NVIDIA released its newest line of graphics processing units (GPUs), the RTX 30-series, in September 2020. The first models, the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080, are real beasts and have been so popular that buying one has been a challenge. Now, NVIDIA is releasing the RTX 3060 on February 25, 2021, which represents the “budget” version of NVIDIAs RTX lineup at a retail price of $329. Is it worth buying, or should you stick with a 20-series RTX card instead?
RTX 3060 specifications
Like the rest of the RTX 3000 line, the RTX 3060 is based on NVIDIA’s new Ampere architecture. Ampere improves on the Turing architecture, used in the RTX 20-series, by updating to 2nd-generation ray tracing (RT) cores and 3rd-generation Tensor cores. By itself, that should improve the performance of the RTX 3060 compared to the previous generation. According to NVIDIA, each will provide double the throughput in ray tracing and the DLSS AI acceleration that provides maximum quality at the highest possible framerates.
RTX 3060’s and other high-demand components are available now through Newegg Shuffle.
In addition, the Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) will also perform at twice the performance as with the RTX 20-series. Thus, even though the newer GPUs have fewer Tensor and RT cores (as indicated in the following chart) and fewer SMs than their predecessors, their overall performance will still be significantly higher.
The following are the specifications of the most pertinent 20- and 30-series GPUs:
| CUDA Cores | Tensor Cores | RT Cores | SM Count | Boost Clock | Base Clock | Memory | Memory Interface Width | Graphics Card Power | |
| RTX 3060 | 3584 | 28 | 112 | 28 | 1.78GHz | 1.32GHz | 12GB GDDR6 | 192-bit | 170 watts |
| RTX 3060 Ti | 4864 | 38 | 152 | 38 | 1.67GHz | 1.41GHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 256-bit | 200 watts |
| RTX 3070 | 5888 | 46 | 184 | 46 | 1.73GHz | 1.50GHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 256-bit | 220 watts |
| RTX 3080 | 8704 | 68 | 272 | 68 | 1.71GHz | 1.44GHz | 10GB GDDR6X | 320-bit | 320 watts |
| RTX 3090 | 10496 | 82 | 328 | 82 | 1.70GHz | 1.40GHz | 24GB GDDR6X | 384-bit | 350 watts |
| RTX 2060 Super | 2176 | 34 | 272 | 34 | 1.65GHz | 1.47GHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 256-bit | 175 watts |
| RTX 2070 Super | 2560 | 40 | 320 | 40 | 1.77GHz | 1.605GHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 256-bit | 215 watts |
| RTX 2080 Super | 3072 | 48 | 384 | 48 | 1.815GHz | 1.65GHz | 8GB GDDR6 | 256-bit | 250 watts |
According to NVIDIA, the RTX 3060 will perform significantly faster than the RTX 2060 Super, exceeding 80 frames per second (fps) in Minecraft with ray tracing turned on, for example, compared to under 60 fps. In Control with ray tracing turned on, the RTX 3060 will exceed 90 fps while the RTX 2060 Super barely exceeds 60 fps. Benchmarks aren’t officially available yet, and so we don’t know for sure how the chip will perform, but the RTX 3060 will clearly be a significant upgrade over the RTX 2060 Super.
Check out these 3060 GPUs.
It’s likely that the RTX 3060 will rival the RTX 2070 Super, but we’ll have to wait for the official release to know for sure. We can safely make this inference, though, given that the already released and benchmarked RTX 3060 Ti outperforms the RTX 2080 Super by a slim margin.
You’ll note that that the RTX 3060 has 12GB of RAM compared to the faster RTX 3060 Ti. Likely, this is to make up for the reduced memory bandwidth, with the RTX 3060’s memory interface width at 192 bits versus the RTX 3060 Ti at 256 bits.
Check the availability of other 30 series GPUs.
Crippled for mining, a plus for gamers
One of the advantages of the RTX 3060 is that NVIDIA is building technology into the drivers that will detect when Eretheum cryptocurrency mining is being conducted. Should that occur, then the drivers will reduce the processing of the Ethereum algorithm and reduce the hash rate – which determines the efficiency of the process – by 50 percent.
Read more about the 3060′ hashrate handicap and the new CMP HX mining card.
Miners could potentially get around the limitation by using different drivers or essentially hacking the system – although NVIDIA says that’s unlikely – but it’s a good first step to making a fast CPU less attractive for cryptocurrency miners. It’s their demand for processing power that’s caused the spike in GPU prices and the difficulty in actually buying a modern GPU.
Read our Crypto Mining Breakdown.
Conclusion
Again, we’re not entirely certain how the RTX 3060 will perform relative to the RTX 20-series, although it will certainly be faster than the RTX 2060 Super and a rival to the RTX 2070 Super. That means it will be much faster than the base RTX 2060, making it the new standard for entry-level ray-tracing GPUs.
Shop our selection of 20 series GPUs.
If you’re in the market for a new 1080p or 1440p GPU, then you’ll want to wait to see how the retail market shakes out for the RTX 3060. The rest of the RTX 30-series has been hard to find – and expensive when it’s available – and so you might have to wait for the RTX 3060 as well. Or, be prepared to pay a significant premium.
Image: Nvidia
