In an attempt to contest AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT, Nvidia upgraded their GeForce RTX 2060, by adding to its name, as Capcom would a new iteration of Street Fighter, a “Super” suffix. Together with this suffix do come some considerable hardware upgrades.
Firstly, the base clock speed increased from 1365 MHz to 1470 MHz, with the boost clock going down slightly from 1680 MHz to 1650 MHz, while the computing power of the GPU increased from 5,242 to 6,397 GFLOPS. The CUDA Cores will also grow, from 1920 to 2176, as do the TMUs, from 120 to 136, and the ROPs, from 48 to 64. In addition, the VRAM went from 6GB to 8GB, the memory bus width changes from 192-bit to 256-bit, and a memory bandwidth change from 336 GB/s to 448 GB/s.
These upgrades translate to a 15-20% overall effective speed increase from the previous 2060 model, but would also result in a slight TDP increase as well, going up from 160W to 175W.
These, of course, are the specifications of the reference card, which are given to the GPU manufacturing companies by Nvidia as a template from which they can later build upon to make their version of the RTX 2060 Super stand out from their competitors.
Given that the Nvidia RTX GeForce 2060 Super is one of the best affordable GPUs available in the market, allowing you to play games at over 100 FPS at 1080p resolutions and near 60 FPS at 4K resolutions, it’s worth the effort to search through the aftermarket GPUs that manufacturers have to offer, in order to find the best deals for the the best compact version, the most optimal price to value option, and the best overall version of the Nvidia RTX GeForce 2060 Super.
Best RTX 2060 Super Cards – Our Recommendations
Best Compact RTX 2060 Super for ITX Builds
If you are looking to purchase a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super GPU for a small form factor case that cannot hold a full-sized CPU, then this compact option from ZOTAC, the RTX 2060 Super Mini, is the best option you will find.
ZOTAC is a hardware manufacturer based in Hong Kong (though their products are manufactured in China) and have been a competitive manufacturer, mostly due to their low prices, useful software, and great designs.
The RTX 2060 Super Mini has all the standard specifications of Nvidia’s RTX 2060 Super reference card, such as the 1650 MHz boost clock, for they instead focused on the physical specifications of the GPU. By doing so, they’ve made it only 8.3 inches (~210mm) in length, and 4.7 inches (~120mm) in height (dual slot), rendering it capable of fitting into 99% of systems, as mentioned by ZOTAC. In addition, this GPU has a wraparound metal backplate to provide better rigidity, and an Ice Storm 2.0 cooling solution (3 copper heatpipes, wide array aluminum heatsink) with a two-fan design – though it must be mentioned that the temperatures will rise rapidly if overclocking this GPU, a common issue with small form factor compatible hardware. In terms of connectivity, it has three 1.4 DisplayPorts, and an HDMI 2.0b port, allowing for up to four displays.
In terms of software, it includes ZOTAC’s Firestorm: for fine tuning of the GPUs speeds and metrics, as well as ZOTAC’s OC Scanner: a program that calculates optimal overclock speeds depending on the hardware configuration.
Currently, you can find the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2060 Super Mini for about $399; so, if you’re in the market for a GPU to situate in an SFF case, this is the way to go.
Best Value RTX 2060 Super
Many times, the aftermarkets options have overblown prices, as companies will value their GPU at the cost of a higher-tiered Nvidia card; the best example being the COLORFUL 2060 Super Vulcan X OC which had an asking price of $759 – as much as an RTX 2080 Super. If you’re looking for a reasonably priced option that does not cut corners, the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC is the way to go.
One of the leading manufacturers of computer hardware, the Taiwanese company, Gigabyte, is always a solid choice when looking for motherboards or Nvidia GPUs.
This Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super features boost core clock speeds of 1710 GHz and employs three 80mm, alternate spinning and 3D stripe curved, fans. The Windforce 3X Cooling system also features four direct touch, pure copper, composite heatpipes which cover the VRAM though a metal plate contact. Finally, it also features an all-metal backplate for enhanced durability. Connectivity wise, it has three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.0b.
The Gigabyte logo on the side of the GPU features RGB Fusion 2.0 with 16.7M customizable color options and various lighting effects, which can be synchronized with other Gigabyte hardware.
Additional software includes the AORUS engine, which allows you to adjust clock speed, voltage, and fan performance for your RTX 2060 Super.
Given that the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC is currently priced at $409, all the aforementioned features look twice as impressive. An overall smart buy if you’re looking to purchase the Nvidia RTX 2060 Super.
Best Overall RTX 2060 Super for Gaming
EVGA’s XC Ultra version of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super has overall quality, reasonably high boost clock speeds, and EVGA’s excellent customer support, all in one.
EVGA is an American computer hardware company that creates GPUs and Intel chipset motherboards; now entering the market of gaming peripherals and laptops. They are well known for their generous warranty support and customer-oriented policies.
The EVGA RTX 2060 Super XC Ultra has an increased boost clock speed of 1695 MHz, and a dual fan setup. What makes these two fans unique – as compared to their competitors – is that these fans use hydraulic bearings, resulting in less noise output and increased longevity and durability.
In addition to these fans, this GPU features iCX2 Cooling, which includes a plate punched baseplate with a heatpipe in direct contact with the VRM area. It also includes a cross-drilled, and L-shape finned, heatsink with a direct-contact heat-spreader for better head dissipation. The EVGA RTX 2060 Super also has an all-metal backplate for increased rigidity. In terms of connectivity, like the two aforementioned GPUs, this EVGA model features three DisplayPorts, and one HDMI 2.0b; though it also has a USB Type-C port as well.
In terms of software, the package includes EVGA’s Precision X1 software, which features: stress testing utilities, an overclocking scanner, RGB lighting customizations (for the RGB lit EVGA logo), and GPU fan controls.
The EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 Super XC Ultra currently sells for $439 on EVGA’s official website, so if you’re looking for an all-around high-quality build with excellent customer support to back it up, do give it a look.