While all of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series cards push out significant gains in performance over their 20-series counterparts, the RTX 3060 Ti and the recently unveiled RTX 3060 represent the two most affordable cards in the lineup. The cheaper price of the two RTX cards likely offer a better return on an investment than the flagship GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 cards. Especially as when it comes to performance, all of Nvidia’s new RTX cards provide sizeable gains over their predecessors and replacements.
As far as price is concerned, the RTX 3060 starts at $329 while the Ti variant can be purchased for as low as $399. However, this is assuming that these cards are in stock and available at their regular MSRP. Nvidia has already suggested it will be months before it can address the shortage of RTX 30-series cards and the starting price for an RTX 3060 Ti on Newegg is currently around $450.
The RTX 3060 features 3584 CUDA cores, a boost clock speed of 1.78 GHz, a 192-bit memory bus, and a TDP of 170W. The RTX 3060 Ti, on the other hand, has 4864 CUDA cores and a higher 256-bit memory bus, but a slower clock speed of 1.67 GHz. In terms of memory, the standard RTX 3060’s 12GB GDDR6 memory is higher than the 8GB on the RTX 3060 Ti. It also has a higher memory bus, which means more data going back and forth from the GPU’s memory each second. In terms of overall specifications, the RTX 3060 Ti looks like the better card with more CUDA cores and the higher 256-bit memory bus, but the standard RTX 3060 packs more GDDR memory and features a higher boost clock speed.
How Nvidia's Budget RTX Cards Compare
Even though the RTX 3060 has a higher memory capacity, its overall bandwidth is low compared to its Ti counterpart. There’s also not a lot of difference in power draw between the two cards, although Nvidia recommends a 550W PSU for an RTX 3060 and a 600W PSU for an RTX 3060 Ti. According to Nvidia’s performance claims, the RTX 3060 Ti can deliver as much, or more, power than an RTX 2080 Super, a card that auctions at nearly double the asking price. It also beats the RTX 2060 Super by an average of 40-percent. If accurate, that's a major bump in performance. While Nvidia’s hasn’t compared the RTX 3060 with any card, it has offered some numbers that may provide a brief idea of the card’s performance. By Team Green’s estimates, the RTX 3060 can reach around 60fps (1080p) in Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS and ray tracing enabled. For comparison, Nvidia’s numbers put the RTX 2060 at an approximate 48fps (1080p) with the same settings. Going by Nvidia’s own numbers, the RTX 3060 would sit comfortably in between the RTX 2070 and RTX 2080.
With the RTX 3060, Nvidia aims to replace older GTX 1060 GPUs, which were among the most popular cards used by Steam gamers. The RTX 3060 Ti, on the other hand, aims to replace older cards like the GTX 1080 and RTX 2060. If the target is 1080p gaming at 60fps, then the RTX 3060 is the right way to go, but paying the extra price for the 3060 Ti would be a better option, as it is likely to take longer to show its age. The one caveat here is that Founder Edition 30-series cards are rare, with a vast majority of the market made up of third-party cards, which in the case of the RTX 3060 Ti can go as high as $600, that's $100 less than the MSRP of the RTX 3080. However, the same trend is likely to continue when Nvidia's RTX 3060 hits markets next month.
Source: Nvidia