Nvidia’s new RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti GPUs may still be impossible to get your hands on at this point, but if you’re thinking about upgrading your graphics card recently and aren’t sure which one to pick when they eventually get back in stock then I’m you’re in the right place. To help you decide which graphics card is the right one for you, I’ve put together some helpful benchmark charts to show you exactly how they stack up in all of today’s biggest and best PC games at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K.
To test the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti, I paired them with an Intel Core i5-10600K processor and 16 GB Corsair Vengeance LED RAM, and they compete against each other in my series of graphics benchmarks, with an average frame rate of either proprietary built-in benchmark tools or from my own repeatable manual gameplay tests. The games feature a mix of blockbusters from the past years: Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Final Fantasy XV, Monster Hunter: World, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, The Witcher 3, Metro Exodus and Cyberpunk 2077.
For this particular head-to-head, I used the Nvidia Founders Edition of the RTX 3060 Ti and Zotac’s GeForce RTX 3070 Twin Edge. These were the cards I used for my respective GPU ratings, and I ran both cards at their standard clock speeds as they came in the box. As a result, they should be fairly representative of what their respective card categories are capable of. I should also note that these numbers are based on their raw performance in each of these games, with all ray tracing and DLSS options turned off. Here’s how they fared.
Nvidia RTX 3070 vs 3060 Ti: 1080p benchmarks
Starting with their 1920×1080 performance, you can immediately see that both cards are more than capable of playing games at the maximum settings at this resolution, running at at least 70fps (or thereabouts) in the most demanding PC games of 2020, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077, and well over 100 fps in the big games of 2018 and 2019.
In many cases, the RTX 3070 offers an improvement of about 10-20 fps over the RTX 3060 Ti, although there are a few cases where that gap is much smaller. In Final Fantasy XV, for example, both cards achieved an identical average of 103 fps with all additional Nvidia settings disabled at this resolution. I should note that the RTX 3070 regained its 10 odd fps lead as soon as I turned on all those aforementioned effects, averaging 82fps versus the RTX 3060 Ti’s 73fps, but when it comes to the game’s default Highest settings, they are both much of a multitude. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is very close too, averaging just 3fps between each card.
Granted, this is probably due to my choice of processor and not a performance issue with the RTX 3070 itself. While my Intel Core i5-10600K is quite powerful compared to previous generations of Intel’s Core i5 chips, 1920×1080 is still a resolution where your CPU can make a surprisingly big difference to your PC’s overall performance. Due to the sheer amount of power available in today’s RTX cards, games are much more likely to be tied to the limitations of your CPU at this resolution than your GPU. As such, you would probably see better results from the RTX 3070 with a faster CPU here.
Likewise, if you don’t own a monitor with a high refresh rate, any difference between these two cards will be completely lost anyway. What’s more, I’m not sure I could tell the difference between 100fps and 110fps without the help of a frame rate counter, so those playing games at 1080p would probably be better off with the RTX 3060 Ti rather than anything to be issued additionally on the RTX 3070.
Nvidia RTX 3070 vs 3060 Ti: 1440p benchmarks
Indeed, it is only when we shift to 2560 × 1440 that the RTX 3070 is starting to make a clearer case for itself. Again, both cards are more than capable of playing games at maximum settings at this resolution, and in most cases the RTX 3070 runs up front with a similar 10fps lead over the RTX 3060 Ti.
There are a few more instances where the gap is narrowing, particularly in more recent games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077, but elsewhere the RTX 3070’s lead is much clearer. Again, you’re unlikely to notice much of a difference between the two cards in the short term without the help of a high refresh rate monitor as even the RTX 3060 Ti can achieve a smooth average of 60fps even in the most demanding games of today – and that includes Cyberpunk 2077 as soon as you enable Nvidia’s DLSS technology.
In the long run, the RTX 3070 will likely provide more future-proofing than the RTX 3060 Ti for Ultra-quality devils, especially when it comes to staying firmly above the 60fps line. With games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Total War: Three Kingdoms pushing the RTX 3060 Ti just below 60fps on maximum settings, those numbers will likely only drop further as games become more demanding. In contrast, the extra horsepower the RTX 3070 offers will almost certainly keep you playing games at 60fps at maximum settings for a while – although how much longer is hard to say, given Valhalla is still decent. share of dips below 60 fps.
Of course, that’s not to say the RTX 3060 Ti will disappear completely in a year or two. Indeed, if you’re happy with lowering the settings to High at 1440p, the RTX 3060 Ti should be able to hit over 60fps for a long time to come. With averages of 86fps in Total War: Three Kingdoms on High, as well as 68fps in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and 81fps in Metro Exodus, the RTX 3060 Ti still has more than enough horsepower to run games at 1440p for years to come.
Nvidia RTX 3070 vs 3060 Ti: 4K benchmarks
However, if it plays games on 3840 × 2160 that’s more your bag, then the RTX 3070 is definitely the clear winner here. As you can see below, the RTX 3060 Ti puts up a pretty decent fight on 4K, running at around 60fps on Medium settings in almost all of today’s major games (except Cyberpunk 2077, of course). That’s pretty good for a card of this caliber, especially when you consider that just a few years ago you would have had to pay more than double what the RTX 3060 Ti currently costs to get the same kind of performance.
However, if it’s only about a smooth 60fps on Medium right now, it probably won’t be long before you’re forced to take things to Low with the RTX 3060 Ti, and nobody wants that, right? At that point, you might as well go back to playing games at 2560 × 1440 with much nicer graphics.
The RTX 3070, on the other hand, is much better equipped to play games at 4K. Again, newer titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077 still put it under quite a bit of pressure at this resolution (although Cyberpunk 2077 has at least DLSS support to boost the frame rate slightly), but older games are all good. around the 70 fps mark. Raise the quality setting to High and you’ll also be looking at a smooth 60fps in many games – or higher if you enable DLSS support.
Of course, the RTX 3060 Ti also benefits from DLSS. Indeed, in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, it can hit an impressive average of 64fps on Highest at 4K with DLSS enabled, as well as a very pleasant 62fps on High in Final Fantasy XV. Monster Hunter: World’s DLSS support allows the RTX 3060 Ti to push to High as well, averaging 73fps. They are impressive numbers for sure, but unless the number of DLSS games grows significantly in the coming years, you are much more likely to play games on Medium or Low settings, given the current performance capabilities in games in no DLSS support.
Nvidia RTX 3070 vs 3060 Ti: conclusion
All in all, I think the RTX 3060 Ti is definitely the card to go for here unless you’re determined to always play games at maximum settings. At £ 369 / $ 399, it’s a lot cheaper than the £ 469 / $ 499 RTX 3070 (or at least they should be once prices and stock levels return to normal), and you’ll still get 60fps + speeds at both 1080p as 1440p in practically all of today’s biggest PC games.
Plus, unless you’re particularly sensitive to frame rates over 60fps, I’m not sure you’ll really notice the difference between these two cards once you’re in the 80-100fps realm. I certainly can’t differentiate between frame rates like this without the help of a frame rate counter, so you might as well save yourself some money in the process and spend the extra £ 100 / $ 100 on something else for your PC, like a nice SSD of 1 TB.
The RTX 3070 is of course worth considering if you’re going to play games at 4K, and it would also be my top Nvidia recommendation for playing games on ultrawide gaming monitors. However, for those with regular 1080p or 1440p monitors, the RTX 3060 Ti offers more than enough performance here and will likely keep you going at high frame rates for many years to come.
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