Having previously launched the high-end versions of their new GeForce RTX cards in the middle of last year, NVIDIA today announced that the entry-level RTX 2060 will launch next week priced at $350.

NVIDIA has made a big deal about their ‘RTX’ 20-series GPUs, which for the first time include hardware dedicated to accelerating ray-tracing and artificial intelligence processing. Though as they lead the launch of the RTX cards with enthusiast models—the 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti—they caught some flak for the price, with the 2070 Founder’s Edition starting at $600.

Image courtesy NVIDIA

Now NVIDIA has introduced their entry-level 20-series card, the RTX 2060. Announced on stage at CES 2019 this week, the company said that the RTX 2060 is priced at $350 and will launch globally on January 15th. NVIDIA is planning its own ‘Founder’s Edition’ of the 2060, which will launch on the same day as other versions of the card made by the company’s hardware partners.

NVIDIA said that the RTX 2060 is more powerful than the previous generation GTX 1060, 1070, and 1070 Ti cards. At launch the 2060 will be bundled for a limited time with the customer’s choice of Battlefield 5 or the upcoming Anthem.

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NVIDIA Demo Shows Off Real-time Ray Tracing Capabilities of RTX Cards

As a GPU based on NVIDIA’s Turing architecture, the RTX 2060 will support the VitualLink connection standard, which will allow upcoming VR headsets to connect to the PC through a single USB-C port on the GPU. While VirtualLink is technically supported under the hood, it’s possible that some versions of the 2060 will not include the necessary USB-C port; which ports are on the GPU is up to the card maker. All of NVIDIA’s own Founder’s Edition cards include the USB-C port.

Along with accelerated ray-tracing and AI processing, NVIDIA has also said that the Turing architecture in the RTX cards brings with it new and enhanced VR rendering features.

Update (January 7th, 2018): Corrected RTX 2070 Founder’s Edition price from $500 to $600 (thanks for the heads up in the comments, Zerofool). While the RTX 2070 ‘started at’ $500, the Founder’s Edition from Nvidia launched at $600.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • jean thompson

    Do we know if this card is better than the GTX 1080?????

    • NooYawker

      If it was they probably would have said so… or, they don’t want people to know it’s faster so it won’t hurt 1080 sales! Gotta keep an eye out for test reviews.

    • Blaexe

      It’s not. Overclocked as fast as a stock GTX1080.

      • jean thompson

        So for the price would someone be better off getting this or a 1080. My husband wants a 1080 but if this is almost just as good…

    • Xron

      Its written in the article, ~1070ti (Nvidia Testers…) We need to see 3rd party benches.

  • Justus Comon

    LOL. And for a 6 months ‘2050 ‘better than 1050!’? What a progres… And for that kind of money… 1060 costed a hundred USD less on release!

    Faster 1070/1070TI? Doubtful. Probably the same. And 1070 cost 300-400 USD – same price as 2060.
    Really pointless product as long as people had 3 years old 1070, or can buy much better (if used – in same price) 1080/1080Ti.

    P.S.This card should cost 200-250 USD max.

    • dk

      guessing it performs the same as 1070 and same price
      …like with the other rtx cards

    • Blaexe

      We have benchmarks now. GTX1070Ti level out of the box.

      • MosBen

        So, if someone has a 1060 or lower and really wants to upgrade, this is probably the card to get. If someone has a 1070 or higher, as I do, they’re left with the too expensive 2070 and 2080 cards. Or, as I plan to do, just waiting.

        • Da Mo (JFlash)

          or if you spent $xxx on a NVidia card in 2016 you can spend exactly the same in 2019 and get exactly the same performance.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      the 1060/3GB might have cost a hundred USD less, but the 1060/6GB has always been pretty much up there or even higher..

  • dk

    hmm 6pin in the back …not that it matters much …just interesting

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Looks like I have to purchase it though uploadvr instead.Its a dollar cheaper.lol

    • Firestorm185

      Hah, good one! xD

    • kool

      Put that dollar on the collection plate!

    • Ahahhahahah

  • Firestorm185

    Been getting to the point where it’d be nice to upgrade my system anyway, this might be a good incentive to do so. Right now I’m on 16gb of DDR3 with a GTX 1070 and a i5 4590… yeah, 4590…

    • Zerofool

      You’ve been waiting for so long, it wouldn’t hurt to wait for a bit more. AMD will announce their next line of products (both CPUs and GPUs) in just two days. This will finally put some pressure to Nvidia and Intel, and in time, will force them to lower the prices of most of their products (all of Intel’s and most of Nvidia’s, the exception being the highest end – RTX 2080/2080Ti). In a few months time (Q2-Q3), you will be able to get the same power as today’s mid-range parts for much cheaper.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        If it will put pressure on Nvidia and Intel still has to be seen, if it’s anything like the previous release, nvidia doesn’t really have to worry nor does Intel.

        Also don’t count on Q2-Q3 to get the same power as todays mid/mid-high, a lot of people said that the last time, and the prices never really dropped.

        • Zerofool

          I guess we’ll find out in two days time (or within a few weeks when independent reviews arrive if you don’t believe PR slides).

          Q3 is rumored to be the period when the fastest Navi GPU (Radeon RX 3080) is expected to launch, with early perf leaks positioning it slightly above the GTX 1080 (basically equal to RTX 2070), with rumored price tag of $250-300. Q3 is also when their Zen2 based APUs are expected, bringing superb bang-for-the buck entry-level systems.
          Q2 is when the slower Navi cards (RX 3060 and 3070) are expected to launch. Also the top of the line 16C/32C AM4 5+GHz (boost) CPU’s launch is expected then, coinciding with AMD’s 50th anniversary.
          Another thing – the forecast of intel solving their 14nm supply shortage is around Q2-Q3, so there’s no chance that their prices will go lower before that. Which is a great opportunity for AMD.
          Intel’s response will come in late Q4 in the form of 10nm Ice Lake CPU’s based on the Sunny Cove microarchitecture, taking back the single thread perf (IPC) lead (if they lose it, which is highly likely; for the first time since Athlon64), and marking an end of the Skylake era.
          By Q2-Q3, Pascal stocks are finally expected to be sold off, opening space for an entire product line-up comprised entirely of Turing chips, which are currently overpriced as to not compete with 10-series cards.

          Of course, all this info is not official, so all dates, names, prices, perf figures etc. could be wrong, but that’s the basis for my predictions and suggestion to wait for solid official info, the first wave of which arrives in just two days.

          Maybe you could elaborate why you think no substantial price changes will occur by Q2-Q3?

          Let’s discuss this again after the keynote, and maybe a second time when all the products are launched and reviewed ;)

      • Firestorm185

        You make some good points, but unless AMD has something crazy up their sleeves (which they’ve said they would before, but never have really been able to quite pull off, imo) causing the Nvidia prices to come WAY down (which like, 350 isn’t that bad for a card in range with the 1070) then I’m going to most likely going to just buy whatever NVIDIA has anyway. I’ve pretty much been green team my whole life. XD

        • Zerofool

          We all may be surprised soon enough :) (rumored $250-300 card in Q3 at ~RTX 2070 perf level)
          Let’s talk about it again on Wednesday after the keynote ;)

          • Firestorm185

            totally. I would love to be proven wrong.

          • Zerofool

            Sorry for the late response.
            Unfortunately, AMD wasn’t ready to show Navi at the event, and the announcement/launch is postponed to June/July. But I think it will be worth the wait, even if you decide to remain in the nvidia camp – GTX 1660Ti and probably other models will be launched by then as well, with better price/perf ratios than what’s on offer currently.

    • MosBen

      From my perspective it’s a question of what the main reason for your upgrade is. Personally, though I do a fair amount of flat PC gaming, I’d decided that my upgrade cycle is going to be tied to my interest in VR. So while I’m running a nearly 5-year old PC with a GTX 1070, I’m going to wait until we start seeing some next generation HMDs before committing to a major upgrade.

      • Firestorm185

        That’s a very good point. I need more RAM and a better CPU for creation purposes too though, I develop in UE4 and Unity and they are both pretty sluggish on my PC right now, although cooked VR content plays fabulously 90% of the time.

    • Pete

      this card is only around 5% more powerful than a 1070, maybe a bit more. better I/O and RTX aside, its probably not a great upgrade for a 1070 (i have one myself)

  • Zerofool

    with the 2070 Founder’s Edition starting at $500.

    RTX 2070 FE’s MSRP is $599. Only the partner cards based on the less capable chips (TU106-400-A1) start at $499. Partner cards based on the better chips (TU106-400A-A1) are closer to $600, with some costing even more than that.
    Hopefully, not for much longer…

    • benz145

      Ah yes, thanks for this correction. Mixed up what NVIDIA had called the “starting at” price of 2070 with the Founder’s Edition price. Fixing this now.

  • I’d love to see how this compares with a 980Ti.

  • Nelson Tutorials

    350$ will likely to be 400+ euros in EU. Nvidia can kiss my arse.

  • oompah

    I also urge bethesda to incorporate ray tracing in Elder scrolls

  • I think I will wait a bit before getting these cards