author: Bart Woldanski
First Reviews: GeForce RTX 3060 - Faster Than RTX 2060 Super
After almost three months since the release of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, the time has come for another Ampere GPU to enter the stage. The RTX 3060, as it is referred to, debuts on the market today. How does the performance of RTX 2060's successor compare in tests?
After long weeks of waiting, GeForce RTX 3060, the next GPU in the Ampere family, has finally been released. According to leaks from last year, the source of which was Galax, the chipset was originally supposed to iffer as much performance as RTX 2080, but at that time RTX 3060 Ti (which was compared to RTX 2080 Super) was missing from the infographic released on the web. Reports from a few days ago, however, suggested something different, more adequate to the spacs. Is GeForce RTX 3060 closer to RTX 2080 or 2070 Super, or perhaps to RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070? The answer to this question can be found in the reviews we've collected from independent websites.
GeForce RTX 3060 Performance Tests - Selected Third Party Reviews
TechPowerUp
"The MSI Gaming X Trio is 4% faster than the RTX 2070, 7% faster than RTX 2060 Super, and 20% faster than the original RTX 2060. For a new generation, these are very decent improvements even though they are not as massive as the roughly 35% we've seen on the bigger Ampere cards (just compare the RTX 3070 to the RTX 2070, or even the RTX 3080 to the RTX 2080). AMD's last-generation flagship, the Radeon RX 5700 XT, is only 1% faster than the RTX 3060, and the GTX 1080 Ti has aged gracefully, still being 5% ahead of the RTX 3060. What's also interesting is that the gap between the RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti is so big, 28%, with no space left between "3060" and "3060 Ti". It will be interesting to see where AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 6700 Series ends up," the author of the test on TechPowerUp came to such conclusions.
Guru3D
"If only the GeForce RTX 3060 could be purchased for the advertised 329 USD, it would definitely be an attractive product. However, we have to face the fact that the world is a place with cryptocurrency miners hogging every GPU they can get their hands on, chip shortages, and COVID, increasing the demand for home PC gaming. We do want to note that the performance fluctuated quite a bit per game title. Overall I'd say the direct competitors are RTX 2070, and team Red's Radeon RX 5700 series are close in performance (though lacking DXR/DLSS/12GB)," reads the review summary from Guru3D.
Tom's Hardware
"Fundamentally, there's nothing wrong with the RTX 3060, and it actually has a lot going for it. Performance is basically at the level of the RTX 2070 from 2018. Power use is slightly lower, and the price has dropped by at least $170 — $270 if you include the RTX 2070 Founders Edition that launched at $599. It also includes 12GB of VRAM, 50 percent more than most of the 20-series cards, double the VRAM of 2060, and more than the 3060 Ti, 3070, and 3080. These are all good things.
The other concern is with performance and features. If you look at the results, out of our current gaming suite, there were only a few instances where the 12GB VRAM had much of an impact (compared to the 8GB 3060 Ti and 2060 Super), and that was mostly at framerates that were already lower than most gamers would like. It's nice that Nvidia equipped the card with 12GB (though we still think a 6GB 3060 is coming), but more VRAM can't make up for the reduction in memory bandwidth and GPU computational prowess", you can read on Tom's Hardware review.
GeForce RTX 3060 - Ampere's weakest card disappoints
The performance of GeForce RTX 3060 is somewhat disappointing, especially against the background of initial leaks. It is not the worst compared to RTX 2060 (the difference can reach 20%), but looks much less attractive in comparison to RTX 2060 Super (usually barely a few percent faster). It is by far the least impressive of all the Ampere cards revealed so far (RTX 3000). We were hoping for a bit more, but unfortunately, the specs were an indication of what we got. Depending on the game and scenario, it performs sometimes better than RTX 2070, approaching RTX 2070 Super levels, and sometimes worse, slightly ahead of RTX 2060 Super. It also deviates usually by 20-25% from RTX 3060 Ti. Still, at a price of $329, it can be a tasty morsel, but buying a card for this amount in the current market situation will probably border on miracle.
GeForce RTX 3060 is suitable for 1080p and 1440p resolutions - it can even handle 4K in selected games. With 12 GB of VRAM, which needlessly increased the price of the chip, is completely useless in a card of this class. It's a curiosity that higher-end models, from RTX 3060 Ti to RTX 3080, have less VRAM than a mid-range card. However, this is a marketing move - the actions of the competition, AMD, which offers more memory in its Radeons, somehow forced Nvidia to make the decision. The release of the 6 GB model would also cause many gamers to complain about the lack of progress against RTX 2060 and less VRAM than in RTX 2060 Super, and so disappears (at least one) excuse to complain.
GeForce RTX 3060 release in stores took place today at 9:00 AM PT, which is three hours after the publication of the reviews. Only non-reference models of Nvidia's business partners will go on sale, namely companies such as Asus, EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, and Zotac. Even before the launch Nvidia confirmed the absence of the RTX 3060 Founders Edition card. Supplies of RTX 3060 will probably be comparable to the level of RTX 3060 Ti or slightly higher. Those interested in the cards will therefore have to hunt in the first minutes of the launch of the sale, otherwise, they could be waiting for weeks or even months for next supply. There is a chance that by limiting performance in mining Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) will arouse less interest among "miners", which gives hope for less significant price increases.