EVGA 06G-P4-2068-KR GeForce RTX 2060 KO Ultra Gaming, 6GB GDDR6, Dual Fans, Metal Backplate

UPDATEDate Written: 11/18/2022Rating: 5/5★Price★With the GPU often going on sale for $280, I'd have to argue now that it's a great deal for budget build PCs. I gave this thought, reconsidering GPU prices of the RTX 3060, 3070, both their variants. I've also been watching market prices closely for the past year. EVGA sales are more frequent so you're not going to be waiting long if they're not on sale. The RTX 3060 12GB is normally about $450, and it isn't that much faster than the RTX 2060. The RTX 2060 6GB is about $350 but goes on sale often. Would you pay $75-100 extra for 10% performance increase and 6gb of additional ram? Personally, I don't see it as a problem unless I wanted to play at 1440p, 2k, 4k resolutions.★Performance★This is an important note to anyone getting this GPU. Do not use fan coolers. Get liquid cooling, a bigger PC case with fans, and you'll be surprised at how cool this GPU runs. I've been able to max out my settings all because I kept my CPU from heating up my PC. Without a doubt, if you had a small PC case using a stock cooler, you'd experience what I did in my last review. It made a huge difference in performance. Because there's no thermal throttling, I've been able to play every game with max settings at 60FPS at 1080p. Highest quality DXR does somewhat take a hit, mostly due to the lack of VRAM. Easily, this is a worthwhile GPU for budget PCs. I should note that you shouldn't try to overclock this card as there's no voltage control.★Problems★This section isn't to remark on issues, but to explain how you should have your PC case optimally set up when using higher-end GPUs. If you're still using a fan cooler, I recommend what I suggested above and purchase a bigger PC case with fans along with liquid cooling. It will go a long way, not just for your GPU, but for every component in your PC. It will drop all temps dramatically, keeping it all alive longer. I wouldn't be surprised if fan coolers were the primary cause of suddenly dead GPUs. The RTX 2060 6GB rarely hits temps of 50-60. Will be updating review to show benchmarks.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ORIGINALDate Written: 7/13/2022Rating: 2/5★Price★At the time of purchase, RTX GPUs were overpriced, often $100s over MSRP. I was able to get mine for $280 brand new which seemed like a good deal, especially when the RTX 3050 performs worse than the RTX 2060. Now that GPU prices are closing in on their MSRPs, buying the RTX 2060 KO Ultra was more of a loss. I can confidently say that the RTX 20 Series is no longer worth the money, and you should be looking into a RTX 30 Series instead. I won't even recommend getting the RTX 2060 12GB as you can find the RTX 3060 OC 12gb that costs a little more, if not nearly the same price. Of course, avoid the RTX 3050 as well.★Performance★If you're buying this GPU because it uses a binned RTX 2070/2080 die, you should know that it doesn't offer better in-game performance than its predecessor. With DLSS/FidelityFX enabled, it runs at 60fps 1080p with raytracing settings on high. However, there is an obvious loss of quality when upscaling 720p and below to 1080p. When upscaling is disabled, it runs at 30-45fps on average. For that, I can't recommend this as an "entry-level DXR capable GPU". For non-DXR gaming, it can easily achieve 60fps at 1080p/1440p resolution. While it's a fair and considerable upgrade from a GTX, I would much rather have a RTX that can handle raytracing without upscaling.★Problems★Because of its two-slot design, the heatsink doesn't disperse as much heat as its three-slot predecessor, and so it heats up more. Without a doubt, it would struggle to stay cool in PC cases with poor airflow or were too small. The GPU's fan curve seems to max at 85%, so you will need EVGA Precision or MSI Afterburner to allow 100% fan speed. As a warning, it will get MUCH louder. The GPU's power limit is clamped, so you can't safely overclock the GPU very much, if at all. The RTX 2060 Founders Edition can be overclocked to perform better than the KO Ultra. Not that I'm recommending the Founders Edition variant, I still believe you should look for a RTX 30 series GPU, except the RTX 3050.

Nice card. Works great. Found a small screw rattling in the card. It fell out and attaches to the bottom plate. Easy enough.

This card will not disappoint you . Don't let them tell you you cannot run a i78700k or a I9 9900kf cpu either they run awesome at 1080P

(This is for the EVGA 2060 KO Ultra Gaming)It is a good card so far, but with the following issue that I am waiting on a response from EVGA to finalize my review. This is the exact message I sent to Tech Support on evga.com:"The card in question is my 2nd one. I replaced the 1st through Amazon's free return program due to an issue with fan revving. Turns out this 2nd one is the same and the issue was not defective hardware. The issue is this: On the default fan curve, at idle, the fans kick on at 39 C. They are not just on, but they rev from 0% to maybe 40%, back and forth, second after second, until it drops down to 35 C. The revving is very loud. It turns off at 35 C then slowly gets back up to 39 C and starts again. If I adjust the fan curve manually to not come on until a set temp (41 C for example), it has the same issue of revving, but it does not stop and just jumps back and forth from 40 C to 41 C, back and forth, revving each time. If i set the fans to any speed below 36% to make the fans not kick on from 0%, it will not hold that %, it will jump from 0% to the <36% with the same revving. The way I have fixed this for now is to have the fans never lower then 36%. I do not want that to be permanent as I want the fans to be off below 45 C to keep the computer quiet when doing anything not graphics card related. (for reference, my small case has the card sitting at 41-42 C at idle.)The best fix I can think of for this is to be able to have a more detailed fan curve. One where I can tell the fans to turn on at 36% at 46 C, stay on until 35 C (without revving), then go off, and stay off, until it gets back up to 46 C. Currently that type of fan control is not available with X1 or any software I can find. I guess there is also the issue where any speed below 36% will not hold steady, but I have a feeling that is "meant to be" that way and can't be changed. I can work around that.Is there currently anything in the works for the 2060 KO's bios or drivers, or even just for the EVGA Precision X1 fan control software to better fine tune the fan control in that way?Or another possible way to look at this: Is it better for the life of the card and fans for the fans to stay on 36% constantly, or for the fans to be on for a while, then off for a while, and so on (as in the way I want to be able to set them)?"(2/16/2020)EDIT:EVGA Reply"Hi Brandon,Sorry you are running into this issue. Keeping the fans at 36% is not bad for the life of the card. Currently with the 2060 KO being new, there may a future Driver update to fix the issue. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.Regards,EVGA"Not the most problem solving reply. Oh well, I'll just keep the fans at 36% minimum until a possible future update with better fan control. It is a great card at it's price point otherwise.