Not all of EVGA's recently unveiled GeForce RTX 2060 KO Gaming graphics cards will use the TU106 silicon, which is the most high-end die available for the RTX 2060. There are RTX 2060 KO Gaming cards featuring TU104 silicon, more specifically the TU104-150 die, as TechPowerUp discovered.
According to VideoCardz, some of these cards will come with the TU106 die as well.
Nvidia utilizes TU106 for its RTX 2060, RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070. The TU104 die, on the other hand, is for the higher end models, such as the RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Super. Therefore, it's reasonable to think that the primary motivation behind sticking the TU104 die inside the RTX 2060 KO Gaming is cost reduction.
The TU104-150 dies found in the RTX 2060 KO Gaming are most likely those that didn't make the cut for the more powerful models. Keep in mind that the TU104 die is a much larger chip than the TU106 and houses up to 3,072 CUDA cores. The RTX 2060 is specced at 1,920 CUDA cores. So as long as 60% of the CUDA cores are good, the TU104 die will work just fine for a RTX 2060.
For the most part, the performance difference between a RTX 2060 with the TU106 die and another with the TU104 die should be insignificant. However, it has been proven that the TU104 die performs better with Blender.
Unfortunately, it's impossible to tell which die you're getting. Not every RTX 2060 KO Gaming will use the TU104 since EVGA utilizes whichever die is available at the time of production. So get ready to enter the silicon lottery; the price of the ticket is $299.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
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AgentLozen So TU106 is used in the 2070, 2070 Super, and 2080 and the TU104 is used in the 2060, 2060 Super, and 2070. Did I get that right?Reply
There's a line that reads, "Keep in mind that the TU104 die is a much larger chip than the TU106 and houses up to 3,072 CUDA cores. " Why is the TU104 a larger die when its meant to drive smaller graphics cards? Was this a typo? -
King_V I think it's the use of imperfect TU104s that will come in here? I guess?Reply
All I could think when reading this is to kind of wail "Dammit, Nvidia! Just because AMD is doing weird stuff with the 5600, don't YOU guys start with the craziness!" -
MatBailie AgentLozen said:So TU106 is used in the 2070, 2070 Super, and 2080 and the TU104 is used in the 2060, 2060 Super, and 2070. Did I get that right?
There's a line that reads, "Keep in mind that the TU104 die is a much larger chip than the TU106 and houses up to 3,072 CUDA cores. " Why is the TU104 a larger die when its meant to drive smaller graphics cards? Was this a typo?
Maybe the article has been corrected, but right now it says...
Nvidia utilizes TU106 for its RTX 2060, RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070. The TU104 die, on the other hand, is for the higher end models, such as the RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Super. -
MatBailie King_V said:I think it's the use of imperfect TU104s that will come in here? I guess?
All I could think when reading this is to kind of wail "Dammit, Nvidia! Just because AMD is doing weird stuff with the 5600, don't YOU guys start with the craziness!"
Well, yeah, that's what Intel, AMD and nVidia have been doing for Decades. Imperfect but functioning chips get binned as lower tier products. The only change here is that the binning for TU104 is being extended one tier lower than previously. Yowser, how wierd...
Oh, and it's even written in the article...
The TU104-150 dies found in the RTX 2060 KO Gaming are most likely those that didn't make the cut for the more powerful models. -
stevenguy This article is just flat out wrong. Whoever wrote it misunderstood what Steve from Gamers Nexus was saying. The KO cards all have the TU104 dies. This goes for the regular KO's as well as the "Ultra" version.Reply