GeForce RTX 3060 vs GTX 1050

Place in the ranking	387	81
Place by popularity	16	4
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	11.02	71.36
Power efficiency	12.09	18.10
Architecture	Pascal (2016−2021)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	GP107	GA106
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	25 October 2016 (8 years ago)	12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$109	$329

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 3060 has 548% better value for money than GTX 1050.

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 cores	640	3584
Core clock speed	1290 MHz	1320 MHz
Boost clock speed	1392 MHz	1777 MHz
Number of transistors	3,300 million	12,000 million
Manufacturing process technology	14 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	170 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	97 °C	no data
Texture fill rate	58.20	199.0
Floating-point processing power	1.862 TFLOPS	12.74 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	48
TMUs	40	112
Tensor Cores	no data	112
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	28

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).

Bus support	PCIe 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	145 mm	242 mm
Height	4.38" (11.1 cm)	no data
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)	300 Watt	no data
Supplementary power connectors	None	1x 12-pin
SLI	-	no data

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 type	GDDR5	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	12 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	192 Bit
Memory clock speed	1752 MHz	1875 MHz
Memory bandwidth	112 GB/s	360.0 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 Connectors	DP 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, Dual Link-DVI	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Multi monitor support	+	no data
HDMI	+	+
HDCP	2.2	-
G-SYNC support	+	-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream	+	-
GPU Boost	3.0	no data
VR Ready	+	no data
Ansel	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.4	6.7
OpenGL	4.5	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	3.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.3
CUDA	+	8.6

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 1050 13.05

RTX 3060 44.28
+239%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GTX 1050 5036

RTX 3060 17085
+239%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

GTX 1050 8571

RTX 3060 28375
+231%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

GTX 1050 32463

RTX 3060 79706
+146%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

GTX 1050 6797

RTX 3060 21379
+215%

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 1050 40922

RTX 3060 120745
+195%

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

GTX 1050 17482

RTX 3060 88251
+405%

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 1050 349683

RTX 3060 537787
+53.8%

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

GTX 1050 15589

RTX 3060 89918
+477%

GeekBench 5 CUDA

GTX 1050 16976

RTX 3060 98715
+481%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	42 −195%	124 +195%
1440p	22 −268%	81 +268%
4K	21 −148%	52 +148%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	2.60	2.65
1440p	4.95	4.06
4K	5.19	6.33

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

20−22

−295%

79
+295%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	38 −145%	90−95 +145%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24 −386%	102 +386%
Battlefield 5	43 −230%	140−150 +230%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −242%	85−90 +242%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −290%	78 +290%
Far Cry 5	30−33 −210%	90−95 +210%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 −200%	100−110 +200%
Forza Horizon 4	85−90 −136%	200−210 +136%
Hitman 3	24−27 −380%	120 +380%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 −163%	170−180 +163%
Metro Exodus	46 −196%	130−140 +196%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 −175%	95−100 +175%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	52 −219%	160−170 +219%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 −84.9%	130−140 +84.9%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	49 −89.8%	90−95 +89.8%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24 −305%	85 +305%
Battlefield 5	35 −306%	140−150 +306%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −242%	85−90 +242%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −275%	75 +275%
Far Cry 5	33 −182%	90−95 +182%
Far Cry New Dawn	16 −575%	100−110 +575%
Forza Horizon 4	85−90 −136%	200−210 +136%
Hitman 3	24−27 −364%	116 +364%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 −163%	170−180 +163%
Metro Exodus	37 −268%	130−140 +268%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 −175%	95−100 +175%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35 −414%	180 +414%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 −184%	90−95 +184%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 −84.9%	130−140 +84.9%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	15 −520%	90−95 +520%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24 −257%	75 +257%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −242%	85−90 +242%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −220%	64 +220%
Far Cry 5	23 −304%	90−95 +304%
Forza Horizon 4	34 −497%	200−210 +497%
Hitman 3	24−27 −304%	101 +304%
Horizon Zero Dawn	26 −446%	142 +446%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	31 −397%	154 +397%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	20 −265%	73 +265%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 +23.7%	59 −23.7%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

35−40

−175%

95−100
+175%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27 −248%	85−90 +248%
Far Cry New Dawn	20−22 −240%	65−70 +240%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −277%	45−50 +277%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10−11 −500%	60 +500%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16 −271%	50−55 +271%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −457%	39 +457%
Far Cry 5	14−16 −240%	50−55 +240%
Forza Horizon 4	65−70 −271%	240−250 +271%
Hitman 3	16−18 −325%	68 +325%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 −293%	106 +293%
Metro Exodus	25 −256%	89 +256%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18 −539%	115 +539%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −415%	65−70 +415%
Watch Dogs: Legion	80−85 −153%	200−210 +153%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

21−24

−262%

75−80
+262%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	12−14 −246%	45−50 +246%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −322%	35−40 +322%
Hitman 3	9−10 −400%	45 +400%
Horizon Zero Dawn	60−65 −210%	190−200 +210%
Metro Exodus	12 −392%	55−60 +392%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	15 −320%	63 +320%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −343%	30−35 +343%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −533%	38 +533%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −383%	27−30 +383%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −800%	18 +800%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −286%	27−30 +286%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 −271%	60−65 +271%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	11 −509%	67 +509%
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6 −440%	27 +440%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

12−14

−233%

40−45
+233%

This is how GTX 1050 and RTX 3060 compete in popular games:

RTX 3060 is 195% faster in 1080p
RTX 3060 is 268% faster in 1440p
RTX 3060 is 148% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 1050 is 24% faster.
in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 3060 is 800% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GTX 1050 is ahead in 1 test (1%)
RTX 3060 is ahead in 71 test (99%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	13.05	44.28
Recency	25 October 2016	12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	12 GB
Chip lithography	14 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	170 Watt

GTX 1050 has 126.7% lower power consumption.

RTX 3060, on the other hand, has a 239.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 75% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 3060 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 1050 in performance tests.

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