GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 vs Apple M1 Pro 14-Core GPU

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-10052
Architectureno dataAmpere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameno dataGA104
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date10 November 2020 (4 years ago)1 September 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$329

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores143584
Core clock speed1296 MHz1320 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1777 MHz
Number of transistorsno data17,400 million
Manufacturing process technology5 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)15 Watt170 Watt
Texture fill rateno data199.0
Floating-point processing powerno data12.74 TFLOPS
ROPsno data48
TMUsno data112
Tensor Coresno data112
Ray Tracing Coresno data28

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interfaceno dataPCIe 4.0 x16
Lengthno data242 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 12-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeLPDDR5-6400GDDR6
Maximum RAM amountno data12 GB
Memory bus widthno data192 Bit
Memory clock speedno data1875 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data360.0 GB/s
Shared memory+-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectorsno data1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI-+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectXno data12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Modelno data6.6
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data3.0
Vulkan-1.3
CUDA-8.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 10 November 2020 1 September 2021
Chip lithography 5 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 15 Watt 170 Watt

Apple M1 Pro 14-Core GPU has a 60% more advanced lithography process, and 1033.3% lower power consumption.

RTX 3060 12 GB GA104, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 9 months.

We couldn't decide between Apple M1 Pro 14-Core GPU and GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Apple M1 Pro 14-Core GPU is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 is a desktop one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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Apple M1 Pro 14-Core GPU
M1 Pro 14-Core GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104
GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104

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Community ratings

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