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The Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti might come as a shock contemplating its launch forward of an ordinary, non-Ti RTX 3060. Or it could have if phrase of its arrival hadn’t been plastered throughout the web for months now. But even when it breaks conference, it’s nonetheless a welcome addition to the RTX 30-series lineup: as a sub-$400 card, it is a much more reasonably priced Ampere graphics card that its forebears.
The most affordable of the lot up till now has been the Nvidia RTX 3070, and whereas being an important card for 1440p and 4K gaming it nonetheless necessitates a substantial chunk of change by the use of its $499 (£469) price ticket. The RTX 3060 Ti goes some some option to dropping required pay-grade for Ampere at $399 (£369).
In fact its closest match stays the RTX 3070, and its similarity to the larger sibling runs deeps. Each use an identical reminiscence loadout—8GB of GDDR6—and make use of the identical GPU at their core, particularly the GA104, fabricated on Samsung’s 8nm course of. The RTX 3060 Ti delivers a barely cut-down payload of 4,864 CUDA Cores divided throughout 38 SMs, in comparison with the 5,888 cores and 46 SMs inside the RTX 3070—a 17% discount in graphics-chomping silicon.
That additionally makes for fewer RT Cores and Tensor Cores, though as you will see in our benchmarking that does not make the RTX 3060 Ti any much less a ray tracing card in its personal proper. These are 2nd technology RT Cores and third technology Tensor Cores, and we’re seeing a notable enchancment over these included with the Turing structure and the RTX 20-series.
And it is precisely a comparability with the RTX 20-series lineup that Nvidia is hoping for. Whereas priced the identical because the RTX 2060 Tremendous, the RTX 3060 Ti is aimed squarely on the efficiency of the second-run RTX 2080 Super. This can be a $399 card going through down what was a $699 graphics card at launch. Whereas that is now not a graphics card you may actually purchase—nor can you actually buy any card in anyway on the time of writing—the RTX 3060 Ti clearly gives a extra performant and reasonably priced various.
There’s undoubtedly a not-too-distant competitor to the RTX 3060 Ti on the way in which from AMD, too. We would suppose that is certain to look RX 6700-shaped and provide efficiency upwards of the $399 RX 5700 XT—it is definitely not inconceivable to image such a card out of the crimson crew, both, given what we learn about RDNA 2 at present.
However that is a comparability for an additional day given the struggles AMD has equally had getting any precise GPU inventory out in entrance of its followers. For now the RTX 3060 Ti enters the fray unabated by any direct competitor, and as such it is solely obtained to impress us sufficient to show it is price $399 of our pay packet. And it absolutely does.
Specs
Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti specs
The RTX 3060 Ti incorporates a cut-down GA104 GPU at its not-so-gooey silicon centre, even so delivers greater than a modicum of CUDA Cores with a complete of 4,864. That is markedly above the RTX 2080 Tremendous at 3,072 CUDA Cores and a big departure from the RTX 2060 Tremendous at 2,176.
Allow us to not neglect the RTX 2060 Tremendous is, for all intents and functions, the RTX 3060 Ti’s reverse quantity for the RTX 30-series. The 2 playing cards’ value tags match at launch, at $399 (£369), however the important pull of the RTX 3060 Ti in direction of the efficiency of the RTX 2080 Tremendous but once more exhibits the super generational leap being launched with the Ampere structure.
RTX 3060 Ti specs
GPU – GA104
Lithography – Samsung 8nm
Die measurement – 392mm2
Transistors – 17.4 bn
CUDA cores – 4,864
SMs – 38
RT Cores – 38
Tensor Cores – 152
GPU Enhance clock – 1,665MHz
Reminiscence bus – 256-bit
Reminiscence capability – 8GB GDDR6
Reminiscence bandwidth – 448GB/s
TGP – 200W
Launch value – $399 (£369)
The RTX 3060 Ti incorporates a respectable increase clock at 1,665MHz, rendered partially irrelevant as a result of Nvidia’s GPU Enhance expertise, which can typically see this GPU far exceed that beneath load—round 1,875MHz on common. That makes it the quickest of the RTX 30-series up to now. That is additionally a reference Founders Version card so we’re not any overclocking out of the field. Nevertheless, the launch of the Founders Version coincides with the launch of AIB third-party RTX 3060 Ti’s, so preserve an eye fixed out for OC fashions when you’re inquisitive about pushing issues slightly extra.
You may miss out on the Founders Version shroud when you do, nonetheless. It is near-enough the very same cooler design because the RTX 3070, which makes it on par with my private favorite of the lot, nevertheless it does differ in a single minor method: The tone of the metallic end on the RTX 3060 Ti is significantly lighter than the darkish gray for the three 30-series playing cards above it.
That simply pushes the RTX 3060 Ti to the highest of the leaderboard in my eyes, nevertheless it’s purely an aesthetic shake up. Each provide near-enough the identical quiet and funky operation as the remaining bearing Nvidia’s own-brand warmth sink and intelligent cut-out cooler, and it equally makes use of the brand new compact 12-pin energy connector. Don’t fret, there is a single 8-pin to 12-pin adapter included within the field.
But these are largely aesthetic modifications, and whereas that cooler gives greater than enough chilling energy, it is the overhaul to the rasterised rendering pipeline throughout the Ampere structure that’s the architect of its efficiency boon. The specifics of which you’ll learn extra about in our Nvidia RTX 3080 review, however as soon as once more for these within the again…
Every streaming multiprocessor, or SM, inside Nvidia’s RTX 30-series GPUs has obtained double the variety of floating level (FP32) items as previous GPU generations. The advantage of which is bigger parallelism and the power to not solely alternate between integer and floating level operations relying on the workload however utilise a larger variety of FP32 items when there are fewer integer operations required. That occurs quite a lot of the time in gaming, therefore the swap.
The FP32 items inside any given GPU are additionally what Nvidia counts because the CUDA Core whole for every GPU specification. So when evaluating the RTX 30-series with the RTX 20-series, the fact of such an architectural cut up turns into abundantly clear.
The place you would possibly count on a card nearer to the two,176 core depend of the RTX 2060 Tremendous, we’re now wanting on the 4,854 CUDA Core RTX 3060. The identical may very well be stated for the 4,352 CUDA Core RTX 2080 Ti’s (kind of) reverse quantity, the RTX 3090, match with 10,752 CUDA Cores.
It is all been an efficient experiment in GPU topology, too, with present RTX 30-series GPUs managing to dominate their RTX 20-series counterparts. And I am happy to report that the RTX 3060 Ti is not any completely different. However we’ll get to that.
With a capability at 8GB of GDDR6 and a complimentary 256-bit reminiscence bus, the RTX 3060 Ti is able to an total reminiscence bandwidth of 448GB/s—a match for the RTX 3070 in each method. That is the one doable concern for any potential purchaser from the specs record that I can level to with any doable consternation.
It isn’t that an 8GB reminiscence capability has seemingly a lot of an influence on gaming efficiency proper now—we have seen as a lot pretty constantly via our testing of AMD’s 16GB RX 6800-series playing cards and the 10GB RTX 3080 and 8GB RTX 3070. However that is to not say it will not at a while or one other.
I will not converse to unsubstantiated hearsay too drastically inside a evaluate, however we have heard a number of rumours for but unannounced RTX 30-series playing cards with doable greater reminiscence capacities than these at the moment obtainable, together with an RTX 3080 with 20GB VRAM, an RTX 3080 Ti with 20GB VRAM, and even an RTX 3060 with as much as 12GB VRAM.
It is hardly proof of something, I need to admit. Nevertheless it does make me ponder whether it is merely a reflexive motion in gentle of AMD’s 16GB (and doable 12GB) RX 6000-series graphics playing cards, or if there may be some darkish cloud approaching for these of us that personal playing cards with, maybe for instance, modest reminiscence capacities and total bandwidth.
Each sport developer I’ve spoken to has been eager to make higher use of larger high-speed reminiscence shops for extra elaborate textures and the like, however that should not essentially imply anybody with lower than a given reminiscence buffer shall be all out of luck. Scalability continues to be the secret for nearly each stroll of improvement, and never in the slightest degree PC gaming.
However as I say, that is not a lot a actuality we’re having to take care of at present. The RTX 3060 Ti manages to take care of a gradual canter in trendy video games throughout 1080p, 1440p, and even 4K—which is the primary time I consider we are able to safely say that of an xx60-level graphics card with out laboured breath or severe caveats.
Efficiency
Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti efficiency
With roughly 17% fewer CUDA Cores than an RTX 3070, you may virtually have a guess the place RTX 3060 Ti efficiency will land with with fairly snug accuracy.
You would not be all that far off simply calling it a day at round a 17% delta between the 2, both. At its worst, you will see virtually precisely 17% between the 2 playing cards. However do not forget there’s a clock pace differential to think about between the 2 that may throw issues slightly out of whack in a handful of video games, and generally the RTX 3060 Ti can stick inside excessive single-digits of the RTX 3070 body charges.
However that is hardly a referential touchstone we are able to all get behind—what with only a few RTX 3070s obtainable to buy at present. As a substitute, it is the RTX 2080 Tremendous that the RTX 3060 Ti bears down upon. For essentially the most half, you will discover the RTX 3060 Ti a nostril forward of the RTX 2080 Tremendous, with the odd exception (more and more at decrease decision) the place the RTX 2080 Tremendous simply manages to inch into the lead.
Ampere’s 2nd gen RT cores present their price throughout ray tracing benchmarks, too, and regardless of having fewer of them (RT Core depend is tied to SM depend) the RTX 3060 Ti is greater than a match for the RTX 2080 Tremendous in ray-traced video games—which is fairly spectacular for 12 fewer RT Cores.
4K gaming efficiency
With even the RTX 2070 deemed worthy of 4K efficiency, the actual fact we’re seeing the RTX 3060 Ti managing to push round greater than eight million pixels, with relative ease, ought to come as no shock.
The RTX 3060 Ti trades blows with the RTX 2080 Tremendous all through our benchmarking, however at 4K you see it tends to win out over the Turing card. Maybe it is the elevated FP32 unit depend coming into play, as each playing cards characteristic very related reminiscence configurations at 8GB of GDDR6 and a 256-bit reminiscence bus.
And there is one thing to be stated for the RTX 3060 Ti managing, in some video games, to remain not far off the tempo of the RTX 3070. With very related configurations, that is maybe none too shocking, however when you take into account the RTX 3060 Ti is launching at $399, 20% cheaper than the RTX 3070, and managing to remain inside a single-digit body charge delta at instances, that is a fairly good displaying from the pared-down GPU.
1440p gaming efficiency
As soon as once more, the RTX 3060 Ti is dominating Nvidia’s RTX 2080 Tremendous at 1440p. Often by a fairly important lead, too. Civilization VI seems to be a sport that favours the older structure at greater decision—make sense of that one—and it is all tied up in F1 2020, however this can be a clear win for Ampere and the RTX 3060 Ti.
With framerates creeping upwards of 144fps within the least demanding video games, and nicely over 60fps in these with an insatiable starvation for performant GPUs, the RTX 3060 Ti makes an important case for itself as a improbable 1440p graphics card, and one that ought to see you nicely taken care of till 4K GPUs and screens drop in value to change into slightly extra reasonably priced.
1080p gaming efficiency
The RTX 3060 Ti may very well be seen as an important GPU for prime refresh charge gaming at 1080p. There’s not an excessive amount of wasted useful resource in colossal reminiscence buffers and the like, and so that you get a good mix of efficiency and price.
That is fairly clear as soon as once more from the benchmarks, which see the RTX 3060 Ti sitting comfortably forward of the RTX 2080 Tremendous in all however F1 2020, which seemingly adores each Turing and the RX 6800-series playing cards. It’s going to be attention-grabbing to see how this one shakes out with, what can solely be, the inevitable RX 6700-series competitors from the crimson crew. However all in good time.
For now, the RTX 3060 Ti carves out a heap of 1080p efficiency, and even closes in on the RTX 3070 in a few video games.
Ray tracing efficiency
The Nvidia Ampere structure comes with second technology RT Cores, and third technology Tensor Cores, with the Volta structure initially introducing these AI accelerators method again when. It is clearly a superior strategy by a good diploma over the earlier Turing acceleration, and clearly towards the Radeon model too, and that goes an extended option to explaining how the RTX 3060 Ti with simply 38 RT Cores can outperform the RTX 2080 Tremendous with 48 RT Cores.
It is fairly shut, however with a slight rasterised efficiency edge within the RTX video games we have examined above, and the enhancements to Ampere’s RT acceleration, the RTX 3060 Ti comes out method on high.
The RTX 3060 Ti’s ray tracing efficiency additionally goes an extended option to elevating the ground for total ray tracing efficiency, with a big benefit over the RTX 2060 Tremendous with 34 (Gen 1) RT Cores.
Energy and thermal
Check rig
CPU – Intel Core i7 10700K
Motherboard – MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi
RAM – Corsair Vengeance RGB Professional @ 3,200MHz
CPU cooler – Corsair H100i RGB Professional XT
PSU – NZXT 850W
Chassis – DimasTech Mini V2
There’s not a lot in regards to the RTX 3060 Ti that is significantly shocking, and the actual fact it is essentially the most energy environment friendly GPU of the RTX 30-series up to now does not actually change factor. With a 200W TDP, the RTX 3060 Ti often sucks upwards of 232W from the PSU, however largely maintains a gradual gait at 200W or rather less.
That places it forward of the RTX 3070 by only a contact in efficiency per watt at 1080p, and consistent with the remainder of Ampere at 4K. That is notably off the efficiency per watt of AMD’s RX 6800 and RDNA 2, which might give AMD slightly extra leeway with regards to eventual RX 6700-series SKUs, ought to they present up anytime quickly.
Verdict
Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti verdict
As soon as once more we’re a stable generational leap from Nvidia’s Ampere technology, and the RTX 3060 Ti delivers very good efficiency throughout a heady mixture of rasterised and ray-traced video games. If you happen to’re on the lookout for a gradual 60fps or extra within the newest, most demanding video games, then it is obtained you lined. If you need slightly extra extra out of 1080p, you are sorted nicely into excessive refresh charge territory.
And when you hope for 60fps at 4K, that is attainable with solely marginal sacrifices to graphics settings. Simply what you would possibly count on from an RTX 3060 Ti, little doubt.
Nvidia has additionally made important features in its mission to quash any and all body charge sacrifice related to true-to-life reflections and dynamic international lighting. There’s undoubtedly nonetheless a efficiency hit from switching ray tracing on, however Nvidia’s new and improved RT Cores, together with DLSS in lots of instances, takes a few of the oomph out of the swing.
And that is an necessary factor to notice as we head into PC gaming’s third 12 months of ray tracing (sure, it has been that lengthy!). There’s already a much more expansive library of ray tracing appropriate titles than when Nvidia first launched the RTX suite again in 2018, and it is positive to solely develop with AMD, and AMD-powered consoles from Sony and Microsoft, now supporting ray tracing acceleration on-chip.
The identical could be stated for DLSS. The characteristic is change into barely extra widespread in at present’s most performed video games, and it is changing into an particularly great tool for not solely performing as counterweight to the ray tracing efficiency influence, however truly as a device for decreasing render load at excessive resolutions—quite a lot of the time on GPUs that materially do not have the heart to make it work.
The RTX 3060 Ti is such a card. Whereas it dabbles in high-fidelity 4K gaming, some graphics settings must be diminished in an effort to actually crack a stable 60fps in additional demanding video games. And that is typically simply by way of common framerates, to maintain your GPU steadily above 60fps might require fairly a little bit of tinkering. That may generally take the enjoyable out of 4K gaming within the first place, the supposed excessive degree of element.
So whereas DLSS is much from a common answer, it is a surprisingly not all that lossy option to hit these all-important efficiency figures for clean gaming. DLSS has come on leaps and bounds since its first introduction, and in most video games it is not one thing that detracts from the visible or gaming expertise in any tangible method.
And it is these additional options—ray tracing, DLSS, Reflex, and even Nvidia Broadcast—that generate fairly a little bit of my curiosity within the RTX 3060 Ti at present past its rasterised efficiency. There is a stable base of genuinely nice options behind RTX and the Nvidia package deal that is solely been improved upon with Ampere, none extra so than the ray tracing efficiency for that matter.
That is to not say AMD does not provide its justifiable share of options in FidelityFX and Radeon Anti-Lag. However we’re but to see an AMD various to the supersampling characteristic, though one is confirmed to be on the way in which sooner or later subsequent 12 months in FidelityFX Tremendous Decision. And, whereas ray tracing is now not an Nvidia-only expertise with the introduction of the RX 6800-series, it’s an space the place the inexperienced crew is dominating efficiency graphs.
The RTX 3060 Ti delivers very good efficiency throughout a heady mixture of rasterised and ray-traced video games
The identical goes for a direct competitor to the RTX 3060 Ti—we do not know when it is going to arrive, however you may ensure that one will. Doubtless beneath the RX 6700-series banner.
And that is a standard footing we discover ourselves in with Nvidia’s launches up to now this technology—the corporate has materialised graphics playing cards forward of AMD’s comparative lineup, and that implies that we can’t actually know if AMD’s obtained a trick up its sleeve to compete with the RTX 3060 Ti till possible early subsequent 12 months.
However that does not change a factor in my thoughts proper now. It isn’t all Nvidia vs. AMD, you recognize, and albeit whether or not there’s a solution to the RTX 3060 Ti in just a few months or not, you should have no regrets in selecting this graphics card on your subsequent huge PC rebuild.
The RTX 3060 Ti delivers gaming efficiency that is moderately stupendous whenever you take a look at generational features over even the RTX 20-series—subsequent to the 10-series it is fairly horrifying, truly. There’s distinctive 1080p and 1440p efficiency in a tiny package deal right here, the likes of which might’ve set you again one thing near twice as a lot money solely final 12 months. And that is fairly nice.
There’s simply the small potential concern of availability, that which has equally loomed over all the opposite RTX 30-series launches to this point. I am blissful to be confirmed incorrect, however judging by each tech launch this 12 months (not solely Nvidia’s, and never solely graphics playing cards), inventory could also be sparsely discovered for the RTX 3060 Ti at launch as a result of immense demand for brand new silicon proper now.
International availability for the RTX 3060 Ti begins December 2, 2020, and I believe you will need to be able to go, entrance and centre, if you wish to have any hope of selecting up this graphics card on launch day, or possible anytime earlier than 2021. And given the value and efficiency of this mid-range Ampere card, it will likely be price getting in line for.
