GeForce RTX 2060 Pricing and Availability
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition is now available to order directly from NVIDIA’s site. The Founders Edition has an MSRP of $349 USD and on top of that you can also get a copy of Battlefield V or Anthem when you buy an RTX 2060 FE. This is a limited time offer from NVIDIA and it’s available at the time this review was published. The $349 is the starting price for all RTX 2060 graphics cards, there is no premium price for the Founders Edition this time, unlike with its higher end siblings. You can check out the latest pricing and availability of the GeForce RTX 2060 graphics cards below.
For US: Check at Amazon.com here
For UK: Check at Amazon UK here
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition Review: Conclusion
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition, and the RTX 2060 in general, looks like a really good graphics card and perhaps this will be the more “like-able” graphics card among the RTX 20 series. Even without real time ray tracing and DLSS, its raw performance is already looking good. In most case, it performs (slightly) faster than a GeForce GTX 1070 Ti and sometimes almost on par with the GTX 1080. It’s no surprise actually considering that an overclocked GTX 1070 Ti performs basically similar to a GTX 1080.
I have been checking the current pricing of both the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 Ti when I wrote this review. The GTX 1080 are almost gone and those that are left listed on online stores are retailed north of $600 USD, which is insane. The GTX 1070 Ti on the other hand are still on store shelves. But they are currently retailed at around $480 and up, with the decent models currently priced at around $550. Considering the performance of the new RTX 2060 and its price that is only $349 USD; I couldn’t think of any reason why you should get those older graphics card than the new RTX 2060. Real-time ray tracing and DLSS are not added yet into the equation and those are already bonus features, especially once more games starts to implement this technology / feature.
I haven’t tested a GTX 1060 this time, but based on NVIDIA’s internal testing, the RTX 2060 offers around 51% to 60% performance improvement from a GTX 1060. This means that if you are or will be upgrading from a GTX 1060 or below, you’ll see a significant performance improvement overall. GTX 1070 users should be able to see some performance improvement at around 17% to 21%; but I would rather get the RTX 2070 or higher if ever I will upgrade from a GTX 1070.
Generally speaking, in terms of performance the GeForce RTX 2060 would be a good graphics card for 1080p and 1440p users. Depending on the game, the RTX 2060 could also handle a 1080p or 1440p high refresh rate monitor. Well, you probably need to tone down a little bit when playing at 1440p to get higher than 100 fps. Again it depends on the game and how graphics intensive it is. As for 4K UHD users, this is obviously not the graphics card for you. You can play games at 2160p with this graphics card, but a significant change in graphics quality has to be made in order to achieve playable frame rates.
In terms of build quality, the GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition looks and feels premium with its all-metal wrap around shroud. The cooling solution also performs great and I think AIB partners will be having a hard time competing with the Founders Edition especially that it also starts selling at $349 USD. Honestly, it would be a hard sell for an RTX 2060 that comes with an all-plastic shroud and perhaps a mediocre or “just-okay” cooling solution. The RTX 2060 Founders Edition would be the obvious choice if that was the case. AIB / AIC partners would definitely need to “outshine” the NVIDIA’s Founders Edition to sell their custom designed graphics card.
At the end of the day, I think the RTX 2060 is a really good graphics card, especially the Founders Edition. Once DLSS has been implemented on games, its performance would only get better. And it’s going to be a real (significant) increase and not just increase due to driver optimization or game optimization. I think many gamers, especially those who are playing at 1080p and 1440p would find the RTX 2060 more attractive considering its price and performance. If you are planning to buy or upgrade to this graphics card, the Founders Edition should be on your top list. Not unless you want RGBs and a more “gaming”-looking graphics card from AIB partners.
