• Final Fantasy XV w/ DLSS (DX11)

We run each benchmark/game three times, and present averages in our graphs.3DMark Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our [FutureMark’s] most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

3DMark represents our first set of tests for the RTX 2060 FE 6GB. In both DX11 tests – Fire Strike and Fire Strike Ultra – the card sits between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1070 Ti. Time Spy is a DX12 test, however, and there it pulls ahead of the 1070 Ti and is barely 100 points behind the GTX 1080. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues when we introduce our games testing.Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set in the year 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution and the “Aug Incident”—an event in which mechanically augmented humans became uncontrollable and lethally violent. Unbeknownst to the public, the affected augmented received implanted technology designed to control them by the shadowy Illuminati, which is abused by a rogue member of the group to discredit augmentations completely. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Very High preset, with MSAA disabled. We use the DirectX 12 API.

 

Our first game of the day, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has the RTX 2060 behind the GTX 1070 Ti at both 1080p and 1440p, though it edges fractionally ahead – we are talking 0.1FPS – when the resolution is bumped up to 4K.Far Cry 5 is an action-adventure first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the eleventh entry and the fifth main title in the Far Cry series, and was released on March 27, 2018.

The game takes place in the fictional Hope County, Montana, where charismatic preacher Joseph Seed and his cult Project at Eden’s Gate holds a dictatorial rule over the area. The story follows an unnamed junior deputy sheriff, who becomes trapped in Hope County and works alongside factions of a resistance to liberate the county from Eden’s Gate. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra preset, with AA and motion blur disabled.

 

 

Far Cry 5 again has the 2060 positioned very closely to the 1070 Ti. This time, the 2060 is just 0.6FPS slower at 1080p, but it edges ahead at 1440p and 4K resolutions.

Averaging over 80FPS at 1440p, too, is a very good result when taken on its own.Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is a tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on March 7, 2017, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as the tenth installment in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon franchise and is the first game in the Ghost Recon series to feature an open world environment. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Very High preset.

 

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is the first game where the RTX 2060 FE manages to beat the GTX 1070 Ti across all three resolutions. The difference between the two is 2.2FPS at 1080p, 2.5FPS at 1440p, and just 0.6FPS at 4K.Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an action role-playing video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the sequel to 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Very High preset.

 

The RTX 2060 begins to stretch its legs when it comes to Middle Earth: Shadow of War. It performs closer to the GTX 1080 than it does to the GTX 1070 Ti when playing at 1080p, while it still holds a lead of 4FPS over the 1070 Ti when gaming at 1440p.Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2013 game Tomb Raider and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series. The game released worldwide on 14 September 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Highest preset, with AA disabled. We test using the DX12 API.

 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider continues this trend, as we again see the RTX 2060 edge ahead of the GTX 1070 Ti at 1080p, 1440p and 4K.Battlefield V is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. Battlefield V is the sixteenth installment in the Battlefield series. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 20, 2018. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra preset with the DX12 API. Battlefield V is the first game released with Nvidia RTX ray tracing features (called DXR in game) and we present average and minimum frame rates for the game with DXR Off, and then again with DXR set to Ultra.

 

Now, a big point of debate about the RTX 2060 – or was it GTX 1160? – has been what the ray tracing capabilities would be like. When Battlefield V first launched, for instance, enabling DXR rendered the game almost unplayable with an RTX 2070, so surely the RTX 2060 wouldn't even be worth thinking about if you want to game with real time ray tracing enabled.

Well, since then we've seen a significant update come to Battlefield V which greatly improves ray tracing performance. With that in mind, we can see the RTX 2060 actually holds over 60FPS when playing with DXR Ultra at 1080p – a result we can all agree is very playable.

Of course, it is still averaging almost 40FPS less with DXR Ultra compared to DXR off, so it's still a big performance hit – but the fact is, you can still play the game if you do want the ray tracing eye candy enabled.

I wouldn't say 1440p gaming with DXR Ultra is a good experience, though. We saw minimum frame rates fall into the 30s, with some noticeable FPS drops during explosions for instance. With DXR off, Battlefield V plays very well at 1440p, but if you do want some DXR action – stick to 1080p.Final Fantasy XV is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix as part of the long-running Final Fantasy series. It was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016, and for Microsoft Windows in 2018. (Wikipedia).

We are testing FFXV as it is the first full title – and currently only title – that supports Nvidia's AI-assisted DLSS anti-aliasing technique. Currently the game only supports DLSS when playing at 4K, so we benchmarked a section of the game with TAA on, and then with DLSS on to see the performance difference. We used the ‘Highest' preset, but turned off other Nvidia technologies like HairWorks.

Given that FFXV only lets you enable DLSS at 4K, it's not the most viable of situations for the RTX 2060 – even with DLSS enabled, this isn't a 4K gaming card.

Still, we can see a definite uplift in performance, to tune of around 20% on average when we compare the frame rates with TAA enabled vs DLSS. When more titles support DLSS – Battlefield V is slated to incorporate the technology this quarter – it will be very interesting to see how it helps the 2060's performance, particularly at 1440p resolution.Here we present the average clock speed for each graphics card while running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. We use GPU-Z in tandem with the Powenetics Project to record the GPU core frequency during the Fire Strike Ultra runs – at the end, we are left with around 4300 data entries.

We calculate the average core frequency during the entire 20-run test to present here.

As a reminder, the RTX 2060 Founders Edition is a reference clocked card – unlike the other 20-series card, the Founders does not come factory overclocked. Even so, we saw GPU Boost raise the core frequency well beyond the rated 1680MHz boost clock – in fact, the average operating frequency was exactly 150MHz faster than that.

That's all completely automatic behaviour, too, so I would expect there to be plenty of heavily factory overclocked partner cards available – the headroom is definitely there. We will also look at manual overclocking later in the review.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.

Thermal performance was one area where I was really impressed when testing the 2080 and 2080 Ti Founders cards back in September, and I am even more impressed with the temperatures of the RTX 2060 FE.

That's because a peak of 68C on the GPU core makes it the coolest running Founders card from Nvidia that I have ever seen. To be fair, given the cooler is the same size as the 2070, only now it is cooling a cut down version of the 2070 GPU, we were expecting good thermal performance. But it's still worth pointing out that this is very impressive for a Founders card.

The hottest point we could detect using our thermal gun is also impressively cool – a peak of just 58.9C really is a top result, and that came from the side of the card just below the ‘GeForce RTX' logo.We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the sound floor to be 34 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled.

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.

Thermal results were very impressive, and noise levels follow suit – the 2060 FE peaked at just over 41dB, putting it right in the mix with other aftermarket solutions we have tested recently.

It's not the absolute quietest card we've ever tested, sure, but we do have to remember this is a card Nvidia has manufactured itself – if you look up the chart and find the GTX 1060, you can see that runs almost 4dB louder, so Nvidia's designs have improved massively from the previous generation. I would say manufacturers like ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte have their work cut-out for making custom RTX 2060 cards.We have recently revamped our GPU power consumption testing. Previously we would measure the total system power draw with each graphics card installed. Given that the rest of the components did not change, this gave us an idea of the relative power consumption of each graphics card, but we could not be more specific than that.

Now, however, thanks to Cybenetics Labs and its Powenetics Project, we are able to measure the power consumption of the graphics card alone, giving much more precise and accurate data. Essentially, this works by installing sensors in the PCIe power cables, as well as the PCIe slot itself thanks to a special riser card. This data is recorded using specialist software provided by Cybenetics Labs and given it polls multiple times a second (between 6 and 8 times a second, based on my observations) we can track the power consumption in incredible detail over any given amount of time.

You can read more about the Powenetics Project over HERE.

Note: if the above images are not displaying properly, you may need to disable your ad block software as they are known to interfere with our display code.

As with previous testing, 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. This stress test (20 runs) produces approximately 4300 data entries in the Powenetics software, which we can then export to an Excel file and analyse further. Here we present the average continuous power consumption of each graphics card across the entire 20 run test.

The 2060 has a rated TDP of 160W, and we matched that almost exactly with our card drawing 160.5W under load. That means it draws about 20W more than a GTX 1070, but it is still the least power hungry RTX card yet by a decent margin.

To overclock the RTX 2060 FE, we used MSI Afterburner. We maximised the power and temperature target sliders, before adding +140MHz to the GPU core, and +775MHz to the GDDR6 memory.

3DMark and games testing

I was definitely happy with this overclock – our Fire Strike score rose almost 8%, while games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Shadow of the Tomb Raider gained an extra 4-5FPS on average when playing at 1440p resolution.Here, we take a further look at the impact of our overclock, looking at the increased temperatures, acoustics, power draw, and lastly, the effect had on the average clock speed.

Temperatures

Acoustics

Power consumption

Average clock speed under load

Overview

The 2060 Founders was able to cope with the extra frequency (and heat) very well. The GPU temperature rose 4C, which is still only a peak of 72C, and noise emissions peaked at just under 43dB – still a very good result for an overclocked Founders card, and still quieter than a stock-clocked GTX 1060 Founders Edition.

In terms of power, we saw the card draw almost 30W more, bringing the total power draw to 190.1W – so only marginally more than a reference clocked RTX 2070 card. The last metric to look at is average frequency, and here the card fell just short of the magic 2GHz figure, but an average clock speed of 1982MHz is still very impressive for a Founders card.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.

Become a Patron!