[Rumor] Nvidia Might Resurrect the RTX 2060 With 12GB Of VRAM

[Lightwreather]

Summary

A new version of an old graphics card may be coming

Quotes

Quote

The GeForce RTX 2060 may be a bit outdated, but it's still one of the best graphics cards on the market, if you're open to buying a last-gen GPU. Nvidia seems to share the same opinion as a new rumor (via VideoCardz) suggests that the chipmaker isn't ready to pull the plug on the Turing-powered graphics card just yet.

According to VideoCardz's sources, Nvidia will revamp the GeForce RTX 2060 by endowing it with twice the memory as the original. The chipmaker has reportedly given its board partners a heads-up that the new GeForce RTX 2060 12GB may be ready by the end of 2021. Therefore, it's plausible that the new variant could debut in January 2022.

The GeForce RTX 2060 12GB allegedly utilizes the PG161 board, which coincidentally is the same board that's inside the Geforce GTX 1660 Ti. The revised mid-range Turing graphics card will continue to utilize the TU106 silicon and retain the majority of GeForce RTX 2060's specifications. The only compelling upgrade is the memory capacity that'll be upgraded from 6GB up to 12GB of GDDR6.

Earlier this year, Nvidia resuscitated the GeForce RTX 2060 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti as stopgap solutions for the graphics card shortage. You can say what you want about the GeForce RTX 2060, but the Turing-based graphics card continues to be the second most popular graphics card on Steam. So, it doesn't surprise us one bit that Nvidia would want to keep the fire going.

The rumored GeForce RTX 2060 overhaul certainly isn't good news for gamers that want to pick up a GeForce RTX 30-series (Ampere) graphics card. Odds are that the global semiconductor shortage will persist into 2022, which would explain why Nvidia would want to relaunch the GeForce RTX 2060 as a second option for consumers. Chip production should improve very soon as ABF substrate manufacturers are building new plants to increase production. Unfortunately, most of them won't be operational until 2022 so the shortage will still be an issue.

 

My thoughts

Well, that's ..... interesting. If this rumor is true, we might see some 2060 12gig cards soon. However, I don't really see how this would help. nVIDIA already reintroduced the 2060 wayy back near the beginning of the shortage, and it did help a little. But increasing the VRAM, I'm not really sure how that'll help, especially if memory production is still a bottleneck or if substrate production is a bottleneck

Sources

Tom's Hardware

Videocardz

[MingLee420]

9 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Summary

A new version of an old graphics card may be coming

Quotes

 

My thoughts

Well, that's ..... interesting. If this rumor is true, we might see some 2060 12gig cards soon. However, I don't really see how this would help. nVIDIA already reintroduced the 2060 wayy back near the beginning of the shortage, and it did help a little. But increasing the VRAM, I'm not really sure how that'll help, especially if memory production is still a bottleneck or if substrate production is a bottleneck

Sources

Tom's Hardware

Videocardz

 12gb of vram is def for people wanting to mine or some other thing only takes advantage of vram

[Levent]

If price is right I might consider getting one (or two) but I feel like this is going to be exclusive to mining applications like how we saw RX570 gpus being made for dual gpu mining cards

[Kisai]

38 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Summary

A new version of an old graphics card may be coming

Quotes

 

My thoughts

Well, that's ..... interesting. If this rumor is true, we might see some 2060 12gig cards soon. However, I don't really see how this would help. nVIDIA already reintroduced the 2060 wayy back near the beginning of the shortage, and it did help a little. But increasing the VRAM, I'm not really sure how that'll help, especially if memory production is still a bottleneck or if substrate production is a bottleneck

Sources

Tom's Hardware

Videocardz

OEM's. Short of Intel releasing better IGP parts (they never will), there's a gap in price/performance due to the scalping/bitcoin mining and various shipping/production shortages.

 

VRAM is much smaller dies, so the yield is always higher for stuff like RAM and Flash, and the process node memory is on doesn't matter quite as much. It's still GDDR6.

 

It would not surprise me when the 40xx parts come out that they continue to produce 3060/60Ti parts as well, and discontinue the higher end 30xx parts so they don't cannibalize the higher end parts price points of the next series. If there's even anything to discontinue. Some AIB's may have weeks or months of chips.

 

But there's also the Ethereum crash around the corner, so 4GB cards aren't going to cut it, and it would not surprise me if the rumor was misread and this is actually another mining card.

 

That said, the two ML applications I've been experimenting on need an 8GB and a 4GB VRAM amount respectively, and a 12GB card would work fine for that.

 

[porina]

47 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

But increasing the VRAM, I'm not really sure how that'll help, especially if memory production is still a bottleneck or if substrate production is a bottleneck

While we've heard random snippets of a shortage here, a shortage there, it isn't really clear who is short of what. If nvidia and AIBs are currently primarily limited by GPUs themselves, higher VRAM models could increase selling value and maybe make them a bit more profit overall for those limited GPUs.

 

We also have to consider the lack of a 3050 desktop GPU. Rumours were circulating earlier in the year but it looks quiet now. A 2060 would fit in the stack roughly where a 3050 would have. Turing (probably continuing) being made at TSMC means nvidia can continue to focus on the higher end Ampere GPUs at Samsung.

[porina]

25 minutes ago, Kisai said:

But there's also the Ethereum crash around the corner, so 4GB cards aren't going to cut it, and it would not surprise me if the rumor was misread and this is actually another mining card.

I missed this 1st time through. The 2060 original has 6GB though. I found the below site predicting DAG size increase and 6GB is apparently sufficient through to 2024, and I assume the switch to POS will happen before that will be a problem. No other crypto listed will require 6GB any earlier. That only looks at ethash based crypto, and I have not checked if others may have different requirements. Based on this, increasing VRAM doesn't seem to be a good choice if it were targeted towards miners, since it would be unnecessary cost for no immediate benefit to them. If anything, a high VRAM may benefit gamers looking forwards given nvidia have kinda drawn a line in the sand for 8GB as a requirement for higher end gaming looking forwards.

 

https://minerstat.com/dag-size-calculator

 

[Kisai]

1 minute ago, porina said:

I missed this 1st time through. The 2060 original has 6GB though. I found the below site predicting DAG size increase and 6GB is apparently sufficient through to 2024, and I assume the switch to POS will happen before that will be a problem.

 

Who really knows at this point. The occams razor answer is simply that nVidia got ahold of underutilized 12nm capacity at TSMC.

https://www.fudzilla.com/news/43640-tsmc-lands-chip-orders-for-12nm-process

Quote

According to various industry sources, the company has received chip orders from Nvidia, MediaTek, Silicon Motion Technology and HiSilicon. Nvidia is expected to use TSMC’s 12nm process to fabricate graphics processors for AI computing and self-driving cars, while MediaTek will use it to build a new SoC lineup for mobile devices.

 

Silicon Motion intends has been preparing to introduce a second-generation enterprise SSD controller that will be fabricated using TSMC’s 12nm process in 2018, according to the sources. The company also hopes to adopt the 12nm process for a new line of client SSD controllers and UFS products. For now, it plans to roll out a series of five SSD controller units using TSMC’s 28nm process before the end of 2017.

 

Remember, that automotive manufacturers got royally screwed this year.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2021/06/01/auto-industry-production-wilts-under-pressure-from-chip-shortages-but-there-are-plusses/?sh=3f88e71c484f

Quote

As demand for new cars and SUVs recovered from the lengthy shutdown, it turned out other industries like gaming had been thriving during the enforced lockdown which confined people to their homes and stopped car use and car buying. Semiconductor makers were happy to switch production to these new domestic customers, but when auto demand turned around, chip supply couldn’t suddenly be switched back on. And with many new cars using more and more high-tech components, this required bigger and more sophisticated electronics, and you have a perfect storm of supply aggravation for the industry.

 

So put all the cards on the table, and it's likely that nVidia grabbed the capacity and might be repurposing it to the 2060 gpu's rather than producing the automotive SoC's, or whatever.

 

It's all speculation at this point.

[AnonymousGuy]

Nah, ain't gonna happen.  It's not a powerful enough GPU to use that VRAM.  Hell take my 3090 and I can fire up 2 games and mine without even stretching it close to 24GB.

[dizmo]

13 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Nah, ain't gonna happen.  It's not a powerful enough GPU to use that VRAM.  Hell take my 3090 and I can fire up 2 games and mine without even stretching it close to 24GB.

As if that's ever stopped them...you also just proved your own assumption wrong

 

More = better. 

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Hell take my 3090 and I can fire up 2 games and mine without even stretching it close to 24GB

Yet I can't even run Resident Evil 3 above medium texture settings with a 3070, and neither with a 1070 without it pretty much immediately crashing due to high VRAM usage...

8GB is ridiculously low in this day and age even for a 2060, which is actually quite powerful except most have been nerfed with meager *6*GB versions...

 

 

OT: also why isn't this a 2060 Super, would make way more sense (to me) 

[Mark Kaine]

5 hours ago, Kisai said:

Semiconductor makers were happy to switch production to these new domestic customers, but when auto demand turned around, chip supply couldn’t suddenly be switched back on. And with many new cars using more and more high-tech components, this required bigger and more sophisticated electronics, and you have a perfect storm of supply aggravation for the industry.

I mean i know this is silly, but they should make "swappable" units, "sorry, son, no video games today, daddy gotta drive to work..." *removes GPU from PC*

 

OK it sounds silly, but theoretically maybe not a bad idea (in different scenarios lol)

 

 

[tikker]

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Yet I can't even run Resident Evil 3 above medium texture settings with a 3070, and neither with a 1070 without it pretty much immediately crashing due to high VRAM usage...

8GB is ridiculously low in this day and age even for a 2060, which is actually quite powerful except most have been nerfed with meager *6*GB versions...

 

 

OT: also why isn't this a 2060 Super, would make way more sense (to me) 

Wasn't there a memory leak at the beginning? Probably also important to mention at what resolution and texture detail you were trying to run the game at, because obviously 4k at 2x texture detail etc. will not run well on a 3070 (different type of VRAM compared to the 3080 as well). That aside I haven't seen much over 8 GB usage from that game in reviews.

 

Can people just accept that an XX70 is a mid range card and thus intended for mediumish settings, not suitable for the highest resolutions or the ultra-est settings? E.g. in this comparison only Horizon Zero Dawn and FS2020 seem to actually use more than 8 GB maxed out at 1440p and for some reason COD Black Ops Cold War is using 19 GB which is just insane.

[MultiGamerClub]

4 minutes ago, tikker said:

XX70 is a mid range card and thus intended for mediumish settings,

Haha no, my old 1070 and in sli ate high settings for most games i threw at it.

 

All be it i havent touched cod games since 2014 , no idea how they behave.

[tikker]

3 minutes ago, MultiGamerClub said:

Haha no, my old 1070 and in sli ate high settings for most games i threw at it.

That's SLI, not single card. Sure easier to run games can run on high, but the rule medium level hardware for medium settings still applies generally.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, tikker said:

Can people just accept that an XX70 is a mid range card and thus intended for mediumish settings, not suitable for the highest resolutions or the ultra-est settings

Except the card runs pretty much everything at ultra/60+fps, with very few exceptions,  and often VRAM is the exception... i mean its faster than a 1080ti but has *less* Vram, that should be everything you need to know how imbalanced it is.

 

1 hour ago, tikker said:

Wasn't there a memory leak at the beginning? Probably also important to mention at what resolution and texture detail

idk that, when I bought the game it was already old/discounted... and that's the point if i can't run high textures because the card only has 8GB, that means it should have more, but instead has the same amount than the previous 2 generations - its just shameful from Nvidia  - i knew that beforehand but what can you do... didn't have much choice (amd wasn't even available for a very long time here)

 

Resolution is irrelevant in this example, because it doesn't matter,  game runs fine in 4k, and even at 1080p  the memory is insufficient for more than "medium" textures.

 

There would be literally no issue if the card had 10 or 12 GB instead,  as is, its just not balanced well with how powerful the card is otherwise. 

 

 

1 hour ago, tikker said:

E.g. in this comparison only Horizon Zero Dawn and FS2020 seem to actually use more than 8 GB

There are more games than those,  for sure (MHW is another for example, the only limitation is Vram)

 

That's the thing by putting only 8GB on most cards, Nvidia is also holding back games , 8GB really just doesn't cut it for high quality textures, depending on games/ devs. Its kinda pointless trying to find excuses for this, the only reason they do it is because they can, not because it's a sane choice otherwise.  

 

 

 

 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

8 hours ago, MingLee420 said:

 12gb of vram is def for people wanting to mine or some other thing only takes advantage of vram

No?
8gb is more than enough for mining, which will only pass 8gb in 5 years (for eth). And eth is one of the most vram intensive ones.

 

And this will probably add a LHR limiter

[MultiGamerClub]

4 hours ago, tikker said:

That's SLI, not single card. Sure easier to run games can run on high, but the rule medium level hardware for medium settings still applies generally.

Seems you missed "1070 and sli" implying not using sli before "and" there.. Oh well. Didnt use sli in 90% of the case but bad wording i guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edited September 12, 2021 by MultiGamerClub
Worded it better.

[tikker]

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

idk that, when I bought the game it was already old/discounted... and that's the point if i can't run high textures because the card only has 8GB, that means it should have more, but instead has the same amount than the previous 2 generations - its just shameful from Nvidia  - i knew that beforehand but what can you do... didn't have much choice (amd wasn't even available for a very long time here)

 

Resolution is irrelevant in this example, because it doesn't matter,  game runs fine in 4k, and even at 1080p  the memory is insufficient for more than "medium" textures.

 

There would be literally no issue if the card had 10 or 12 GB instead,  as is, its just not balanced well with how powerful the card is otherwise. 

Resolution matters a little bit. Similarly the texture quality determines which resolution textures it loads, so yeah if high or ultra decides to slap full blown 4k textures on everything then it explodes (though for RE3 it's unclear what this setting actually does from what I've read). It is different from previous generations in the sense that it's faster RAM, that should alleviate the issue a little bit.

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

That's the thing by putting only 8GB on most cards, Nvidia is also holding back games , 8GB really just doesn't cut it for high quality textures, depending on games/ devs. Its kinda pointless trying to find excuses for this, the only reason they do it is because they can, not because it's a sane choice otherwise.  

The bolded part is the entire point though. A mid-end card isn't made for high quality textures. It's made for medium quality textures.

 

The majority of games doesn't seem to need more than 8 GB, so to me it makes sense on a 3070 level card. I consider it a good wake up call to both the industry and gamers to spend some effort into optimisation again instead of the uncompressed everything trend leading to games being 150 GB, and not setting unrealistic expectations like running 500 mods and 16k textures on Skyrim on mid-end hardware. That's one aspect I have really enjoyed the last 1 or 2 years again. The 3000 series was a great leap in performance and with not being able to max out games on lower end cards, the age old tiered lineup make sense again.

31 minutes ago, MultiGamerClub said:

Seems you missed "1070 and sli" implying not using sli before "and" there.. Oh well. Didnt use sli in 90% of the case but bad wording i guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ah ok. I think my reply doesn't really change, sure there have been quite a number of games where that's possible and in relation to what I said above I think that's sort of a "bad" thing. It means games haven't been pushing hardware as much as they used to a la Crysis.

[MultiGamerClub]

2 hours ago, tikker said:

Crysis

Never got this game to run good on my old 1070.. Medium/high settings worked fine but i remember i never got that game to run smooth no matter what i did.

 

Will give it a second attempt with a 3080 ti, just gotta find out if i still own the game.

[Middcore]

Quote

The GeForce RTX 2060 may be a bit outdated, but it's still one of the best graphics cards on the market, if you're open to buying a last-gen GPU. 

 

It wasn't even one of the best graphics cards on the market when it was out the first time.

 

 

[Lightwreather]

1 hour ago, Middcore said:

It wasn't even one of the best graphics cards on the market when it was out the first time.

That is according to tom's hardware, not according to me or really anyone else

[TOMPPIX]

I think everyone who has an 8gb card is gonna have to upgrade in the coming years even though their GPU will have plenty of power to compete, they just won't have the vram needed to run on max settings. Which fucking sucks. Unless direct storage is going to eliminate vram limit's.

[porina]

2 hours ago, TOMPPIX said:

I think everyone who has an 8gb card is gonna have to upgrade in the coming years even though their GPU will have plenty of power to compete, they just won't have the vram needed to run on max settings. Which fucking sucks. Unless direct storage is going to eliminate vram limit's.

I think "everyone" is over-stating it a bit. Only a small proportion of of gamers feel a need to run at max settings all the time. Those with deeper pockets and upgrade all the time will continue to do so. The masses will upgrade when they have to. I don't see owning an 8GB card now as leading to making people upgrade more frequently than they normally do. The GPU shortage has taught people the Polaris philosophy again. A good game is still good even if you have to turn settings down slightly in some areas, and often the difference between max/ultra and high is minimal while giving a notable perf boost where needed. Also with DLSS/FSR/XeSS getting good enough performance at lower hardware requirement will become more common. 

 

Also consider that current gen consoles have 16GB combined ram used for system and GPU. A great gaming experience will be targeted to work at that level. Not ruling out they could offer higher settings on PC versions, but see it as an extra not a necessity.

[Joduko]

I just want ot upgrade from my RX 580 without spending over 500 USD.

=(

[igormp]

I just sold my 2060 Super for double what I paid 2 years ago, this GPU would be a nice replacement for it.

 

On 9/12/2021 at 9:16 AM, Mark Kaine said:

OT: also why isn't this a 2060 Super, would make way more sense (to me) 

The 2060 Super already had 8gb of vram (was basically a slight nerf over the 2070 with higher clocks) with a larger memory bus when compared to the regular 2060. Adding more RAM onto the 2060 Super implies that it'd have 16gb of vram.