Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC GPU Review

Introduction

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Hot off the heels of the original launch of the RTX 2060, we already have a refresh of the card a mere 7 months later with the RTX 2060 Super. The new RTX 2060 Super boasts more CUDA cores, RT cores, Tensor cores, and they have expanded the memory to 8GB. With the release of new graphics cards comes third party manufacturers releasing their own revisions of the cards. Gigabyte is no exception with their graphics card: the new RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC. The Windforce features a factory overclock of 1680 MHz, custom WINDFORCE 2X cooler system, and a protection backplate all for the same price as a reference model at $399.99.

We would like to thank Gigabyte for sending us the RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC to review.

Gigabyte’s Take on the RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC

Features:

• WINDFORCE 2X cooler system
• Alternate spinning fans
• Protection backplate

Core Clocks:

• Memory 14 Gbps with 256bit bus
• 2176 CUDA cores
• Factory overclocked to 1680 MHz

Features & Specifications

Packaging & Unboxing

The Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC arrives in a black box that has both orange and green accents throughout. On the front of the box, there is a large AORUS eye in the center with badges in the lower-left corner, stating that it contains a Windforce cooling system and is the overclocked edition of the card.

Flipping the back over to the back, it highlights various features of the RTX 2060 Super Windforce that include:

• Windforce 2X cooling system with two 100m fans spinning in alternate directions
• Protective backplate
• 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.0b outputs

Also mentions the system requirement of the card that includes a PCI Express-complaint motherboard, 500 W or great PSU with a PCIe 8-pin power connector, 1.5 GB of hard drive space, 8 GB of system memory (16 GB recommended), and Windows 7/10 or 64-bit Linux operating system.

Opening the box, the RTX 2060 Super is nicely wrapped in an anti-static bag and is protected on all sides by a piece of precisely cut foam.

In addition to the RTX 2060 Super Windforce, we have a software/driver disc and a quick start guide.

A Closer Look

The Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC features a black WINDFORCE 2X cooler with silver accents and is cooled using two 100m fans. Unlike traditional fans, these spin in alternate directions providing smoother airflow and better heat dissipation.

A closer look at the fan reveals an 11-blade design with a 3d stripe curve to guide airflow smoothly on the surface of the fan effectively enhancing the airflow.

Turning the Windforce to its side reveals the two direct contact copper heat pipes as well as a single 8-pin power connector to the right. The black/silver aesthetic is continued to the side with it being all black with “GIGABYTE” written in silver on the left-hand side.

The RTX 2060 Super Windforce comes with a total of 4 output ports with three being DisplayPort 1.4 and the other HMDI 2.0b. It’s nice to see that they have all been placed at the bottom of the card so if a company does create a water block, it would turn it into a single slot card.

Both the cooler and backplate wrap around the card to provide both great aesthetics and structure to the RTX 2060 Super Windforce.

On the back of the Windforce is a plastic protective backplate that matches the black/silver look of the card.

System Configuration & Software

The hardware used to benchmark the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC is:

• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Pro Motherboard
• Intel 9900K Processor @ Stock
• 2 x 8GB Team Group Vulcan TUF Ram @ 3200MHz
• Crucial P1000 M.2 NVMe
• Cooler Master ML240P Mirage AIO Cooler
• Corsair HX750 PSU
• Open Benchtable
• Microsoft Windows 10

The motherboard’s BIOS has been reset to default settings with the exception of enabling XMP of our ram.

AORUS Engine

To get the absolute most performance out of your RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro, Gigabyte has included the AORUS Engine overclocking software. Using AORUS Engine, you’re able to manually adjust the GPU boost, memory clock, GPU voltage, fan speed, power target, and target temperature.

Synthetic Testing

Futuremark 3DMark

3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your PC and mobile devices in one app. Whether you’re gaming on a smartphone, tablet, notebook, or a desktop gaming PC, 3DMark includes a benchmark specifically designed for your hardware.

The RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC performs excellently in both Firestrike and Timespy and sits among the RTX 2070’s we have benched.

Futuremark VRMark

The performance requirements for VR games are much higher than for typical PC games. So if you’re thinking about buying an HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift, wouldn’t you like to know that your PC is ready for VR?

VRMark includes three VR benchmark tests that run on your monitor, no headset required, or on a connected HMD. At the end of each test, you’ll see whether your PC is VR ready, and if not, how far it falls short.

Orange Room Test – The Orange Room benchmark shows the impressive level of detail that can be achieved on a PC that meets the recommended hardware requirements for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. If your PC passes this test, it’s ready for the two most popular VR systems available today.

Cyan Room Test – Cyan Room is a DirectX 12 benchmark. It features a large, complex scene and many eye-catching effects. Cyan Room shows how using an API with less overhead can help developers deliver impressive VR experiences even on modest PC systems.

Blue Room Test – The Blue Room is a much more demanding test. It’s ideal for benchmarking the latest graphics cards. With its massive 5K rendering resolution and spectacular volumetric lighting effects, the Blue Room sets the bar for future hardware generations.

The Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC destroys both the Orange with 253 FPS and Cyan Room with 189 FPS. In VR Mark’s torturous Blue Room, the Windforce manages to pull out an impressive 58 FPS.

Unigine Heaven

Heaven Benchmark is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential for maximum heat output.

The benchmark immerses a user into a magical steampunk world of shiny brass, wood, and gears. Nested on flying islands, a tiny village with its cozy, sun-heated cobblestone streets, and a majestic dragon on the central square gives a true sense of adventure. An interactive experience with fly-by and walk-through modes allows for exploring all corners of this world powered by the cutting-edge UNIGINE Engine that leverages the most advanced capabilities of graphics APIs and turns this bench into a visual masterpiece.

The Windforce does extremely well in the 1080p run of Unigine Heaven benchmark and sits above all the RTX 2070s and just below the RTX 2080. This is likely due to the different motherboard used during benching and how it handles boosting the 9900K.

At 4K, we see the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce fall back where we would expect it to be, in-between the RTX 2070s.

Unigine Superposition

Extreme performance and stability test for PC hardware: video card, power supply, cooling system. Check your rig in stock and overclocking modes with a real-life load! Also includes interactive experience in a beautiful, detailed environment.

A lone professor performs dangerous experiments in an abandoned classroom, day in and day out. Obsessed with inventions and discoveries beyond the wildest dreams, he strives to prove his ideas.

Once you come to this place in the early morning, you would not meet him there. The eerie thing is a loud bang from the laboratory heard a few moments ago. What was that? You have the only chance to cast some light upon this incident by going deeply into the matter of quantum theory: thorough visual inspection of professor’s records and instruments will help to lift the veil on the mystery.

In the highly demanding 1080 Extreme Superposition benchmark, the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce holds an impressive average FPS of 39.15. At the optimized 4K benchmark, we see better framerates with an average of 51.76 FPS getting close to the coveted 60.

Game Testing

Ashes of the Singularity

Planet by planet, a war is raging across the galaxy. The technological singularity has given humanity the power to expand further than they ever have before. Now, they compete with each other and their sentient artificial intelligence adversaries for control of newfound worlds.

In Ashes of the Singularity, the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce has strong numbers across the board and it even almost hits 60 FPS at 4K.

In 1440p, The RTX 2060 Super Windforce sits just 1 FPS below the first RTX 2070 and just beats out the EVGA GTX 1080.

In 4K, we see similar results with the Windforce just sitting below the RTX 2070s.

Far Cry 5

Anything can happen. Everything will.

Welcome to Hope County, Montana, land of the free and the brave, but also home to a fanatical doomsday cult—known as The Project at Eden’s Gate—that is threatening the community’s freedom. Stand up to the cult’s leaders, Joseph Seed, and the Heralds, as you spark the fires of resistance that will liberate the besieged community.

In Far Cry 5, the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC is extremely smooth in 1080p and 1440p stays well above 60 FPS. At 4K, we see the RTX 2060 Super dip below 60 FPS with an average of 46 FPS.

As the other RTX 2060 Super, we benched the Windforce sits in-between the RTX 2070s.

Dues Ex: Mankind Divided

The year is 2029, and mechanically augmented humans have now been deemed outcasts, living a life of complete and total segregation from the rest of society.

Now an experienced covert operative, Adam Jensen is forced to operate in a world that has grown to despise his kind. Armed with a new arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons and augmentations, he must choose the right approach, along with who to trust, in order to unravel a vast worldwide conspiracy.

In Deus Ex, which is one of the most demanding gaming benchmarks, at 1080p we see excellent numbers with an average FPS of 78 and it even holds the minimum framerate above 60. At 1440p we archive a playable average of 54.3 FPS with 4K being about ½ that with a 29.5 FPS average.

The Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super finds itself among the RTX 2070s once again.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

In the epic sequel to the award-winning Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, go behind enemy lines to forge an army, conquer Fortresses and dominate Mordor from within. Experience how the award-winning Nemesis System creates unique personal stories with every enemy and follower, and confront the full power of the Dark Lord Sauron and his Ringwraiths in this epic new story of Middle-earth.

We see the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce once again excel in both 1080p and 1440p. At 4K we still find ourselves short of 60 FPS with an average of 46 FPS.

In Middle Earth: Shadow of War we see RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC sit just below the RTX 2070s and about 2 FPS from the other RTX 2060 Super we benched.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

In Shadow of Tomb Raider, we crush at both 1080/1440p with an average 106 and 71 FPS. At 4k, we get about ½ the FPS as 1440p achieving 37 FPS on average.

At 1440p, we see again the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce sit right in-between the RTX 2070’s.

At 4K we see the same story with the Windforce just 1 FPS before the other RTX 2060 Super.

Tom Clancy’s The Division

We live in a complex world. The more advanced it gets, the more vulnerable it becomes. We’ve created a house of cards: remove just one, and everything falls apart.

Black Friday – a devastating pandemic sweeps through New York City, and one by one, basic services fail. In only days, without food or water, society collapses into chaos. The Division, an autonomous unit of tactical agents, is activated. Leading seemingly ordinary lives among us, these agents are trained to operate independently in order to save society.

When society falls, we rise.

The Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce again does an excellent job at both 1080p/1440p scoring an average 106.7/76 FPS.

We see the RTX 2060 Supers crush this benchmark even beating out some RTX 2080’s.

Metro: Last Light

“It is the Year 2034. Beneath the ruins of post-apocalyptic Moscow, in the tunnels of the Metro, the remnants of mankind are besieged by deadly threats from outside – and within. Mutants stalk the catacombs beneath the desolate surface, and hunt amidst the poisoned skies above.”

Developed by 4A Games and published by Deepsilver, Metro: Last Light uses the 4A game engine. At its highest settings, the 4A game engine is capable of bringing all but the most extreme gaming systems to their knees.

In Metro: Last Light we are just shy of 60 FPS with a very playable 58 frames per second.

Overclocking

Now that we have run all of our benchmarks, let’s see how much more performance we can get from the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC. Pulling up at GPU-Z, we can see the factory OC boost of 1680MHz and a memory clock of 1750 MHZ which is 14 GHz effective.

We know that Nvidia GPU Boost 4.0 will bring a card well above its factory speed, if it has adequate cooling. We see that this is the case with the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce, with it maintaining a steady core clock of 1850 MHz running the Heaven benchmark.

After spending some time dialing in the card, we finished an extra +135 on the core clock giving us a new core clock of 1815 MHz. Running the Heaven benchmark again, we see that Nvidia GPU Boost brings it up well above that with it leveling out at 2040 MHz. Now that the core is stable, we went ahead and overclocked memory which finished in 2080ti territory with an effective clock rate of 16050 MHz.

With the new overclock applied, we wanted to see how much of an improvement it was over stock so we re-ran Timespy benchmark. This time hitting an impressive score of 9692, which is an 8.8% improvement over stock speeds.

Power Consumption

To measure the power consumption of the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC, we use a combination of Kill-A-Watt and GPU-Z. Kill-A-Watt is used to measure the total power draw of the system from the wall and GPU-Z will record the power usage of the RTX 2060 Super. At idle, our 9900K testbench pulled a total of 51W at the wall, and while running our final overclocked Timespy run hit a peak power draw of 294W. Looking at our GPU-Z logs, we can see the TDP peek with 115% at 201.6W.

Thermals

With the stock profile loaded on the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce, during our benchmarks, we saw the card hit a max temperature of 70C usually averaging around 66C. Once we push the Windforce to its max overclock, with the fans running at 100%, we see this temperature drop a little to 65C during our final run of Timespy.

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

While the RTX 2060 Supers were a surprise, they certainly improved from the 7-month-old RTX 2060. The extra cores, memory, and wider memory bus pack an impressive 15% increased performance from the now-retired 2060.

Gigabyte’s version of the RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC not only looks great but also comes factory overclocked, giving you a little more performance right out of the box. It excelled in every 1080p and 1440p benchmark and had no problems hitting 60 FPS the majority of the time, even in the most brutal benchmarks. During these benchmarks, the Windforce 2X cooler stayed near silent in its stock fan curve and even after applying a more aggressive curve, it still remained fairly quiet.

For those looking to get every ounce of performance out of the hardware, you will be pleased with the Windforce OC. I was able to push the core an additional 135 MHz and get its memory to 2080Ti territory with an impressive 16050MHz effective clock. This gave us an additional 8.8% performance from stock, which is exceptional.

Overall, the Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC is a great affordable card that overclocks extremely well with minimal effort. Anyone looking for a budget 1440P graphics card should check out Gigabyte’s RTX 2060 Super Windforce OC.

Great job, Gigabyte!