Thursday, December 2nd 2021

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12GB Has CUDA Core Count Rivaling RTX 2060 SUPER

Updated by
btarunr
 Updated: Discuss (99 Comments)
NVIDIA's surprise launch of the GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB graphics card could stir things up in the 1080p mainstream graphics segment. Apparently, there's more to this card than just a doubling in memory amount. Specifications put out by NVIDIA point to the card featuring 2,176 CUDA cores, compared to 1,920 on the original RTX 2060 (6 GB). 2,176 is the same number of CUDA cores that the RTX 2060 SUPER was endowed with. What sets the two cards apart is the memory configuration.

While the RTX 2060 maxed out the "TU106" silicon, the RTX 2060 12 GB is likely based on the larger "TU104," in order to achieve its CUDA core count. The RTX 2060 SUPER features 8 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide memory bus, however, the RTX 2060 12 GB uses a narrower 192-bit wide bus, disabling 1/4th of the bus width of the "TU104." The memory data-rate on both SKUs is the same—14 Gbps. The segmentation between the two in the area of GPU clock speeds appears negligible. The original RTX 2060 ticks at 1680 MHz boost, while the new RTX 2060 12 GB does 1650 MHz boost. The typical board power is increased to 185 W compared to 160 W of the original RTX 2060, and 175 W of the RTX 2060 SUPER.

Update 15:32 UTC: NVIDIA has updated their website to remove the "Founders Edition" part from their specs page (3rd screenshot below). We confirmed with NVIDIA that there will be no RTX 2060 12 GB Founders Edition, only custom designs by their various board partners.
NVIDIA is getting its add-in card partners to come up with several custom-design products based on the new SKU, which should occupy price-points below those of the RTX 3060 "Ampere." This could be an answer to AMD's Radeon RX 6600 (non-XT), which beats the RTX 2060 SUPER by 3% and the original RTX 2060 by 13%, at 1080p, in our testing. Technologically, the older "Turing" architecture won't find itself obsolete in the current market, as it maintains full DirectX 12 Ultimate compatibility.
Source: VideoCardz

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99 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12GB Has CUDA Core Count Rivaling RTX 2060 SUPER

#26
Dragokar
xorbeThis card WON'T be supported on Win7, right? Or are they going to release a 472 driver update?
They won't.
Posted on Reply
#27
ModEl4
How would you characterize a GPU that is going to be 9-8% slower at FHD, 5-4% slower at QHD but 5-4% faster in 4K vs RX 6600, with 4GB more memory and with support for Nvidia's RTX S/W suite, with better overall raytracing performance and support for A.I tensor ops at $299 maybe, better deal than RX 6600 at $329 or not? Double for street prices the result remain unchanged. Also you could say that for the next 5 years you are covered with 12GB with PS5 quality settings but lower resolution, essentially what the PS5 can do at 1440p you could do it at 1080p and so on depending on the game, or if the game support DLSS even smaller perceivable difference... (now if the SRP is higher than $299 then imo it will be a clear indication that the inflation is going to last at least 2 years more
Posted on Reply
#28
xorbe
DragokarThey won't.
That's going to be really confusing. RTX 2060 works, RTX 3060 works, but RTX 2060 12GB won't work on Win7.
Posted on Reply
#29
80-watt Hamster
xorbeThat's going to be really confusing. RTX 2060 works, RTX 3060 works, but RTX 2060 12GB won't work on Win7.
Someone will probably figure out how to make it work.
Posted on Reply
#30
Vya Domus
RandallFlaggNot cost effective for crypto mining.
Why not
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#31
RandallFlagg
Vya DomusWhy not
Because a 3060 can be had for $800 easily and is 175% faster for mining, while the 3070 can be had for $1000 and is more than twice as fast. Using that as a metric, this 2060 is going to be worth about $500 to a miner and will take a year at that price to get the price of just the card back if they use it for mining 24/7. It also means they'll have more fail points and need more slots / infrastructure than with a 3060 or 3070.
Posted on Reply
#32
Selaya
Worse than the 2060S.
Sadge man. Why couldn't they just revived the 2060S instead of making up this abomination w/ VRAM no1 will ever make use of.

Oof.
Posted on Reply
#33
Chrispy_
The 48 ROPs was a pretty big problem for the vanilla 2060 6GB which meant it was slower than its core count suggested.
Posted on Reply
#34
efikkan
Prima.Vera
Why are people surprised?
It is common for Nvidia to make new SKUs of surplus GPUs from previous generations. And this is a positive thing, as it improves availability (slightly) and reduces waste.
Owen19822. It's still rubbish though! And why use fab capacity to build something old that nobody really wants? Are they using an old node that nobody is using?
This is most likely lower unused bins of higher GPUs.
If they started production of a new batch of a particular GPU, then they would have a complete selection of bins of that chip.
xorbeThis card WON'T be supported on Win7, right? Or are they going to release a 472 driver update?
Why wouldn't it be? Geforce RTX 20 series is supported on Windows 7.
Posted on Reply
#35
Aretak
SelayaWorse than the 2060S.
Sadge man. Why couldn't they just revived the 2060S instead of making up this abomination w/ VRAM no1 will ever make use of.

Oof.
Because product stacks exist. This is designed to be cheaper than the 3060, which itself is barely faster than the 2060 Super. By gimping the memory bus they remove a bit more performance and move it further away from the 3060, thus justifying the lower price tag. Nvidia never give you anything for free. Every single one of their GPUs is expertly carved up to give you exactly the level of performance they desire, down the percentage point. The only time they've slipped up in recent memory was with the 2060 KO, which caught even Nvidia by surprise and unexpectedly gave people a free performance boost in productivity workloads, despite performing the same in gaming.
efikkanWhy wouldn't it be? Geforce RTX 20 series is supported on Windows 7.
Because this card requires a new driver (which was released yesterday). Unless somebody finds a way to hack its device ID into an older, Windows 7-compatible driver, it won't work. This is a new GPU, despite the product name. There's no other TU106-based card with this shader count and memory bus width.
Posted on Reply
#36
Vya Domus
RandallFlaggBecause a 3060 can be had for $800 easily and is 175% faster for mining, while the 3070 can be had for $1000 and is more than twice as fast. Using that as a metric, this 2060 is going to be worth about $500 to a miner and will take a year at that price to get the price of just the card back if they use it for mining 24/7. It also means they'll have more fail points and need more slots / infrastructure than with a 3060 or 3070.
But ultimately none of that matters because miners will just buy anything that is available and has the chance to become profitable. I mean you do realize they are still buying RX580s also for like 800$, right ?
Posted on Reply
#37
RandallFlagg
Vya DomusBut ultimately none of that matters because miners will just buy anything that is available and has the chance to become profitable. I mean you do realize they are still buying RX580s also for like 800$, right ?
No they aren't. I can point to multiple sources to get pretty much any GPU. There is a cost/benefit curve in effect here and when you fall below it the miners move to something else.
Posted on Reply
#38
Vya Domus
RandallFlaggNo they aren't.
Yes they are, I suggest you look this up, miners are still building rigs with 580/590 to this date because they're still profitable.
RandallFlaggI can point to multiple sources to get pretty much any GPU.
And at what price ? Regular consumers aren't paying 600-800$ for a 580, miners are.
Posted on Reply
#39
80-watt Hamster
Vya DomusYes they are, I suggest you look this up, miners are still building rigs with 580/590 to this date because they're still profitable.


And at what price ? Regular consumers aren't paying 600-800$ for a 580, miners are.
Source? Recent eBay US sales range from $400-550, though I don't know how to tell who's buying them for what purpose. 6GB 1060s are going for the mid-300s; so you could be right. Don't know what else would account for that price differential.
Posted on Reply
#40
Dr_b_
TheoneandonlyMrKTypically Nvidia, again with the massive amounts of SKUs with the same name but f all else in parity.
So confusing though I suppose I should be greatfull, my own 2060 (or weva a mobile 2060 is)won't go eol for a bit.
IKR, they should have called this the 3059
Posted on Reply
#41
80-watt Hamster
Dr_b_IKR, they should have called this the 3059
Then people would just complain that ray tracing isn't up to snuff for a 30-series.
Posted on Reply
#42
AusWolf
Exactly what nobody ever needed or asked for.

If priced well, it could provide entry into the RT world for GTX users, but I doubt it will be. I'm sure it will be scalped as F, like every other graphics card nowadays.
Posted on Reply
#43
Vya Domus
80-watt HamsterSource? Recent eBay US sales range from $400-550, though I don't know how to tell who's buying them for what purpose. 6GB 1060s are going for the mid-300s; so you could be right. Don't know what else would account for that price differential.
New 8GB models are indeed over 700$ and even more, you can find plenty like these : www.ebay.com/itm/164830714768?epid=6040750098&hash=item2660ad1b90:g:vBUAAOSwW3pghE8T

The 4GB ones seem to be significantly cheaper because as far as I know that amount of VRAM is insufficient for mining. This price gap alone is enough to show the 8GB ones are still bought by miners.
Posted on Reply
#44
bug
Muaadib6600K has an iGPU, HD530 iirc.
Indeed it does. Totally forgot about that.
Posted on Reply
#45
matar
out of the 3 the 8Gb 256 bit is the better card...
Posted on Reply
#46
RandallFlagg
Vya DomusNew 8GB models are indeed over 700$ and even more, you can find plenty like these : www.ebay.com/itm/164830714768?epid=6040750098&hash=item2660ad1b90:g:vBUAAOSwW3pghE8T

The 4GB ones seem to be significantly cheaper because as far as I know that amount of VRAM is insufficient for mining. This price gap alone is enough to show the 8GB ones are still bought by miners.
So lets assume you're right, and see how dumb this theoretical miner is.

First, motherboard + PSU and PCI extenders + RAM / SSD and CPU will run ballpark $1000 to run 5 mining GPUs. Yes we can tinker with these numbers but it's not going to make much difference.

Electricity in the US is 14.5c/KWH average.

So lets assume RX 580 is $700 as you say, 5 of them will cost $3500.

We're in $4500 not including monitors and so on - we'll assume we already have that stuff.

So using Kryptex mining calculator and that electrical cost:

Using a 580 top mining target is ETH at 8.68c/day after electrical cost using. This means it will take 518 days 24/7 no interruptions to recoup your investment. This is assuming nothing breaks.

I can get a 1660 at Stockx right now for $525. 5 of those is $2625 + $1000 base setup and it will yield about $7.40/day and require 489 days to recoup the investment.

Both of those suck. You'll have multiple failures in the 18+ months to get your capital back. You'll probably lose money.

Lets move on to the 2060. 2060 can be had for $650 for $3250 + $1000 base and will yield $8.68 \ day on ETH. This is 489 days to break even. This still sucks.

The sweet spot:

3060 - can be had for $725 x5 =3625 + 1000 = 4625 initial investment. Yield is $10.64/day on eth giving you 434 days until in the green. Knocks 55 days off the 1660 and 2060.

3070 - can be had for 1050 x 5 = 5250 + 1000 = 6250 initial investment. Yield is $18.60 / day on eth giving you 336 days to ROI, 98 days quicker than the 3060.

3080 - can be had for 1600 x 5 = 8000 + 1000 base = 9000 initial. Yield is 28.84/day on ETH giving you 312 days to ROI.

3090 - can be had for 2800 x 5 = 14,000 + 1000 base = 15000 initial. Yield is 35.37 / day on ETH giving 424 days to ROI. We went backwards, probably not miners driving this one up.
Posted on Reply
#47
watzupken
At the end of the day, this product will have its place if pricing is right. However it is unlikely that the price is not going to be enticing. Nvidia refused to comment on pricing, and instead directed the question to their AIB partners. This is not a good sign, and that means Nvidia is saying to their AIB partners, "price whatever you want, but your upper limit is the RTX 3060."

Anyway, I feel we have gone a full circle and back to TSMC 12nm again. In my opinion, the initial GPU shortage was because Nvidia went ahead to drop TSMC 12nm based Turing way too early, while at the same time, their Samsung 8nm based Ampere was still struggling with supply.
Rob94hawkWhile we're at it why don't we just bring back AGP 8x cards.
Do you have an AGP board to run it? ;)
Posted on Reply
#48
AusWolf
watzupkenAt the end of the day, this product will have its place if pricing is right.
So true. People tend to look down on last gen tech just because they nourish unrealistic expectations generated by media noise only. Anything at or above GTX 1060 or RX 570 level is still good for 1080p gaming, imo. You don't need super high resolutions and ultra quality settings to enjoy a game, which is something people like to forget.
Posted on Reply
#49
ArdWar
How about naming it 2065 or something?

The fourth digit is totally useless isn't it? They'd rather add more digit and letters than changing the fourth one...
Posted on Reply
#50
trog100
80-watt HamsterSource? Recent eBay US sales range from $400-550, though I don't know how to tell who's buying them for what purpose. 6GB 1060s are going for the mid-300s; so you could be right. Don't know what else would account for that price differential.
miners buy up what is suitable for mining.. this leaves a shortage of everything else.. the price of "everything else" goes up.. normal supply and demand at work..

trog
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