NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition Review

Today marks the official launch of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX Super lineup, as well as the revision of its current GeForce RTX series family. According to NVIDIA, their goal with the RTX SUPER lineup is to deliver the best in class performance at every segment. We managed to get our hands on two of the new RTX Super cards just a week ago, one of them is the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition which we’ve tested in this review.

While it’s an obvious move by NVIDIA to tackle on AMD’s upcoming Radeon Navi cards, we’re very sure that everyone is eager to know what kind of improvement are we getting from the newly introduced RTX Super cards.

Specifications

Unboxing

Packaging wise, the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition comes in the usual Founders Edition box that many of us are familiar with. The only difference you will notice is probably the ‘Super’ label for the new RTX Super release.

Inside the box, you’ll find the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition in the usual vertical placement just like the rest of the Founders Edition card. Though, the anti-static bag has been replaced with a new anti-static wrap.

A quick start guide and support guide can be found inside the accessories box, but that’s pretty it for its content. No DVI-D to DisplayPort converter is included with the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition here, so it’s probably an extra that will only be included for RTX 2070 or higher.

The GeForce RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition

At first glance, the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition looks almost identical to the RTX 2060 Founders Edition. If you take a closer look at the card, you will notice the metallic finish on the middle section of the shroud on the RTX 2060 Super. On the RTX 2060, the middle section comes with a matte black finish, which is more preferred as the glossy surface on the RTX 2060 Super is very prone to fingerprints.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the middle section of the shroud comes with a metallic finish and the new ‘RTX 2060 Super’ tag. Other than that, the rest of the cooler remains the same as what we’ve seen on the RTX 2060 Founders Edition.

The card also features a full coverage design for its cooler, which further enhances the rigidity of the card and makes it less prone to PCB sagging issue. A filler board can be found near the end of the PCB to compensate the shorter section for a cleaner look.

The RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition has its 8-pin PCIe power located at the end of the shroud. This design makes cable management easier and cleaner for some users depends on the inner layout of the case that they’re using. An 8-pin PCIe power connector is required to power up and a 550W power supply is recommended as according to the specifications provided by NVIDIA.

The metal backplate we’re seeing here is pretty much the same as the one we’ve seen on the RTX 2060 Founders Edition – with a touch of the ‘RTX Super’ tag on it. Despite having such solid build quality, taking this card apart can be rather difficult – which has been proven by GamersNexus after the RTX 2060 release last year.

As for the display output, you’ll find 2 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI-D, and a type-C connector at the back of the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition.

Test System Setup

For our games benchmark test, we’ve selected a number of AAA titles to run at its highest possible settings using the following setup under an ambient temperature of 30°C:

The test is done separately for games that support both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 at the resolution of 1920×1080, 2560×1440 and 3840×2160 using the GeForce RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition against one the GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition.

Games Benchmark

At 1080p gaming, the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition appears to be way more superior than the RTX 2060 Founders Edition, especially for older AAA titles running on DirectX 11. Newer AAA titles with DXR features i.e Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Battlefield V doesn’t seem to be an issue for the RTX 2060 Super as well.

As we scale up to 1440p, the RTX 2060 Founders Edition started to show signs of not being able to maintain at the ‘optimal’ 60fps range. A view on the performance difference between both the RTX 2060 Founders Edition and RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition can be observed through games that are more demanding i.e Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Metro Exodus on high or ultra settings.

Although both cards aren’t really made for 4K gaming, here’s a quick reference for you in case if you wanted to know how will the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition perform with 4K resolution and high/ultra settings. Lowering the settings will get you to that sweet 60 average fps, but that will depend on how much you’re willing to sacrifice on the graphical details.

Temperature

The GPU idle temperature is around 38°C and hovers around 77°C most of the time during our games benchmark. Enabling DXR feature on RTX games doesn’t seem to be putting a lot of stress to the GPU, as the peak temperature recording still remains at 77°C.

The fan noise isn’t something to worry about as it’s not really noticeable if you have it installed in a PC that you left under the table. If you prefer to have it on your desk like what have here on our test bench, you’ll notice the low hum from the fans during some heavy benchmark.

Final Thoughts

When NVIDIA announced the RTX 2060, there are users who still insisted on getting a GTX 1070 because of the 8GB GDDR5 memory and the 256-bit memory bus. Equipped with a TU106 GPU with higher CUDA cores count, 8GB GDDR6 memory and finally a 256-bit memory bus, the RTX 2060 Super is basically the answer to that.

The official retail price for the RTX 2060 Super Founders Edition is at $399, which is $50 more than the RTX 2060 at $349. Despite the slightly higher price tag, you’re getting a card with RTX 2070 like performance with a small nerf. In terms of value, I would say that the RTX 2060 Super is definitely a steal.

Pros

• Solid, full coverage Aluminum shroud for enhanced rigidity
• Support the latest RTX games
• Basically an RTX 2070 with small nerf
• Reasonably priced
• Bundled with a free game for a limited time (Control and Wolfenstein: Youngblood)

Cons

• Doesn’t support NVLink
• The glossy part on the cooler shroud is prone to fingerprints
• The heat from GPU now goes inside your case