Review: Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC — Graphics
Settled on the GeForce RTX 2060 as your next graphics card? A fine choice, as Nvidia’s latest x60 GPU serves as a useful upgrade path for gamers on previous-generation hardware. Prices start from £329, and for your money you’re getting solid gameplay credentials at FHD or QHD resolutions, as well as the promise of a forward-looking Turing architecture.
The question that remains is do you opt for the tried-and-trusted Founders Edition, or should you lean toward a custom-cooled partner card? We’ve already taken a closer look at offerings from Asus, EVGA and Gigabyte, with mixed results, and today we turn our attention to Palit’s GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC.
It is quite clear that Nvidia’s partners are feeling the squeeze when it comes to margin, and with the Founders Edition doing a stellar job at £329, there’s little room to manoeuvre. Do too much and your card can be priced out of reach — the ROG Strix comes to mind — but do too little and there’s no real incentive to tempt users away from the FE.
Palit lands on a somewhat satisfactory middle ground by charging £350 for a card that is factory overclocked and able to run both faster and cooler than Nvidia’s reference board. Indeed, the small six per cent premium makes this one of the more palatable partner cards around and, up until February 25, the price point is helped by a promotion that makes any RTX 2060 purchase eligible for a free copy of either Battlefield V or Anthem.
But being competitive on price doesn’t change the fact that the more affordable custom RTX 2060s tend not to be as pretty as the Founders Edition. If you appreciate the way your graphics card looks and feels, there’s no two ways about it; the FE is downright gorgeous, the GamingPro OC decidedly less so. Palit’s design excludes a backplate, revealing a bare PCB, the white LED strip across the top comes across as cheap, and though the plastic shroud on the front is rigid enough, it doesn’t exactly exude quality.
Still, if you don’t have a windowed chassis, none of that should matter.
What’s perhaps more important is that the RTX 2060 GamingPro OC weighs just 653g and measures 235mm x 112mm x 40mm. That’s a fraction longer than the FE, yet this remains a dual-slot solution that ought to fit into most systems with ease while putting minimal strain on the PCIe slot.
And let’s face it, the pared-down TU106 GPU employed by RTX 2060 doesn’t need a hulking heatsink and cooler or multiple power connectors in order to function at respectable speeds. Palit’s GamingPro OC is lightweight and requires just a single eight-pin connector, yet is factory overclocked to the same 1,830MHz boost clock featured on much larger, heavier and pricier competitors. The 6GB GDDR6 frame buffer remains cemented at the default 14Gbps, but we expect out-the-box performance to be as good as you get for an RTX 2060, and comfortably quicker than the FE.
The on-paper speeds are in line with expectations, and as tends to be the case there’s room for more. When installed inside our quiet test platform, the GPU would routinely run within the 1,935MHz to 1,980MHz range.
No qualms there, but GamingPro OC does miss out on a couple of features that some of the competition tends to offer. The first is that the fans don’t switch off at low load. Palit’s dual blowers aren’t particularly vocal — the benchmarks will back that up shortly — but if you are aiming for absolute silence, this isn’t the graphics card for you.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the selection of outputs is surprisingly sparse. We’ve seen most AIB partners drop USB-C, presumably as a cost-cutting measure, but Palit also ditches the second DisplayPort, leaving just one of each of three output types; DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI.
Those seeking overall refinement will rightly gravitate toward the Founders Edition, but the brute-force approach never does any harm, and GamingPro OC’s factory overclock ought to make it the fastest £350 solution in our charts. Let’s see if the benchmarks concur, shall we?
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus vs Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC: What is the difference?
59points
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
52points
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
Comparison winner
vs
54 facts in comparison
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
Why is MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus better than Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC?
- 11W lower TDP?
160Wvs171W - 2 more DisplayPort outputs?
3vs1 - 1 more displays supported?
4vs3
Why is Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC better than MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus?
- 0.
58 TFLOPS higher floating-point performance?
7.03 TFLOPSvs6.45 TFLOPS - 7.2 GPixel/s higher pixel rate?
87.84 GPixel/svs80.64 GPixel/s - 18 GTexels/s higher texture rate?
219.6 GTexels/svs201.6 GTexels/s - 150MHz faster GPU turbo speed?
1830MHzvs1680MHz - 1 more DVI outputs?
1vs0 - 16mm shorter?
112mmvs128mm
Which are the most popular comparisons?
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 Amp Gaming
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
Nvidia Geforce GTX 1660 Super
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
Asus Dual GeForce RTX 2060
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
MSI GeForce GTX 760 Gaming
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
Nvidia Quadro K2000
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
MSI GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
Nvidia Quadro P5000
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
Asus Dual GeForce RTX 3050
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 StormX OC
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming OC
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
Asus Dual GeForce RTX 2060 Advanced
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 2X OC
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus XS
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
vs
Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 Amp Gaming
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
vs
Nvidia Geforce GTX 1660 Super
Price comparison
User reviews
Performance
1.
GPU clock speed
1365MHz
1365MHz
The graphics processing unit (GPU) has a higher clock speed.
2.GPU turbo
1680MHz
1830MHz
When the GPU is running below its limitations, it can boost to a higher clock speed in order to give increased performance.
3.pixel rate
80.64 GPixel/s
87.84 GPixel/s
The number of pixels that can be rendered to the screen every second.
4.floating-point performance
6.45 TFLOPS
7.03 TFLOPS
Floating-point performance is a measurement of the raw processing power of the GPU.
5.texture rate
201.6 GTexels/s
219.6 GTexels/s
The number of textured pixels that can be rendered to the screen every second.
6.GPU memory speed
1750MHz
1750MHz
The memory clock speed is one aspect that determines the memory bandwidth.
7.shading units
Shading units (or stream processors) are small processors within the graphics card that are responsible for processing different aspects of the image.
8.texture mapping units (TMUs)
TMUs take textures and map them to the geometry of a 3D scene. More TMUs will typically mean that texture information is processed faster.
9.render output units (ROPs)
The ROPs are responsible for some of the final steps of the rendering process, writing the final pixel data to memory and carrying out other tasks such as anti-aliasing to improve the look of graphics.
Memory
1.effective memory speed
14000MHz
14000MHz
The effective memory clock speed is calculated from the size and data rate of the memory. Higher clock speeds can give increased performance in games and other apps.
2.
maximum memory bandwidth
336GB/s
336GB/s
This is the maximum rate that data can be read from or stored into memory.
3.VRAM
VRAM (video RAM) is the dedicated memory of a graphics card. More VRAM generally allows you to run games at higher settings, especially for things like texture resolution.
4.memory bus width
192bit
192bit
A wider bus width means that it can carry more data per cycle. It is an important factor of memory performance, and therefore the general performance of the graphics card.
5.version of GDDR memory
Newer versions of GDDR memory offer improvements such as higher transfer rates that give increased performance.
6.Supports ECC memory
✖MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
✖Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
Error-correcting code memory can detect and correct data corruption.
It is used when is it essential to avoid corruption, such as scientific computing or when running a server.
Features
1.DirectX version
DirectX is used in games, with newer versions supporting better graphics.
2.OpenGL version
OpenGL is used in games, with newer versions supporting better graphics.
3.OpenCL version
Some apps use OpenCL to apply the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) for non-graphical computing. Newer versions introduce more functionality and better performance.
4.Supports multi-display technology
✔MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
✔Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
The graphics card supports multi-display technology. This allows you to configure multiple monitors in order to create a more immersive gaming experience, such as having a wider field of view.
5.
load GPU temperature
Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC)
A lower load temperature means that the card produces less heat and its cooling system performs better.
6.supports ray tracing
✔MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
✔Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
Ray tracing is an advanced light rendering technique that provides more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections in games.
7.Supports 3D
✔MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
✔Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
Allows you to view in 3D (if you have a 3D display and glasses).
8.supports DLSS
✔MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
✔Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is an upscaling technology powered by AI. It allows the graphics card to render games at a lower resolution and upscale them to a higher resolution with near-native visual quality and increased performance.
DLSS is only available on select games.
9.PassMark (G3D) result
Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus)
Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC)
This benchmark measures the graphics performance of a video card. Source: PassMark.
Ports
1.has an HDMI output
✔MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus
✔Palit GeForce RTX 2060 GamingPro OC
Devices with a HDMI or mini HDMI port can transfer high definition video and audio to a display.
2.HDMI ports
More HDMI ports mean that you can simultaneously connect numerous devices, such as video game consoles and set-top boxes.
3.HDMI version
HDMI 2.0
HDMI 2.0
Newer versions of HDMI support higher bandwidth, which allows for higher resolutions and frame rates.
4.