Nvidia’s revamped RTX 2060 GPU could be faster than we expected

Nvidia RTX 2060 shown inside a PC case
(Image credit: Future)

Nvidia’s rumored new RTX 2060 might be a more powerful resurrection of this Turing graphics card than we expected, going by the latest speculation.

Previously, the rumor mill has held that the only difference with the new RTX 2060 – providing it does exist, and comes out on December 7 as predicted – will be that it doubles up the VRAM from 6GB to 12GB.

Now VideoCardz is saying – and claiming confirmation from three separate sources, but we should remain skeptical of any rumor, of course – that the incoming RTX 2060 will not just run with 12GB, but will also up the CUDA core count to 2,176. That would put it on a par with the RTX 2060 Super, and clearly be a nice boost to its power level (remember that the original RTX 2060 ran with 1,920 cores).

It’ll also have a TDP (power usage) of 184W which is actually a touch more than the 175W consumed by the RTX 2060 Super. The boost clock has been pegged at 1650MHz by default, at least going by two sources.

The upshot is that the refreshed RTX 2060 should be equivalent to the old 2060 Super, but with a touch more power consumption, and a stingier memory bandwidth (192-bit, rather than the 2060 Super’s 256-bit bus).


Analysis: A delicate GPU balancing act for Nvidia

This is an interesting one considering that rumors about the new RTX 2060 have been flying about for some time now, all insisting that it will maintain the same spec as the original 2060, save for doubling the VRAM. And now, with the launch supposedly imminent – as mentioned, the refreshed card will theoretically arrive the week after next – we discover that it could be more in line with the 2060 Super, or at least pretty close.

That seems a little odd considering it would bring performance quite close to the RTX 3060, which, as VideoCardz points out, is something in the order of only 8% faster than the RTX 2060 Super.

We’d imagine that there would have to be a more substantial difference between a new 2060 and the RTX 3060, particularly when you consider that Nvidia is reportedly planning a desktop RTX 3050 of some kind – and this has to fit into the overall range as well. We can’t rule anything out, obviously, and this fresh rumor does marry with the assertion from yesterday that the theoretical RTX 3050 would be slower than the revamped 2060, of course.

If these cards are all inbound as rumored, it’s going to be something of a delicate balancing act regarding where they slot into Nvidia’s relative GPU power scale. Although at this point, however fast these cards are, gamers are likely to happily take whatever they’re given in terms of better stock levels of more wallet-friendly contemporary GPUs.

TOPICS

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

Read more
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
RTX 5060 rumor suggests it’ll have 8GB VRAM and I’m starting to wonder if Nvidia has lost the plot with next-gen GPUs
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
Are Nvidia’s RTX 5060 GPUs about to arrive? Rumor hints they might be - with the RTX 5060 Ti potentially coming with 16GB VRAM
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti GPU with 16GB rumored for March launch, followed by 8GB flavor in April – but where does that leave the vanilla RTX 5060?
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
Nvidia could unleash RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti GPUs on PC gamers tomorrow, but there’s no sign of rumored RTX 5050 yet
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on a table with its retail packaging
Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU spotted in Acer gaming PC, suggesting rumors of imminent launch are correct – and that it’ll run with only 8GB of video RAM
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card on its retail packaging
Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti could turn up before RTX 5070 – and new rumor suggests it might be the powerhouse GPU I’ve been waiting for
Latest in GPU
A character riding their horse through the Japanese landscape of in Rise of the Ronin
Another day, another dreadful PC port - Rise of the Ronin joins the list of woeful PC launches with even an Nvidia RTX 4090 succumbing to stutters
An AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT made by Sapphire on a table with its retail packaging
AMD describes its recent RDNA 4 GPU launch as 'unprecedented' and promises restocking the Radeon RX 9070 XT as 'priority number one'
An AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT vs RX 9070 against a red two-tone background
Well, AMD's Radeon RX 9070 series launch isn't going as smoothly as we thought - and it's because retailers have inflated prices
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070
Nvidia RTX 5080 stock is so barren that retailers are holding competitions where you can "win" the right to buy one for MSRP
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
Nvidia could unleash RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti GPUs on PC gamers tomorrow, but there’s no sign of rumored RTX 5050 yet
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on a table with its retail packaging
Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU spotted in Acer gaming PC, suggesting rumors of imminent launch are correct – and that it’ll run with only 8GB of video RAM
Latest in News
Brad Pitt looks over his right shoulder with 'F1' written behind him
Apple Original Films will take you behind-the-scenes of a racing cockpit in this new thrilling F1 movie trailer
AI writer
Coding AI tells developer to write it himself
Reacher looking down at another character from the Prime Video TV series Reacher
Reacher season 3 becomes Prime Video’s biggest returning show thanks to Hollywood’s biggest heavyweight
Image showing detail of the Leica D-Lux 8
Still can't get a Fujifilm X100VI? This premium Leica compact costs less, and it's in stock
Man using iMessage on an iPhone
Apple will finally enable encrypted RCS messages between iOS and Android, and it's about time
Google Messages update
Google Messages could soon follow WhatsApp with an upgrade that makes it much easier to join group chats