NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB

[W1zzard]

NVIDIA stealth-launched the GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB last month. We bought a card in retail, so we can find out how much of a difference doubling the VRAM from 6 GB to 12 GB makes, and how much of the performance gains can be attributed to the increased GPU core counts.

Show full review

 

[Vecix6]

At conclusion page:

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is 12% faster, but has only 8 GB VRAM—a tradeoff that I'd make any day.

The RTX 3060 gets 12 GB, 8 GB VRAM is for 3060 Ti but that cards is 40% faster @1080p.. so I think that this sentence is not correct.. So next sentence the "too" isn't correct...

Last but not least, the aging AMD Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT are 8% and 20% faster at 1440p, offering 8 GB VRAM, too

 

[LeonNg]

Do you know that nvidia made this rtx 2060 12GB only for mining. If you buying this for gaming, you are in wrong direction. I've seen some scalper on mining group already setup mining rig with over 100 new rtx 2060 cards

 

[GerKNG]

great! an new entry level mining card...

 

[Outback Bronze]

rtx 2060 12GB only for mining

I wouldn't touch one for mining. If you are buying this for mining you are in the wrong direction.

 

[Ravenmaster]

Do you know that nvidia made this rtx 2060 12GB only for mining. If you buying this for gaming, you are in wrong direction. I've seen some scalper on mining group already setup mining rig with over 100 new rtx 2060 cards

Hopefully one of those cards will set on fire and burn their establishment to the ground

 

[Garrus]

6nm is going to crush this for gaming. Wait for tomorrow.

 

[mechtech]

"At 1080 Full HD, AMD's Radeon RX 6600 is 8% faster than the RTX 2060 12 GB, but the gap shrinks to 2% at 1440p, still a solid alternative, especially if you're focusing on 1080p"

hmmm the RX6600 does have an MSRP of $330, what's the MSRP for this card? Not that it matters much with all the gouging, scalping, etc. going on.

I guess the more important question is it available on the shelf?

Newegg.ca - nothing. A few 6GB ones going for about $1000 CAD, mainly shipped from China and not newegg. Pass on that.

 

[Selaya]

a brilliant showcase that for the vast majority memory bandwidth > memory capacity when it comes to gpu (assuming capacity isn't starved to the extreme).
great review, very informational.

 

[Chrispy_]

Do you know that nvidia made this rtx 2060 12GB only for mining. If you buying this for gaming, you are in wrong direction. I've seen some scalper on mining group already setup mining rig with over 100 new rtx 2060 cards

It's not made for miners, the scalpers are just scalpers; They'll scalp anything they can.

ETH mining needs as much bandwidth as possible, then low purchase costs, and then low power consumption - in that order.

• Compared to a 2060 6GB it's the same hashrate but costs more to buy and significant more to run.
• Compared to a 2060S 8GB it's a much worse hashrate, still costs more to buy, and still costs a little more to run.

It wasn't given 12GB for mining. It was given 12GB because there's a global shortage of 8Gbit GDDR6 chips and the more profitable 3070/3080 cards get first dibs.

hmmm the RX6600 does have an MSRP of $330, what's the MSRP for this card? Not that it matters much with all the gouging, scalping, etc. going on.

There is no MSRP, intentionally.

I guess they also would struggle to list a sensible MSRP because it would obviously need to be between the $349 of the 2060 below it in the product stack and the $399 of the 2060S above it in the product stack.

I'm guessing now, but I suspect even tier1 OEMs are paying more than that just in component costs. They were complaining about making 30-series MSRP cards at a loss even way back at launch and component prices have only become worse since then.

 

[DrCR]

Desperate measures, perhaps, to feed the market, but they could surely had done a less unimpressive job

 

[Mussels]

I was looking forward to the most useless GPU launch of the year

 

[W1zzard]

At conclusion page

Fixed, thanks

 

[Space Lynx]

I hope Elon succeeds in colonizing Mars, humans need another shot... sigh... regression in so many sectors...

 

[Meanhx]

It wasn't given 12GB for mining. It was given 12GB because there's a global shortage of 8Gbit GDDR6 chips and the more profitable 3070/3080 cards get first dibs.

One correction here, 3070ti and above does not use GDDR6 chips, they use GDDR6X chips.

 

[Vayra86]

Hey, look, yet another 1080! Now with extra fashionable 12GB

 

[mb194dc]

2022 and Moor's law is dead? In fact we're going backwards pretty much.

 

[Vayra86]

2022 and Moor's law is dead? In fact we're going backwards pretty much.

Maybe they started applying Moore's Law to the pricing, not the transistor count now?

Seems to line up quite well

 

[Chomiq]

I hope Elon succeeds in colonizing Mars, humans need another shot... sigh... regression in so many sectors...

Not unless he figures out hibernation.

2022 and Moor's law is dead? In fact we're going backwards pretty much.

Technically this was released in 2021.

 

[MrMilli]

Considering that this even uses more power than the 2060S, says a lot about the power efficiency of the RX6000 series.

 

[arni-gx]

well, i just hope, that this new vga has lot of stock on all gpu market in my country.....

 

[Frick]

This card is actually a better buy than a 3070ti because of the 12GB.

 

[Chrispy_]

One correction here, 3070ti and above does not use GDDR6 chips, they use GDDR6X chips.

On desktop, yes.
All current 30-series laptop GPUs are regular GDDR6 though, and laptops outsell PCs 3:1 or something like that.

 

[dirtyferret]

"Additional VRAM makes no noteworthy difference vs. RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super"

I haven't been 100% shocked by a statement like that since the Pope announced he was catholic! And after al those idiot fan boys (you know who you are) kept posting "more memory equal better gaming" with no regard to gpu chip on the forum threads too!

 

[Chrispy_]

Desperate measures, perhaps, to feed the market, but they could surely had done a less unimpressive job

This is a zero-effort release that promised no additional performance over the original 2060.

The extra VRAM is a side effect of the supply shortage, nothing else.

The extra CUDA cores are because TSMC12 yields improved enough in 2019 to retire the 1920-core version completely and replace it with a 2176-core version. They're just using the dies they have, with the boards they have, with the only VRAM they can find that fits.

"Additional VRAM makes no noteworthy difference vs. RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super"

I haven't been 100% shocked by a statement like that since the Pope announced he was catholic! And after al those idiot fan boys (you know who you are) kept posting "more memory equal better gaming" with no regard to gpu chip on the forum threads too!

I did actually get rid of my 2060 6GB because it didn't have enough VRAM for a couple of games.

That isn't the only reason though, I also got rid of it because it was too slow at 1440p/4K and it couldn't raytrace very well even at 1080p, and the 2060FE had shitty 1200rpm idle fan speeds that were always annoying. So adding more VRAM would have fixed only one of the 2060's problems.

I think the 3070 may be the most shortsighted card in terms of VRAM. 8GB is fine for now but the 3070 is powerful enough that it will still be a viable GPU even when games need to turn down a lot of settings to fit in 8GB.