NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 represent two distinct eras of graphics hardware, separated by a massive generational and architectural gap. The RTX 5090 D V2 is a current flagship built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, while the RTX 2060 is an end-of-life Turing-based model from the GeForce 20-series. In the sole available benchmark, the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RTX 5090 D V2 scores 16,504 points, a figure that places it 1,228.8% ahead of the RTX 2060’s 1,242 points. This single result underscores the performance chasm between the two, though their percentile rankings among all GPUs are surprisingly close, at 59% and 58% respectively.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 5090 D V2 than the RTX 2060 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark?

A: The RTX 5090 D V2 achieves a score of 16,504, which is 1,228.8% higher than the RTX 2060’s 1,242 points. This represents the only direct head-to-head comparison available in the data.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each card, and how do they compare?

A: The RTX 5090 D V2 features 24 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.34 TB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 2060 has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is significantly lower.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel fill rate and texture fill rate?

A: The RTX 5090 D V2 leads decisively, with a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. The RTX 2060’s pixel rate is 80.64 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 201.6 GTexel/s.

Q: How do the two cards compare in terms of FP32 compute performance?

A: The RTX 5090 D V2 delivers 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the RTX 2060 provides 6.451 TFLOPS. The RTX 5090 D V2’s FP16 performance is also 104.8 TFLOPS (1:1), whereas the RTX 2060’s FP16 is 12.90 TFLOPS (2:1).

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The RTX 5090 D V2 has a TDP of 575 W and requires a 950 W suggested PSU, using a single 16-pin connector. The RTX 2060 has a 160 W TDP, a 450 W suggested PSU, and uses a single 8-pin connector.

Q: Are there any differences in their production status and release dates?

A: Yes. The RTX 5090 D V2 is marked as Active and was released on 2025-08-14, while the RTX 2060 is End-of-life and was released on 2019-01-06.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5090 D V2 wins the only direct benchmark comparison available, dominating the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. Its score of 16,504 versus 1,242 for the RTX 2060 is a decisive victory, indicating a massive advantage in modern DirectX 12 workloads. The RTX 5090 D V2’s specification sheet reinforces this, with a 24 GB GDDR7 memory pool, a 384-bit bus, and 21,760 shading units, all of which point to it being designed for high-resolution, high-fidelity gaming and compute tasks that stress the GPU heavily.

The RTX 2060, while losing the head-to-head, offers a distinct set of wins in legacy and API-specific scenarios based on its benchmark suite. It posts scores in Geekbench OpenCL (65,014) and Vulkan (65,846), as well as PassMark tests for DirectX 9 (190), DirectX 10 (98), DirectX 11 (110), DirectX 12 (53), G2D (745), G3D (14,111), and GPU Compute (5,488). These results show it can handle a broader range of older APIs. For users with legacy software or those needing a low-power card for basic tasks, the RTX 2060’s 160 W TDP and compact 229 mm length are practical advantages, though its performance ceiling is far lower.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is vast. The RTX 5090 D V2 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using the GB202 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It integrates 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 122.9M per mm². The RTX 2060 uses the older Turing architecture with the TU106 chip, built on a 12 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die, with a density of 24.3M per mm². This means the RTX 5090 D V2 packs over eight times more transistors into a die that is less than double the size.

The RTX 5090 D V2’s core configuration is dramatically larger: it has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, 176 ROPs, 170 RT cores, and 680 tensor cores. The RTX 2060 has 1,920 shading units, 120 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 30 RT cores, and 240 tensor cores. The Blackwell architecture also supports a 1:1 FP16 to FP32 ratio, whereas Turing uses a 2:1 ratio, indicating a different compute design philosophy. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but the underlying hardware implementation is generations apart.

Specification Differences

Several key specifications differ between the two cards. The RTX 5090 D V2 has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, while the RTX 2060 operates at 1365 MHz base and 1680 MHz boost. Memory speeds also differ: the RTX 5090 D V2 runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) with GDDR7, while the RTX 2060 runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) with GDDR6. The bus interface is PCIe 5.0 x16 for the RTX 5090 D V2, compared to PCIe 3.0 x16 for the RTX 2060.

Physical dimensions vary as well. The RTX 5090 D V2 measures 304 mm in length, 137 mm in height, and 48 mm in width, whereas the RTX 2060 is smaller at 229 mm, 113 mm, and 35 mm. Display outputs are another point of divergence: the RTX 5090 D V2 offers 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b, while the RTX 2060 includes 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C. Power connectors are 1x 16-pin for the newer card and 1x 8-pin for the older one.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The sole head-to-head benchmark is the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, and the result is stark. The RTX 5090 D V2 scores 16,504, compared to the RTX 2060’s 1,242, resulting in a delta of 1,228.8% in favor of the RTX 5090 D V2. This is not a marginal improvement but a full order-of-magnitude jump, reflecting the combined benefits of a newer architecture, more than eleven times the shading units, and quadruple the memory bandwidth. The RTX 5090 D V2 also holds a 59th percentile ranking among all GPUs, while the RTX 2060 sits at 58th, meaning that despite the vast performance gap, both cards occupy a similar position in terms of how they rank against the entire database of tested GPUs.

Looking at the nearest rivals for context, the RTX 5090 D V2’s score of 16,504 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA T400 (16,508, 0% delta) and slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (16,415, 0.5% delta) and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (16,408, 0.6% delta). The RTX 2060’s average score of 15,290 is close to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15,283, 0% delta) and the AMD Radeon 680M (15,270, 0.1% delta), though its Steel Nomad result is much lower than its average, suggesting that the modern benchmark is particularly taxing for the older card. These rival comparisons indicate that the RTX 5090 D V2 is competitive with professional workstation cards, while the RTX 2060 aligns with much older or integrated-class hardware in this specific test.