It's numbers time - although some of these figures may vary if you decide to get one of the third party cards instead of the Nvidia Founders Edition I've got here.
So what are you actually getting with the RTX 2060? That's right. If anything, it's Nvidia's own GTX 1070 and GTX 1070Ti that should be worried, as the RTX 2060 effectively makes both of them redundant - and, in the case of the GTX 1070Ti, at a much lower price to boot. Thankfully, AMD didn't do that, and the RX 590's reasonably-sort-of sane pricing means it will continue to have a place among the budget 1440p graphics cards of this world if you can't stump up the cash for the RTX 2060. But I can't help think that if AMD had decided to release the RX 590 after the RTX 2060, it probably would have been dismissed within 3.87 seconds of its untimely arrival. The RX 590 is, admittedly, still a lot cheaper than the RTX 2060 (with most cards going for the same price as Nvidia's 6GB GTX 1060 at time of writing), and offers a smidge more performance than both its GTX rival and RX 580 predecessor. In hindsight, it's easy to see now why AMD squeaked out their Radeon RX 590 graphics card at the tail end of last year without even a whiff of ceremony about it, because when it comes to stonking 1440p performance, the RTX 2060 utterly wipes the floor with it. In truth, this is what today's GTX 1070 owners should be looking to for their next upgrade, because this, dear readers, is one seriously powerful graphics card that goes way beyond what we'd normally call 'mid-range'. It can even push into the realms of 4K without throwing a hissy-fit. Whereas the GTX 1060 struggled to hit 60fps on higher quality settings at 1440p, the RTX 2060 sails past that number and then some. It's another £100 / $100 more expensive than the GTX 1060, with Nvidia's Founders Edition on test here going for £329 / $349 while third party cards currently start at £350 / $350, but when it comes to speed, it's in another league altogether. Its RTX 2060 successor, however, kicks things up a notch. It was a fantastic card when it launched for $249, and it continues to be one now for even less, with some of today's cheapest 6GB cards going for $240 / £220.
Ever since Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 came out in 2016, it's not only been the de facto, bestest best graphic cards for flawless 1080p gaming, but also the go-to GPU for cash-strapped 1440p-ers, offering smooth, if slightly less shiny, frame rates for a much lower price than Nvidia's more capable GTX 1070 or GTX 1070Ti.