FEBRUARY 2019 PCWorld 47Nvidia GeForce RTX
2060 Founders EditionPROS- Great 1440p and 1080p gaming performance.
- RTX hardware for ray tracing and DLSS.
- Stunning Founders Edition aesthetic design.
- Very cool under load.
CONS - Much more expensive than GTX 1060.
- Ray tracing and DLSS not widely available in
games. - Mild performance gains compared to similarly
priced GTX 1070.
BOTTOM LINE
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition
delivers superb 1440p and 1080p gaming as well as
real-time ray tracing in an affordable package. The
design of the graphics card is stunning, too.
$349
future-proofing (though it’s a worthy trade-off
to upgrade to ultra-fast GDDR6 memory).
We’ve also only seen ray tracing and DLSS
each appear in a single game so far. Despite
those quibbles, the GeForce RTX 2060
Founders Edition is the best 1440p or ultra-
fast 1080p gaming option you can buy under
$500—well under $500.
That said, you might consider the slower,
more power-hungry Radeon Vega 56 (go.
pcworld.com/rvga) if you want to pair your
graphics card with an affordable variable
refresh rate monitor (go.pcworld.com/gsfr),
as AMD FreeSync displays are nowhere near
as expensive as Nvidia’s luxury-priced
G-Sync options. [UPDATE: During Nvidia’s
CES 2019 keynote, the company said
GeForce graphics cards will be gaining
FreeSync/Adaptive Sync support (go.
pcworld.com/rvrt) via a driver update,
eradicating the Vega 56’s advantage. Buy
the RTX 2060.]
And speaking
of monitors,
most gamers use
1080p displays
at 60Hz. If you’re
one of them,
you’re better off
saving $100 or
more and opting
for a Radeon RX
580, RX 590, or
GeForce GTX
1060 instead. They’re much slower, but
still great for basic 1080p displays, though
they don’t include Nvidia’s dedicated
RTX hardware.