NVIDIA started GeForce RTX 3060 sales 12 January 2021 at a recommended price of $329 . This is a desktop graphics card based on an Ampere architecture and made with 8 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 12 GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 15 GHz are supplied, and together with 192 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 360.0 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 242 mm. 1x 12-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 170 Watt.

General info

Some basic facts about GeForce RTX 3060: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking	72
Place by popularity	6
Value for money	42.56
Architecture	Ampere (2020−2022)
GPU code name	Ampere GA106
Market segment	Desktop
Release date	12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$329
Current price	$317 (1x MSRP)	of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

GeForce RTX 3060's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce RTX 3060's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	3584	of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
Core clock speed	1320 MHz	of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Boost clock speed	1777 MHz	of 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors	13,250 million	of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1070 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology	8 nm	of 4 (Radeon 780M)
Power consumption (TDP)	170 Watt	of 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate	199.0	of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)

Size and compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce RTX 3060 and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	242 mm
Width	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 12-pin

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce RTX 3060: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory type	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	12 GB	of 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Memory bus width	192 Bit	of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	15000 MHz	of 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)
Memory bandwidth	360.0 GB/s	of 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory	-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce RTX 3060. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	+

API support

APIs supported by GeForce RTX 3060, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.5
OpenGL	4.6
OpenCL	2.0
Vulkan	1.2
CUDA	8.6

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce RTX 3060. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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.

RTX 3060 44.13

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

RTX 3060 17085

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

RTX 3060 79706

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

RTX 3060 28375

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RTX 3060 21379

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RTX 3060 120745

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.

Benchmark coverage: 9%

RTX 3060 88335

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.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

RTX 3060 537787

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

Benchmark coverage: 5%

RTX 3060 89918

GeekBench 5 CUDA

Benchmark coverage: 4%

RTX 3060 98715

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04

Benchmark coverage: 3%

RTX 3060 175

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 sw-03

Benchmark coverage: 3%

RTX 3060 67

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 snx-02

Benchmark coverage: 3%

RTX 3060 9

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 catia-04

Benchmark coverage: 3%

RTX 3060 75

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 creo-01

Benchmark coverage: 3%

RTX 3060 50

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 medical-01

Benchmark coverage: 3%

RTX 3060 41

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 showcase-01

Benchmark coverage: 3%

RTX 3060 114

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 energy-01

Benchmark coverage: 3%

RTX 3060 10

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 3dsmax-05

Benchmark coverage: 2%

RTX 3060 201

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce RTX 3060 is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

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

Full HD	122
1440p	76
4K	50

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	75−80
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	102
Battlefield 5	120−130
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	120−130
Cyberpunk 2077	78
Far Cry 5	140
Far Cry New Dawn	120
Forza Horizon 4	130−140
Hitman 3	140−150
Horizon Zero Dawn	142
Red Dead Redemption 2	70−75
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	133
Watch Dogs: Legion	108

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	75−80
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	85
Battlefield 5	120−130
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	120−130
Cyberpunk 2077	75
Far Cry 5	131
Far Cry New Dawn	115
Forza Horizon 4	130−140
Hitman 3	140−150
Horizon Zero Dawn	109
Metro Exodus	81
Red Dead Redemption 2	70−75
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	121
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	171
Watch Dogs: Legion	95

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	75−80
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	75
Battlefield 5	120−130
Cyberpunk 2077	64
Far Cry 5	122
Far Cry New Dawn	102
Forza Horizon 4	130−140
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	73
Watch Dogs: Legion	59

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	75−80
Hitman 3	85−90
Horizon Zero Dawn	77
Metro Exodus	50
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	60
Battlefield 5	90−95
Cyberpunk 2077	39
Far Cry 5	94
Far Cry New Dawn	89
Forza Horizon 4	90−95
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	65−70
Watch Dogs: Legion	45

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40−45
Hitman 3	45−50
Horizon Zero Dawn	21
Metro Exodus	32
Red Dead Redemption 2	24−27
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	43
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	63

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	38
Battlefield 5	50−55
Cyberpunk 2077	18
Far Cry 5	48
Far Cry New Dawn	50
Forza Horizon 4	60−65
Watch Dogs: Legion	27

Relative performance

GeForce RTX 3060's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.

Radeon RX 7600 XT 101.43

Radeon RX 6650 XT 101.29

TITAN V 100.23

GeForce RTX 3060 100

TITAN V CEO Edition 99.41

Arc A750 98.93

Radeon VII 97.69

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce RTX 3060 is Radeon RX 6650 XT, which is faster by 1% and higher by 2 positions in our ranking.