GeForce RTX 3060 vs GTX 860M SLI

Place in the ranking	395	81
Place by popularity	not in top-100	4
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	71.36
Power efficiency	7.22	18.10
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2017)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	no data	GA106
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	12 March 2014 (10 years ago)	12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$329

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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	1280	3584
Core clock speed	1029 MHz	1320 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1777 MHz
Number of transistors	2x 1870 Million	12,000 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	120 Watt	170 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	199.0
Floating-point processing power	no data	12.74 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	48
TMUs	no data	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).

Laptop size	large	no data
Interface	no data	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	242 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 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 type	GDDR5	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	2x 4 GB	12 GB
Memory bus width	2x 128 Bit	192 Bit
Memory clock speed	5000 MHz	1875 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	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	no data	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	-	+

Supported technologies

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

Optimus

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (FL 11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	no data	6.7
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	3.0
Vulkan	-	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 860M SLI 12.47

RTX 3060 44.28
+255%

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 860M SLI 9840

RTX 3060 28375
+188%

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 860M SLI 27223

RTX 3060 79706
+193%

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 860M SLI 5941

RTX 3060 21379
+260%

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 860M SLI 41434

RTX 3060 120745
+191%

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	48 −158%	124 +158%
1440p	21−24 −286%	81 +286%
4K	14−16 −271%	52 +271%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	2.65
1440p	no data	4.06
4K	no data	6.33

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

18−20

−316%

79
+316%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 −221%	90−95 +221%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 −410%	102 +410%
Battlefield 5	40−45 −255%	140−150 +255%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −256%	85−90 +256%
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20 −311%	78 +311%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −221%	90−95 +221%
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35 −218%	100−110 +218%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 −148%	200−210 +148%
Hitman 3	21−24 −422%	120 +422%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 −171%	170−180 +171%
Metro Exodus	40−45 −232%	130−140 +232%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−35 −191%	95−100 +191%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 −315%	160−170 +315%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 −90.1%	130−140 +90.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 −221%	90−95 +221%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 −325%	85 +325%
Battlefield 5	40−45 −255%	140−150 +255%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −256%	85−90 +256%
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20 −295%	75 +295%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −221%	90−95 +221%
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35 −218%	100−110 +218%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 −148%	200−210 +148%
Hitman 3	21−24 −404%	116 +404%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 −171%	170−180 +171%
Metro Exodus	40−45 −232%	130−140 +232%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−35 −191%	95−100 +191%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 −350%	180 +350%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 −194%	90−95 +194%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 −90.1%	130−140 +90.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30 −221%	90−95 +221%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 −275%	75 +275%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27 −256%	85−90 +256%
Cyberpunk 2077	18−20 −237%	64 +237%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −221%	90−95 +221%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 −148%	200−210 +148%
Hitman 3	21−24 −339%	101 +339%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 −115%	142 +115%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 −285%	154 +285%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 −135%	73 +135%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 +20.3%	59 −20.3%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

30−35

−191%

95−100
+191%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27 −263%	85−90 +263%
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20 −258%	65−70 +258%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −308%	45−50 +308%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	9−10 −567%	60 +567%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 −300%	50−55 +300%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −550%	39 +550%
Far Cry 5	14−16 −264%	50−55 +264%
Forza Horizon 4	60−65 −295%	240−250 +295%
Hitman 3	14−16 −353%	68 +353%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −324%	106 +324%
Metro Exodus	20−22 −345%	89 +345%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20−22 −475%	115 +475%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −415%	65−70 +415%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 −163%	200−210 +163%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

20−22

−280%

75−80
+280%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	12−14 −275%	45−50 +275%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −322%	35−40 +322%
Hitman 3	8−9 −463%	45 +463%
Horizon Zero Dawn	55−60 −231%	190−200 +231%
Metro Exodus	10−12 −436%	55−60 +436%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 −473%	63 +473%

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 −294%	60−65 +294%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−12 −509%	67 +509%
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6 −440%	27 +440%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

10−12

−264%

40−45
+264%

This is how GTX 860M SLI and RTX 3060 compete in popular games:

RTX 3060 is 158% faster in 1080p
RTX 3060 is 286% faster in 1440p
RTX 3060 is 271% 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 860M SLI is 20% faster.
in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 3060 is 800% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GTX 860M SLI is ahead in 1 test (1%)
RTX 3060 is ahead in 71 test (99%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	12.47	44.28
Recency	12 March 2014	12 January 2021
Chip lithography	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	120 Watt	170 Watt

GTX 860M SLI has 41.7% lower power consumption.

RTX 3060, on the other hand, has a 255.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, and a 250% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 3060 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 860M SLI in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 860M SLI is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 3060 is a desktop one.

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