ASUS RoG STRIX Gaming RTX 2060 Graphics Card Review

STRIX Gaming RTX 2060 While the RTX cards have been with us a little while now, we've somehow struggled to get our hands on an RTX 2060! However, today is a great day, as the lovely ASUS Strix RTX 2060 is here at eTeknix HQ. Featuring the typical ASUS STRIX cooler design we've all come to know and love, this RTX 2060 should deliver fantastic performance. Given that this same cooler design is capable of cooling some of the fastest GPUs on the market, it should have no issues with the more affordable RTX 2060 chipset. Are you looking to enter the world of Ray Tracing and DLSS? Then let's dive in for a closer look at what this GPU has to offer! What ASUS Had to Say "The ROG Strix GeForce RTX™ 2060 teams up NVIDIA®'s A-list GPU with an elite cast of specialists, setting the stage for epic gaming action. Gargantuan power delivery provides the muscle to push overclocking boundaries, while cooling that's honed to perfection keeps the spotlight squarely on Turing™'s performance. And with an arsenal of utilities that allow you to customize and tweak this extreme hardware, you call the shots." - ASUS.com Features NVIDIA TURING: ROG GeForce RTX™ graphics cards are powered by the Turing™ GPU architecture and the all-new RTX platform. This gives you up to 6X the performance of previous-generation graphics cards and brings the power of real-time ray tracing and AI to games.DirectX 12: Power new visual effects and rendering techniques for more lifelike gaming.NVIDIA Shadowplay™ Record and share high-quality gameplay videos, screenshots, and livestreams with your friends.Patented Wing-blade Fans deliver high air pressure, reduced noise levels, IP5X certified dust resistance, and 0dB mode for silent gaming.*MaxContact Technology allows 2X more contact with the GPU chip for improved thermal transfer.Auto-Extreme Technology uses automation to enhance reliability.Super Alloy Power II includes premium alloy chokes, solid polymer capacitors, and an array of high-current power stages to fuel Turing™’s cores.ASUS FanConnect II equips 2 hybrid-controlled fan headers for optimal system cooling.GPU Tweak II provides intuitive performance tweaking and thermal controls. Specifications For in-depth specifications, please visit the official product page here. Packaging The box is very nicely designed, with a stylish image of the card right on the front. As you can see, it's the classic STRIX cooler design, with plenty of RGB on show too. It also comes iwth Aura Sync, and 6 Months of WTFast Premium. Around the back, you'll find all the usual technical information. You can find details of the display outputs, cooling configuration, and advanced overclocking features, such as the power delivery and GPU Tweak II. Of course, we'll take a closer look at the card in a moment. A Closer Look As I said before, this is the classic STRIX cooler, we've seen it time and time again. I honestly think ASUS only have the one cooler. However, if it isn't broken, why fix it! This cooler has proven its worth, time and time again. Not only that, but it's complete overkill for the RTX 2060, so it should have no issues maxing out the performance, temperatures, and helping with overclocking too. One feature I am happy to see retained is the additional fan headers. You can hook up fans directly to the GPU, allowing it to request more air from your chassis fans, rather than just upping its own fans RPM when things get toasty. Around the back, an all-black backplate looks nice and slick. Here, you'll find the usual DP and HDMI ports for your connectivity pleasure. The massive heatsink is, well, it's massive. The PCB is even extended to deal with the bulk of it. Plus it's quite thick, providing plenty of surface area for heat dissipation. Beyond that, you'll also find an 8-pin + 6-pin power configuration. Finally, we have a huge custom backplate, keeping things from drooping, cooling the PCB, and also looking fabulous. Snuck into the back, you'll also find a BIOS control, voltage points, and an LED master switch. All in all, a pretty fantastic looking GPU. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test bench to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Graphics Card Test System Motherboard – Aorus Z390 Gaming MasterProcessor – Intel Core i9-9900K (Stock)RAM – Crucial Ballistix Gaming 32GB (4 x 8GB) 3000 MHzCPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D15SPower Supply – Be Quiet Power Zone 1000WMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Thermaltake Core P5 TGOperating System – Windows 10 64-bitMonitor – AOC 28-Inch 4K Gaming Monitor Additional Hardware Killawatt style electricity usage meter wall plugPrecision Gold N05CC Decibel meter Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. With our previous reviews, we used the “Medium or Normal” preset. However, as GPUs get faster, we’ve now moved that up to “High” profiles for all games, at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, as is FreeSync and G-Sync technologies or similar. Graphics card power usage set to optimised or balance, and the system power mode set to High Performance within Windows and the available GPU driver software. Identical settings are used for all resolutions unless otherwise stated. Games and Settings Used Shadow of the Tomb Raider DX12 High Preset1080p1440p2160pDeus Ex: Mankind Divided DX12 High Preset1080p1440p2160pGhost Recon: Wildlands High Preset1080p1440p2160pBattlefield V DX12 High Preset1080p1440p2160pBattlefield V DX12 High Preset (DXR Enabled) NVIDIA RTX Cards ONLY1080p1440p2160pMetro Exodus DX12 High Preset1080p1440p2160pMetro Exodus DX12 High Preset (RT, then RT and DLSS Enabled) NVIDIA RTX Cards ONLY1080p1440p2160p Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download)FireStrike Ultra BenchmarkUnigine Superposition (download)4K Optimised BenchmarkHWMonitor (download)GPU-Z Noise Everyone has a reasonable noise level preference when it comes to comes to components on a computer. Some can handle all fans at 100% load to keep temperatures down; some want an entirely silent computer. To accurately gauge the noise output of a graphics card, we position a Precision Gold N05CC one meter above our open-air test bench and take an average reading at idle and load. Gaming noise levels are taken during a CPU vs CPU match a preset match in Soul Calibur VI. Power Consumption We take power readings during idle state with no background applications running. Then again at 50% completion of the Unigine Superposition benchmark, using the average as the final published result. Gaming power consumption is taken during a CPU vs CPU match a preset match in Soul Calibur VI. Temperatures We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered from Unigine Superposition after a 4K optimised run, confirming the numbers are accurate with HWMonitor. Furthermore, the ambient temperature is always kept +/- 1c from 21c. Gaming temperatures are taken during a CPU vs CPU match a preset match in Soul Calibur VI. Synthetic Benchmarks 3DMark FireStrike 3DMark TimeSpy Unigine Superposition Shadow of the Tomb Raider Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Ghost Recon: Wildlands Battlefield V Metro Exodus Ray Tracing and DLSS Power Consumption Temperatures Acoustics How Much Does It Cost? The ASUS STRIX RTX 2060 is available now, with an average retail price of little over £400. That's pretty good, given the MSRP for this model is £494.99. The market is driving prices down, and that's great for consumers. There is that STRIX premium though, as standard models can be up £50 or more cheaper. Overview When it comes down to it, this may be the first RTX 2060 we've reviewed, but it's not the first one I've personally used. Without a doubt, it's one of the finest models for this chipset on the market. However, you do pay a premium for that huge cooler, but it's clearly money well spent. Gaming This is the "cheapest" RTX chipset, far below the MSRP of the RTX 2070, RTX 2080, and certainly the RTX 2080 Ti. However, it still packs quite a punch in any regard when it comes to gaming. For those playing at 1080p and 1440p who want to have high refresh rates, it's got your back. This will certainly appeal to those who have high frame rate monitors and G-Sync displays too. STRIX LIFE That cooler is complete overkill for this chipset, but that's not a bad thing. Overall, it delivered both incredibly low temperatures, and some of the quietest performance of any card we've tested. It doesn't have to work hard at all to tame the modest beast that is the RTX 2060 chipset. That does mean you have plenty of OC headroom, and can push fan profiles up if required. Furthermore, it's also one of the best looking coolers around. It packs great style anyway, but the black shroud, quality fans, and some lovely RGB all set you up for a great looking PC build. Plus, the premium backplate always gets a thumbs up from us. Should I Buy One? I do like the RTX 2060 cards, they're pretty powerful for non-4K gamers. Plus, with RTX you get DLSS and Ray Tracing that works well enough for now. However, both certainly have room for improvements and we are seeing performance improving drivers roll out regularly right now. It's a bit of a premium over other RTX 2060s, but for build quality, style, and performance, it has a lot to love. ASUS RoG STRIX Gaming RTX 2060 Graphics Card Review