Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Nvidia confirms the 12GB RTX 2060 — and it will arrive next week

By

Nvidia announced a 12GB variant of its RTX 2060 graphics card, and it should arrive on December 7. The announcement follows months of rumors and speculation that Nvidia could revitalize its popular last-gen card to ease the burden of the GPU shortage. It brings with it a significant memory upgrade.

The announcement didn’t come at a big tech event or closed-door press briefing. Instead, Nvidia revealed the card through the patch notes of GeForce driver 497.09. Originally, this seemed like a mistake. Nvidia didn’t acknowledge the card through a blog post about the driver, instead burying in on the fourth page of the patch notes (direct PDF link).

Nvidia RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super review
Dan Baker/Digital Trends

It looks like this silent announcement was Nvidia’s plan all along. You can find the 12GB RTX 2060 alongside the standard 6GB RTX 2060 on Nvidia’s product page. The updated version includes twice the amount of video memory as the base model, as well as some boosts to core count and clock speed.

Recommended Videos

The 12GB RTX 2060 matches the specs of the RTX 2060 Super, but note that Nvidia isn’t using the Super branding on the new card. The 12GB model includes 2,176 CUDA cores, a base clock speed of 1,470MHz, and a boost clock speed of 1,470MHz — the same specs as the RTX 2060 Super.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

The lack of Super branding is important. Nvidia hasn’t announced the pricing of the card yet, but the company says that the price will reflect that the 12GB model is a premium version of the $349 RTX 2060. The RTX 2060 Super launched for $399, so hopefully this 12GB model will be below that mark.

Originally, we viewed a 12GB RTX 2060 as nothing but hot air. At the beginning of 2021, Nvidia introduced some additional RTX 2060 Super supply into the market. The company didn’t make a fuss about it publicly, idly letting the cards bolster supply while it focused on manufacturing additional RTX 30-series cards.

Since then, rumors of a 12GB RTX 2060 variant have run amok. There wasn’t much to lend creditability to these rumors outside of the murmurs from Twitter and YouTube leakers. That was until Gigabyte, one of Nvidia’s desktop graphics card partners, filed several listings for 12GB RTX 2060 graphics cards.

We should see various 12GB RTX 2060 models next week. It seems Nvidia is intentionally launching the card under the radar, perhaps in a bid to deter scalpers and bots from snatching up the cards when they launch.

That could be why Nvidia hasn’t revealed the pricing. Given the shortages of components, the list prices set by Nvidia and AMD are unrealistic at best and inaccurate at worst. That’s something we saw with the RX 6600 XT, where some models launched for $200 more than the price set by AMD. No official pricing from Nvidia means that board partners are free to set a reasonable price based on the cost of components.

Although these are positive efforts, we’re not sure how much they’ll help alleviate the GPU shortage. Even the base RTX 2060 has been subject to price increases, so we’ll be waiting to see if this new 12GB model changes that.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jacob Roach
Jacob Roach
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
I hope Nvidia never makes an RTX 5090
A hand grabbing MSI's RTX 4090 Suprim X.

For all the controversies around GPU prices, insane power requirements, and massive coolers, Nvidia's RTX 4090 remains one of the best graphics cards you can buy. It's uncompromising in its power, and it's the perfect halo product to sit on top of the current-gen GPUs. I don't think Nvidia should take another swing at this class of GPU, though.

For as powerful as the RTX 4090 is, it's only become more obvious that it's a problematic GPU. Trying to deliver such a high-end GPU in a consumer PC has some unforeseen consequences, all of which we've seen come to light over the past year. It's hard to imagine that Nvidia will skip making an RTX 5090, but I hope it shows some restraint in the next generation.
Melting connectors
The RTX 4090 isn't really built for gaming. It's a monster gaming GPU -- just read our RTX 4090 review -- but I'm talking about its construction. This is a 450-watt graphics card that has up to 600W of power on tap, and a size that commonly occupies three slots and sometimes even more. It's big, it's heavy, and it's crazy powerful.

Read more
How I conceded to the RTX 4060 Ti
Logo on the RTX 4060 Ti graphics card.

The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB was the most disappointing GPU I reviewed this year. That was true when I reviewed it at launch, and I stand by that statement today.

But recently, I found myself recommending that same GPU to a friend of mine who was building a PC. I wasn't trying to sabotage his PC -- I promise. And so far, he's having a great time playing games with the card. So how can a GPU be both disappointing and something I'd recommend to a friend?

Read more
This might be why the RTX 4090 is getting so expensive
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.

The RTX 4090, despite being one of the best graphics cards you can buy, has been the center of controversy over the last few months. The powerful consumer graphics card has seen price increases while GPU prices seem to be falling elsewhere, and we might finally know why.

Thousands of RTX 4090 graphics cards are being repurposed as AI chips in China, reports Wccftech. Just days before the report, a ban on AI chips sold to China from the U.S. went into effect, which includes the RTX 4090. The report states that Nvidia prioritized "a large chunk" of RTX 4090 graphics cards to China a few days before the ban went into effect.

Read more