LAS VEGAS - Say hello to Nvidia's latest graphics card. At its CES 2019 press conference, Nvidia officially revealed the long-awaited RTX 2060, which will deliver Nvidia's advanced ray tracing and AI technologies within a more attainable $349 price point when it launches on January 15th.
In terms of key specs, the RTX 2060 packs 52 teraflops of power, performs at 5 gigarays per second and features 6GB of G6 memory. If you're wondering what that means as far as gaming muscle goes, Nvidia says that the RTX 2060 is more powerful than last generation's GTX 1070 Ti. That's a pretty significant step up.
Nvidia demonstrated the RTX 2060 running an impressive Battlefield V demo, which used ray tracing to showcase how the GPU can make shadows, lights and reflections look incredibly true to life. For example, a building would reflect onto the window of a nearby bus just like it would in real life, and a large flame projectile would reflect onto the puddles below it -- even when the actual flames were off-screen. It's a series of small touches that helped make the game look that much more realistic.
But ray tracing is just a piece of the equation for the RTX 2060 and Nvidia's RTX platform, which also includes the recently released RTX 2070, 2080 and 2080 Ti graphics cards. The platform also uses DLSS: an advanced AI technology that essentially reduces the workload necessary for a GPU to create crisp, smooth images. As a result, you can expect to enjoy a demanding, visually rich game like Battlefield V at over 60 frames per second at 2560 x 1440 on the RTX 2060.
When the RTX 2060 launches on the 15th, you'll be able to get it bundled with either Anthem or Battlefield V so that you can get a taste of advanced features like ray tracing and DLSS right out of the box. The RTX 2070 will also come with your choice of the two games, and getting an RTX 2080 or 2080 Ti will get you both.
You can also expect the 2060 to show up on a variety of systems from top PC manufacturers such as Digital Storm, Cyberpower and Alienware.
Nvidia has long been talking up its ray tracing technology for gaming, but if you wanted to get in on the fun, you had to shell out at least $499 for an RTX 1070 (or up to a whopping $999 or more for a 2080 Ti). At just $349, the RTX 2060 is an incredibly compelling option for gamers who want to experience the company's most advanced graphics technologies but don't have upwards of $1,000 to blow on a GPU upgrade.
We look forward to putting the next wave of RTX 2060-powered systems through their paces this year, as well as see our pals at Tom's Hardware put it through their thorough benchmark tests.
Credit: Tom's Guide
