The current hardware shortage has some surprises in store. Nvidia has now indirectly confirmed that they are re-releasing an old graphics card. This refers to the RTX 2060, which is expected to receive an upgrade.
Currently, it is difficult to find a cheap graphics card, as everywhere you are paying a steep premium for computer hardware.
Nvidia had already stated, that prices will remain high in 2022 and currently, there is no prospect for improvement.
There has been speculation for a long time now, that Nvidia wants to provide an upgrade for the RTX 2060. However, until now, all of that was just speculation and there were no solid proofs for such a graphics card. Now, however, Nvidia has provided clear evidence that such a graphics card could be arriving very soon. It is already being discussed for next week.
RTX 2060 to receive more video memory and is expected to be available by early December
Where is the information coming from? The information comes partly from Nvidia itself, as the manufacturer updated both its product page for the 12 GB model and its driver information (via pcgamer.com). On the other hand, sites like Videocardz claim to have additional sources, but do not elaborate further (via videocardz.com)
When will the graphics card be available? The magazine Videocardz reports that Nvidia is planning to release the RTX 2060 12 GB as early as December 7. That would be on the upcoming Tuesday.
However, it is still unknown how much the graphics card will cost and how well it will be available. Currently, you are paying at least 530 euros for a GeForce RTX 2060 (via geizhals.de), but the recommended retail price (RRP) for the RTX 2060 is 299 euros.
RTX 2060 12 GB does not offer all features of an RTX 3060
What will the graphics card offer? Nvidia intends to provide the old RTX 2060 with a memory upgrade. Until now, the RTX 2060 was only available with 6 GB of video memory. Now there is expected to be an RTX 2060 with 12 GB of video memory.
The RTX 3060 offered about 8% more performance compared to the RTX 2060 Super. When looking at the current specifications of the RTX 2060 12 GB, the models are approximately at the same performance level. Compared to the previous RTX 2060 Super, the 12 GB model is expected to consume about 10 watts more (184 watts vs 175 watts TDP).
Basically, one should bear in mind that the RTX 2060 is a graphics card that was released in January 2019 and still relies on Nvidia’s old graphics chip (Turing).
- The graphics card does not support PCIe 4.0
- ResizableBAR support is also not included
- The ray tracing performance is also lower compared to the new RTX generation.
RTX 2060 targets entry-level gaming
Who should buy such a graphics card? With the RTX 2060, the target audience is mainly those who want to game in Full HD or WQHD with reduced details.
Especially for users searching for a graphics card and who are currently either not willing to pay hundreds of euros for a GPU or have been unable to purchase a graphics card, the RTX 2060 could indeed be an alternative.
Interested users may still be unable to purchase an RTX 3000 graphics card, but at least graphics cards for gamers would be available, and users would not have to pay thousands of euros for graphics cards on eBay, as the greed of scalpers is high.
