GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 vs Radeon RX 6500

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking271not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-10052
Architectureno dataAmpere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameno dataGA104
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release dateno data (2024 years ago)1 September 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$329

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 coresno data3584
Core clock speedno data1320 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1777 MHz
Number of transistorsno data17,400 million
Manufacturing process technologyno data8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data170 Watt
Texture fill rateno data199.0
Floating-point processing powerno data12.74 TFLOPS
ROPsno data48
TMUsno data112
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).

Interfaceno dataPCIe 4.0 x16
Lengthno data242 mm
Widthno data2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data1x 12-pin

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 typeno dataGDDR6
Maximum RAM amountno data12 GB
Memory bus widthno data192 Bit
Memory clock speedno data1875 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data360.0 GB/s

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 Connectorsno data1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI-+

API compatibility

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

DirectXno data12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Modelno data6.6
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data3.0
Vulkan-1.3
CUDA-8.6

Pros & cons summary


We couldn't decide between Radeon RX 6500 and GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon RX 6500 is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 is a desktop 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

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


AMD Radeon RX 6500
Radeon RX 6500
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104
GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.2 35 votes

Rate Radeon RX 6500 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.2 1562 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.