GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q vs Radeon R9 255 OEM
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) | Ampere (2020−2025) |
| GPU code name | Cape Verde | GA106 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Laptop |
| Release date | 21 December 2013 (11 years ago) | 12 January 2021 (4 years ago) |
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 | 512 | 3840 |
| Core clock speed | 900 MHz | 817 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 930 MHz | 1282 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,500 million | 13,250 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | 60 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 29.76 | 153.8 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.9523 TFLOPS | 9.846 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 48 |
| TMUs | 32 | 120 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 120 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 30 |
| L1 Cache | 128 KB | 3.8 MB |
| L2 Cache | 256 KB | 3 MB |
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 | no data | large |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Width | 2-slot | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin | None |
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 | 6 GB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1150 MHz | 1500 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 73.6 GB/s | 288.0 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
| Resizable BAR | - | + |
Connectivity and outputs
This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.
| Display Connectors | No outputs | No outputs |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.5 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 2.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | 1.2 |
| CUDA | - | 8.6 |
| DLSS | - | + |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 21 December 2013 | 12 January 2021 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | 6 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 65 Watt | 60 Watt |
RTX 3060 Max-Q has an age advantage of 7 years, a 200% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 8.3% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 255 OEM and GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Radeon R9 255 OEM is a desktop graphics card while GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q is a notebook one.
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