NVIDIA sent a short note this morning with the release date for their next GeForce desktop video card, the RTX 3060. The mainstream (ish) video card, previously unveiled at CES 2021 with a release date in late February, is now locked for a February 25 launch.th, with prices starting at $ 329.
In a nutshell, the RTX 3060 is the next card in NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture consumer video card. Using the new GA106 GPU – already shipped in RTX 3060 laptops – the RTX 3060 follows the traditional price / performance cadence for video card launches, with NVIDIA releasing a cheaper and less performing video card for the mainstream video card market. NVIDIA’s 60-tier cards have long been the company’s workhorse parts for 1080p gaming – as well as some of their largest volume parts in North America – and the RTX 3060 is expected to fulfill the same role within the Ampere / 30- series.
| NVIDIA GeForce specification comparison | ||||||
| RTX 3060 | RTX 3060 Ti | RTX 2060 | GTX 1060 | |||
| CUDA colors | 3584 | 4864 | 1920 | 1280 | ||
| ROPs | 64? | 80 | 48 | 48 | ||
| Boost clock | 1.78 GHz | 1.665 GHz | 1.68 GHz | 1.709 GHz | ||
| Memory clock | 14 Gbps? GDDR6 | 14 Gbps GDDR6 | 14 Gbps GDDR6 | 8 Gbps GDDR5 | ||
| Memory bus width | 192-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | ||
| VRAM | 12 GB | 8 GB | 6 GB | 6 GB | ||
| Single Precision Perf. | 12.8 TFLOPS | 16.2 TFLOPS | 6.5 TFLOPS | 4.4 TFLOPS | ||
| Tensor Perf. (FP16) | 51.2 TFLOPS | 64.8 TFLOPS | 51.6 TFLOPS | N / A | ||
| Tensor Perf. (FP16-Sparse) | 102.4 TFLOPS | 129.6 TFLOPS | 51.6 TFLOPS | N / A | ||
| TDP | 170W | 200W | 160W | 120W | ||
| GPU | GA106 | GA104 | TU106 | GP106 | ||
| Transistor count | ? B. | 17.4B | 10.8B | 4.4B | ||
| Architecture | Amp | Amp | Turing | Pascal | ||
| Production process | Samsung 8nm? | Samsung 8nm | TSMC 12nm “FFN” | TSMC 16nm | ||
| Launch date | 25/02/2021 | 12/02/2020 | 15/01/2019 | 07/19/2016 | ||
| Launch price | MSRP: $ 329 | MSRP: $ 399 | MSRP: $ 349 | MSRP: $ 249 Founders $ 299 |
||
NVIDIA published most of the specifications for the card back in January. Including the fact that it offers 28 SMs (3584 CUDA cores) and 12 GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit memory bus. As with previous 60-tier cards, the no-power-of-two memory bus means that NVIDIA ships with a somewhat odd amount of memory, 12 GB in this case, which is actually more than what even gets on the RTX 3080 delivered. with the only other option being an anemic-for-2021 6GB, NVIDIA chooses to make sure the card doesn’t lack VRAM capability.
Meanwhile, for better or worse, the RTX 3060 is pretty much guaranteed to fly off the shelves quickly. With every video card more powerful than a GTX 1050 Ti seemingly being driven off in Ethereum mining, desperate gamers will battle hungry miners for supplies. Even with the 192-bit memory bus, I would be shocked if the RTX 3060 wasn’t profitable, especially with Ethereum hitting record highs. So for anyone thinking about grabbing the card, prepare to camp out that Thursday morning at your favorite store or e-tailer.
Finally, unlike the other RTX 30 series cards launched so far, NVIDIA will not produce Founders Edition cards for the RTX 3060 series. Thus, all released cards are AIB cards with their own respective designs. And if the tradition continues, don’t be surprised when we see the AIBs equipping their cards with premium features and increasing their prices accordingly.
