GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC: Light on Budget, Heavy on Performance
Nvidia Turing architecture has been a force to reckon with but that's only true for the top of the line RTX 2080 Ti that's a gaming beast in its own right since the RTX 2080 well is just near identical to GTX 1080Ti. This created a two way void for PC Gamers as not only the new cards, worth going for, are way too expensive but also there was no option for budget gamers who wanted an upgrade and maybe want some of those vanilla RT cores just for the sake of it. Finally Nvidia responded & we have the RTX 2060 in its true form which is the entry level RTX card and features some really nifty features under the hood.
Thanks to GALAX India I have their RTX 2060 1-Click OC Graphics card on the table for review and I can't be any more pumped than this as not only is this our first RTX 2060 review but also our first GALAX Graphics Card review.
Priced in at Rs 31,500 in India the GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC is the cheapest RTX 2060 one can have and just for that sake itself the card takes away some brownie points right off the bat due to the stature of the RTX 2060 cards itself. Under the hood this card is powered by a TU106 GPU based on the Turing architecture that is accompanied by 6 GB of GDDR6 memory which are clocked in at 1695 Mhz boost and 1750Mhz respectively.
What's in the Box!?
The GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC comes in a sleek cardboard box which is dominated by white, black and green as the primary colors. The classic GALAX silhouette is present right in the center along with the brand name, warranty and mention of the 1-Click OC feature mentioned clearly on the top half of the box. At the bottom we have the other details like product name and all but mostly its important to note that it is the White version of the card as a Black one of the same is also in the market and notably was launched prior to this one.
At the back nothing much is going on and we get marketing and basic details such as multi monitor support and the Xtreme Tuning Utility by GALAX. Overall the packing is really impressive from the top and its naturally one of the prettiest packing I've seen on a graphics card which is a welcome move.
Open the box and you will find the card securely resting inside an anti static bag which is nestled neatly inside a thick block of styrofoam that is more than enough for a card of this size and weight. Accessories wise the card is on the lighter side which is acceptable for the price tag it comes with and we get the GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC Graphics Card, a user manual for installation and a molex to PCIe adapter cable incase you are still rocking a prehistoric build and need one!
A Closer Look
GALAX has gone for a full white color scheme with this variant of the RTX 2060 1-Click OC which happens to be their signature color of HOF lineup that they've brought down here. Its a one of a kind color scheme that should attract a lot of gamers who are aiming for an all white Gaming PC.
The card is entirely white with just the GALAX logo printed on the fan stickers being a highlight in black. The shroud is made up of premium quality plastic with abstract designs molded across the entire length and breadth.
At the back the same color scheme continues on the backplate too which is fully white with grey streaks as highlights. It is a welcome move that GALAX has also included a backplate to their RTX 2060 even at this low of a price point while maintaining such solid build quality which isn't flimsy at all.
The RTX 2060 1-Click OC measures in at 228x131.5x41.5 mm making it a sleek and short card that should fir in easily in any case including mITX where space is an issue. On the top side we have the plastic shroud warping and blending into two colors of black and white where the white has the GeForce RTX branding the black portion flashes the GALAX logo which is RGB and can be controlled via the Xtreme Utility software available on the official website. The whole font and styling goes well with the theme of this card and creates a pleasing image to see through the side panel window of your PC cases.
As for the power the card uses a 8-pin PCIe connector which theoretically makes this card capable of pulling 300W. With this connector on a 160W TDP card I'm pretty sure we'll have decent headroom for overclocking.
Two 90mm fans are placed on a dense aluminum fin stack that houses four 30mm copper heat pipes to keep the VRAM and GPU arrangement cool underneath. These fans only start spinning once the card crosses the 54°C mark and do ramp up quickly as the temperature rises due to their aggressive fan curve. This should be plentiful as its only a 160W TDP card but considering the slim fin stack I have my apprehensions which we'll see later on during benchmarking.
For the I/O GALAX relies on the standard set of connectors for this dual slot RTX 2060 and sports a DVI-D port, a HDMI 2.0a port and a DisplayPort 1.4 making it a great card for running multiple displays including 4K panels.
Benchmarks and Overclocking
Installing the GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC was easy and it powered up like a breeze once we booted up the system. Since this is a very short card one won't have any issues when installing it in most to any case out there which is how it should be for a mainstream card.
GPUZ reported the correct frequencies with 1365Mhz on the clock and 1750Mhz on the memory with boost reaching 1965Mhz courtesy to GPU Boost 4.0
For testing the GALAX RTX 2060 graphics card our new test bench is as follows -
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X @3.9Ghz
Motherboard: Asus X370 Crosshair VI Hero
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB 3200Mhz
Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240R RGB
Graphics Card: GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC
Storage: Kingston A400 256GB
Secondary Storage: Corsair Neutron XTi 480GB
Power Supply: Corsair AX860i 860W
Case: Cooler Master H500M
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Sleeved Cables: TweakedPC
Now overclocking the GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC was a bit tricky, the propitiatory Xtreme Utility from GALAX that provides the 1-Click OC functionality along with a bunch of other features including manual tuning only bumps the core clock by a mere 15Mhz which as per me is not worth it at all and one should only use this utility for controlling the RGB lights at best. However using MSI Afterburner which I always use for graphics card overclocking showed that the Power Limit on this card is locked at a 100% and same was shown in the GALAX's own Xtreme Utility engine too! The only thing you can adjust is the temperature limit from 83°C to 87°C along with the core and memory frequencies. Anyways moving forward I could get a +100Mhz on the core and +1000Mhz on the memory to reach a stable 1465Mhz and 2000Mhz on the core and memory respectively which gave me a boost of 2100Mhz thanks to GPU Boost 4.0
This is thus far one of the superior overclocks on the RTX 2060 which leads me to speculate that GALAX might've raised the default power limit on this card from their side itself otherwise reaching such high off-sets on frequency at the default 100% power limit is quite near impossible.
3DMark Fire Strike & Time Spy
Fire Strike and Time Spy by 3D Mark is a test suit that plays a cinematic scene to determine the FPS, GPU temperature and CPU temperature scaling everything via a cumulative score. It is a great tool to benchmark your GPU since the render is mostly GPU & memory dependent.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2015 game Rise of the Tomb Raider and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series.
Based off the Dynamics' proprietary Foundation engine like its predecessor SOTTR is a visual treat and heavily optimized for PC platform. We are running it at Highest graphical preset in DX12 mode benchmarked using the game's build in tool.
Far Cry New Dawn
Far Cry New Dawn uses an enhanced version of the Dunia 2 engine. Unlike its predecessor the game now uses DirectX 12 API, the development team have optimized the game extensively to take advantage of hardware capabilities. Furthermore, Far Cry New Dawn is a testament to achieving proper visual fidelity while keeping overall polygon count in check. Testing is done at Ultra preset using the build in benchmark to keep the results standardized.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a 2018 action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. It is the eleventh major installment, and twentieth overall, in the Assassin's Creed series and the successor to 2017's Assassin's Creed Origins.
Using the AnvilNext 2.0 graphics engine the game though better optimized than Origin is still very taxing even on the best of systems out there. We are running the game's build in benchmark at Ultra presets.
Battlefield V
Battlefield V is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. Battlefield V is the sixteenth installment in the Battlefield series.
Masking use of the Frostbite 3 engine the game is extremely beautiful both in terms of graphics and story-line, I've tested the game in DX12 mode at maxed out settings and for DXR the Ultra setting is used.
Metro: Exodus
Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. Not only is this the first game ever to implement ray tracing global illumination and DLSS simultaneously but this game can beat any modern day PC hardware to its knees and can rightfully be called the present day Crysis. We are running it at Ultra presets with Hairworks on and Tessellation set to full using the game's build in benchmarking tool.
Thermals
The GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC runs similar if not cooler than the other RTX 2060 dual fan cards out there from various AIBs mainly due to its more aggressive fan profile using those two 90mm fans seated on a decent fin sstack, keeping it well off the thermal throttling mark when at stock or manually overclocked even when its inside a closed chassis such as the Cooler Master H500M and not on an open test bench. The card was allowed to run with the default fan curve & the temperature readings are taken in a strictly controlled environment with ambient temperature at 25°C.
My Verdict
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 is in itself a great value for money card considering it is technically the first and only card in the RTX lineup that offers unprecedented price to performance ratio making it everything that the Turing launch should've been. Coming to the card in hand today the GALAX RTX 2060 1-Click OC, the card performs exactly and even more than what I was expecting from it.Priced in at just Rs 31,500 in India the card is the cheapest RTX 2060 in the market but there is no sign of cutting corners when it comes to raw performance making it handle all the modern AAA titles at 1080p with ease and shines truly bright when used at 1440p with all setting cranked up delivering a smooth near to over 60 FPS in every demanding title today which also clearly makes it a winner when compared to any GTX 1660 Ti in the market today including the top of the line premium models.
"Overall GALAX has found itself a winner in form of the RTX 2060 1-Click OC which comes at an unbelievable price tag and ticks all the right boxes making it a perfect choice for a PC gamer looking for an upgrade or building an entirely new PC without blowing a hole in his pocket!"
Pros -
- Solid Build Quality
- All white color scheme
- Exceptionally well priced
- Comes in two colorways, Black and White
- Overclocks well
- Great 1440p performance
- Runs cool
- Extremely power efficient
Cons -
- None
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