Tom's Hardware Verdict

Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G harnesses the strengths of Nvidia’s TU106 processor and adds an aggressive power limit to facilitate notably higher GPU frequencies. It’s cooled by a capable thermal solution, yielding quiet operation and relatively low temperatures. There’s consequently not much for us to complain about aside from this card’s premium price tag.

Reasons to buy

+
150 MHz faster than Nvidia’s reference spec
+
High power limit allows aggressive GPU Boost frequencies
+
Dual-slot form factor
+
Windforce 3X cooling solution operates quietly
+
Subtle RGB lighting

Reasons to avoid

-
Significantly higher power consumption under load compared to reference TDP
-
Premium price versus entry-level GeForce RTX 2060 cards
-
Plastic backplate serves no purpose

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Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G Review

With Nvidia’s Turing-based GPU line-up laid bare in front of us, it’s so much easier to draw comparisons and make recommendations without hemming or hawing about cards-to-come. We already know that GeForce RTX 2060 is a good performer at 2560 x 1440 and can hold its own at 1920 x 1080 with real-time ray tracing enabled in games like Battlefield V. We also know that the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a better value in terms of performance per dollar. But if you’re looking to arm yourself with the Turing architecture’s signature features for the lowest price possible, GeForce RTX 2060 is where it all begins. Is it worth paying extra for a premium 2060, though, or should you stick with a baseline model at $350/£330?

Consider that Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2060 has a base clock rate of 1,365 MHz and a GPU Boost rating of 1,680 MHz. Meanwhile, the GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G we were sent by Gigabyte has a similar base frequency and an 1,830 MHz GPU Boost clock. That 9% increase doesn’t exactly justify an 11%-higher price (the Gaming OC Pro 6G sells for $390 in the U.S.). However, lower operating temperatures, a semi-passive fan mode, and RGB lighting might just make up the difference.

Size-wise, the GeForce Gaming OC Pro is a formidable piece of hardware. Whereas Nvidia’s Founders Edition board measures just over 9” (23cm) long, almost 4.5” (11.5cm) tall, and 1.5” (3.9cm) wide, Gigabyte’s card is more than 11” (28cm) long, 4.4” (11.3cm) tall, and just as thick. In fact, it looks a lot like the GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming OC 8G we already reviewed. Much of the card’s extra length is attributable to the same Windforce 3X cooler. Fortunately, a long heat sink means Gigabyte has no trouble cooling TU106’s 160W TDP in a dual-slot form factor.

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Despite its brawny dimensions, Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro goes relatively light on density. Weighing in at 1.79lb. (811g) it’s a featherweight compared to the 2.15lb (974g) GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition. Nvidia’s copper sink topped with pipes and aluminum fins is solid all the way through. Gigabyte, on the other hand, utilizes a three-part sink joined by four copper heat pipes. Those pipes are flattened in the middle and placed directly over Nvidia’s GPU, where they draw heat away before dissipating it through the fin arrays.

Three 80mm fans sit on top of the thermal solution. The outside fans spin counter-clockwise, while the middle fan rotates clockwise. Turbulence is purportedly kept to a minimum, generating less competing airflow from adjacent fans. Then, at idle, the fans stop spinning altogether by virtue of a feature that Gigabyte calls 3D Active Fan. Enthusiasts who prefer to maintain lower idle temperatures can disable 3D Active Fan using downloadable Aorus Engine software. Frankly, the fans make so little noise that we prefer to keep them spinning (even though the semi-passive mode is one of this card’s competitive advantages).

Around the fans, Gigabyte uses plastic gratuitously to form a shroud. Sharp angles and silver accents do look nice, though folds over the card’s top and bottom serve to block air moving through the vertically-oriented fins. A freer-flowing configuration, particularly above the heat sink, might have helped thermal performance. Instead, that’s where we find this card’s RGB-backlit Gigabyte logo.

For the most part, we approve of Gigabyte’s complement of display outputs. Three DisplayPort connectors and a single HDMI interface cover the most common multi-monitor configurations. At the same time, an almost $400 GeForce RTX 2060 should probably support VirtualLink via USB Type-C, which this card is missing. Eliminating the DVI connector found on Nvidia’s Founders Edition design yields a freer-flowing grille. However, the potential benefit of additional airflow is lost since the cooler’s fins move air perpendicular to the bracket.

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Header Cell - Column 0	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G	GeForce RTX 2060 FE	GeForce RTX 2070 FE	GeForce GTX 1060 FE
Architecture (GPU)	Turing (TU106)	Turing (TU106)	Turing (TU106)	Pascal (GP106)
CUDA Cores	1920	1920	2304	1280
Peak FP32 Compute	7.03 TFLOPS	6.45 TLFOPS	7.9 TFLOPS	4.4 TFLOPS
Tensor Cores	240	240	288	N/A
RT Cores	30	30	36	N/A
Texture Units	120	120	144	80
Base Clock Rate	1365 MHz	1365 MHz	1410 MHz	1506 MHz
GPU Boost Rate	1830 MHz	1680 MHz	1710 MHz	1708 MHz
Memory Capacity	6GB GDDR6	6GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6	6GB GDDR5
Memory Bus	192-bit	192-bit	256-bit	192-bit
Memory Bandwidth	336 GB/s	336 GB/s	448 GB/s	192 GB/s
ROPs	48	48	64	48
L2 Cache	3MB	3MB	4MB	1.5MB
TDP	190W (measured)	160W	185W	120W
Transistor Count	10.8 billion	10.8 billion	10.8 billion	4.4 billion
Die Size	445 mm²	445 mm²	445 mm²	200 mm²
SLI Support	No	No	No	No

What lives under the GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G’s hood is already well-known. We dug deep into the TU106 graphics processor and its underlying architecture in Nvidia’s Turing Architecture Explored: Inside the GeForce RTX 2080, and then again in Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Review: Is Mainstream Ray Tracing For Real? Gigabyte takes the same chip with 1,920 of its CUDA cores enabled and bumps the typical GPU Boost rating up to 1,830 MHz—a 9% increase compared to the Founders Edition’s 1,680 MHz.

GeForce RTX 2060 is a more mainstream graphics card than the other Turing-based boards we’ve reviewed. As such, our graphics workstation, based on an MSI Z170 Gaming M7 motherboard and Intel Core i7-7700K CPU at 4.2 GHz, is apropos. The processor is complemented by G.Skill’s F4-3000C15Q-16GRR memory kit. Crucial’s MX200 SSD is used as well, joined by a 1.6TB Intel DC P3700 loaded down with games.

As far as competition goes, the 2060 goes up against GeForce GTX 1070 and 1070 Ti. Of course, comparisons to GeForce GTX 1060, 1660 Ti, and 1660 are inevitable as well. All of those cards are included in our line-up, as is GeForce RTX 2070. On the AMD side, we’re mostly interested in Radeon RX Vega 64 and Radeon RX Vega 56, although the more recent Radeon RX 590 seemed like an interesting comparison, too.