NVIDIA's RTX 2060 Now Available Alongside GeForce 417.71 Game Ready Drivers

👤by Tim Harmer Comments 📅15.01.2019 11:32:46



It's been barely a week since NVIDIA unveiled the GeForce RTX 2060. Reviews of the Founder's Edition variant from publications lucky enough to be sampled directly went live alongside its announcement, while reviews of partner models have followed. And now consumers can finally purchase the card, in store and online.

Unsurprisingly, Founder's Edition and partner card pricing differs, in many cases considerably. The GeForce RTX 2060 Founder's Edition is available for the baseline MSRP of £329 incl V.A.T., but only directly from NVIDIA's own online store (where stock is limited). Partner cards start from £349, but quickly increase beyond that to as high as £450 for more popular brands with elaborate cooling solutions. If you expected uniformity you'll be disappointed, but a close look at clock speeds and other model specs may mean that relative bargains are there for the taking. Silicon variants (such as those with the A1 binning believed to be of higher quality) are not indicated in any product listing.

GeForce RTX 2060 Technical Specs (Ref.)

GPU Engine Specs:

NVIDIA CUDA® Cores:- 1920
RTX-OPS:- 37T
Giga Rays/s:- 5
Boost Clock (MHz):- 1680
Base Clock (MHz):- 1365

Memory Specs:

Memory Speed:- 14 Gbps
Standard Memory Config:- 6 GB GDDR6
Memory Interface Width:- 192-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec):- 336 GB/s

Display:

Maximum Digital Resolution:- 7680x4320
Standard Display Connectors:- DisplayPort, HDMI, USB Type-C™, DVI-DL
Multi Monitor:- 4
HDCP:- 2.2

Graphics Card Dimensions:

Height:- 4.435” (112.6mm)
Length:- 9.0” (228.60mm)
Width:- 2-slot

Thermal and Power Specs:

Maximum GPU Temperature (in C):- 88
Graphics Card Power (W):- 160W
Recommended System Power (W):- 500W
Supplementary Power Connectors:- Single 8-pin




Launching alongside the new card is, as one might expect, a brand new driver to support it. The GeForce Game Ready WHQL Driver 417.71 will be mandatory for the new graphics card, but that doesn't mean it's the sole feature of the new release.

Utilising this driver, users will be able to enable support for Variable Refresh Rate modes on G-SYNC compatible Adaptive Sync monitors through DisplayPort. These monitors, numbering just twelve at the time of writing, have been validated to 'not show pulsing, flickering, or other artifacts during VRR gaming'; by implication other Adaptive-Sync monitors are likely to offer a sub-standard experience.

This feature is only available to Pascal-class (GTX 10-series) and newer GPUs, rather than reaching as far back as the immensely popular GeForce GTX 970. Nonetheless NVIDIA should be lauded for softening their rigid attitude against Adaptive-Sync as a gaming technology and working with monitor manufactures to improve standards.

As part of the driver update NVIDIA also include a list of fixed issues, which in this instance addresses plenty of monitor-focused problems. NVIDIA also outline specific issues present under Windows 10 which are now on their hit-list.

These drivers are available direct from NVIDIA at https://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/141954 or via GeForce Experience, and are compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows 10 and Windows 7. Graphics cards reaching as far back as the GTX 600-series (Kepler) are supported.

Release Notes

What’s New in Version 417.71 WHQL

Game Ready Drivers provide the best possible gaming experience for all major new releases, including Virtual Reality games. Prior to a new title launching, our driver team is working up until the last minute to ensure every performance tweak and bug fix is included for the best gameplay on day-one.

Gaming Technology

Includes support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics cards as well as support for GSYNC compatible monitors.

3D Vision Profiles

Added or updated the following 3D Vision profiles:

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Not Recommended
• Darksider 3 - Fair

Software Module Versions

• nView - 149.34
• HD Audio Driver - 1.3.38.4
• NVIDIA PhysX System Software - 9.18.0907
• GeForce Experience - 3.16.0.140
• CUDA - 10.0

Product Support

- Added support for GeForce RTX 2060

New Features

G-SYNC Compatible Support

NVIDIA G-SYNC can now be used to activate the VRR features of G-SYNC Compatible displays. G-SYNC Compatible displays have been validated by NVIDIA to not show pulsing, flickering, or other artifacts during VRR gaming. See https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/g-sync-monitors/specs/ for the list of GSYNC Compatible displays.

• G-SYNC on G-SYNC Compatible displays is supported only with NVIDIA Pascal and later GPU architectures.

• Only single displays are currently supported; multiple monitors can be connected but no more than one display should have G-SYNC enabled.





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