Its been a very long time since there’s been heated competition in the ~$400 graphics card market. But, thanks to AMD’s RX 5700 series, and NVIDIA’s RTX SUPER lineup, we have a real brawl on our hands. continuing our coverage of this street fight; we have the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER GAMING OC in the labs, and we’ll be putting it through its paces in this report.
Lets see how it stacks up against the competition!
GIGABYTE RTX 2060 SUPER GAMING OC Specifications
NOTE: GIGABYTE custom specifications highlighted in bold.
| Model | RTX 2060 SUPER | RTX 2070 SUPER |
| CUDA Cores | 2176 | 2560 |
| Texture Units | 136 | 160 |
| ROPs | 1470 | 1605 |
| Tensor Cores | 272 | 320 |
| RT Cores | 34 | 40 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 1650 (1815) | 1770 |
| Base Clock (MHz) | 1470 | 1506 |
| Memory Type | 14 Gbps GDDR6 | 14 Gbps GDDR6 |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth (GB/s) | 448 | 448 |
| VRAM | 8GB | 8GB |
| GPU | TU106 | TU104 |
| Architecture | Turing | Turing |
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 12nm | TSMC 12nm |
| TDP | 175W | 215W |
| Launch Price | $399/$419 | $499 |
| Launch Date | 7/9/2019 | 7/9/2019 |
As we can see above, the GIGABYTE RTX 2060 SUPER GAMING OC comes with a factory overclock of 1815 MHz on the Boost Clock; which is a roughly 13% increase compared to stock. That’s a pretty healthy increase for a factory overclock and the $20 premium over MSRP is only a 5% increase in price, so you do get quite a bit for your money here.
GIGABYTE RTX 2060 SUPER GAMING OC Overview
Taking a look at the card itself, we can see that the it features the very same shroud design as the GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC, which reviewed a few months ago. So, if you want to learn more about the cooling system design, we encourage you to take a look over there for more details.
However, one very welcomed improvement compared to that card is the upgrade of the backplate, which has been changed from plastic to metal. This is definitely a must, especially for a card in this price range.
The card measures just over 280mm (11-inches) long, and features a true dual-slot design. It is powered by both a set of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe connectors. Around back, we have 3x DisplayPort 1.4 ports, a single HDMI 2.0b and a single USB Type-C VirtualLink connector, which is a very welcomed addition since not all RTX 2060 SUPER cards will feature this port.
Graphics Card Test Setup and Methodology
Summer 2019 Update:
We’ve undergone a fairly significant change in both our testing methods, how we display data and our test setup. Firstly, we’ve upgraded our graphics card test bench to a 3rd gen Ryzen-based system. Second, we’ll no longer be measuring ‘99.9th percentiles’ or as we’ve labeled them in the past ‘0.1% lows’ instead we’ll focus purely on both average FPS and ’99th percentiles’ as we believe they most accurately represent actual GPU performance without over complicating things for the viewer.
All game benchmarks are taken from a 3-run average either in-game or using the title’s built-in benchmark utility. Performance is recorded using OCAT: the open-source frontend for PresentMon, which itself is an open-source capture and analytics tool which supports modern APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan.
For our graphics card reviews, we use a 3rd generation Ryzen-based system with components supplied by AMD, GIGABYTE, Western Digital, DEEPCOOL and Nixeus. Thanks to all those who support us by supplying vital components for our test systems, without them reports like this would not be possible.
| Graphics Card Test Bench | |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 3900X – PBO Enabled |
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE X570 AORUS PRO WiFi |
| RAM | G. Skill Trident Z Neo – DDR4-3600 CL18 16GB Memory Kit – Timings at CL-16-19-19-38 |
| GPU | N/A |
| Storage | WD Black SN750 1TB NVMe SSD (OS), 480GB Patriot Burst SSD, 960GB ADATA SU655 SSD |
| Cooler | DEEPCOOL Castle 240 RGB all-in-one liquid cooler. |
| Case | Phanteks P350X |
| PSU | DEEPCOOL Quanta DQ1250 |
| Monitor | Nixeus EDG27 v2 |
| Software Configuration | |
| OS | Windows 10 1903 |
| Drivers | NVIDIA GeForce 431.60 – WHQL / Radeon Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.8.1 |
GIGABYTE RTX 2060 SUPER GAMING OC Overclocking
Using MSI Afterburner, we were able to overclock the GIGABYTE RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC a fair bit. With an increase to the Core Clock of 115 MHz; which brings our ‘total’ up to 1930 MHz, however, we did observe steady boost clocks as high as 2040 MHz while gaming, and peak boosts up to 2060 MHz. We also increased our memory offset by 500MHz, which brings our total memory speed up to 15 Gbps. Not bad at all.
GIGABYTE RTX 2060 SUPER GAMING OC Power and Thermals
GIGABYTE RTX 2060 SUPER GAMING OC Performance
3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
We test this title using the game’s built-in benchmark utility.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
We test this title during a 60-second gameplay segment in the ‘Hidden City’ portion of the game.
Far Cry: New Dawn
We test this title using the game’s built-in benchmark utility.
Forza Horizon 4
We test this title using the game’s built-in benchmark utility.
HITMAN 2
We test this title during a 60-second gameplay segment in the ‘Santa Fortuna’ map.
Resident Evil 2 (2019)
We test this title in a 60-second gameplay segment at the early portion of the game in the fiery streets of ‘Raccoon City’ on the way to the police station.
Battlefield V
We test this game during a 60-second gameplay segment of the ‘War Stories’ single-player game mode on the first level of the ‘Tirailleur’ campaign.
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
We test this title using the game’s built-in benchmark utility.
Gears of War 4
We test this title using the game’s built-in benchmark utility.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
We test this title during a 60-second gameplay segment on the ‘Riverside’ level of the campaign.
World War Z
We test this title using the game’s built-in benchmark utility.
DXR Ray-Ray Tracing Performance
Taking a look at DXR performance, we can see that at 1440p, the RTX 2060 SUPER does struggle to deliver 60 FPS at Ultra quality settings. You’ll definitely need to turn down the settings, or play at 1080p if you want smooth gameplay with ray-tracing enabled.
Conclusion
Let me start by addressing the elephant in the room; no these results were not taken with NVIDIA’s latest 436.02 drivers which were showcased at Gamescom; unfortunately, I did not have time to update the results for the RTX 2060 SUPER with these drivers. That said, rest assured that I will be following up this report with another which will be investigating the performance claims of the new drivers.
Now that we’ve got that cleared up, let’s take a look at the performance summary of the RTX 2060 SUPER versus the RX 5700 XT.
Taking a look at the above results, we can see that the RX 5700 XT enjoys a 7.5% lead in our tests on average. This is thanks to some serious leads in Forza Horizon 4 and Battlefield V, which along with World War Z are a few of the titles that NVIDIA promises significant performance gains in with the latest drivers. If we assume their claims are correct, one should expect performance disparities to drop to within 10% in those titles, which would significantly help the RTX 2060 SUPER compete with the RX 5700 XT.
While performance between these two cards are close, we still lean towards the RX 5700 XT, if you’re looking for the best possible 1440p gaming experience, but if you really want what NVIDIA has to offer in terms of ray tracing, and other features, then the RTX 2060 SUPER isn’t a bad option. It just isn’t the best, in my opinion. Perhaps the tables will turn with the latest drivers, but we’ll have to see.
Now, as for the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC, I think it is a fairly wonderful graphics card, it isn’t the cheapest RTX 2060 SUPER, but at a $20 premium over MSRP, it isn’t the most expensive either, and for that extra money you do get solid cooling and fairly decent overclocking, not to mention a pretty good out of the box overclock.
So, if you’re in the market for a 2060 SUPER, we have no issue at all recommending the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC.
