NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is a desktop graphics card that launched in Q1 2021 with a MSRP of $329. It is built on the Ampere GPU microarchitecture (codename GA106) and is manufactured on a 8 nm process.

Memory

The RTX 3060 has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, with a 1,875 MHz memory clock and a 192 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 360 Gb/s, which affects how fast it can transfer data to and from memory. GPU memory stores temporary data that helps the GPU with complex math and graphics operations. More memory is generally better, as not having enough can cause performance bottlenecks.

Cores and Clock Speeds

The RTX 3060 includes 3,584 CUDA cores, the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 1,320 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 1,777 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 112 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 48 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing. Additionally, the GPU features 112 tensor cores optimized for AI-accelerated workloads and 28 RT cores dedicated to real-time ray tracing calculations.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The RTX 3060 occupies 2 PCIe expansion slots. It supports HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4a display connections. NVIDIA recommends a power supply of at least 450 W to handle the GPU's thermal design power (TDP) of 170 W.

Benchmark Performance & Value

The RTX 3060 has the 83rd best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 27.09% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 28,375 score and $329 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 86.25. This is the 29th best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.