Introduction

Today, we review the EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Super KO, EVGA's most affordable RTX 2070 Super graphics card priced at $499. However, EVGA already had a $499 RTX 2070 Super, the RTX 2070 Super Black, which just like the KO sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds, lacks a backplate, and offers idle fan stop to one-up NVIDIA's Founders Edition card. So where did the KO come from?

The story begins with the Radeon RX 5600 XT. Through a last-minute specs update, AMD managed to get its $279 RX 5600 XT to launch with performance matching the then $349 GeForce RTX 2060. This turned up the heat on NVIDIA, and they decided to allow a design that uses a cost-efficient GTX 1660 Ti PCB paired with the RTX 2060 GPU. That product was the $299 EVGA RTX 2060 KO, a resurrection of the KO brand extension which was able to thwart the RX 5600 XT wherever it was available, so EVGA's designers could save the day for NVIDIA and go home for a pint. However, EVGA didn't rest. Earlier this month, it launched the GeForce GTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super KO graphics cards, which raised our eyebrows.

The EVGA RTX 2070 Super KO we have with us launches at $510 officially, with an instant online discount that makes it a $499 product. The EVGA RTX 2070 Super Black, which was until now being sold at a "discounted" $499, is back to its original $510 online price. What does the $10 account for? All that sets the KO apart from the Black is the lack of the USB type-C VirtualLink connector on the KO. That's it.



NVIDIA designed the GeForce RTX 2070 Super to be the gateway to its high-end graphics segment. Based on the 12 nm "TU104" silicon, it features 2,560 TMUs, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface holding 8 GB of memory that ticks at 14 Gbps. The GPU runs at up to 1770 MHz GPU Boost and 1605 MHz nominal, which are the same speeds the EVGA KO ships with. Among its display connectors are three DisplayPorts and one HDMI. In this review, we take the RTX 2070 Super KO for a spin to find out if you need to spend any more than $499 to knock high-resolution AAA gaming out.

Packaging

The Card

EVGA's card looks very similar visually to the company's other Turing cards. A backplate is not included.


Dimensions of the card are 26 x 11.5 cm.


Installation requires two slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include three standard DisplayPort 1.4a and an HDMI 2.0b.


The board uses one 8-pin and one 6-pin power connector. This input configuration is specified for up to 375 watts of power draw.


With Turing, NVIDIA is using NVLink as a physical layer for its next-generation SLI technology. NVLink provides sufficient bandwidth for multi-GPU rendering at 8K 60 Hz, 4K 120 Hz, and other such bandwidth-heavy display resolutions. It's a point-to-point link between your GPUs, so latencies will be lower compared to pushing data through the PCI-Express bus.

Disassembly

EVGA is using six heatpipes on their thermal solution, which is paired with a copper base to maximize heat transfer. This piece of the cooler also provides cooling for parts of the VRM circuitry.


Once the main heatsink is removed, a second metal plate becomes visible, which provides cooling for the memory chips and VRM circuitry.

High-resolution PCB Pictures

These pictures are for the convenience of volt modders and people who would like to see all the finer details on the PCB. Feel free to link back to us and use these in your articles or forum posts.



High-res versions are also available (front, back).

Circuit Board (PCB) Analysis

The GPU VRM is a 7-phase setup controlled by a UPI uP9512R controller.


The memory VRM is dual-phase and managed by a UPI uS5650Q controller—a fairly new design.


The GDDR6 memory chips are made by Micron and carry the model number D9WCW, which decodes to MT61K256M32JE-14:A. They are specified to run at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps GDDR6 effective).


NVIDIA's TU104 graphics processor is the company's second-largest chip using the Turing architecture. It is produced on a 12 nm process at TSMC, Taiwan and has a transistor count of 13.6 billion with a die size of 545 mm².