As you might have seen in my Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 review yesterday, Nvidia’s newest graphics card is actually fairly highly effective. Despite being round £100 / $100 costlier than its rapid predecessor, the GTX 1060, the increase in pace you get from the RTX 2060 is completely value it in my books, particularly for those who’re searching for a succesful 2560×1440 card that may do just about all the things at max settings with out breaking a sweat. And to point out you simply how nippy it’s, I’ve gone and made some good, beautiful graphs for you.
To see how every card stacks up, I’ve put them by means of just about each game I at the moment use as a part of my common benchmarking suite together with my trusty Intel Core i5-8600Ok CPU and 16GB of RAM. That contains Final Fantasy XV, Monster Hunter: World, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Total War: Warhammer II, Forza Horizon four and The Witcher III. I’ve additionally examined them at each 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 resolutions to see what’s doable with each graphics setting maxed out (besides Final Fantasy XV, the place I saved all of Nvidia’s additional results comparable to HairWorks, TurfEffects, ShadowLibs and VXAO turned off).
The playing cards in query are the Nvidia Founders Edition of the RTX 2060, and Asus’ 6GB GeForce GTX 1060 OC 9Gbps Edition, the latter of which, for the file, doesn’t truly appear to be obtainable any extra however is the one GTX 1060 I at the moment have handy. However, with default base and increase clock speeds of 1594MHz and 1809MHz, this Asus mannequin undoubtedly sits on the upper-end of the 6GB GTX 1060 scale – second solely to EVGA’s SSC Gaming ACX 3.zero and Asus’ ROG Strix OC Gaming playing cards – so it ought to nonetheless give us a fairly good thought of how the RTX 2060 compares to the perfect and most costly GTX 1060s that are at the moment obtainable.
GTX 1060 vs RTX 2060: 1080p efficiency
Let’s begin with 1920×1080 efficiency. As you possibly can see from the graph under, the distinction is actually fairly stark. The GTX 1060 was at all times an excellent selection for max 1080p gaming, however a few of immediately’s robust guys are actually fairly taxing on it. In most instances, I solely needed to drop the standard settings down a peg to get again as much as 55-60fps (or, within the case of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, simply tweak the anti-aliasing settings a bit), however goodness me simply take a look at all these huge numbers on the RTX 2060.
Going again to Shadow of the Tomb Raider for a second, that is simply some of the startling outcomes of the lot, as these common body charges are based mostly off having its most, and actually very taxing, SMAA x4 anti-aliasing engaged within the game’s performance-tanking Cozumel Caves sequence proper in the beginning of the game.
That’s a shocking victory for the RTX 2060, because it’s successfully turned one thing that’s barely playable in that exact state right into a silky clean beaut. I’m not saying Shadow of the Tomb Raider is totally unplayable on the GTX 1060 on its Highest graphics setting (as talked about above, I solely needed to knock the AA right down to its subsequent SMAAT x2 setting to get a way more agreeable common of 55fps), but when it’s absolute perfection you’re chasing at this decision, the RTX 2060 is unquestionably the superior card on this respect.
The identical goes for Total War: Warhammer II, Monster Hunter: World and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which all broke the 60fps boundary with ease on the RTX 2060, as a substitute of trundling round between 40-50fps on the GTX 1060. Again, you solely must go down one graphics preset to get a clean 60fps on the GTX 1060, which generally nonetheless appears fairly rattling first rate, however for those who’ve obtained a excessive refresh fee monitor at your disposal, then the RTX 2060 is unquestionably going to have the ability to make extra use of it at most settings than the GTX 1060 is on High.
GTX 1060 vs RTX 2060: 1440p efficiency
Now we get to the actual meat of the difficulty, as whereas the GTX 1060 continues to be a superbly first rate card at 1080p, its efficiency at 2560×1440 leaves slightly to be desired within the previous shiny graphics division. It’s nonetheless a good selection for 1440p gaming so long as you don’t thoughts taking part in on Medium settings for essentially the most half, however for those who’ve been feeling like your GTX 1060 is beginning to present its age a bit with current games, there’s some superb information to be discovered within the RTX 2060.
As you possibly can see, most of immediately’s huge blockbusters merely aren’t playable on the GTX 1060 at most settings. Three out of seven didn’t even make it to 30fps, and one other two solely nearly made it over the opposite facet of that 30fps parapet.
The RTX 2060, however, makes the unplayable playable, providing enhancements of no less than 50% in plenty of instances, if lower than 80% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (which, once more, is with its high SMAA x4 anti-aliasing in impact).
All proper, I’ll admit it’s not a totally good common of 60fps generally on the RTX 2060, though plenty of games did, in reality, hit that quantity often throughout testing. But if you beforehand needed to fork out nearer to £420 / $480 to the identical stage of efficiency from the GTX 1070Ti (which hit virtually equivalent figures to the RTX 2060 in each game listed above, I’d add), that’s nonetheless fairly good going contemplating the RTX 2060 prices round two thirds of that.
GTX 1060 vs RTX 2060 conclusion
That’s a fairly compelling set of ends in my books, and virtually actually what it’s best to think about upgrading to for those who’re a present GTX 1060 proprietor who desires to get extra out of their 1440p monitor, which is why it’s my new favorite best graphics card in our 1440p class. Personally, I feel it’s additionally the cardboard that GTX 1070 house owners ought to think about upgrading to in the event that they’re sad with their present stage of 1440p efficiency, however I’ll be doing a separate, graph-laden comparability article for that card and its Ti counterpart very shortly.
If you’ve nonetheless solely obtained a 1080p monitor, although, I feel the GTX 1060 will proceed to serve you fairly effectively for the foreseeable future, particularly for those who’re not that fussed about having the shiniest, prettiest graphics. You could really feel it’s value taking the plunge for those who’ve obtained a flash, excessive refresh fee monitor that may do as much as 120Hz or 144Hz, for instance, however for normal 60Hz peeps the place all you’re ever going to see is 60fps, I reckon the GTX 1060 will do you simply fantastic in the meanwhile.
