Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Nvidia launches the RTX 2060, lowering the price of ray tracing to $349

By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

At CES 2019, Nvidia revealed the newest card in its series of GeForce RTX GPUs, the RTX 2060. Rumors had pointed toward the possibility of the release of a GTX 1160, which might forego the advanced features present in RTX. But instead, Nvidia has developed and announced a $349 version of its RTX graphics.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spent the first hour of the presentation recapping on the past year of RTX technology, highlighting games like Battlefield V and Anthem. These are two very high-profile games that feature RTX features. Battlefield V supports both ray tracing and DLSS, while Anthem supports only the latter.

More CES 2019 coverage

The card looks nearly identical to its older brothers, the RTX 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti, with a dual-fan setup and clean design. Nvidia’s RTX 2060 features 240 tensor cores with 52 teraflops of deep learning power, 5 giga-rays of real-time ray tracing, and 6GB of GDDR6 RAM. Not surprisingly, Nvidia didn’t spend too much time comparing how the 2060 compares to the more high-powered cards. As Nvidia noted, real-time ray tracing hits systems with a significant tax on performance.

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

To reassure the audience that the card could handle that sort of task, Nvidia spent a considerable amount of time showing how DLSS could reverse the negative performance effects of ray tracing. How many games support both features? Right now, not many.

It looks like the RTX 2060 will offer a significant performance gain over the 1060. It’ll be 60 percent quicker in most games, according to Nvidia. More impressively, Nvidia says the card bests the GTX 1070 Ti. That’s a card that was released at an MSRP of $449, and still sells for near that at most online retailers.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The RTX 2060 is much less expensive at $349, a full $100 less than the GTX 1070 Ti. However, the RTX 2060’s price is $150 more than the least expensive GTX 1060 — so while the most affordable RTX looks like a good performance value, it’s more of a mid-range card than budget hardware.

The RTX 2060 will be available starting on January 15 and will be featured in a huge number of systems from companies like Alienware and Acer. As usual, a glut of third-party options will also be available in various designs and at variety of costs.

As mentioned, only some games support RTX features. Luckily, you’ll get one of those games with the card. Nvidia is  offering a bundle with either Anthem or Battlefield V (your choice) bundled with the card. That offer will also be available for the RTX 2070. RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti buyers get an even better bundle, as they receive both games instead of having to choose.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Luke Larsen
Luke Larsen
Senior Editor, Computing
Luke Larsen is the Senior editor of computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
The RTX 5090 and 5080 may launch sooner than expected
A hand holding the RTX 4090 GPU.

Nvidia’s next-gen GPUs for gamers might arrive sooner than we expect. According to a recent report, Nvidia's board partners are gearing up the GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards, which are expected to hit the market in the fourth quarter. Nvidia is expected to initially focus on the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080, although we can’t be too sure about these names.

If the rumors are true, this approach would mirror Nvidia’s RTX 40 series launch pattern where the RTX 4090 debuted toward the end of 2022, followed shortly by the RTX 4080 a few weeks later. The more affordable RTX 4070 Ti and 4070 were then released in early 2023.

Read more
GPU prices are back on the rise again
RTX 4060 Ti sitting next to the RTX 4070.

We haven't had to worry about the prices of some of the best graphics cards for quite some time. With most GPUs sold around their recommended retail price, there are plenty of options for PC builders in need of a new graphics card. However, a new report indicates that we might see an increase in GPU prices, especially on the cards made by Nvidia's add-in board partners (AIBs). Is it time to start worrying about another GPU shortage? Not quite, but it might be better to shop now before it gets worse.

The grim news comes from IT Home, a Chinese tech publication that cites anonymous "industry sources" as it predicts that Nvidia's AIBs are about to raise their prices by up to 10% on average -- and this won't be limited to high-end GPUs along the lines of the RTX 4090. In fact, IT Home reports that the RTX 4070 Super has already received a price increase of about 100 yuan, which equals roughly $14 at the time of this writing. This is a subtle price increase given that the GPU costs $550 to $600, but according to the report, it might just be the beginning.

Read more
You shouldn’t buy these Nvidia GPUs right now
RTX 4060 Ti sitting on a pink background.

Buying a new GPU in this generation is a bit of a tricky minefield of graphics cards to steer clear of. Sometimes, the performance is there, but the value is not; other times, you could get something much more capable for the same amount of money.

While Nvidia makes some of the best GPUs, it's certainly no stranger to that performance vs. value dilemma. Below, I'll show you three Nvidia graphics cards you're better off avoiding right now and tell you their much better alternatives.
RTX 4060 Ti

Read more