The last month of graphics cards has been enough to leave any PC builder’s head spinning. Between AMD and NVIDIA, we’ve had a grand total of five new graphics cards released and are finally starting to see what board partners are able to accomplish with them. Today, we’re looking at one of the most accessible options on the market today with the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC 8G. It offers a healthy factory overclock, all the benefits of Turing, and the best price we were able to find on triple fan cooling. Should it be your next card? Join us as we find out!
Specifications
- Current Price: $419.99
- Graphics Processing: GeForce® RTX 2060 SUPER
- Core Clock: 1815 MHz (Reference card: 1650 MHz)
- RTX-OPS: 45
- CUDA Cores: 2176
- Memory Clock: 14000 MHz
- Memory Size: 8 GB
- Memory Type: GDDR6
- Memory Bus: 256 bit
- Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec): 448 GB/s
- Card Bus: PCI-E 3.0 x 16
- Digital max resolution: 7680x4320@60Hz
- Multi-view: 4
- Dimensions: L=280.35 W=116.45 H=40.24 mm
- PCB Form: ATX
- DirectX: 12
- OpenGL: 4.5
- Recommended PSU: 550W
- Power Connectors: 8 Pin x 1, 6 Pin x 1
- Output: DisplayPort 1.4 x 3. HDMI 2.0b x 1. USB Type-C (support VirtualLink) x 1
- SLI support: No
- Accessories: 1. Quick guide 2. Driver CD
)
Competition is a very good thing and we need look no farther than the current state of the graphics card industry to see that first hand. After what seemed like ages of NVIDIA maintaining market dominance, AMD released their Radeon RX 5700 series to make a play for the 1080p and 1440p gaming markets. Not to be outdone, NVIDIA released their RTX SUPER refresh which simultaneously lowered the prices on their RTX cards but also offered a healthy dose of extra performance. It was a tit-for-tat that ultimately benefited gamers like us. Now that the reference cards have been on the market for a while, we’re finally starting to see add-in board partners release their own variants with high overclocks and better cooling solutions.
So it was with pleasure that I was able to give Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC 8G a trial run over the last two weeks. It features an increased clock speed of 1850 MHz, which is a 200MHz boost from the Founder’s Edition. It also offers four more RTX-OPS than the Founders, up to 45. The Gaming OC offers the same 8GB of GDDR6 video memory clocked to 14Gbps delivering a full 448 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Of course, it also promises full ray tracing support and NVIDIA DLSS thanks to the inclusion of embedded tensor cores, as well as the rendering improvements like Variable Rate Shading. While we can make a value judgment between AMD and NVIDIA, it’s hard to argue that the RTX cards aren’t the more technologically rich and meaningful offering.
)
When it comes to outputs, you’ll find three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, one HDMI 2.0b, and a VirtualLink for your VR headset. The card is fully able to support HDR10 and high refresh rate displays up to a maximum resolution of 7680x4320. Running a multi-display setup is definitely within the realm of what this card can do.
)
One of the most compelling reasons to go for a card like this is the cooling solution. It’s not so much that the original 2060 SUPER was reported to run extra hot; NVIDIA has done a good job of managing thermals with these revisions. Instead, it’s about pushing temps as low as possible while also running as quietly as possible.
The Gaming OC has a novel solution wherein heat is drawn away from the GPU with four copper heat pipes that have been enhanced with phase-change components to more effectively transfer heat into the large heatsink above. These make direct contact with the heat generating components for more efficient cooling. From there, the three fans cool that surface area and dissipate heat. Unlike most GPUs, however, the fans alternate; the middle fan spins in the opposite direction. This helps guide the flow of air smoothly across the fins and avoid turbulence which could temporarily trap pockets of heat.
And of course, there’s RGB, though it’s small and tasteful. The logo illuminates in your choice of more than 16 million colors and can sync effects between your other Gigabyte RGB Fusion-enabled components.
Technologically, what we know is that the SUPER series is in many ways a variation on the next step up in the product stack. The 2060 SUPER is roughly a RTX 2070. The 2070 SUPER is roughly an RTX 2080. What I was extra curious about is, with this additional thermal headroom and out-of-the-box overclock, how much of an advantage does the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC 8G actually offer? Let’s dig in and find out.
Benchmark Results
Test System: Gigabyte X570 AORUS Master Motherboard, AMD Ryzen R9 3900X CPU, NZXT Kraken X72 AIO Cooler, G.Skill TridentZ Royal DDR4-3600MHz 16GB DRAM Kit, Gigabyte AORUS NVMe Gen4 SSD 2TB, Corsair HX-1050 1050 Watt Power Supply.
For all of our benchmark testing, we strive to provide real world results akin to what you would see in your own PC. To that end, we stress test our cards through a series of modern games and compare them against one another. We also record peak temperatures within these games on stock fan settings. Be aware that the thermal results we report can usually be improved upon by creating a custom fan curve in programs like MSI Afterburner.
In today’s review, we are presenting results from all three major resolutions: 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. That said, the 2060 SUPER is not a card aimed at 4K gameplay and shouldn’t be expected to perform at such a resolution on major titles. As you’ll soon see, it is possible to game at 4K but you’ll need to turn down settings to maintain a 60 FPS frame rate at that resolution.
)
(Click to Enlarge)
)
(Click to Enlarge)
)
(Click to Enlarge)
Results Discussion and Final Thoughts
The results make it clear that the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC 8G is an exceptional card for the money if you’re already a member of Team Green. It’s more than capable of delivering triple digit frame rates at 1080p, which is where this card really feels aimed. Even at 1440p, it’s able to deliver a great gaming experience, exceeding 60 FPS at high visual settings. At 4K, we see that drop off, but given that the original 2060 (included above) veritably choked at anything approaching 4K, this is a solid improvement.
However, at this price point the card is going head to head with AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 and 5700XT. Against the 5700, the Gigabyte clearly wins but it becomes a lot tighter against the XT and we see the 2060 SUPER lose its edge. Before you draw a conclusion from that alone, though, there’s another element we need to consider: thermals.
)
Gigabyte’s triple, alternating fan solution is a success. Throughout our testing, the card peaked at 68C on stock settings. With three fans and the added surface area of the cooler, the card was able to hold this without ever becoming loud. Compare this to the 5700 and 5700 XT which were hotter by double digits and sport blower style coolers that are very loud. Because those cards are so consistently hotter, they’re also consistently much louder. In that context, I think we have an important caveat to the slight edge the 5700 XT has on the RTX 2060 SUPER from Gigabyte: the Radeon might give a few extra frames but it will be wholesale more obnoxious while doing so. Likewise, if your case struggles with airflow that edge may well be lost to thermal throttling.
Taken as a whole, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC 8G is a very solid card. At $419.99, it’s the cheapest of the 2060 SUPER triple-fan cards currently available (as of this writing) and offers impressive results up to and beyond 1440p. The cooling solution is exceptional, allowing the card to run cool and quiet. Against the AMD Radeon RX 5700XT, it’s a harder sell, but Gigabyte wins in terms of how pleasant it is to use the card thanks to the vastly reduced noise and eliminated chance of thermal throttling. Likewise, it offers hardware-based ray tracing which AMD currently has no answer for.
If you’re in the market for an RTX card, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC 8G is a great place to start.
Pros
- Triple digit performance at 1080p
- Well past 60 FPS at 1440p in many games
- Card runs quiet and cool
- Most affordable triple-fan 2060 SUPER as of this writing
Cons
- Loses its edge against the AMD Radeon RX 5700XT in frame rate per dollar (but maintains a lead in noise and thermals)
The product described in this review was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
