Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 D6 6GB GDDR6 Graphics Card

Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G harnesses the strengths of Nvidia’s TU106 processor and adds an aggressive power limit to facilitate notably higher GPU frequencies. It’s cooled by a capable thermal solution, yielding quiet operation and relatively low temperatures. There’s consequently not much for us to complain about aside from this card’s premium price tag.

With Nvidia’s Turing-based GPU line-up laid bare in front of us, it’s so much easier to draw comparisons and make recommendations without hemming or hawing about cards-to-come. We already know that GeForce RTX 2060 is a good performer at 2560 x 1440 and can hold its own at 1920 x 1080 with real-time ray tracing enabled in games like Battlefield V. We also know that the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a better value in terms of performance per dollar. But if you’re looking to arm yourself with the Turing architecture’s signature features for the lowest price possible, GeForce RTX 2060 is where it all begins.

Size-wise, the GeForce Gaming OC Pro is a formidable piece of hardware. Whereas Nvidia’s Founders Edition board measures just over 9” (23cm) long, almost 4.5” (11.5cm) tall, and 1.5” (3.9cm) wide, Gigabyte’s card is more than 11” (28cm) long, 4.4” (11.3cm) tall, and just as thick. In fact, it looks a lot like the GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming OC 8G we already reviewed. Much of the card’s extra length is attributable to the same Windforce 3X cooler. Fortunately, a long heat sink means Gigabyte has no trouble cooling TU106’s 160W TDP in a dual-slot form factor.

Despite its brawny dimensions, Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro goes relatively light on density. Weighing in at 1.79lb. (811g) it’s a featherweight compared to the 2.15lb (974g) GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition. Nvidia’s copper sink topped with pipes and aluminum fins is solid all the way through. Gigabyte, on the other hand, utilizes a three-part sink joined by four copper heat pipes. Those pipes are flattened in the middle and placed directly over Nvidia’s GPU, where they draw heat away before dissipating it through the fin arrays.

On the cooler’s right side, one part of the sink contacts voltage regulation circuitry underneath through pads. On the left side, closest to the display outputs, another piece of the sink doesn’t touch the board at all. It simply helps the middle section keep TU106 and its surrounding memory modules running at the lowest temperature possible.

Three 80mm fans sit on top of the thermal solution. The outside fans spin counter-clockwise, while the middle fan rotates clockwise. Turbulence is purportedly kept to a minimum, generating less competing airflow from adjacent fans. Then, at idle, the fans stop spinning altogether by virtue of a feature that Gigabyte calls 3D Active Fan. Enthusiasts who prefer to maintain lower idle temperatures can disable 3D Active Fan using downloadable Aorus Engine software. Frankly, the fans make so little noise that we prefer to keep them spinning (even though the semi-passive mode is one of this card’s competitive advantages).

Around the fans, Gigabyte uses plastic gratuitously to form a shroud. Sharp angles and silver accents do look nice, though folds over the card’s top and bottom serve to block air moving through the vertically-oriented fins. A freer-flowing configuration, particularly above the heat sink, might have helped thermal performance. Instead, that’s where we find this card’s RGB-backlit Gigabyte logo.

Nevertheless, the company’s relatively light cooler performs admirably. In Metro: Last Light, we observed the Gaming OC Pro consuming more than 180W. Although that’s 20W+ more than the GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition, Gigabyte’s card ran a couple of degrees cooler thanks to its Windforce 3X system.