Review: NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 is a perfect budget upgrade for a 1080p gaming PC
NVIDIA launched the 30-series Ampere family (replacing the aging Turing architecture) toward the end of 2020 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, followed by the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3090, RTX 3060, and most recently the RTX 3080 Ti. These graphics cards promise (and have delivered) exceptional performance compared to the 20-series cards at similar launch prices.
Now that the 30 series has been fully populated from the RTX 3060 all the way up to the RTX 3090, it’s time we took a look at the most affordable 30-series Ampere GPU. This isn’t going to be a strong contender for best graphics card, nor am I expecting it to be a good choice if you can afford the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, but for those on a tight budget, this may be the best ray tracing-enabled GPU around.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
Bottom line: NVIDIA did a great job with the Ampere series of GPUs and the RTX 3060 is the latest addition for affordable gaming. It’s better than the outgoing RTX 2060 and launched at $329, letting those with tight budgets upgrade and enjoy ray tracing, but gets overshadowed by its Ti sibling.
The Good
- Incredible 1080p performance
- Can play games at 1440p
- Smaller PC case friendly
- Great value
- Power efficient
The Bad
- Doesn’t need 12GB RAM
- Not good for crypto mining
- RTX 3060 Ti is the better choice
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060: Price and availability
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
The RTX 3060 is the most affordable graphics card in the 30-series Ampere family, coming in just below the mightily impressive NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, though we’d recommend getting the Ti version if your budget can stretch. It’s worth keeping an eye out on any sales or promotions like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday to try to score a deal on a new RTX 3060.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060: What’s good
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 is the perfect upgrade for a 1080p gaming PC.
For a quick run-through, NVIDIA essentially took all the gains made with the RTX 20 series of cards and cranked it all up further.
Floating-point (FP32) and integer (INT32) operations have all been improved considerably, thanks to NVIDIA working to change how the GPUs work instead of simply cramming more cores onto the PCB.
Category | Spec |
---|---|
Architecture | Ampere |
Process | 8nm |
CUDA cores | 3,584 |
RT cores | 28 |
Tensor cores | 112 |
Core clock | 1,320MHz |
Boost clock | 1,780MHz |
Memory | 12GB GDDR6 |
Memory speed | 360GB/s |
Memory interface | 192-bit |
Bus standard | PCIe 4.0 |
TDP | 170W |
Recommended PSU | 550W |
Power connectors | 1x 8-pin |
Ports | 2x HDMI 2.1 3x DP 1.4a HDCP 2.3 support |
Dimensions | 4.4 x 9.5 inches (112mm x 242mm) |
While the RTX 3060 Ti has 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, the non-Ti version actually comes with 12GB, but it’s not a clear-cut win for the lesser-powered GPU as we’ll cover later. The RTX 3060 does support HDMI 2.1, should you wish to enjoy content at 4K beyond 60 frames per second.
1080p is where this card truly shines, however. You’ll have no issue cranking all settings up high and enjoying stable high framer rates at Full HD. Specifically, the EVGA RTX 3060 XC Gaming is a champ of a budget GPU, allowing you to play even without headphones and enjoy all the action without much background noise.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060: What’s not good
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
Something that isn’t directly tied to the GPU itself is the issue we currently have with pricing. Still, at the time of this review, the world is having trouble gaining access to new stock. With the pandemic, the rise of cryptocurrency mining, and scalpers looking to make a quick buck, you’re going to find it difficult to locate an RTX 3060 near the MSRP.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060: Competition
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
Category | RTX 3060 | RTX 3060 Ti |
---|---|---|
Architecture | Ampere | Ampere |
Process | 8nm | 8nm |
CUDA cores | 3,584 | 4,864 |
RT cores | 28 | 38 |
Tensor cores | 112 | 152 |
Core clock | 1,320MHz | 1410MHz |
Boost clock | 1,780MHz | 1,670MHz |
Memory | 12GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 |
Memory speed | 360GB/s | 448GB/s |
Memory interface | 192bit | 256-bit |
Bus standard | PCIe 4.0 | PCIe 4.0 |
TDP | 170W | 200W |
Recommended PSU | 550W | 600W |
Power connectors | 1x 8-pin | 1x 8-pin |
Ports | 2x HDMI 2.1 3x DP 1.4a HDCP 2.3 support |
2x HDMI 2.1 3x DP 1.4a HDCP 2.3 support |
Dimensions | 4.4 x 9.5 inches (112mm x 242mm) |
4.33 x 7.94 inches (110mm x 201.8mm) |
Price | $329 | $399 |
The case from NVIDIA for the RTX 3060 is a direct replacement to the GTX 1060 (as well as the GTX 1660 SUPER) and that’s only where it makes sense. If you’re upgrading from a last-gen GPU and need something to game at 1080p at decent settings, the RTX 3060 will do the job just fine. It becomes difficult to recommend the RTX 3060 to anyone else.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060: Should you buy it?
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
You should buy this if …
- You want to play all games at 1080p and high settings
- You want a recent GPU on a tight budget
- You want a very capable GPU for a small PC build
- You want to enjoy ray tracing, DLSS, and other Ampere features
You shouldn’t buy this if …
- You want to play all games at 1440p and high settings
- You can afford the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
- You want to play games at 4K
- You want the best GPU for crypto mining
NVIDIA did a great job with the Ampere architecture and the 30 series of GPUs as a whole, but the RTX 3060 feels like the RTX 3080 Ti, a little underwhelming. It’s a great graphics card on its own, but when placed alongside the RTX 3060 Ti, which offers considerably better performance at a slight price bump, it’s difficult to recommend this GPU unless you’re on the tightest of budgets.
It’s more than capable of handling PC games at high settings and 1080p, even some at 1440p, but you’ll see the limitations of the slower memory and fewer cores to handle more demanding tasks, especially if you enable ray tracing. It’s an odd decision for NVIDIA to focus on adding 12GB of slower RAM to the 3060 when the same 8GB as the 3060 Ti would have sufficed at this price point.
Overall, it’s a good GPU, but that’s not saying a lot since the entire 30 series of NVIDIA Ampere GPUs is excellent. If you can stretch a further $70, I would recommend going for the Ti version of the RTX 3060, which allows for better 1440p gaming if you have a capable display or plan on buying one later. If you don’t mind sticking to 1080p and want the cheapest available, this is where the 3060 makes sense.
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