UPDATE: GIGABYTE announced a 2060 card with the port
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card released today. As usual, a Founders Edition is available directly from NVIDIA. The company’s partners, such as EVGA and MSI, offer their own takes on cooling, ports, and clockrates.
However unlike the Founders Edition, all but one of the announced partner cards lack the VirtualLink USB-C port.
VirtualLink is the new USB-C single cable standard for future PC VR headsets and GPUs. It’s intended to simplify the setup process of PC VR and ensure compatibility with USB and power requirements. It also allows gaming laptops to easily support VR. VirtualLink is also backed by AMD, Oculus, Microsoft, Valve, and HTC.
Given that all RTX 2070 partner cards have the port, the likely explanation seems to be that VirtualLink is mandatory for RTX 2070 and above but optional for RTX 2060. If so, it’s disappointing to see only one OEMs include the port- despite many marketing their cards as “VR READY”.
AMD hasn’t announced a card with VirtualLink yet, despite also being a founding member of the standard. Even the new Radeon VII announced just last week lacks the port.
So if you’re in the market for a $350 card and want better compatibility with future VR headsets, make sure to pick up either the Founders Edition or one of the higher end models with the port.
