74 PCWorld MARCH 2020REVIEWS EVGA GEFORCE RTX 2060 KO
(go.pcworld.com/trar). On the software side,
the EVGA KO plays nice with GeForce
Experience and its myriad features, including
Ansel super screenshots, ShadowPlay video
recording (go.pcworld.com/shad), integer
scaling for retro games, low-latency modes
for competitive titles, and more.
But onto the real question: How does it
game?OUR TEST SYSTEM
Our dedicated graphics card test system is
packed with some of the fastest
complementary components available to put
any potential performance bottlenecks
squarely on the GPU. Most of the hardware
was provided by the manufacturers, but we
purchased the cooler and storage ourselves.- Intel Core i7-8700K processor ($350 on
Amazon at go.pcworld.com/700k) - EVGA CLC 240 closed-loop liquid cooler
($120 on Amazon at go.pcworld.com/c240) - Asus Maximus X
Hero motherboard ($420
on Amazon at
go.pcworld.com/c240) - 64GB HyperX
Predator RGB DDR4/
2933 ($420 on Amazon) - EVGA 1200W
SuperNova P2 power
supply ($230 on Amazon at
go.pcworld.com/mxmc) - Corsair Crystal 570X
RGB case, with front and top panels removed
and an extra rear fan installed for improved airflow
($130 on Amazon at go.pcworld.com/crst) - 2x 500GB Samsung 860 EVO SSDs ($78
each on Amazon at go.pcworld.com/smev)
We’re reviewing both the $300 EVGA
GeForce RTX 2060 KO and the $320 RTX
2060 KO Ultra. Because the cards are identical
other than clock speeds, EVGA supplied us
with the KO Ultra as well as a VBIOS that
transforms the card into the cheaper model.
The RTX 2060 is a known quantity at this
point, so we’re comparing EVGA’s card only
against its most direct rivals: The $280
Radeon RX 5600 XT, the Nvidia GeForce RTX
2060 Founders Edition (go.pcworld.
com/60fd; which itself recently dropped in
price to $300), and AMD’s reference $350
Radeon RX 5700 (go.pcworld.com/r57x).
The Radeon RX 5600 XT had a messy launch
due to a last-second VBIOS upgrade that won’t
be applicable to every model (go.pcworld.
The EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 KO uses a single 8-pin power connection.