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| GeForce RTX 20 Series | |
|---|---|
| Name | GeForce RTX 20 Series |
| Developer | NVIDIA |
| Family | GeForce |
| Architecture | Turing |
| Marketed | 2018 |
| Codename | Turing |
| Successor | GeForce RTX 30 Series |
GeForce RTX 20 Series The GeForce RTX 20 Series is a family of graphics processing units designed by NVIDIA and launched in 2018 as the company's first consumer products to implement real-time ray tracing and tensor acceleration. Developed during NVIDIA's competition with AMD and the rise of machine learning workloads, the series targeted gaming, content creation, and professional visualization markets, aiming to accelerate APIs and engines such as DirectX Raytracing, Vulkan, and NVIDIA RTX-enabled titles.
NVIDIA developed the RTX 20 Series following advances in hardware-accelerated ray tracing research at institutions and companies including Microsoft, Intel, and AMD, and amid industry activity from studios like Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft. The announcement and keynote presentations involved partners such as ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and EVGA, and were covered by outlets including The Verge, Ars Technica, and Tom's Hardware. The Turing architecture reflected research collaborations and competitive positioning relative to architectures like AMD's Vega and Intel's discrete GPU efforts, with product strategy influenced by OEMs such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo and by platform partners like Microsoft Windows, Valve, and Epic Games.
Turing introduced hardware units for dedicated ray tracing (RT cores) and tensor operations (Tensor cores), alongside programmable shading enhancements like variable rate shading and multi-view rendering. The design drew on techniques from academic labs and companies including Stanford University, MIT, Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic, and NVIDIA Research. Features integrated into the GPUs accelerated APIs and engines such as DirectX 12, Vulkan, Unreal Engine, Unity, and RTX-enabled titles from Activision and Square Enix. The series supported memory subsystems using GDDR6 provided by Samsung and Micron, and included NVLink considerations linked to workstation solutions from HP Z, Lenovo ThinkStation, and Dell Precision.
NVIDIA's launch lineup included models marketed by partners ASUS ROG, MSI Gaming, Gigabyte AORUS, EVGA, Zotac, and Palit, among others. Key SKUs in the series comprised the high-end models associated with RTX branding and performance segments similar to prior GTX models and contemporaneous Radeon offerings from AMD. Specific cards were positioned to compete with product lines from AMD Radeon and to collaborate with platform integrators such as Alienware, Razer, and Acer Predator for system bundles, while workstation variants targeted creators using applications from Adobe, Autodesk, and Blender.
Independent benchmarkers and publications such as Digital Foundry, AnandTech, Linus Tech Tips, Gamers Nexus, and PC Gamer evaluated rasterization, ray-tracing, and AI-accelerated workloads across titles including Battlefield, Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Control, and Cyberpunk 2077. Performance comparisons placed Turing-based RTX models against contemporaries from AMD and prior NVIDIA Pascal cards, with results influenced by driver optimization from NVIDIA, engine patches by developers like CD Projekt RED and Remedy Entertainment, and middleware such as NVIDIA DLSS and Microsoft PIX. Third-party laboratories and esports organizations measured thermals and power draw under loads representative of tournaments organized by ESL, DreamHack, and Major League Gaming.
The RTX ecosystem encompassed NVIDIA drivers, GeForce Experience, and developer SDKs such as OptiX and NVIDIA GameWorks, with integrations into engines from Epic Games and Unity Technologies and middleware from Allegorithmic (now part of Adobe). Software support tied into services and platforms like Steam, GOG, and Battle.net and involved partnerships with streaming and capture tools from OBS, Twitch, and NVIDIA ShadowPlay. Updates and optimizations were coordinated with studios including Bethesda Softworks, Rockstar Games, and Square Enix, and influenced by standards from Khronos Group and Microsoft.
Reception involved praise for architectural innovation from reviewers at The New York Times, Wired, and Engadget, and criticism over pricing decisions debated in coverage by Bloomberg, CNBC, and Reuters. Controversies included discussions about MSRP, mining demand affecting inventory and secondary markets linked to exchanges and retail partners such as Newegg, Amazon, and Best Buy, and debates over proprietary features versus open standards involving the Electronic Frontier Foundation and consumer advocates. Lawsuits, regulatory inquiries, and consumer complaints engaged law firms, regional authorities, and online communities on Reddit and Twitter, while OEM supply issues affected systems from HP, Dell, and Lenovo.
The series' successor, the GeForce RTX 30 Series based on the Ampere architecture, built upon Turing's RT and Tensor concepts and was compared in analyses by publications such as CNET, Wired, and Ars Technica. Legacy impacts included accelerated adoption of ray tracing in titles from Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft, advancements in AI-driven upscaling techniques adopted by companies like AMD and Intel, and influence on workstation and cloud gaming services from NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Google Stadia, and Microsoft xCloud. The architecture's innovations informed research at universities and industry labs and shaped product roadmaps across the PC industry and content-creation ecosystems.
Category:Graphics processing units