After our current considerable examination right into ray mapping video game efficiency, where we examined its aesthetic and performance impact throughout 36 modern games, we can proceed discovering the real-world experience on existing items.
Today, we’ll be revisiting ray tracing on one of the most cost effective GPU from the first Nvidia RTX launch– the card Nvidia guaranteed would certainly bring ray mapping to mid-range players: the GeForce RTX 2060 Just how well has this card stood the examination of time, and did Nvidia really deliver something useful with this GPU’s ray mapping capabilities? Well … it’s time to discover.
This is all part of our objective to better comprehend ray tracing as we come close to a brand-new generation of graphics cards, anticipated to launch in very early 2025 What are the most effective games to check? The number of video games give a rewarding ray mapping experience? Exactly how important is this function as component of a GPU bundle?
And most importantly, for this take another look at of the RTX 2060: what have gamers been offered up to this factor? What standard can we use to benchmark improvements, specifically in the mainstream market?
Taking a look at the RTX 2060 is fairly a comparison to our previous RT expedition of Nvidia and AMD’s premium GPUs and the very best experiences offered today. When the RTX 2060 introduced in early 2019, it was a mid-range GPU valued at $ 350, the most affordable design in the brand-new RTX product stack to sustain ray mapping.
A direct replacement for the GTX 1070 in terms of rate, the crucial feature Nvidia pushed with the 2060 was ray tracing: get this card instead of a GeForce 10 series GPU because it sustains RTX attributes, including ray mapping and DLSS.
The first variation of DLSS was a gigantic flop at that time, yet for many years it has developed into a rewarding feature. Gamers that acquired a 2060 for DLSS have seen that experience enhance considerably. Can the very same be said for ray mapping, greater than five years after the card debuted?
The RTX 2060 in Correct Context
It is very important to very first established the stage of what the RTX 2060 stood for at launch. As a mid-range graphics card, it was positioned for 1440 p 60 FPS pc gaming at ultra settings, and that’s certainly what we observed in our first testimonial.
We tested a range of games at 1440 p and found the 2060 was a decently capable 1440 p GPU, with many games playable at 60 FPS.
Steve called it the best value mid-range GPU at the time however likewise revealed dissatisfaction with the bang for buck it used. It didn’t provide significantly better price per frame than the GTX 1070, in spite of belonging to a totally brand-new generation, and it didn’t advance the mid-range all that much.
Given that the card was simply 10– 15 % faster than the GTX 1070 at launch, our point of view at the time was that Nvidia were trying 2 things: one, to market players on RTX features like ray tracing and DLSS rather than raw performance renovations, and 2, to increase GPU prices total and raise the mid-range in reaction to players purchasing much more expensive graphics cards.
The 2060 had not been as egregious as models like the RTX 2070 and RTX 2080, yet Nvidia was plainly focused on marketing gamers future guarantees instead of existing abilities.
And now the future is right here, so it’s time to assess just how the RTX 2060 has matured and whether those pledges have actually been met. When we initially intended this take another look at, our objective was to examine the 2060 at the resolution it was designed for at launch: 1440 p. However, after some testing, it appears that the RTX 2060 hasn’t matured well for 1440 p pc gaming, even without ray tracing enabled.
With just 6 GB of VRAM, many contemporary titles encounter VRAM-related concerns at 1440 p. As is to be anticipated, about 6 years after its launching, the RTX 2060 is no more delivering mid-range efficiency. These days, the 2060 is more similar to an entry-level 1080 p GPU. It’s typically a little bit slower than the Radeon RX 6600, and it promises that gamers who purchased a 2060 for 1440 p pc gaming have actually because updated to newer cards like the RTX 4060
This take another look at is now concentrated on 1080 p and whether the RTX 2060 can handle decent-quality ray tracing impacts in any way– and you’ll see why this technique makes good sense in the efficiency graphes. We’re focusing on games where ray tracing is worth using, together with a couple of new enhancements, including titles that depend totally on ray tracing, like Celebrity Wars Outlaws. Let’s get involved in it.
Pc gaming Standards
Cog & & Clank: Rift Apart
We’ll start with Ratchet & & Clank: Rift Apart at 1080 p max settings with DLSS Quality enabled. This video game is an actual battle for the RTX 2060, even without ray tracing allowed, handling just 43 FPS on average, with 1 % lows dropping below 30 FPS.
Activating ray mapping is simply not an alternative, as it decreases the frame rate to below 30 FPS on average, even at reduced high quality setups.
Something we often listen to when discussing ray mapping is the concept that mid-range gamers can in theory make use of ray tracing with lower total top quality presets. Rather than running ultra presets with ray tracing, the idea is to make use of tool or low presets combined with ray mapping.
We’re not supporting this as a practical setup, considering that the general visual quality of low settings with ray tracing is generally even worse than running ultra settings without ray tracing. However, when ray mapping configurations battle to hit 30 FPS at 1080 p, despite having upscaling made it possible for, we feel it’s worth asking whether there’s any type of configuration where ray tracing is useful at all.
And so for Ratchet and Clank, together with all various other video games, we have actually tried to reduced settings till ray mapping is possibly usable to see what we’re collaborating with. Simply put, how compromised the experience gets to make use of RT on an RTX 2060
We’ve attempted to reduced settings till ray mapping is potentially usable to see what we’re dealing with. Simply put, exactly how jeopardized the experience gets to use RT on an RTX 2060 today.
With Cog & & Clank, it’s clear that ray tracing is simply not viable on the RTX 2060 Even using Very Reduced setups with upscaling, allowing ray tracing results in a 40 % efficiency hit, going down a modest 80 FPS outcome (not outstanding for extremely reduced settings) down to simply 48 FPS generally. For those going for the finest results that minimize visual artefacts, the experience is further decreased to 44 FPS.
Guardians of the Galaxy
In contrast, Guardians of the Galaxy is usable with ray mapping made it possible for on the RTX 2060 Rasterized efficiency making use of max setups and DLSS upscaling exceeds 100 FPS in the area we evaluated.
Allowing RT reflections lowers performance yet still maintains a frame rate over 60 FPS. Granted, this is at 1080 p, however it’s a win for the RTX 2060 since we do not have to lower top quality setups to find an arrangement where ray tracing is useful.
Ruin Infinite
Doom Eternal performs extremely well on the RTX 2060 without ray tracing made it possible for, achieving 150 FPS generally making use of Ultra Headache setups at native 1080 p. Nonetheless, enabling ray mapping cripples the card to just 42 FPS on average, which is unplayable for a busy shooter such as this.
The good news is that you do not have to jeopardize settings excessive to make ray tracing semi-usable: going down to the “Ultra” preset and making it possible for DLSS delivers 72 FPS generally with RT allowed. While this isn’t how we would certainly prefer to play– getting 174 FPS without ray mapping is far more enticing– the card can technically run RT in this video game if that’s your preference.
Suicide Team
The RTX 2060 battle with ray mapping in Suicide Team. At 1080 p High setups with DLSS High quality, the game experiences faltering problems, specifically with RT made it possible for, which cripples performance– most likely because of not enough VRAM.
The video game is technically playable with ray tracing if you want to drop the pre-programmed to Low, but also after that, the result is simply 73 FPS generally, which isn’t impressive considering the aesthetic quality decreases beyond representations.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a brand-new enhancement to our ray tracing tests, boosting visuals in some locations primarily with ray-traced reflections. Sadly, the RTX 2060 isn’t effective adequate to run this game on Ultra setups, also at 1080 p with DLSS Top quality.
The high VRAM needs overwhelm the GPU’s 6 GB barrier. To accomplish semi-usable ray mapping, you need to go down the predetermined to Reduced and stay with “Selective” ray tracing, which uses results in a very restricted fashion.
Ghostwire Tokyo
Ray tracing in Ghostwire Tokyo making use of max setups is a no-go. The video game suffers from substantial stuttering and performance problems within minutes of gameplay when ray tracing is enabled– once again, likely a VRAM traffic jam.
Decreasing the predetermined to Low and making it possible for ray tracing obtains the typical structure price to 60 FPS, but the experience remains unpleasant because of regular stuttering. Theoretically, you might incorporate Low settings with Reduced ray mapping, but the quality of the representations at this setup doesn’t validate the initiative.
See Pet Dogs Legion
Enjoy Dogs Myriad is one of the older titles in our tests, and the RTX 2060 can provide usable structure rates at 1080 p max settings with DLSS, though it falls short of 60 FPS. Making it possible for ray mapping under these setups runs out the question unless you fit with 30 FPS gameplay.
To hit 60 FPS with ray mapping made it possible for, you have to go down most other top quality settings to Low, resulting in significant visual concessions just to allow RT.
The Witcher 3
The Witcher 3 is another video game where the RTX 2060 struggles to supply a playable experience with ray tracing, also at 1080 p. Ultra + setups are entirely out of reach, as the GPU has a hard time to keep 60 FPS also without RT.
What’s surprising is just how demanding ray mapping continues to be also on the Reduced predetermined. While you can accomplish over 100 FPS with these setups, making it possible for RT global lighting– at the lowest possible setup– halves performance, going down the RTX 2060 listed below 60 FPS generally. Maxing out RT cause a 30 FPS experience, making it hard to validate ray tracing in this title on the 2060
Control
Control released with ray tracing just a couple of months after the RTX 2060 and isn’t really playable at max setups because of structure loading issues, despite affordable framework prices. To address this, we allowed DLSS High quality and went down the pre-programmed to Medium.
After these changes, the RTX 2060 can manage ray tracing at affordable frame rates. While it’s an endangered experience in regards to aesthetic top quality, we’ll take it as a win.
Passing away Light 2
The RTX 2060 is more than powerful enough to run Dying Light 2 utilizing ultra setups without ray mapping made it possible for, hitting 91 FPS generally with DLSS Quality allowed. However, if you wish to make use of ray mapping in this title– at least on settings that noticeably improve aesthetic top quality– it’s hard to achieve a constant 60 FPS.
The video game is usable at around 50 FPS utilizing max setups, however lowering the visual predetermined could not fairly push the standard up to 60 FPS, leaving the inquiry of whether frame rates in the 50 s are good enough.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Spider-Man: Miles Morales is borderline playable with ray tracing made it possible for, accomplishing 50 FPS generally using max setups, although the 1 % lows aren’t excellent. Similar to Dying Light 2, lowering the overall preset all the way to Reduced still can not press ray tracing as much as 60 FPS generally, which is unsatisfactory.
Spider-Man
That claimed, as seen from the Spider-Man outcomes, it’s feasible to tweak settings a little to obtain ray mapping right into a functional and usable arrangement. Reflections over, as an example, can supply 60 FPS typically, with a decent experience on reduced setups. Nevertheless, as we have actually located throughout this expedition, ray tracing usually needs other compromises to strike good efficiency targets.
Metro Exodus
City Exodus is an intriguing instance, particularly when consisting of the Enhanced Version. At max setups and 1080 p, the RTX 2060 can not achieve halfway decent playable efficiency, commonly hovering around 30– 40 FPS.
Nevertheless, going down the general predetermined to Tool makes ray tracing sensible, even with the aesthetically exceptional Boosted Version. Utilizing Medium setups and lowered RT setups, the Enhanced Version goes for 86 FPS typically. While this is a jeopardized experience contrasted to higher-quality modes, it’s a far better end result than lots of other titles we’ve checked.
Black Myth: Wukong
There’s not much to claim concerning ray tracing in Black Myth: Wukong. The RTX 2060 is much too sluggish to take care of course tracing, making this visually remarkable setting off-limits even when compromising other aesthetic settings.
Software application Lumen isn’t much of a problem on the 2060 in this video game, a minimum of below the Motion picture preset, but Software program Lumen does not need specialized RT hardware. Course mapping, nonetheless, is a no-go.
Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 is just one of the very best instances of ray mapping, yet the RTX 2060 is simply not capable of utilizing it, also at 1080 p with Low settings. This GPU battles to make Alan Wake 2 without RT allowed, stopping working to hit 60 FPS usually making use of the most affordable pre-programmed. Making it possible for RT cripples efficiency, making the video game totally unplayable.
Cyberpunk 2077
It’s a comparable story with Cyberpunk 2077 The modes worth utilizing, such as Ultra RT or Overdrive (path mapping), are out of reach for the RTX 2060 Utilizing the Reduced predetermined at 1080 p with DLSS Quality and Ultra ray tracing in our examination location led to simply 21 FPS usually, while Overdrive setting is entirely impossible.
For visually spectacular games similar to this, the RTX 2060 drops far short of the efficiency needed to allow ray tracing.
Finally, we arrive at 2 titles that use ray mapping throughout the board, without the alternative to disable RT effects.
Ray Traced Just Gamings
In Celebrity Wars Outlaws, playing on the 2060 at 1080 p making use of Ultra setups is not possible. The video game stops working to strike 60 FPS even on the Reduced pre-programmed and experiences appearance filling problems on higher presets due to the GPU’s not enough 6 GB of VRAM.
At the same time, in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, texture loading problems are even worse. Even on the Reduced pre-programmed, the game stops working to constantly strike 60 FPS at 1080 p.
In both cases, you can say that 50 FPS usually using Reduced setups is playable, albeit much from suitable, and we ‘d probably agree. Nonetheless, we were wishing for much better efficiency in these RT-only titles, despite high quality settings dialed down. If future video games continue down this path and start getting rid of non-RT arrangements, GPUs with this degree of RT performance will not have the ability to keep up.
Performance Summary: Can It Do 60 FPS?
Let’s sum up these results into a solitary chart, and now we can clearly see exactly how improperly the RTX 2060 has actually aged for ray mapping. This initial graph shows arrangements without visual concessions– besides using DLSS Top quality setting– so we’re talking ultra or maximum rasterization settings with ray mapping used on the top.
Throughout the 29 game setups where ray mapping gives a noticeable visual renovation, or where ray mapping is constantly enabled, just 3 of them can go for 60 FPS typically. And this is at 1080 p, not 1440 p, the resolution the RTX 2060 was at first developed for.
We ‘d state that 60 FPS uses a sensible experience in a lot of these titles, yet if we reduced the meaning of “playable” to 40 FPS, we still end up with just nine arrangements providing a playable experience.
In 13 arrangements, the average frame rate was listed below 30 FPS, and in 18 setups, the 1 % low went down below 30 FPS. This is an inadequate result for a GPU marketed as ray tracing-capable.
Component of this, of course, is due to the fact that the RTX 2060 is now effectively an entry-level GPU in regards to general efficiency. Among the 16 video games evaluated without ray tracing allowed, fifty percent could not strike 60 FPS using maximum or ultra rasterized settings. Given that ray tracing typically causes a 30– 40 % performance decrease, the RTX 2060 was always going to battle. Still, in just three titles, the 2060 failed to provide a minimal usable 40 FPS standard.
What’s more frustrating is that, across 26 ray tracing configurations, 15 of them could not provide 60 FPS generally, also making use of the most affordable presets readily available in the game, at 1080 p with DLSS Quality enabled. In several titles, regardless of how much you jeopardize visual high quality in other places, ray tracing simply isn’t viable.
Nevertheless, in 19 arrangements, a minimum of 40 FPS was achievable generally, so if you’re willing to run other settings on Low, the RTX 2060 is technically with the ability of ray tracing in some video games.
There were only a handful of titles where ray tracing really felt genuinely viable on the RTX 2060 at 1080 p in a manner we ‘d in fact take into consideration playing.
There were only a handful of titles where ray tracing felt really feasible on the RTX 2060 at 1080 p in such a way we ‘d really consider playing. Guardians of the Galaxy was decent, the Spider-Man games were okay, City Exodus Enhanced Edition was usable, and there were a couple of borderline arrangements.
Yet we’re not going to attempt and validate running video games at 40 FPS with compromised top quality setups to assert the RTX 2060 is absolutely ray tracing-capable, because most gamers wouldn’t select to play that way. Let’s be honest: if the framework rate goes down to 40 FPS with ray tracing on, many would disable it.
Wrap Up: Never Quick Sufficient
It’s clear that Nvidia greatly overemphasized the ray mapping capabilities of the RTX 2060 at launch. Now that we have really wonderful instances of ray tracing, including remarkable path-traced modes in titles like Alan Wake 2, it’s evident the RTX 2060 was never powerful adequate to manage ray tracing appropriately.
Ray tracing should never ever have actually been a reason to purchase this GPU, and it shouldn’t have been marketed on the pledge of a “ray mapping future.” This was intensified by furnishing this card with simply 6 GB of VRAM in the common setup– a limitation that’s already crippling in some modern-day titles, even without factoring in ray mapping’s added VRAM demands.
Also see: How Much VRAM suffices for PC Gaming?
The fact is that as mid-range GPUs age, they swiftly end up being entry-level in the modern-day video gaming landscape and battle to run video games at respectable resolutions and top quality settings. The RTX 2060 was originally made as a 1440 p 60 FPS GPU, which made feeling at $ 350 in 2019
In today’s titles, you ‘d be lucky to strike 60 FPS at ultra setups even at 1080 p with upscaling allowed. Games grow even more requiring over time, not less, so including ray mapping to a card that was never ever quickly for regular rasterization was never mosting likely to end well.
If we think about the RTX 2060 as a standard and remember it’s almost six years of ages, we should be demanding considerable advancements in ray mapping performance with the next GPU generation. Six years need to be enough time to make ray mapping practical for entry-level GPUs in 1080 p gaming.
Three GPU generations later on, with plenty of ray tracing advertising and marketing and numerous promises concerning the future of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, it’s fair to anticipate cards across the whole product stack to manage ray tracing properly. There are now a decent number of ray tracing-supported video games, and it’s time for GPUs that can allow ray mapping without concession, also at the mid-range degree. We feel that’s an acceptable minimal standard to request for, since how much time are we mosting likely to just bear with ray mapping being a feature for premium customers only?
For mid-range GPUs in the $ 350– 450 variety, there must be no justifications or compromises– they absolutely ought to be capable of ray tracing. Players get GPUs in that price array for 1440 p video gaming with ultra settings at 60 FPS, at minimum. Next-gen GPUs must deliver that degree of performance with ray mapping on, we think that’s a reasonable assumption more than six years right into the “ray mapping period”.
The problem with conference these assumptions is that the baseline requires to increase considerably. Entry-level GPUs need to be a minimum of double the ray mapping performance of the RTX 2060 to make excellent quality 1080 p gaming with ray tracing a truth, possibly triple the efficiency or even more if we wish to consider path tracing or one of the most difficult examples. Yet today, the cheapest RTX GPU you can get– the GeForce RTX 3050– is in fact quite a bit slower than the RTX 2060
A a lot greater efficiency standard means video game developers can make use of advanced and visually sensational ray tracing results into games, recognizing that PC gamers have the hardware to sustain those settings. The initiative will not be lost, much more players could wish to enable ray tracing, and the visual top quality of games can move on at a much faster pace. However that just occurs if entry-level and mid-range GPUs boost dramatically.
Shopping Shortcuts:
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 on Amazon
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super on Amazon
- AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT on Amazon
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super on Amazon
- AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT on Amazon
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super on Amazon
- AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX on Amazon
