Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super/ RTX 2070 Super: rasterisation analysis

And so begins our battery of performance analysis tests for the new RTX cards, incorporating a range of game engines old and new. Our test system consists of a Core i7 8700K running at an all-core turbo speed of 4.7GHz. This is paired with two 8GB sticks of 3400MHz DDR4 supplied by GSkill, with all titles running from solid state storage. To ensure that the power-hungry 8700K doesn't overheat, a Corsair H110i all-in-one liquid cooler is used, which does a remarkably effective job.

Depending on how you view this page, our performance metrics are presented in one of two ways. If you're reading this on a mobile device, you'll get a table with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements. However, if you're on a desktop or laptop, you get the full-blooded Digital Foundry experience. Play the YouTube videos to see frame-rate and frame-time metrics running in parallel to the video (you can even navigate around the video with the graphs adjusting to match). Beneath that you'll see our barcharts, dynamically generated from the frame-time metrics - mouse over for various stats and press the mouse button to swap over to the more useful percentage differentials.

It's a system designed to give you as much in-depth data as you want - or indeed as little, for at-a-glance viewing - all derived from video captures of each respective GPU. No internal frame-rate measurements here, it all comes from the video output of the card, the best way to ensure accuracy.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Historically, AC Odyssey has caused genuine issues for AMD hardware - likely owing to its remarkable CPU overhead at ultra high settings putting it on collision course with the firm's DX11 driver. For Nvidia though, it's mostly business as usual, and the Super cards provide solid results. The RTX 2060 Super takes on the GTX 1080 and wins with a couple of points to spare - not bad for a £380 card. GTX 1080 Ti inches ahead of the RTX 2070 Super by two to four points depending on the resolution, but curiously the new Turing product moves slightly ahead at 4K. Meanwhile, the 2070 Super also beats Radeon 7 - and even the 2060S gets close at 1080p. Initial results are promising then.

Assassin's Creed Unity

A legacy game, but an important one - a game that pushed the visual state of the art in 2014 and still looks beautiful today, and also an example of a title that's profligate in sucking up system resources. It's been ruining GPUs for years now and the trend continues as resolutions scale ever higher. The RTX 2060 Super is a match for the RTX 2070 at 1080p, but falls just a bit short at higher resolutions. The more powerful RTX 2070 Super once again drops a couple of points next to the GTX 1080 Ti, until we reach 4K, where curiously the new card moves ahead a touch once more. Interestingly, at 1080p, the 2070 Super matches RTX 2080, but drops back at higher pixel-counts.

Battlefield 1

It's a game that separates older Nvidia technology from the newer cards, with an engine that definitely favours Turing. Historically, under DX12, it's also very AMD friendly using DX12 - to the point where Radeon 7 is the outright winner here. Here, the 2060 Super manages to catch up with 1080 Ti at 1080p resolution, only losing ground at 1440p and 4K. Even then, it's still comparable. Meanwhile, the RTX 2070 Super delivers results that are only a few points short of the RTX 2080.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super / RTX 2070 Super Analysis

• Introduction, Hardware Breakdown
• RTX vs RTX Super: Ray tracing performance analysis
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey/Unity, Battlefield 1 - Rasterisation Analysis Part 1 [This Page]
• Crysis 3, Far Cry 5, Ghost Recon Wildlands - Rasterisation Analysis Part 2
• Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, The Witcher 3 - Rasterisation Analysis Part 3
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super/ RTX 2070 Super - the Digital Foundry verdict