It’s been almost a year since Nvidia started re-releasing older GPUs, like GeForce RTX 2060 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, to help cope with the massive shortage of graphics cards worldwide. Recently, Nvidia went a step further, quietly rolling out a brand new version of the RTX 2060, doubling the VRAM to 12GB.
Emphasis on “quiet” – even if you regularly check the stock of available GPUs or take a close look graphics card deals instructions, you probably won’t even notice a 12GB RTX 2060 popping up around. So what’s the problem with this mysterious card, and should you consider buying an RTX 20 series card in this day and age?
After all, it’s still based on the old Turing architecture, so while you still get DLSS and basic ray tracing support, the 12GB RTX 2060 won’t deliver the overall performance on par with Ampere GPUs like RTX 3060. Then again, there’s a definite logic to bringing the old GPUs back: with manufacturing costs covered long ago, they could (in theory) sell for less than the RTX 30 series or AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series. A potential panacea for the massive inflation that other models are suffering from – maybe not one of them. best graphics card right now, but is a capable kit for most games.
Sadly, the 12GB RTX 2060 immediately suffers from another but still familiar problem: there’s barely any supply for it. After spending so much time searching, I found exactly one UK listing that actually costs, through Punch . Technology. To scan has the same model made by Zotac, no fixed price. Both are out of stock.
It’s tempting to blame this on regular scaling bots and crypto miners, though it’s also unclear how many 12GB of RTX 2060s were produced in the first place. Again, Nvidia really, really hasn’t made a song and dance of the release, with UK official website doesn’t even acknowledge the new specifications exist.
But even if new goods leave the factory in bulk, the 12GB RTX 2060 really isn’t that cheap. Punch Technology’s asking price is £515, almost double the price of the original RTX 2060 6GB at launch, while in the US it’s available (yay) for $772 (Eh). The only positive thing I can think of to say about this is that the original RTX 2060 is hard to come by, costing between $700 and $1000, depending on your import willingness. Soup RTX 2060 Super, with 8GB of VRAM, is even more expensive, although back in the UK you can at least get one 6GB RTX 2060 for under £450.
It’s a situation that makes one wonder if the new model is really meant to be an affordable gaming GPU. It’s perhaps worth noting that the 12GB RTX 2060 doesn’t come with Nvidia’s usual set of hash rate limiters, which are often included on their newer GPUs to gauge crypto mining efficiency. My understanding is that the RTX 2060 has never been a great mining card to start with, although it seems the 12GB version is designed to power the crypto crowd as much as the hardcore PC builders. cable.
This is not a bad thing. If miners are buying mining tokens, it means that they are buying less GPUs focusing specifically on gaming, leaving more GPUs. Clearly, however, there’s not much to gain, if there’s no stock to start with.
It’s all quite a shame, especially since the RTX 2060 6GB can still maintain pretty decent performance. At 1080p, we recorded it hitting an average of 60fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Total War: Warhammer II, Monster Hunter: World and The Witcher III, all on maximum graphics settings. of them. Same goes for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey at Very High settings, while the RTX 2060 Super typically adds around 10fps to each of these settings when Katharine tested it.
Like (apparently) most other tech hacks, I haven’t had any luck finding an RTX 2060 12GB to review, although since it probably won’t perform worse than these two other GPUs it will either. produces a suitable 1080p option. Alas, far from being cleared up, this new version seems to have been immediately dragged down to the hell that is the contemporary PC graphics market. Welcome, and goodbye.
