NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Review: Reasonably Priced Ray Tracing

How We Configured Our Test Systems: We tested the graphics cards represented in this article on a Gigabyte Aorus X299 Gaming 7 Pro motherboard powered by an Intel Core i9-9980XE 16-core processor and 32GB of G.SKILL DDR4 RAM clocked at 2,666MHz. The first thing we did when configuring the test system was enter the UEFI and set all values to their "high performance" default settings and disabled any integrated peripherals that wouldn't be put to use. The memory's clock was manually dialed in to ensure optimal memory performance at the processor's maximum supported speed of 2,666MHz (without overclocking), and the solid state drive was then formatted and Windows 10 Professional x64 was installed and fully updated. When the Windows installation was complete, we installed all of the drivers, games, and benchmark tools necessary to complete our tests.

We should note that the AMD Radeon RX Vega card was tested in its default "Balanced" power mode throughout. Power Saver (slower) and Turbo (faster) power modes are also available with Vega, which would affect performance, noise output, and peak power consumption.

HotHardware's Test System Intel Core i9 Powered

Hardware Used: Intel Core i9-9980XE (3 - 4.4GHz, 18-Core) Gigabyte X299 Gaming Pro 7 (Intel X299 Chipset) Radeon RX Vega 64 GeForce GTX 1060 GeForce GTX 1070 GeForce GTX 1080 GeForce RTX 2070 GeForce RTX 2080 GeForce RTX 2060 32GB G.SKILL DDR4-2666 Samsung SSD 860 Pro Integrated Audio & Network

Relevant Software:  Windows 10 Pro x64 NVIDIA Drivers: v417.35 AMD Drivers: Crimson v18.12.3 Benchmarks Used: Unigine Superposition VRMark 3DMark "Fire Strike" 3DMark "Time Spy" Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War Shadow Of The Tomb Raider F1 2018 Strange Brigade Final Fantasy XV FarCry 5

Unigine Superposition Pseudo-DirectX / OpenGL Gaming

Superposition is a relatively new benchmark from Unigine, powered by the UNIGINE 2 Engine. It offers an array of benchmark modes, targeting gaming workloads as well as VR, with both DirectX and OpenGL code paths. There is an extreme hardware stability test built-in as well. Unigine Superposition uses the developer’s unique SSRTGI (Screen-Space Ray-Traced Global Illumination) dynamic lighting technology, along with high quality textures and models, to produce some stunning visuals. We ran Superposition in two modes using the DirectX code path – 1080p Extreme and VR Future -- to compare the performance of all of the graphics cards featured here.

Unigine Superposition

Superposition's VR Future benchmark has the GeForce RTX 2060 outperforming the GTX 1080 once again. Here though, the Vega 64 drops down a couple of rungs and only the higher-end RTX cards are faster than the GeForce RTX 2060.

Futuremark VRMark Testing Rift And Vive Readiness

Futuremark’s VRMark is designed to test a PC’s readiness for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets. The benchmark does not, however, require that one of the headsets is attached to the PC to run and it uses an in-house graphics engine and content to ensure comparable results between different platforms. We ran the "Blue Room" VRMark test at defaults settings here, which is currently the most taxing test offered by the tool.

VRMark tells essentially the same story as Superposition. Here, the GeForce RTX 2060 once again outperforms the GeForce GTX 1080, but the Vega 64 moves up a slot.