The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB is probably one of the most surprising graphics card releases in recent years. When I first heard rumors of NVIDIA bringing out an RTX 2060 with 12 GB, I couldn't believe it. At the time, with the GeForce 30 Ampere having been on the market for over a year, it made little sense to launch a last-generation product with its only unique selling point a doubling in VRAM capacity—from 6 GB to 12 GB. While VRAM isn't the only specification that has been upgraded on the RTX 2060 12 GB, it's the only one that's unique. The GeForce RTX 2060 Super launched in July 2019 and already saw an increase in core count from 1920 (RTX 2060) to 2176 (RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2060 12 GB). Due to the way a memory subsystem works on a graphics card, NVIDIA couldn't just use the 256-bit wide memory bus of the RTX 2060 Super on the RTX 2060 12 GB—it would have forced them to make it a RTX 2060 16 GB. Instead, the only viable design choice was to go with the 192-bit wide bus of the RTX 2060 6 GB and simply double the capacity of the GDDR6 memory chips.

The card we're testing today is the Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Twin Fan, which I bought in retail end of December. Back when the RTX 2060 12 GB was launched, I asked NVIDIA and various board partners for a sample, but they all responded with "we're not sampling this card for review." So far, the Zotac Twin Fan is the most affordable variant of the RTX 2060 12 GB I've seen. Averaged over all our benchmarks, we find the RTX 2060 12 GB 7% ahead of the RTX 2060 6 GB and 6% behind the RTX 2060 Super, so right in the middle of the RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super. What's pushing this card forward is the increased number of GPU cores, not the additional VRAM. Actually, 6 GB vs. 12 GB makes no difference in the vast majority of our tests, especially not at resolutions like 1080p or 1440p. Even at 4K, it's very hard to find results that clearly show any improvement due to additional VRAM. The only noteworthy examples are with ray tracing enabled at 4K: Cyberpunk 3.9 FPS vs. 7.7 FPS, Deathloop 12.8 FPS vs. 21.2 FPS, DOOM Eternal 11.1 FPS vs. 43.3 FPS, and Far Cry 6: 2.9 FPS vs. 29.0 FPS. While these are huge differences, even the 12 GB RTX 2060 isn't getting playable framerates, so it's more for academic curiosity than something you should focus on for your buying decision.

When compared with the RTX 2060 Super 8 GB, the RTX 2060 12 GB only has one title where it's winning, and that's Doom Eternal at 4K with ray tracing enabled. This is a great example that shows VRAM size isn't nearly as important as the number of GPU cores and memory bus width. 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. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is 12% faster, with the same 12 GB VRAM size, so definitely the better choice. 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, which is enough for all these games, but they are way too expensive at this time due to their mining capabilities.

The Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Twin Fan in this review is a highly cost-optimized board design. It uses a simple, but solid VRM setup paired with a three-heatpipe cooler that handles the card's heat output very well. Temperatures are impressive—just 71°C under full load is lower than what I would have expected from this dual-slot thermal solution. The reason isn't particularly special cooler design, but simply the fact that Zotac is running their fans at very high speed. With 44 dBA, the card is one of the loudest we've ever tested, much louder than all competitors except for the RX 5700 XT. I have no idea why such a high fan-speed was chosen, maybe to achieve low temperatures for the miners who don't care about noise? Or maybe it's simply an oversight, and the fan profile wasn't properly tuned for this cooler? Either way, for gamers, this card is too loud, there are plenty of much quieter alternatives out there. NVIDIA made the idle-fan-stop capability standard only with GeForce 30 Ampere, so the Zotac RTX 2060 12 GB doesn't stop its fans in idle. The fans are still extremely quiet in that mode because they are spinning very slowly—just 20 dBA is whisper-quiet.

Energy efficiency of the RTX 2060 12 GB is negatively affected by its larger VRAM capacity. Even when not used, the memory will consume power, in all power states. This results in the worst energy efficiency numbers we've seen in a long time, worse than all GeForce 20, GeForce 30, Radeon RX 5000, and RX 6000 cards; only RX Vega 64 is less energy efficient. On the other hand, in absolute terms, differences aren't so big. We're talking about 160 W (RTX 2060) vs. 180 W (RTX 2060 Super) vs. 190 W (RTX 2060 12 GB)—all these are super easy to power for a somewhat decent power supply.

Pricing for the RTX 2060 12 GB is all over the place, and there doesn't seem to be any official MSRP guidance. As mentioned before, I bought my card in retail for €599 including 19% VAT. That converts to roughly US$600 without tax. Supply actually seems to be somewhat decent here in Europe, as several shops have these cards in stock. Newegg doesn't have any cards though, neither does Amazon US. At this time, the RTX 2060 costs around $570—spending the extra $30 for 12 GB definitely makes sense, even if it's just for resale value down the road. The RTX 2060 Super is $800—crazy expensive, not worth it, just like the RTX 3060 at $750. AMD's Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT are overpriced, too, due to their mining capabilities. Noteworthy alternatives are the RX 6600 non-XT, which at $570 is similarly priced, but offers better performance, especially at 1080p. Its ray tracing performance, on the other hand, is much lower than the RTX 2060 12 GB. My personal favorite is the Radeon RX 6600 XT, which is only marginally more expensive at $600, but offers considerably better gaming performance. Its RT ability is lower, too, but that's a tradeoff I'd be willing to make for the 20% faster rasterization performance.