GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q vs Radeon RX 480

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking247not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation15.78no data
Power efficiency10.38no data
ArchitectureGCN 4.0 (2016−2020)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameEllesmereGA106
GCN generation4th Genno data
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date29 June 2016 (8 years ago)12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$229 no data

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 cores23043840
Compute units36no data
Core clock speed1120 MHz817 MHz
Boost clock speed1266 MHz1282 MHz
Number of transistors5,700 million13,250 million
Manufacturing process technology14 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)150 Watt60 Watt
Texture fill rate182.3153.8
Floating-point processing power5.834 TFLOPS9.846 TFLOPS
ROPs3248
TMUs144120
Tensor Coresno data120
Ray Tracing Coresno data30

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 sizeno datalarge
Bus supportn/ano data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length241 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pinNone
Bridgeless CrossFire+-

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 amount8 GB6 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed8000 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth224 GB/s288.0 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 Connectors1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPortNo outputs
Eyefinity+-
HDMI2.0-
DisplayPort support1.4HDR-

Supported technologies

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

AppAccelerationn/a-
CrossFire+-
Enduron/a-
FRTC+-
FreeSync+-
HD3Dn/a-
LiquidVR+-
PowerTune+-
TressFX+-
TrueAudion/a-
ZeroCore+-
UVD+-
VCE+-

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.46.5
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL2.02.0
Vulkan+1.2
Mantlen/a-
CUDA-8.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 29 June 2016 12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount 8 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 14 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt 60 Watt

RX 480 has a 33.3% higher maximum VRAM amount.

RTX 3060 Max-Q, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 4 years, a 75% more advanced lithography process, and 150% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon RX 480 and GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon RX 480 is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q is a notebook one.


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

Vote for your favorite

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AMD Radeon RX 480
Radeon RX 480
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q
GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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4.2 1823 votes

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3.5 185 votes

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Questions & comments

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