GeForce RTX 3060 vs GTX 550 Ti

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 550 Ti and GeForce RTX 3060, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

GTX 550 Ti
2011
2 GB GDDR5, 116 Watt
3.47

RTX 3060 outperforms GTX 550 Ti by a whopping 1002% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking70990
Place by popularity604
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.6867.79
Power efficiency2.3717.84
ArchitectureFermi 2.0 (2010−2014)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameGF116GA106
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date15 March 2011 (13 years ago)12 January 2021 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$149 $329

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

RTX 3060 has 9869% better value for money than GTX 550 Ti.

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 cores1923584
Core clock speed900 MHz1320 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1777 MHz
Number of transistors1,170 million12,000 million
Manufacturing process technology40 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)116 Watt170 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature100 °Cno data
Texture fill rate28.80199.0
Floating-point processing power0.6912 TFLOPS12.74 TFLOPS
ROPs2448
TMUs32112
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).

Bus support16x PCI-E 2.0no data
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length210 mm242 mm
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin1x 12-pin
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount2 GB12 GB
Memory bus width192 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed4.1 GB/s1875 MHz
Memory bandwidth98.4 GB/s360.0 GB/s
Shared memory--
Resizable BAR-+

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 ConnectorsTwo Dual Link DVI-IMini HDMI1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Multi monitor support+no data
HDMI++
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

API and SDK compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_0)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.16.7
OpenGL4.24.6
OpenCL1.13.0
VulkanN/A1.3
CUDA+8.6
DLSS-+

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.

GTX 550 Ti 3.47
RTX 3060 38.23
+1002%

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 550 Ti 1552
RTX 3060 17085
+1001%

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 550 Ti 2272
RTX 3060 28375
+1149%

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 550 Ti 10229
RTX 3060 79706
+679%

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 550 Ti 5779
RTX 3060 88251
+1427%

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:

900p38
−953%
400−450
+953%
Full HD37
−211%
115
+211%
1440p6−7
−1017%
67
+1017%
4K3−4
−1333%
43
+1333%

Cost per frame, $

1080p4.03
−40.8%
2.86
+40.8%
1440p24.83
−406%
4.91
+406%
4K49.67
−549%
7.65
+549%
  • RTX 3060 has 41% lower cost per frame in 1080p
  • RTX 3060 has 406% lower cost per frame in 1440p
  • RTX 3060 has 549% lower cost per frame in 4K

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Atomic Heart 9−10
−1289%
120−130
+1289%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−1543%
230−240
+1543%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
−888%
79
+888%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Atomic Heart 9−10
−1289%
120−130
+1289%
Battlefield 5 14−16
−879%
130−140
+879%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−1543%
230−240
+1543%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
−875%
78
+875%
Far Cry 5 9−10
−1522%
146
+1522%
Fortnite 21−24
−743%
170−180
+743%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
−778%
150−160
+778%
Forza Horizon 5 9−10
−1278%
124
+1278%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 16−18
−894%
150−160
+894%
Valorant 50−55
−352%
230−240
+352%

Full HD
High Preset

Atomic Heart 9−10
−1289%
120−130
+1289%
Battlefield 5 14−16
−879%
130−140
+879%
Counter-Strike 2 14−16
−1543%
230−240
+1543%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 65−70
−309%
270−280
+309%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
−838%
75
+838%
Dota 2 30−35
−359%
156
+359%
Far Cry 5 9−10
−1400%
135
+1400%
Fortnite 21−24
−743%
170−180
+743%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
−778%
150−160
+778%
Forza Horizon 5 9−10
−1122%
110
+1122%
Grand Theft Auto V 12−14
−1075%
141
+1075%
Metro Exodus 7−8
−1057%
81
+1057%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 16−18
−894%
150−160
+894%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−12
−1527%
179
+1527%
Valorant 50−55
−352%
230−240
+352%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 14−16
−879%
130−140
+879%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
−700%
64
+700%
Dota 2 30−35
−332%
147
+332%
Far Cry 5 9−10
−1311%
127
+1311%
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
−778%
150−160
+778%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 16−18
−894%
150−160
+894%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−12
−691%
87
+691%
Valorant 50−55
−352%
230−240
+352%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite 21−24
−743%
170−180
+743%

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 5−6
−2060%
100−110
+2060%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 27−30
−914%
280−290
+914%
Grand Theft Auto V 3−4
−2600%
81
+2600%
Metro Exodus 2−3
−2400%
50
+2400%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 30−33
−483%
170−180
+483%
Valorant 35−40
−582%
260−270
+582%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−1200%
39
+1200%
Far Cry 5 7−8
−1243%
94
+1243%
Forza Horizon 4 9−10
−1222%
110−120
+1222%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
−1100%
72
+1100%

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite 7−8
−1471%
110−120
+1471%

4K
High Preset

Atomic Heart 3−4
−1033%
30−35
+1033%
Grand Theft Auto V 16−18
−413%
82
+413%
Valorant 18−20
−1211%
240−250
+1211%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
−1700%
18
+1700%
Dota 2 12−14
−858%
115
+858%
Far Cry 5 4−5
−1100%
48
+1100%
Forza Horizon 4 4−5
−1900%
80−85
+1900%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS 4−5
−1350%
55−60
+1350%

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite 4−5
−1275%
55−60
+1275%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 100−110
+0%
100−110
+0%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
Metro Exodus 32
+0%
32
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 65
+0%
65
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5 65−70
+0%
65−70
+0%
Counter-Strike 2 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%

This is how GTX 550 Ti and RTX 3060 compete in popular games:

  • RTX 3060 is 953% faster in 900p
  • RTX 3060 is 211% faster in 1080p
  • RTX 3060 is 1017% faster in 1440p
  • RTX 3060 is 1333% faster in 4K

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

  • in Grand Theft Auto V, with 1440p resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 3060 is 2600% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • RTX 3060 is ahead in 57 tests (90%)
  • there's a draw in 6 tests (10%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 3.47 38.23
Recency 15 March 2011 12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 12 GB
Chip lithography 40 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 116 Watt 170 Watt

GTX 550 Ti has 46.6% lower power consumption.

RTX 3060, on the other hand, has a 1001.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 9 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 400% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 3060 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 550 Ti in performance tests.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti
GeForce GTX 550 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
GeForce RTX 3060

Other comparisons

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Community ratings

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