NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 vs. GTX 1660 Ti: Which GPU is right for you?

If you're on a tight budget and need a capable GPU right now, you'll find the GTX 1060 Ti offers a fair amount of bang for your buck. However, if you can stretch your budget to cover the RTX 2060 and need a GPU for 1440p gaming, you should do so.

Showcasing the power of Turing

NVIDIA launched the GTX 1660 Ti to sit in between the GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 and on paper, this is exactly the case. However, the new card has been shown in benchmarks to even match the performance of the GTX 1070 in certain titles, which showcases the improvements made in Turing.

While the GTX 1660 Ti gnaws at the heels of the RTX 2060, the latter is simply a better GPU overall, which is reflected in the price. The RTX family of GPUs come rocking support for ray tracing — essentially fancier methods of lighting objects and scenes in games — and DLSS processing. I've written about these new technologies, should you be unfamiliar with the terms, but to sum it up: NVIDIA is hoping these features will signal the future of visual fidelity in games.

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Header Cell - Column 0 ZOTAC RTX 2060EVGA GTX 1660 Ti
NVIDIA Cuda Cores1,9201,536
Clock speeds1365168015001770
VRAM6GB GDDR66GB GDDR6
Memory interface192-bit128-bit
Memory bandwidth336 GB/s288 GB/s
Memory speed14 Gb/s6 Gb/s
Power160 W120 W
Ray tracing-
DLSS-
1440p gamingGreatGreat
4K gamingMediocrePoor
PortsHDMI 2.0b3x DisplayPort 1.4HDMI 2.0bDisplayPort 1.4DVI

At a resolution of 1080p or 1440p, both the GTX 1660 Ti and RTX 2060 are some of the best graphics card options with the latter coming on top with more CUDA cores and faster memory. At 4K, the 1660 Ti will struggle to keep up and while the RTX 2060 won't provide a butter smooth experience, but it'll still be able to power through.

The GTX 1660 Ti is a powerful card, there's no doubt about it. For the price of less than $300, you're getting plenty of features and capabilities, but with the RTX 2060 in range with all of its advantages and improvements, it makes recommending the GTX 1660 Ti difficult, especially if you can afford the more powerful RTX card.

Better in-game performance

The RTX 2060 is the better GPU. Not only are the aftermarket cards of higher quality with better cooling solutions, but you're also getting faster memory, more CUDA cores, and better overall performance. Add on top of all this support for ray tracing and NVIDIA's DLSS and you've got quite the GPU.

For tighter budgets

The GTX 1660 Ti is a solid GPU and really shook up the GTX 10-series family. The GTX 1070 is not so hot looking when a GPU that costs almost half as much is capable of matching it in terms of performance in games. The RTX 2060 is a whole other beast, coming with similar Turing advantages and better components. You'll only choose the GTX 1660 Ti if you're looking to save.

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.