Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB in: Testing
With the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB, Nvidia wants to offer GeForce RTX 2070 performance for, according to the price list, “from 329 euros”.
With 12 GB, the memory expansion of the smallest ampere graphics card is more than generous. In the test, the custom designs Asus ROG Strix OC and MSI Gaming X are convincing. Nvidia’s Resizable BAR adaptation is also celebrating its premiere.
The GeForce RTX 3000 series is almost complete
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3000 series based on “gaming amps” is almost complete with today’s market launch of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB. The GeForce RTX 3090 appeals to the absolute enthusiast and professional user with large memory requirements, the GeForce RTX 3080 to the enthusiastic gamer, the GeForce RTX 3070 to the lower high-end market and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti to the upper middle class. Now the right middle class follows with the GeForce RTX 3060. Officially, the previous graphics cards span a price range from 399 to 1,549 euros.
With an RRP of 329 euros, Nvidia has now placed the new GeForce RTX 3060 significantly below that. The fact that much remains of the officially targeted price range on the market can be doubted despite the mining brake in the drivers and firmware, because in the absence of available predecessors, the demand for the model that Nvidia proclaimed as “the GTX 1060 successor” is also there Players potentially very big. GeForce RTX 3060 from Asus and MSI in the test
The GeForce RTX 3060 with 12 GB and Resizable BAR
Nvidia has traditionally been stingy when it comes to memory equipment, with the exception of the absolute top models (Titan RTX, GeForce RTX 3090), AMD (earlier) recently had more memory to offer on gaming graphics cards. The GeForce RTX 3060 with 12 GB breaks with this line, and that clearly.
Because the memory expansion, which is to be welcomed without question, means that the initially smallest GeForce RTX 3000 offers more memory than all other models above it – apart from the GeForce RTX 3090.
However, Nvidia does not want to deduce from this that the other models have received too little memory. Rather, the GeForce RTX 3060 would have had too little if it had been released with the alternative possible 6 GB.
The first desktop GeForce with Resizable BAR
Apart from that, the GeForce RTX 3060 has another special feature: It is Nvidia’s first desktop graphics card that supports Resizable BAR (test) via firmware and thanks to a new driver. This is followed by the smallest new GeForce AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series, in which the feature runs under the name SAM. The other ampere cards are to follow in March; in addition to a driver, a BIOS update will also be required for this.
Apart from these two features, the GeForce RTX 3060 is a completely normal model of the GeForce RTX 3000 series, which comes with the same properties as the other Ampere products and with ray tracing, DLSS (test) and reflex (test) also relies on the same ecosystem. Only the performance is slightly lower, according to Nvidia the performance of the GeForce RTX 2070 should be achieved. This means that the primary resolution of the GeForce RTX 3060 is Full HD – for WQHD resolution with full details it will probably not be quite enough in current titles. The GeForce RTX 3060 does not currently have a current opponent; AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 series is still a long time coming. In terms of performance, however, the Radeon RX 5700 (XT) asks for a duel.
Custom cards from Asus and MSI in the test
And how well does Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 with 12 GB do now? ComputerBase clarifies this in the test. For this purpose, the custom models Asus GeForce RTX 3060 Strix OC and MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X from MSI have appeared in the editorial office.
GA106: Desktop premiere for a new GPU
The GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080 use the largest GPU in the gaming ampere line-up with the GA102, while the GeForce RTX 3070 and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti use the smaller GA104. The GeForce RTX 3060 is one size smaller, because the GA106, which is significantly smaller than the GA104 with 12 billion transistors and 276 mm², celebrates its desktop premiere on the new graphics card. GA106 is already available in the notebook as the basis of the GeForce RTX 3060 laptop GPU (test).
The full expansion offers two more SMs
In contrast to the mobile version, the GeForce RTX 3060 does not use the full configuration of the GA106 GPU. Of the 30 available streaming multiprocessors, 28 are active on the graphics card, which amounts to 3,584 FP32-ALUs. The number of ray tracing cores is thus automatically 28, the number of tensor cores 112.
The GPCs, which include the grid and polygon units as well as the ROPs, have made a significantly larger break in the GA106 than with the SMs. There are only three of them instead of the six on the GA104, all of which are active on the GeForce RTX 3060. There are still two ROP partitions per GPC, each with eight ROPs, so that the GeForce RTX 3060 can fall back on 48 ROPs, while the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti offers 80. This means that the GeForce RTX 3060 has 26 percent fewer SMs, but 40 percent fewer ROPs, which is an abnormality.
6 or 12 GB? The choice of the storage interface
With the memory interface there is a smaller reduction: Instead of 256 bits as in the GA104, there are only 192 bits on the GA106, which reduces the memory bandwidth by a quarter with the same memory rate. However, this also means that the 8 GB memory expansion used in the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is not easily possible on the GeForce RTX 3060. Nvidia had to choose between 6 or 12 GB and at the start the choice fell on 12 GB. Rumors of 6 GB models for the OEM market persist, however. The L2 cache on the GA106 shrinks from 4,096 to 2,304 KB.
Nvidia specifies a base clock of 1,320 MHz for the GeForce RTX 3060, while the average boost should be 1,777 MHz. The GDDR6 memory clock is 7,500 MHz. The power consumption of the graphics card is 170 watts, so an 8-pin power plug is sufficient. The technical specifications of the GeForce RTX 3060 at a glance
If you want to find out more about the details of the ampere generation, you should take a look at the associated technology article.
The Asus GeForce RTX 3060 Strix OC in detail
With the GeForce RTX 3060 Strix OC, Asus is sending the top model, which costs 544 euros, into the race. Officially, the surcharge over Nvidia’s entry price is 215 euros or 65 percent. The graphics card looks very similar to the larger models in the series, but in the end it is a much simpler PCB and a much slimmed-down cooler. You can tell immediately from the weight, because at 1,123 g it is a real flyweight compared to the 1,809 g of the top model. Ultimately, however, it is only necessary to dissipate half the power loss.
The Strix cooler in “small”
Despite the incisions, the GeForce RTX 3060 Strix OC is still a long graphics card at 30 cm, which is also quite high with the 2.7 slot cooler and quite wide at 13.5 cm. The optically high-quality cooler consists of three aluminum cooling blocks that are connected to one another via five heat pipes. Three axial fans with a diameter of 90 mm provide the necessary fresh air.
Asus specifies an average boost clock of 1,882 MHz for the GeForce RTX 3060 Strix OC, which is 105 MHz above Nvidia’s reference specifications. If you want, you can increase the frequency to 1,912 MHz using the Asus GPU Tweak II. The 12 GB GDDR6 memory works with the usual 7,500 MHz and the power consumption ex works is the normal 170 watts. It can be increased to a maximum of 210 watts and thus offers more leeway than with the MSI adaptation. A conventional 8-pin power plug is provided for the power supply.
The BIOS differs in the fan control
Asus offers two different BIOS versions for the GeForce RTX 3060 Strix OC. The Quiet and the Performance BIOS differ in the fan control, apart from that there are no differences. The performance BIOS is active at the factory. The RGB lighting leaves a good impression on the flagship model – both in terms of quality and size. Monitors can be controlled via three DisplayPort 1.4 DSC and two HDMI 2.1 outputs.
Die MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X im Detail
So far, MSI has two different cooler versions of the Gaming X models in the GeForce RTX 3000 series on offer, and nothing has changed with the GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X, which costs 479 euros. Like the GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X, it uses the simple version and has not been trimmed any further.
Despite the small expansion stage, very large
This means that the 2.7 slots high GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X is very long at 32.5 cm and very wide at 14 cm, which is still not a problem for today’s cases. MSI also relies on three different heat sinks, which are connected to one another via six heat pipes. Three axial fans with a diameter of 90 mm provide fresh air. Both the look and feel of the Gaming X are much simpler than that of the competitor model we tested.
MSI names an average boost clock of 1,852 MHz for the GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X, which is 75 MHz more than according to Nvidia specifications. The 12 GB GDDR6 memory works with the normal 7,500 MHz. The graphics card can accommodate 170 watts and thus Nvidia’s specified TDP; the power consumption can be increased to 180 watts manually. Nevertheless, two 8-pin power plugs are necessary for operation – the 375 watts possible above this are greatly oversized. The GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X does not have a second BIOS.
The RGB lighting of the graphics card is simple and visually unattractive, the trim strip of the new cooler was not a good choice in this series. Monitors can be controlled via three DisplayPort 1.4 DSC outputs or an HDMI 2.1 connection.
On the next page: Clock rates and benchmarks in Full HD and WQHD
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