The all-new Nvidia GeForce RTX Super graphics cards are finally here, starting with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super, which will launch on July 9th. In many words, these are supercharged versions of the same graphics cards that are available today.
But are these super-powerful upgrades worth the cost? If you haven't already made your way into Nvidia's Nvidia Turing lineup of graphics cards, then surely the "Founders Edition" models of these boards cost exactly the same as the cards available through July 9th. If you're already on board with an RTX card, specifically the RTX 2060, then the offer loses its luster.
However, this is the most affordable upgrade for your RTX 2060 that you'll likely see for a long time, so keep that in mind when looking at the specific differences between this new card and the one it installs.
Price and features
Nvidia wants a great $399 (around £314, AU$578) for the release of the GeForce RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition, which replaced the previous RTX 2060 Founders Edition price. This change brought the price of the previous Founders Edition card down to $349 (about £275, AU$505).
At the same price as before, the RTX 2060 Super packs the same Turing GPU built on a 12nm (nm) process, but now with more video memory (VRAM), render engines (ROP), texture engines, ray tracing . (RT) cores and different clock speeds.
More precisely, the RTX 2060 Super has 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, compared to the previous model's 6GB. Similarly, the video card contains 64 ROPs per 48 units of the older model, 136 texture units per core 120 of the original and 34 RT cores per 30 of the latest.
Finally, the new card has a base processor clock of 1470 MHz and a boost clock of up to 1650 MHz. Last year's card starts at a noticeably slower 1365MHz and tops out at 1680MHz - just slightly faster than this "super" card. We hypothesize that this discrepancy is due to heat management issues.
Performance
Now we haven't had a chance to fully test the RTX 2060 Super with our range of benchmarks yet. However, we used it to play a few games with ray tracing, Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and the maximum detail settings allowed at 1440p.
In this testing, we found the latest Metro Exodus to play at 50-70 fps, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 60 to 70 fps. Going back to our 2060 RTX 2018 review, we typically saw much lower - but still playable - frame rates of 40 to 45 fps at the same settings and resolution.
Of course, this may be partly due to the optimization patches released by the developers of these games since their release, but it's a noticeable improvement that can't be entirely attributed to savvy optimization.
Conclusion: what to buy?
If you're new to Nvidia's lineup of graphics cards with RTX technology and are willing to spend at least 350 bucks or a quid on one piece, it's really easy to save or save another 50 and upgrade to the RTX 2060 Super. This pricing is most likely by design by Nvidia.
The amount of extra performance and promise you get for the price of another PC game cannot be overestimated. If you're on a very tight budget but need ray tracing, go for the RTX 2060, which is likely to be even cheaper with aftermarket options. Otherwise, accumulate another 50 bills and take that new heat.