The RTX 3060 sits as a mid-range GPU champion. Its MSRP of $329 places it perfectly among the rest of NVIDIA’s stock, although getting your hands on any graphics card at the recommended price is still a challenge. This card is not meant to push 4K gaming or anything close. Instead, it serves the 1080p crowd perfectly, and can respectfully manage a few games at 1440p. Perhaps more than any other card from the 3000 series, the rest of your rig will have to pull its weight for the best performance.

With all of that in mind, the question of the best resolution to play it with this card comes up. Note that everything we just said is about the RTX 3060, not the RTX 3060 Ti. If you manage to upgrade to that even more elusive card, your resolution options open up significantly. While this article focuses mostly on the original 3060, we’ll reference the 3060 Ti a few times. And, to put it out there; if you have the choice between the 3060 and the 3060 Ti at MSRP, choose the upgrade. The extra $70 will be worthwhile.

Above all else, the 3060 is a 1080p GPU. You should always look at what games you play and their requirements, as well as the rest of your rig. However, for those looking to future-proof their build or game in high resolutions, you’ll have a better time waiting for an upgrade. Let’s see why and how to optimize this card.

The Champion of 1080p Gaming with RTX

For those looking to play the most modern games at good frame rates on the RTX 3060, there’s only one resolution option. 1080p became the standard monitor resolution years ago, and for good reason. It’s sharp enough to be usable at almost all screen sizes, games can hit ludicrous frame rates on it, and 1080p monitors are relatively cheap.

Compared to other cards in both the 2000 and 3000 series, the RTX 3060 is an exceptional deal for playing at 1080p. This is especially true for those interested in utilizing RTX technology for ray tracing and special effects. At only $329, it’s one of the cheapest ways to access this tech and get great performance. Across benchmarks, its performance is almost equivalent to the 2060 Super while being slightly cheaper.

Techspot’s analysis of modern games such as Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Death Stranding all place this GPU around the middle of the pack at maximum settings. While this might seem like a lackluster result, it’s actually great performance for the price. Most GPUs ranking higher than the RTX 3060 are much more expensive and made for gaming at higher resolutions. Notably, the 3060 Ti breaks this mold. It’s only $70 at MSRP but consistently beats more expensive cards, even outperforming the RTX 2080.

RTX 3060 performance suffers moving up to the 1440p range. In fact, at maximum settings, it rarely even hits 60FPS on the same titles. While many gamers would be fine using the 3060 for 1440p gaming, it will not be useful for monitors with a refresh rate higher than 60Hz.

What Refresh Rate to Aim for While Gaming At 1080p

As we mentioned earlier, the exact performance you’ll get with this card depends heavily on the rest of your setup. However, assuming you don’t have a major bottleneck for your CPU, there are some general guides we can provide. Most people gaming at 1080p on the RTX 3060 will comfortably hit 120 or 144 frames per second using medium settings. If you bump that up to ultra-settings or care more about RTX, you’ll probably be closer to about 60 frames per second.

If you’re looking to upgrade your monitor, a 120 Hz monitor is a safe bet. With that said, it may not be worth upgrading specifically because of this card. Due to how long 1080p monitors have been the standard, many of them at 60 Hz refresh rates, your current setup may be more than enough.

However, for those of you who need an upgrade, consider grabbing a monitor with a higher refresh rate. We recommend splurging for the upgrade for three reasons:

1. You will likely play many games that can reach those higher frame rates
2. The monitor will be better for future upgrades to your build
3. The difference in price between a 60 Hz and 120 or 144 Hz 1080p monitor is minimal

Choosing A Higher Resolution

While the RTX 3060 performs best at a 1080p resolution, gaming at 1440p is certainly a possibility. If you’re considering leaving behind higher frame rates for graphical fidelity, you’re not making an incorrect choice. We recommend upgrading to a 3060 Ti instead if you can find one, however. It simply performs far better while gaming at 1440p than the basic 3060 can.

Consider that RTX features and ray-tracing capabilities will be limited while playing at 1440p on this card. With these effects on at a higher resolution, it’s easy for the 3060 to fall well below 40 FPS, which many people consider unplayable. Think about your personal tolerance and preferences before deciding.

Closing Thoughts

The RTX 3060 is currently one of the easiest graphics cards on the market to place. When found at MSRP, it is a respectable deal that serves all gamers who aren’t interested in upgrading to 1440p resolution just yet. Its graphical prowess will get you through all modern games and likely the next few years with no issues, even on maximum settings.

It’s not the choice for those with enormous budgets or who want to push the very edge of gaming, but it’s not supposed to be. However, there is enough zip in this to carry a few games through nice 1440p performances. As always, consider what games you play and their requirements to make your final decision. If it were us, we’d choose a 1080p resolution with a high frame rate for this card every time.

Relevant Guides

Want to read more about the RTX 3060 and its capabilities? We’ve written plenty about NVIDIA’s 3000 series and have the answers to all your questions. Check out these articles to get a head start:

• RTX 3060 vs RTX 3060 Ti: What Are the Key Differences?
• RTX 3060 Ti vs 3070 vs 3080: Benchmark Comparison (Real World Tests)
• 5 Best Monitors for the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti
• AMD RX 6700 XT vs Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti: Which is Best?

The post What is the Optimal Monitor Resolution for RTX 3060 Builds? appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

It’s tough times for PC builders. We’ve been told new GPUs exist, we’ve even seen some of them, but if you want to buy one… you can’t unless you’re dripping in either luck or money. With very high demand, supply, and distribution issues, and another round of crypto-mining madness, availability is as low as prices are high.

Into the midst of this maelstrom, AMD has announced another new GPU: The Radeon RX 6700 XT launches on 18^th March. This RDNA2 based card slots in below the exiting RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 and looks set to challenge the RTX 3060 Ti as a strong 1440p GPU priced at about $479 MSRP. In this article, we’ll take a look at the specifications and consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of the RX 6700 XT compared to the competition – including the RTX 3060 Ti.

Specification Comparison

	RX 6700 XT	RTX 3060 Ti	RX 6800	RX 6800 XT
Design
Price (MSRP)	$479	$399	$579	$649
Fab Process	TSMC 7nm	Samsung 8n	TSMC 7nm	TSMC 7nm
Architecture	RDNA2 / NAVI 22	Ampere / GA104	RDNA2 / NAVI 21	RDNA2 / NAVI 21
Clock Speeds (Base/Boost)	2321/2424MHz (unconfirmed)	1410/1665 MHz	1815MHz/2105MHz	2015MHZ/2250MHz
Shader Units	2560	4864	3840	4608
Compute Units	40	80	60	72
RT Cores	40	38	60	72
Infinity Cache	96MB	N/A	128MB	128MB
Memory capacity	12GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR8	16GB GDDR6	16GB GDDR6
Memory Bus/Bandwidth	192bit / 384.0 GB/s	256bit / 448 GB/s	256Bit / 512 GB/s	256Bit 512 GB/s
Power (TDP)	230W	200W	250W	300W
Pixel Rate	165.2 GPixels/s	133.2 GPixels/s	202.1 GPixels/s	288.0 GPixels/s
Availability	Amazon	Amazon	Amazon	Amazon

Performance: RX 6700XT (by a small margin)

The RX 6700 XT is the first GPU to use the ‘NAVI 22’ core, still based on the new RDNA2 architecture. This core uses 2560 shader units, grouped into 40 compute units, and has 40 Ray Tracing cores as opposed to the 60 or 72 cores of the 6800 and 6800XT respectively. However, the core itself runs significantly faster, with boost clocks approaching 2.5GHz which is likely to make up for some of the deficit in performance attributable to the lower unit count. It also makes use of AMD’s ‘infinity cache’ – 96MB of on-chip memory for the most frequently accessed data that boosts performance by reducing memory latency and this is cut down from the 128MB on the more powerful RDNA2 cards.

The RX 6700 XT is hardware ray tracing enabled, although RTX exclusive titles like Cyberpunk aren’t ray tracing enabled on AMD GPUs – all titles using DirectX12 Ultimate will permit hardware ray tracing. It’s not possible to directly compare clock speeds or compute units between AMD and Nvidia, but looking at relative performance, the RX 6700 XT performs equivalently to the RTX 3060 Ti, averaging around 2% faster across a range of titles.  That means it is a very capable 1440p card and is a star performer at 1080p, but like the RTX 3060 Ti, it’s an expensive option for 1080p gaming. 

Memory: 12GB GDDR6 192bit bus Vs 8GB GDDR6 256 bit bus

Whilst the higher performance RDNA2 cards get a massive 16GB VRAM, the RT 6700 XT gets a still large 12GB frame buffer. It uses GDDR6 RAM running at 16GB/s, accessed via a narrower 192 bit bus meaning memory access performance will not be at the same level as the higher tier cards. The RTX 3060 Ti meanwhile makes do with 8GB GDDR6 but accesses it via a faster 256bit bus. 12GB is ample VRAM for a card with the anticipated performance of the RX 6700XT, meaning there will be no constraints on texture size for the foreseeable future other than the GPU’s ability to manipulate them. This VRAM size is a function of that 192bit bus: This allows access to six memory chips which are available in either 1GB or 2GB sizes. Since 6GB is no longer adequate for a card of this performance, 12GB is the only option for AMD to make a competitive product. Overall, the memory performance of the RTX 3060 Ti is faster, helping performance, whilst the RX 6700XT has higher capacity which may extend how long the card remains relevant. We’ll call this a tie.  

Features – AMD bring all the toys to the party

AMD GPUs come with their own suite of features that help boost performance and get you the most out of your card. RDNA2 are the first generation of AMD cards to feature hardware ray tracing cores, enabling shadows, lighting and reflections rendered in real time with actual ray paths, not approximated ones. However they’re not as powerful as Nvidia’s second generation cores, with performance on a par with the first-gen RTX cores found in the 20 series Nvidia GPUs. Nonetheless they will allow advanced rendering effects in ‘DirectX 12 ultimate’ titles. There’s also ‘Rage mode’ which is an automatic overclock to wring every last ounce of performance out of the card. Finally AMD have ‘SAM’ or Smart Access Memory which allows the CPU direct access to the GPU’s VRAM, enhancing performance in some games but around 5-10%.  Be aware that it can also hurt performance in others – it’s specific to the way the game or engine is coded, so only use it on compatible titles. Nvidia has Resizeable BAR (ReBAR) which performs the same function but is only enabled on games where it brings a performance benefit.

Power and Efficiency: Evenly matched

The RX 6700 XT has 2 8-pin power connectors on the card and draws 230W under load and 250W when overclocked. The RTX 3060 Ti has a TDP of 200W and draws 220W in normal usage or when overclocked, the power limits are carefully constrained to prevent it encroaching on the RTX 3070s performance. In terms of efficiency, the power levels are as closely matched as performance, with a few watts more equating to slightly higher performance for the RX 6700 XT. In short, power draw and efficiency are equivalent between these two GPUs and not a reason to choose one over the other. Any reasonable quality 600W+ power supply will be equipped to handle these GPUs, and you won’t need to go overboard on case cooling to keep system temperatures down to acceptable levels. The modest power draw also bodes well for manufacturers being able to design quiet running versions of the RX 6700 XT.

Supply and availability: Likely to be very hard to buy…

There’s still a large question mark over supply and availability: AMD share the TSMC 7nm production lines used to create this GPU with their RX6800 and RX 6800 XT, the entire Zen 3 CPU line up, and the APUs that go into current generation consoles. All of this points to supplies being highly limited. After the initial batch are sold we’d expect the supply situation to regress to the same as it is for any other GPU right now: Sadly almost impossible to find at MSRP. This is also the situation with the RTX 3060 Ti.

Conclusion: is the RX 6700 XT better than the RTX 3060 Ti? 

Given the factors we’ve discussed above, the RX 6700 XT looks like a viable alternative to the RTX 3060 Ti. It performs as well or better than it in almost all titles, allows you to use hardware raytracing, and has a large VRAM capacity meaning it will stand the test of time if you intend on keeping it for the long haul. Given the RTX 3060 Ti’s slight edge in RTX and DLSS enabled games at this time, we’d rate these two GPU’s as broadly equivalent in terms of the value they offer.

There’s also the interesting discovery that AMD drivers are much more effective at high frame rates and with lower performance CPUs, imposing less of a CPU overhead in those situations: The RX 6700 XT may be the perfect choice if you’re upgrading your GPU and have a system a generation or two old.

The caveats around the RX 6700 XT are more general: It’s relatively expensive and that price is likely to rocket on release, and supply is bound to be scarce. Ultimately you may not have a free choice between the two cards, in which case either will perform excellently in a 1440p or high-FPS 1080p gaming rig.

The post AMD RX 6700 XT vs Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti: Which is Best? appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

We’ve obtained examples of the RTX 3060 Ti, the RTX 3070, and the RTX 3080 and have spent the last two weeks running them through a suite of benchmark tests. In this article, we’ll present our results to you and conclude with some remarks as to what systems and usage cases these cards are best suited to. 

We’ve tested first-person shooters and AAA titles at 1080p, 1440p 1400p Ultrawide, and 4K. Our testing methodology differs from some other sites: We’ve chosen settings that show these games in their best light, and that’s not always ‘ultra’ across the board. We’ve tested most games here on high or a mix of high and ultra settings, allowing the GPUs to shine and giving you a better understanding of how you can expect them to perform in the real world. The settings remain consistent both within each test and across the resolutions.

From the results here, you will be able to tweak settings to obtain higher quality or higher framerates, whichever you prefer, but you can expect performance on a par with our numbers here. Where we identify a clear CPU bottleneck we’ve mentioned it (Hi Warzone!).

The test system is our Ryzen test bench with a Ryzen 7 5800X, 16GB of RAM running at 3600MHz Cl16, and a B550 motherboard.

So, let’s dig into the numbers. 

RTX 3060 Ti vs 3070 vs 3080: Synthetic Tests

3DMark

Firstly, a quick look at some synthetic benchmarks helps us verify our cards are performing correctly, and get an idea of where they stack up overall. We’re just looking at the GPU scores here. We’ve included some popular GPUs of the last generation so you can see how they compare.

Fire Strike uses DX11 which is an older API now, and we get an idea of how closely matched the GTX 1080 Ti and RX 5700XT are, and in this case the RTX 3060 Ti as well.

Time Spy uses The DX12 API and is more representative of current games, here the RTX 3060 Ti fares better but it’s clear the RTX 3080 still has a big lead.

Finally, we can take a looking ‘Port Royal’ helps us assess the relative Ray tracing capabilities of the RTX-enabled GPUs. This test uses DX12’s Ray tracing commands to render out a complex scene full of shadows, reflections, and lighting sources over and above the traditionally rasterised rendering of the core 3D scene. Despite using the last generation RTX cores the RTX 2080 Ti acquits itself well here, and there’s a fair gap between the performance of the 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 commensurate with their RTX core counts and overall rendering ability. The RTX 2060 brings up the rear, the least powerful card with RTX capabilities.

RTX 3060 Ti vs 3070 vs 3080: Gaming Benchmarks

1080p Performance

1080p FPS Gaming

Doom eternal is really well optimised and shows good scaling with GPU power, everything from the RX 5700XT up exceeding 240FPS.

In Call of Duty Warzone, on high settings, we see all the Ampere cards exceed 200FPS average but you’re not gaining a huge amount from the additional cost and power of the RTX 3080. I think we’re seeing the ceiling of the 5800X’s performance here although lows don’t suffer like the can in some titles when CPU bound. There was a hard limit of 250FPS maximum frame rate in all the Ampere GPUs.

Rainbow 6 Siege shows good 1080p scaling but even an entry-level GPU is capable of fairly insane framerates at 1080p in this game.

1080p AAA Gaming

As for the AAA Titles, In Shadow of the Tomb Raider we’re seeing all the GPUs exceed 144FPS average at 1080p with the 3080 nearing 200FPS. Of note here is that the 3070 was 78% GPU bound, and the 3080 was only 50% GPU bound: Even with a Ryzen 5800X, GPU performance is being left on the table in this title with the higher performing Ampere GPUs in this game at 1080p. 

In Red Dead Redemption 2, a more demanding title, the high settings load GPU’s even at 1080p. The 2080Ti and 3080 are the only GPUs to exceed 100FPS average, but in this title we’re really looking for a consistent 60FPS at high settings and everything from a 1080ti and 5700XT upwards is capable of that here. Like Doom eternal, the Vulkan API’s help the 5700XT perform – AMD cards respond well to this API.

1080p Flight Simulator

And finally in Flight Sim 2020, 1080p means the CPU performance is as exposed as GPU  performance, we see minor performance improvements from the higher tier cards but even the 3080 only just hits 60FPS: That’s a function of the demanding nature of this test, flying over New York City at low level. As you’d expect, at 1080p all of these GPUs perform very well and we do see utilisation drop below 100% on occasions as they wait for the CPU to process the game data. Ultra settings sees performance drop about 10FPS across the board.

1440p Performance

1440P FPS Shooters

This resolution is a much better match for these GPUs, and Doom Eternal is really well optimised letting the higher-end hardware shine. Again we see the power of the 3080 compared to the 2080 Ti, and Nvidias claims re the 3070 matching the 2080Ti ring true. Doom has a very well refined settings system: Each graphics preset adds or removes about 10FPS so you can fine-tune the game to your liking but all of these GPUs give a fluid, exciting experience at 1440p and over 100FPS, even the 1660 Super hits 90FPS average. It’s still very enjoyable but you might want to reduce settings a notch or two. 

Rainbow Six Siege shows excellent scaling with the more powerful GPUs, and the RTX 3080 really stretches its legs to deliver a 400FPS average: Even the 3060 Ti exceeds 260FPPS, and we’re well into diminishing returns since we’ve well exceeded even a fast monitors refresh rate and generally this is a title that would be played at 1080p. Note the 2060KO and below are run on a Ryzen 3600 System: That likely accounts for some of the performance difference here, but it’s not a huge difference.

Call of Duty: Warzone we still see them all exceed 144FPS average at high settings. The RTX 2080ti marginally outperforms the Ampere cards here, which could be down to it being an established card with optimised drivers whilst the Ampere cards are newer – but note they don’t scale well. An RTX 3080 isn’t getting you substantially more performance in this title over the much cheaper 3060 Ti.

1440P AAA Titles

Moving on to Triple-A titles, Red Dead Redemption can make the most powerful graphics cards sweat, and we have turned up settings here. That’s for a couple of reasons, firstly because the game should be experienced in all its glory at higher settings, and secondly, because it shows the significant break in performance between the cards that can maintain 60FPS average, and those that can’t. Last generation cards struggle, whilst the 3060 Ti comfortably maintains nearly 70FPS, and the RTX 3070, RTX 2080 Ti, and RTX 3080 all approach 100FPS average. Again, you can tweak settings to get the performance you’re happy with as they are turned right up here, but those GPUs are capable of providing an excellent experience at 1440p.

Looking at Shadow of the Tomb raider, again this title shows where the GTX 1660 Super begins to struggle, although it is still capable of running well optimised titles like this at 1440p. The scaling with the more powerful GPUs is clear with all of the Ampere GPUs exceeding 100FPS average. This is at ‘highest’ settings and we can see that the 3080 is the card that manages to exceed 144FPS average at 1440p in this title with settings cranked. 

In Flight Simulator at 1440p, we’re now becoming much more GPU bound. 50-60FPS average at high-end settings really is a good performance in this test, and it looks utterly gorgeous doing it. All Ampere GPUs exceed 30FPS at all times. 1440p is where Flight Sim 2020 really begins to shine, and the RTX 3060 Ti, in particular, impressed me with its performance here. Lifting settings to ‘Ultra’ adds some nice visual tweaks but still costs about 10FPS across the board. Again, there’s room to tweak here with just a couple of detail settings turned down from ultra getting you most of the performance benefits at almost no detriment to visuals. 

1440p Conclusion

We can see that these cards really begin to come alive at 1440p, significantly outpacing all but the highest-end options from the last generation. It was the 3060 Ti that impressed me most, with performance very much in the same ballpark as it’s bigger siblings. Once you’re up to 100FPS in AAA titles at high settings, you really are getting what you paid for in games, so there’s not much more to be asked for the 3060 Ti. The RTX 3070 also excels at this resolution. 

1440p Ultrawide Gaming

Moving on to ultrawide 1440p, this resolution bridges the gap to 4K and is becoming increasingly popular. We particularly like the versatility of workspace it offers, combined with the immersion in gaming.

1440p Ultrawide FPS Gaming

The first person shooters still record high FPS if they’re well optimised, Rainbow 6 Siege is generating over 250FPS in high settings. COD:Warzone really does seem to be CPU limited – FPS doesn’t really drop much from 1440p so you’re at no penalty opting for ultrawide. Doom Eternal is still generating well over 144FPS on everything except the 1080ti, and we’re at ultra nightmare settings here.

1440p Ultrawide AAA Titles

Moving on to AAA Titles, we’re exceeding 60FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2 on all the Ampere cards at demanding settings. The 3060ti and 3070 are again relatively Close in performance with 10FPS between them, with only the 3080 distinguishing itself 20FPS higher. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is much the same pattern, but with slightly higher framerates. The 3070, 3080, and 2080 Ti all approach or exceed 100FPS. 

And finally, at 1440p Ultrawide, we see the same scaling in Flight Simulator 2020 – But all of these GPUs are approaching or exceeding 50FPS even at this resolution which is impressive, and again you can see you’re paying a great deal in going from an RTX 3060 Ti to an RTX 3070 and on to an RTX 3080 to go from 46 to 60 FPS.

The takeaways here are really how closely the RTX 3070 matches the RTX 2080 Ti so Nvidias claims ring true there. Also, note that the hierarchy of cards is now well established but the 3060Ti really isn’t a bit-part player here: It’s very much keeping pace and in any of these titles you’re not going to see or feel a difference in performance between say 160 FPS and 190Fps, or in just a couple of settings turned down to see it match the performance of the RTX 3070. The 3070 is clearly excellent in 1440p ultrawide, but the 3060ti is more than capable as well. The 3080 holds it’s clear lead.

4K Performance

4K FPS Shooters

Moving on to 4K, we’re now at a resolution that can make these GPUs really work hard. Looking at the shooters, note that we’re still exceeding 100FPS in Doom Eternal and CoD Warzone – and we’re still at high settings here. Likewise, in Rainbow6 Siege we’re exceeding 144FPS meaning you’ll be maximising a high performance 4K monitor, not that this is an ideal set up for competitive play. The RTX 3080 is still pushing past 300FPS, but the 3060Ti and 3070 are much lower here beaten even by the GTX 1080ti and I confirmed this with multiple runs. I can’t confirm exactly why this is.

4K AAA Titles

AAA titles are where you can revel in the detail rendering at 4K gives – but we’re starting to see all of these GPUs struggling to make the magic 60FPS. You’re going to have to turn down settings a little from those we’ve used throughout these benchmarks. Again we see the 3070 shadowing the 2080 Ti closely although the 2080 Ti does come out on top – just – in these three tests. The 3080 has a clear advantage, and if you’re building a 4K focussed gaming PC then it’s really between the RTX 3080 and the RX 6800 XT as to which GPU is right for you.

Conclusions

The RTX 3060 Ti

Firstly, the RTX 3060 Ti was the standout card of this test. It performs excellently, to the point where it’s close to the RTX 3070 in most of these titles at 1440p. In well optimised games and first-person shooters, it’s producing fluid responsive gameplay at high FPS and high settings. In demanding titles, it’s punching well above its weight. The RTX 3060 Ti a great card, and if you’re looking to trade off components in your system to afford a better CPU, monitor, or SSD, you should absolutely consider the 3060 Ti. It won’t feel like a compromised choice at all.

Ampere Gaming at 1080p

Secondly, none of the Ampere cards achieve their potential at 1080p. They’re either exposing CPU limitation in very high FPS titles or else not shining in AAA titles restricted by a lower pixel count. You can make a case for the RTX 3060 Ti in either a very high FPS esports build, or in a PC aimed at playing AAA titles at 1080p and very high settings: But really, We’d recommend that if you’re considering any of these Qmpere cards you start your search with a 1440p Monitor capable of 144Hz and adaptive sync. That’s where you start getting your money’s worth out of these GPUs. 

The RTX 3080

Finally, of course, there’s the RTX 3080. This GPU is an absolute monster. It cleanly wins every benchmark here, and whilst the 3070 has clearly been pegged to the RTX 2080 Ti, and the RTX 3060 Ti massaged to ensure it’s 10% or so slower than that, the RTX 3080 is allowed to stretch its legs and hit the limits of its’ capability. That really comes down to power restrictions but We’ll dig into that more with a specific look at the RTX 3080 in a future article.

Watch out for bottlenecking in aged systems

One note of caution here is if you pair these GPUs with an aging system, they’re all-powerful enough to expose weakness, particularly in CPUs. You may find that whilst you can run at higher settings, you begin to experience stutter and frame time inconsistencies if you hit the limit of your CPUs performance. That’s something we want to investigate and we will be running through some tests with a Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel CPUs from the last-generation to see if they negatively impact performance at all, or if they’re sufficient to maximise the potential of these GPUs. 

Our Recommendations

Best Ampere Card for 1080p FPS Gaming / 1440p All-rounder Builds: RTX 3060 Ti

Based on our results, realistically we’d recommend the RTX 3060 Ti as the high FPS esports GPU at 1080p, or for a 1440p all-round gaming machine.

Related: RTX 3060 Ti Aftermarket Card Overview
Related: RTX 3060 Ti Aftermarket Card Database

Best Ampere Card for 1440p AAA Gaming: RTX 3070 / 3060 Ti

Stepping up in to solid 1440p AAA title performance the RTX 3070 makes a strong case for itself, but cross-shop the RTX 3060 Ti if you’re working to a budget – you won’t feel short-changed with its performance and if it allows you to purchase a high-performance CPU as well then it’s the right choice to make.

Best Ampere Card for 1440p Ultrawide Gaming: RTX 3070 / 3080

At 1440p Ultrawide, the RTX 3070 shines but the additional cost of a RTX 3080 begins to make sense to provide a really remarkable gaming experience. 

Related: Best RTX 3070 Aftermarket Cards
Related: RTX 3070 Aftermarket Card Overview
Related: RTX 3070 Aftermarket Card Database

Best Ampere Card for 4K Gaming: RTX 3080

And finally, at 4K, it’s such a demanding resolution that in high-end titles like Red Dead Redemption or Cyberpunk you will need to lower settings from Ultra to maintain 60FPS performance even on an RTX 3080. There is one ace up the Ampere GPUs sleeve though: DLSS. This technology form Nvidia uses a trained neural network and AI to up-sample the rendered image for display: when it works well it allows you to combine heightened settings with higher frame rates. However, just a handful of titles are using it to it’s full potential, so it’s something we’re looking into and will deliver our impressions on it later.. 

Related: Best RTX 3080 Aftermarket Cards
Related: RTX 3080 Aftermarket Card Overview

I hope you’ve found this roundup of the Ampere GPUs useful: pair any one of these cards with a well-matched monitor (linked below) and you’ll have an absolutely fantastic set up to enjoy the latest games as they are meant to be played.

• Best Monitors for RTX 3060 Ti
• Best Monitors for RTX 3070
• Best Monitors for RTX 3080

The post RTX 3060 Ti vs 3070 vs 3080: Benchmark Comparison (Real World Tests) appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

To compete against AMD’s initial batch of Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards, Nvidia launched the brand-new RTX 3060 Ti. Utilizing all the features found in Nvidia’s new Ampere architecture, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the only new-generation GPU available at  $400 or less.

Since we’ve already compared the RTX 3060 Ti to its higher-end predecessor – the RTX 2080 Super – and found it to be in all ways superior, let’s now compare it to what AMD has to offer in the same price range: The Radeon RX 5700 XT. Of course, this GPU is of AMD’s previous generation RDNA, so it won’t be as powerful as Nvidia’s latest Ampere architecture,

but comparing the two will provide a good indication of how technology has progressed, and how the same money can now buy you far more graphical power.

AMD released their new Radeon RX 6000 Series GPU in November 2021, but stock has been scarce. The least expensive of this series is the Radeon RX 6800, and it has an MSRP of $579; making it more expensive than both the RTX 3060 Ti and the RTX 3070. This price is justified as the Radeon RX 6800 does outperform both by a significant margin. Still, a GPU aimed squarely at 1440p gaming and perhaps even 4K at 60 FPS at a more affordable price range, like the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, is one that AMD has yet to cover with their new lineup. Perhaps a Radeon RX 6700 will be released to challenge this market but there is no official AMD announcement for any such release.

Within November of 2020, AMD did “release” their new Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs, though the least expensive of this series is the Radeon RX 6800, and it has an MSRP of $579; making it more expensive than both the RTX 3060 Ti and the RTX 3070. This price increase is not entirely unjustified, as the Radeon RX 6800 does outperform both by a significant margin. Still, a GPU model that can perform at 1080p at high framerates – and perhaps even 4K at 60 FPS – at a more affordable price range, like the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, is one that AMD has yet to cover with their new lineup. Perhaps a Radeon RX 6700 will be released to fill this void, but no word from AMD has been announced for any such release.

Currently, the real question is: Does the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti warrant its $399 price tag? Nvidia has been very adamant about promoting their new generation ray tracing (resulting in quite a bit of drama from their PR team), which means we should probably not expect many GPU options at a lower price range to be releasing anytime soon – other than perhaps a GeForce RTX 3060 variant with less VRAM.

This high entry-level to new generation GPUs may push those looking for a dedicated gaming build to opt for a different route: The Playstation 5 or Xbox Series X. Needless to say, a PC does offers far more overall utility – and a wider range of available games – but the gaming performance of the new generation consoles is actually quite decent; allowing users to play at 1080p and 60-120 FPS for only $499. The demand for an affordable yet capable graphics card is as high as ever – and it’s this demographic is who Nvidia appears to be trying to capitalize on with the release of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.

With that being said, let’s see how the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti fares against the similarly priced last generation Radeon RX 5700 XT, and come to a conclusion on whether or not this GPU is worth its $400 asking price.

RTX 3060 Ti vs RX 5700: Specifications

Graphics Card	Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti	AMD RX 5700 XT
Design
MSRP	$399	$399
Release Date	December 2020	July 2019
Processing Node	8 nm Samsung	7 nm TSMC
Transistor Count	17.4 Billion	10.3 Billion
Die Size	392 mm²	251 mm²
VRAM Storage	8 GB GDDR6	8 GB GDDR6
Memory Bandwidth	448 GB/s	448 GB/s
Shading Units	4864	2560
TMUs	152	160
ROPs	80	64
Base Clock	1,410 MHz	1,605 MHz
Boost Clock	1,665 MHz	1,905 MHz
Memory Clock	1,750 MHz 14 GB/s	1,750 MHz 14 GB/s
Pixel Rate	133.2 GP/s	121.9 GP/s
Texture Rate	253.1 GT/s	304.8 GT/s
FP16 Performance	16.20 TFLOPS	19.51 TFLOPS
FP32 Performance	16.20 TFLOPS	9.754 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance	0.2531 TFLOPS	0.6096 TFLOPS
TDP	200 W	225 W

Specs & Technologies

Though the Radeon RX 5700 XT has a 36% smaller die than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, it also has 40% less transistors, so it doesn’t fully utilize its inherently smaller lithography.

Also, despite the generational disparity, the VRAM of both GPUs is identical in speed and capacity.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT outshines its Nvidia successor in TMU count, texture fill rates, and FP16/64 theoretical performance. Whilst it has a higher base and boost clock speeds note that these cannot be used to compare performance between different architectures. Also, the 40 Compute Units that it comes equipped with are previous generation units that are not nearly as powerful as those of the Radeon RX 6000 Series which have redesigned data paths, pervasive fine-grain clock gating, and new pipeline rebalancing. In all other aspects, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is superior.

This Nvidia Ampere GPU features 38, 2^nd generation, Ray Tracing cores, 152, 3^rd generation, Tensor Cores (AI processors), and new streaming multiprocessors (SM) which have twice the throughput. These technologies are all exclusive to Nvidia, and therefore lacking from the Radeon RX 5700 XT. Pair these aspects with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti’s 90% more shading units, and it gains a sizeable specification lead against its equally-priced previous generation counterpart.

Features

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has all the latest software that accompanies Nvidia’s Ampere architecture, from AI powered broadcasting and streaming applications and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) 2.0, to a 1-year GeForce NOW Founder’s membership. It also includes Nvidia Reflex, which drastically lowers end-to-end input lag, and allows the GPU to be paired with certain monitors built by Nvidia-partnered manufacturers that even further reduce this latency, and display the metric in real time on-screen.

On the other hand, AMD may still be missing any AI powered features, like DLSS and Tensor cores, but they have implemented a new L3 cache named the Infinity Cache for the Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs, as well as a one-click overclocking and Smart Access Memory, that utilizes bandwidth from Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs in order to remove memory bottlenecking issues. Of course, these are all features of the new Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs, and are thus absent from the Radeon RX 5700 XT. This GPU has little to offer against the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, as its Adrenalin Software is similar to Nvidia’s GeForce Experience, its Anti-Lag feature is already eclipsed by Nvidia’s Reflex (and AMD’s second-generation Anti-Lag), and its Intelligent Sharpening or Fidelity FX features are outclassed by DLSS.

Power Efficiency

Despite lacking in gaming performance in comparison to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, the Radeon RX 5700 XT still requires 25 more watts in order to operate. This may not be that big of a difference, but it still goes to show how much more power efficient the newer generation GPUs are in comparison to those that released only a year ago. Even in comparison to AMD’s newer generation of GPUs, the RTX 3060 Ti’s 200W TDP is still very efficient and means that you can use a less expensive power supply, and cooling your PC is less of a concern. 

Price and Availability

Both AMD and Nvidia have struggled heavily in regards to producing sufficient amounts of stock to cover the high demand that the market requires. Paired with the fact that scalpers have become aware of this shortcoming and have purchased GPUs en masse in order to capitalize on the scarcity, finding any new-generation graphics cards at their original MSRP is all but impossible. Currently, Amazon has sellers that are trying to sell the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at more than double its price Even worse, the Radeon RX 6800 can be found for triple its price. Altogether a shameful ordeal for these highly anticipated GPUs.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT can readily be found, both new and used. It has not dropped in price and is retailing at around $400 new or $300 used. Whilst scarcity remains across the entire Graphics card market and until AMD releases a replacement it is unlikely to be discounted.

RTX 3060 Ti vs RX 5700: Benchmarks

As expected, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti dominates its previous generation competition – able to average above 144 FPS at 1080p. The Radeon RX 5700 XT still holds its own, averaging above 120 FPS at 1080p, and over 60 FPS at 1440p. Both GPUs begin to struggle at 4K as even the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti falls short of the 60Hz baseline refresh rate for many titles – but note that the benchmarks are at ultra settings, so you can use lowered settings to improve performance. Still note that as the new generation of games emerges there is a likelihood that most game developers will opt to maximize their title’s potential to AMD’s technologies. This is because both new-generation consoles have RDNA 2 GPUs. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti’s potential to process games at 4K and 60 Hz may drop off in the future, but this is hard to predict with certainty. 

Verdict

The RTX 3060 Ti retails at $399 and up, which is also the current retail price for the RX 5700XT. So long as you can find stock and do not overpay for a 3060 Ti the decision is a no-brainer: The RTX 3060 Ti outperforms the 5700 XT in every metric and by a large margin. It’s exceptionally well suited to 1440p and will play AAA titles at high resolution and high settings whilst maintaining well over 60FPS in even the most demanding titles. Pair it with a 1440p variable refresh rate monitor for best effect.  It can also be used as a very high FPS 1080p card, but you will need a fast refresh rate monitor – at least 144Hz, preferably 240Hz for esports – and a top tier CPU to keep up with it. If your PC is mixed-use and you use a 1440p ultrawide or 4K monitor, the 3060 Ti has enough power to ensure you can still play games on it in your downtime with slightly reduced settings – but make no mistake the capability of this card will still impress. DLSS is the cherry on top in enabled titles, with a 50%+ lift to performance at almost no cost to visual fidelity. Finally, there’s the versatility offered by the CUDA cores and advanced features like Tensor cores: The 3060Ti is the most cost efficient means yet to accelerate AI and 3D rendering workflows, and video editing as well. Only the 8GB VRAM limits its utility in those areas, but you will have to pay significantly more to obtain more VRAM and 8GB is suitable for most tasks.

The 5700XT meanwhile lacks many of the advanced features, plus it underperforms significantly vs the 3060Ti in gaming. It’s capable as a mid range 1440p GPU but does not provide the same experience at 1440p Ultrawide or 4K and we cannot recommend it at those resolutions. At $400 it is too expensive for a 1080p GPU, there are more cost effective options. Until its price is significantly reduced, to $300 or less, it is not worth considering unless you have a specific workload that is accelerated by the OpenCL APIs rather than the more widespread CUDA implementations. 

The RTX 3060 Ti heralds Nvidia’s assault on the GPU market with the Ampere release: It’s an extremely powerful GPU and the price to performance star of the GPUs released in 2020. If you’re able to purchase one at $450 or less it’s the perfect GPU for most users, balancing impressive performance, low power draw, fantastic additional features, and an affordable price. The one fly in the ointment is availability: We can only hope that supply issues ease in 2021 as promised, and perhaps that AMD has a worthy competitor ready to keep Nvidia honest in their pricing and open up choice in the GPU market. 

The post Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti vs AMD RX 5700 XT: Which is Best Value for 2021? appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

We’ve had our RTX 3060 Ti for a few days now and have been busy putting it through its paces. Whilst the $400 Price tag means this is a GPU almost anyone can afford, the performance on offer puts it firmly in the High Roller category! This GPU is insanely capable at the price, matching the last generation RTX 2080 Super in almost all areas. Of the Ampere cards released so far, it’s the one that’s impressed us most on the basis of its performance at the price point. However, this GPUs talent is wasted if you don’t pick a worthy monitor. In this article we’ll guide you through our recommendations for the best monitor pairings with the RTX 3060 Ti, taking value and performance into consideration.

For an RTX 3060 Ti the monitors that will work best are 1080p high FPS for eSports and competitive gaming, 1440p 144Hz for general gaming and productivity, or 1440p ultrawide for light or occasional gaming and general use. If you need a 4K monitor for other purposes but want to game occasionally the RTX 3060 Ti even has you covered there too. It’ll handle the most demanding titles at 4K with reduced but acceptable settings.

Things to consider when choosing your perfect monitor:

The monitor you use defines many characteristics of the PC. Primarily resolution dictates how well matched it is to the GPU power, with the higher resolution being more demanding to run but giving a sharper image. If you use the PC for productivity then opting for a higher resolution will be a bonus, but comes at a cost when you’re gaming.

Refresh rate and Adaptive sync: 

Refresh rate is important because high frame rates give a smother and more responsive gaming experience, but need more GPU power to render frames fast enough. You can trade resolution for framerate to an extent: A RTX 3060Ti will run 1440p monitors faster than 4K because there are around half as many pixels per frame, but will provide the highest framerates at 1080p. 

Not all games will run at 144 FPS or more even with the power of an RTX 3060Ti. To combat this we’d recommend choosing a high refresh rate monitor with adaptive sync technology. This refreshes the monitor when there is a new frame ready to display, smoothing out framerates and eliminating ugly tearing in the image as you play. This technology ensures optimum performance, and it has evolved over the years. Nvidia GPUs like the RTX 3060 Ti now support Freesync monitors even though it’s an AMD standard, so you have a free choice. Many monitors as now certified as ‘G-sync compatible’ which means that whilst they use the AMD Freesync standard they are in fact certified to work well with Nvidia GPUs.

Panel type

Monitor panel technology is evolving all the time, but the most common types of gaming monitors are ‘VA’ and ‘IPS’ types. Both can produce excellent panels for gaming. VA panels have better contrast and deeper blacks, but cheaper models may suffer ghosting or smearing in fast action as they are not as responsive as IPS. IPS panels have vibrant colours and excellent response times but sometimes struggle to show true blacks and may have some minor backlight bleeding on cheaper panels. It really comes down to preference as either can be fantastic when properly implemented. There are also variants on these types and ‘OLED’ as used in LG and Samsung monitors. Whilst TN has long been popular thanks to its very fast response times, the lack of vibrancy and poor viewing angles make us hesitant to recommend it as a showcase for a high-end GPU like the RTX 3060 Ti.

Additional features

There are also other features you may want to consider such as whether the monitor has speakers, if you need an inbuilt USB hub to tidy up peripheral cables, how many inputs it has, and that it has VESA mounting options is you intend to mount it on a monitor arm. So, let’s move on to our monitor recommendations for the RTX 3060 Ti:

Best Monitors for RTX 3060 Ti – Our Recommendations

Best 1440p All-round Monitor for RTX 3060 Ti

If you enjoy a wide range of titles, the RTX 3060 Ti really shines at 1440p. It will deliver smooth consistent framerates even at this demanding resolution and in graphically complex games. You can expect 100FPS upwards even in titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, whilst DLSS will help you achieve good frame rates in compatible-AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077. For all-round gaming, we recommend the Gigabyte G27QC. It uses a VA panel for vibrant colours and deep blacks, and whilst response times aren’t cutting edge they’re plenty fast enough for AAA gaming and general use. It has 165Hz refresh rate and is ‘Freesync Premium’ certified meaning you get great adaptive sync performance.  This eliminates screen tearing and smooths out frame delivery for a fluid gaming experience even if you’re not quite hitting 165 FPS. The response times are excellent at max refresh rate with a ‘balanced’ setting providing best results without smearing or ghosting. As for physical features, there’s a 2 port USB hub, handy for connecting your headphones or other peripherals close to hand. The stand is basic but functional with height and tilt but no twist. A curved vs flat panel is a matter of personal preference but for gaming and general use the 1500R curve leads a degree of immersion, whilst thin bezels look slick and makes a multi-monitor set up seamless. 27” display size is the sweet spot for pixel density for this resolution, making text easy to read without pixels becoming individually visible at standard viewing distances. Make sure you use the display port connection for the full 165Hz refresh rate as HDMI can’t carry the necessary bandwidth.

Best 1440p IPS Monitor for RTX 3060 Ti

This 27” 1440p monitor from Viewsonic, the Elite XG270QC, combines a host of useful features with a great IPS panel. It sports a fast 165Hz refresh rate with Freesync Premium Pro and G-Sync compatible specification for the ultimate in high refresh rate, tear free gaming. They’ve also worked hard to give quick response times and very low input lag, making this a great choice if you are a competitive player (or just want to deny yourself excuses!). The stand is fully adjustable and there’s a VESA mount if you’d prefer to put it on an arm. There’s also a handy 3 port USB 3.0 hub in the back, so you can run keyboard, mouse and headphones direct to the monitor and just have 1 USB cable onwards to the PC. Image quality is excellent although it is biased towards gaming rather than creative work, it will still work well for productivity tasks. 

Best 1080p High FPS Monitor for RTX 3060 Ti

The 3060 Ti is a highly capable card, and at 1080p with the right supporting system, it produces exceptionally high frame rates in esports and first-person shooters. We’ve seen in excess of 200FPS in COD Warzone on high settings and 400FPS average in Rainbow 6 Siege. To take advantage of that we recommend the high-performance MSI MAG 251RX for competitive online play.  This monitor has a 240Hz refresh rate and is G-Sync compatible for the ultimate responsiveness very low lag. It uses an IPS panel, again cutting latency whilst keeping a crisp vibrant image. It uses a host of gamer specific features like smart black tuner to enhance areas of darkness and reveal detail, and has a slick frameless design. This is a monitor that makes sure the RTX 3060 Ti is fully utilised in esports and fast paced shooters, giving you the competitive edge.

Best 1440p Ultrawide Monitor for RTX 3060 Ti

The 3060 Ti is powerful enough that it’s quite happy to drive the extended resolution of a 1440p ultrawide, so long as you are willing to make a slight compromise in frame rates in exchange for the greater immersion and working space of an ultrawide monitor. Our testing shows that it will exceed 60FPs in ultra settings in Red Dead Redemption 2, and approach 100FPS in high settings in Shadow of the Tomb raider at this resolution. To take advantage of this, the MSI Optix MAG341CQ has a 100Hz refresh rate and Freesync to smooth frame delivery and eliminate tearing. The VA panel gives rich colors and good contrast, and the 21:9 curved panel wraps around you to pull you into the game. The 110% sRGB color spectrum support makes it ideal for color sensitive work like photo editing or video editing, and the wide versatile workspace lends itself to productivity well. A timeline or multiple documents can be allocated wherever you want on screen, with no bezel dictating window size or location. The aspect ratio, curve, high refresh rate and adaptive sync make this model a fantastic all rounder for work and play, whilst the price is in keeping with the incredible value offered by the RTX 3060 Ti.

Best 4K Monitor for RTX 3060 Ti

Whilst we wouldn’t recommend an RTX 3060 Ti for 4K gaming, if you need $k for other applications but want to game on the side or use the 3060 Ti’s prodigious rendering power for productivity, it’s a perfectly viable option. This 4K IPS panel from Samsung, the U28R550, mixes businesslike aesthetics with a high-quality panel, and just a smidge of gaming features to apply itself there too. It has good color accuracy thanks to the panel, There are 2 HDMI and one Displayport input and this panel is VESA mountable. To help out when gaming, Freesync allows adaptive sync from 40-60 FPS. That may not seem like much but for a demanding resolution that makes all the difference and will help eliminate tearing when you’re not hitting the full 60FPS. This monitor strikes a great balance between panel quality, versatility and of course cost. If you need a 4K monitor to pair with your RTX 3060 Ti, the Samsung U28R550 is a good place to start. 

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The RTX 3060 Ti is the mid-range entry to Nvidia’s new graphics card line up for 2021. This GPU uses the Ampere architecture to squeeze impressive performance from its 200 Watt thermal design, making it the most efficient GPU currently available in terms of performance per watt. Nvidia recommends a 600W power supply for this Graphics card, but this is necessarily an upper estimate as it must account for lower quality power supplies and a wide range of system specifications beyond the graphics card itself.  Nevertheless, it’s always wise to stick to manufacturer guidelines wherever possible, and by choosing a high-quality power supply you can be assured of a stable system and long service life, as well as other benefits like improved efficiency and lower noise.

Power Supplies were one of the first components to suffer stock shortages in 2020 after the pandemic hit production in China and shipping globally. Many of the most popular power supplies have become harder to find or else are inflated in price. This means we have to consider other options but fear not: there are plenty of capable power supplies out there to get your build up and running. The RTX 3060 Ti is a great GPU option because of the value it offers: If we overspend on a power supply we begin to dilute that value proposition – we’ve kept our recommendations under the $100 price point for that reason with the exception of the small form factor option. So here are our recommendations for the best power supplies to pair with the RTX 3060 Ti, without overspending.

Best PSUs for RTX 3060 Ti – Our Recommendations

Award	Design	Model
Best Budget PSU for RTX 3060 Ti		Cooler Master MasterWatt 650W Bronze
Best Budget Gold Rated PSU for RTX 3060 Ti		Antec EarthWatts Gold Pro 650W
Best Fully Modular (Gold) PSU for RTX 3060 Ti		Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Best SFX PSU for RTX 3060 Ti		Corsair SF600 Gold
Best Quiet PSU for RTX 3060 Ti		Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 600W Gold

Best Budget PSU for RTX 3060 Ti

Cooler Master have a good range of affordable power supplies and if you’re maximising your budget this Bronze rated 650W output unit, the MasterWatt 650W Bronze, is a good place to start. At $85 this Power supply is semi-modular, so you can keep cable clutter down and fit only those cables you need in addition to the standard ATX 24pin, EPS 8Pin, and PCIe cables which are fixed to the supply. The 80+ Bronze efficiency rating means it meets 85% average efficiency (higher in 230V regions) so that induces less heat loading onto the supply itself. It’s also semi-fanless so the fan will only spin when it needs to cool the unit, reducing noise at idle. It uses 16AWG PCIe Cables meaning it will have no problem supplying ample current to the RTX 3060 Ti. There’s the full suite of protections in place including over current, over voltage and over temperature, so it will shut down to protect itself and the rest of your components should anything go wrong. Finally, it’s supplied with a 5-year warranty so you can be confident it will last. This PSU is the best budget option to support a build with the RTX 3060 Ti.

Best Budget Gold Rated PSU for RTX 3060 Ti

Antec is a lesser-known brand but this California based company have been in the components industry since 1986. The EarthWatts Gold Pro is a rebranded Seasonic Focus Gold design and as such a highly rated 650W power supply. The semi-modular design allows you to clean up your build minimising cable clutter whilst the compact length – just 140mm – maximises case space and options as well. The fan is of good quality and silent under most conditions, only speeding up when required by high temperatures. This unit has a 7-year warranty. We use this power supply in our bench test rig and it’s proven versatile and reliable throughout so we have no hesitation in recommending it as a great pairing with the RTX 3060 Ti. 

Best Fully Modular (Gold) PSU for RTX 3060 Ti

If you want to spend a little more for a fully modular power supply, Cooler Master offer the Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W, stepping up to a fully modular design but staying below the $100 price point. This power supply allows you to fully customise your cabling with cables of any style, colour and length right back to the PSU. Custom cable kits are available from around $60, but you can still use the supplied flat cables if you wish and customise the look later or just want the flexibility of only fitting the exact cables you need. The core of the PSU is sound with the Gold rating meaning it is 90% efficient on average under load. The fan is quiet and high quality and is thermostatically controlled to keep noise to a minimum. It’s a great choice is you want more customisation options without spending more than $100. 

Best SFX PSU for RTX 3060 Ti

The RTX 3060 Ti is well suited to a small form factor build owing to the availability of smaller models and its lower power requirements placing less heat load on a smaller case. If you’re looking for an SFX power supply then the choices are limited, and the Corsair SF600 Gold is the best option for an RTX 3060 Ti. This is a fully modular power supply so you can get customised cables, important in an SFF build where space is at a premium. Because it’s a popular model there are plenty of aftermarket custom cables, some even tailored to specific cases to ease the build process.  It has zero fan mode for silent operation under light loads, and the full suite of protections and cut-outs for over current, over voltage and the rest. It’s manufactured with high-quality Japanese capacitors and backed up by a seven-year warranty for peace of mind. It has 2 PCIe cables allowing you to power even the most demanding GPUs, although the RTX 3060 Ti will only require one cable to its 8-pin power socket. 

Best Quiet PSU for RTX 3060 Ti

If you’re looking for a low noise power supply then take a look at the Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 600W Gold. At $100 this supply offers a strong basic specification with Gold efficiency rating and 600W output. It’s semi-modular in design for a clean and simple build, and flat cables help you route them neatly. For noise suppression, it uses a high quality 120mm BeQuiet! fan with thermostatic control to keep fan speeds low. Combined with the high efficiency meaning less energy is wasted as heat, this ensures ‘near inaudible’ operation. BeQuiet state that below 50% load this PSU emits just 9.4 dB(A) and at full load it’s still under 20dB(A) – that’s equivalent to a whisper, or rustling leaves. It’s German designed and backed with a 5-year warranty for your peace of mind.

Conclusion: Pair the RTX 3060 Ti with any of the above power supplies for a great value combination

With the options above there’s a great value high performance PSU for all requirements. Any of the power supplies recommended here will make a perfect pairing with your new RTX 3060 Ti and ensure years of reliable high performance use.

The post 5 Best Power Supplies for RTX 3060 Ti Builds appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Nvidia has released another Ampere GPU and it’s the most affordable yet: The RTX 3060 Ti starts at $399 but make no mistake, this is no entry-level GPU. With performance surpassing the outgoing RTX 2080 Super, this GPU is well suited to 1440p high FPS gameplay. With advanced technologies like RTX cores and DLSS 2.0 for upscaling, it brings high-performance graphics to a price point not seen before. In this build guide, we’ll take you through the best system $1200 can buy featuring the RTX 3060 Ti.

RTX 3060 Ti Gaming PC Build – The Parts List

Graphics Card

At $400 the RTX 3060 Ti is the most affordable Ampere GPU released so far. This new architecture from Nvidia brings a huge step forwards in performance with this $400 card exceeding the performance of the last generations $700 RTX 2080 Super—That’s this generations mid tier card faster than all but the highest end of the Turing GPU offerings from just 2 years ago. This card will approach or exceed 100FPS in demanding AAA titles at 1440p, with even Red Dead Redemption 2 hitting around 80FPS with settings turned up to High. It has the advantage of a lower power draw than the higher end cards in the lineup, with a 650W Power supply being adequate to power it’s 200W demands. This increases the value of this graphics card and reduces the additional spend needed to build a well-rounded system. This GPU forms the core of the best bang for buck gaming system currently available – so we’ll select parts that allow it to achieve it’s potential without overspending.

Related: RTX 3060 Ti vs RTX 2080 Super

CPU

To properly take advantage of the RTX 3060 Ti you need a well-balanced system with a high-performance CPU. This is because the GPU is capable of high frame rates in well-optimised titles so long as the CPU is up to the task. We’ve opted for the Intel i5-10600K in this instance to maintain the value of the build: whilst the Ryzen 5 5600X is slightly higher performance, it’s also more expensive and at present stock is hard to find. The Intel i5-10600K nearly equals it in performance in high framerate titles, but most of the time the GPU will be the limiting factor so there will be no performance difference at all. We’ve paired this CPU with a Hyper 212 Black Edition, which is a great value and capable CPU cooler to reduce temperatures and noise and keeps the total CPU cost to $300.

Motherboard

We’ve opted for this Aorus Elite AC branded Z490 motherboard from Gigabyte for a number of reasons. Firstly Gigabyte offers strong VRM performance across their Z490 range, meaning you can comfortably overclock the power-hungry Comet Lake CPU without excessive heat or instability. The Aorus Elite AC has 12+1 Phase VRM with 50 Amp Mosfets to ensure stable power to the CPU. This motherboard is also capable of taking the more powerful i7-10700K or even the 10-core i9-10900K in future if you wish to upgrade, as well as being forwards compatible with upcoming Rocket Lake ‘11^th gen’ intel CPUs.

The Aorus Elite AC uses a Realtek 2.5G Ethernet controller, whilst many of the competition uses an Intel ‘I225V’ which unfortunately suffers from packet loss in some earlier revisions: Rather than hunt through retailer sites to ensure you don’t get a defective LAN chip, this motherboard avoids the issue entirely. The rest of the specifications are excellent with good USB connectivity, inbuilt WiFi, three M.2 slots and a high quality ALC1200 Audio Codec. This motherboard is a strong pairing with the i5-10600K and will allow the RTX 3060 Ti to really shine. Regarding the lack of PCIe 4.0 functionality: Testing shows that this doesn’t negatively impact GPU performance at all, and neither is the increased speed of a PCIe 4.0 SSD beneficial to gaming or worth the additional costs of those high-performance SSDs. Therefore the specification of this motherboard and CPU is in keeping with the bang-for-buck nature of this build, giving you maximum gaming performance without overspending. 

Memory

This G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4-3200 CL16 RAM kit is sufficient for all current games. Intel isn’t as RAM speed sensitive as Ryzen, allowing us to take advantage of slightly lower-priced and more readily available RAM. This kit is from G.Skill who is a trusted brand and runs at 3200MHz. It has CL16 16-18-18-38 timings for good performance and a stable XMP overclock with one click in BIOS, and using a dual-stick kit means you benefit from dual-channel operation which maximizes the bandwidth and improves performance. This is a rock-solid RAM kit and provides enough memory at a high enough speed to ensure great performance from this PC. 

Storage

With SSD prices dropping all the time it makes sense to specify a large SSD for the operating system and games. This is a solid choice from Western Digital with their SN550 1TB NVMe SSD, and whilst it may not post the highest scores in benchmarks, our own testing shows it to be no slower in real-world performance (booting and game loading) than much more expensive options. Therefore it’s an ideal drive for a gaming and general-purpose PC. Running this in the primary M.2 Slot keeps a second M.2 slot free for future upgrades, and simplifies both storage and set up with just one drive. 

PC Case

Phanteks have a strong reputation for high performance and attractive cases with great cooling capability. The Phanteks P400A has a mesh front panel allowing maximum airflow into the case, to ensure ample cooling for the CPU and GPU. A PSU shroud keeps cabling neat inside whilst a tempered glass side panel shows off the bits you do want people to see. It’s an ATX mid-tower and has a standard layout for ease of build and maintenance, but there’s plenty of options to mount radiators, multiple fan configurations and additional drives as you need or PC expand with time.  There are alternative versions if you’d prefer: The P400A Digital includes 3 RGB front case fans, and there are white variants too, but this case represents a great starting point and can be configured however you choose.  If you don’t opt for the P400A Digital, We’d recommend adding a pair of 140mm fans of your choice to this case to act as intake, and ensure case temperatures are kept low.

Power Supply

One of the blessings of the RTX 3060 Ti against its higher strung siblings it the reduced power requirements. Whilst the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 demand much more expensive power supplies, the relatively frugal 250W draw of this GPU mean we can specify a cheaper but still very capable Power supply. With choice restricted and prices elevated owing to supply issues, we’ve opted for the EVGA GD series in 600W format here. This is a new design, refreshed in 2019 and meeting Gold efficiency requirements. It’s non modular, which means all required cables come permanently attached to the power supply. That’s not a problem – in fact it simplifies the build process and if you wish to customise your cabling then extensions are cheaper and easier to find than full custom cables for a modular power supply. This PSU also has the full suite of protection features to prevent damage to itself and your system in the event of any faults. It’s backed by EVGA’s 5 years warranty, to provide you with peace of mind.

Best 1080p 240Hz Monitor for RTX 3060 Ti

The Alienware AW2521HF is a specialist 1080p monitor with 240Hz refresh rate and a very fast response time: This is the perfect monitor to take advantage of the very high frame rates this PC’s CPU and GPU combination will deliver at 1080p. If you’re a competitive player in titles like Rainbow 6 Siege, CoD Warzone, or even Fortnite then a faster framerate can make the difference between winning and losing. This monitor uses G-Sync compatible Adaptive Sync technology to display frames as soon as they’re ready, reducing lag and eliminating tearing. It’s the perfect complement to this system if fast-paced shooters are your favoured games.

Best 1440p All-rounder Monitor for RTX 3060 Ti

The RTX 3060 Ti really shines at 1440p resolution, where it can bring detailed worlds to life in intricate detail. To really immerse yourself in games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Red Dead Redemption 2, we’d recommend this 27” 1440p monitor, the M27Q, from Gigabyte. It uses an IPS panel for rich vibrant colors and includes a 144hz refresh rate and Freesync premium to ensure tear-free high frame rate action. It’s great value and keeps it on-trend with the theme of this PC: Maximising bang for buck around the new value champion, the RTX 3060 Ti. 

Conclusion

Overall, this system delivers an epic high FPS 1080p or all-round 1440p Gaming experience, at just $1200. This is a level of performance we couldn’t dream of at the price only a year ago. Nvidia’s Ampere has brought this within reach, with the RTX 3060 Ti providing a gaming experience you had to spend $800 on the GPU alone to rival in the previous generation. This is an excellent gaming PC at a price you can afford. 

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Nvidia has released the RTX 3060 Ti and it’s the performance-per-dollar star of the Ampere line-up so far. The RTX 3060 Ti starts at $399 but make no mistake, this is no entry-level GPU. With performance surpassing the outgoing RTX 2080 Super, this GPU can deliver high framerates even in demanding games and at high resolutions. With advanced technologies like RTX cores and DLSS 2.0 for upscaling, it brings high-performance graphics to a price point not seen before, and can also utilise advanced features like OPTIX enabled rendering in 3D graphics production or tensor core enabled AI training. This makes it a versatile and desirable graphics card, but to get the most out of it you’ll need to partner it with a CPU that’s up to the task. In this article, we’ll run you through the best CPUs to pair with the RTX 3060 Ti – whatever your price point and intended use.

Best CPUs for RTX 3060 Ti – Our Recommendations

Award	Design	Model
Best High-FPS Gaming CPU for RTX 3060 Ti		Ryzen 5 5600X
Best Intel Gaming CPU for RTX 3060 Ti		Intel Core i5-10600K
Best Budget CPU for RTX 3060 Ti		Ryzen 5 3600
Best Budget Intel CPU for RTX 3060 Ti		Intel Core i5-10400
Best All-rounder CPU for RTX 3060 Ti		Intel Core i7-10700K
Best Productivity CPU for RTX 3060 Ti		Intel Core i9-10850K

Best High-FPS Gaming CPU for RTX 3060 Ti

AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs have redefined the upper limits of performance and the Ryzen 5 5600X is the new CPU to beat for outright gaming performance without breaking the bank. If every last frame matters to you in competitive online play, then this CPU will run games as fast as any processor currently available but costs $300. It uses 6 cores and 12 threads, giving it ample headroom and our testing has shown it runs games like COD: Warzone and Rainbow 6 Siege just as fast as its 8 Core bigger brother the 5800X. It is supplied with a stock CPU cooler but for best performance, we’d recommend a pairing with a better 240mm AIO cooler such as the Arctic Freezer 2 240mm Water cooling loop: Keeping temperatures low will ensure the CPU doesn’t throttle when working hard. For a focussed gaming PC aimed at the highest frame rates possible at 1080p, this is the CPU to get and a perfect pairing with the RTX 3060 Ti.

Best Intel Gaming CPU for RTX 3060 Ti

One downside of the Ryzen 5 5600X is that being in high demand and limited supply, it can be hard to find and prices may be inflated. In that case there’s little lost in opting for the intel competitor instead. The Intel Core i5-10600K is around $50 cheaper than the 5600X but uses the same 6-core and 12 thread basis for a high performance gaming CPU. It really shines when overclocked so we recommend that you pair it with a decent Z490 motherboard to unlock the potential, and invest that $30 saving in a capable CPU cooler to keep temperatures down. This CPU will perform within a couple of percent off the 5600X, and whilst it lacks PCIe 4.0 functionality that is no detriment to performance as the 3060 Ti cannot exceed the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drives offer no practical benefit for a gaming PC. Overall the i5-10600K is no poor relation to the Ryzen 5 5600X, and you will not be disappointed with the performance on offer.

Best Budget CPU for RTX 3060 Ti

If you’re looking to maximise the potential of the 3060 Ti without breaking the bank, the Ryzen 5 3600 is an excellent option. This capable Zen 2 CPU performs well in a wide range of games with 6 cores and 12 threads and a 4.4GHz boost clock. At 1440p the demanding resolution will properly load the GPU and ensure that very high frame rates do not trouble the Ryzen Zen 2 CPU, but you still get the ability to reach 144FPS in fast-paced titles, whilst AAA titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 will run excellently as they rely more on the GPU than the CPU. It has proven its capability running the most demanding titles at good frame rates, and it makes an ideal pairing with the RTX 3060 Ti at 1440p for an all round gaming PC. However, if you are looking to play at 1080p and achieve very high frame rates, we’d advise you to look at one of the higher performance options to ensure you achieve the full potential of the RTX 3060 Ti. 

Best Budget Intel CPU for RTX 3060 Ti

Stiff competition from AMD throughout 2020 has seen intel increase the performance and features of it’s CPUs and this has made the Core i5-10400 is a compelling option. The Comet Lake CPU has gained hyperthreading so it now mirrors the Ryzen 3600’s 6 core/12 thread specification. It boosts to 4.3 GHz and whilst that’s not directly comparable to the Ryzen 5 owing to their architectural differences, testing shows them very evenly matched in benchmarks. This CPU can also use a cost-effective B460 motherboard keeping costs down. Whilst it can’t be overclocked, it is more than fast enough for a gaming and general-purpose PC. If you’re squeezing every last dollar out of your build, it makes sense to focus on getting a high-performance GPU like the RTX 3060 Ti, and the i5-10400 lets you do that. There is also an F variant which lacks the integrated graphics of the non-F CPU – at time of writing it’s more expensive, and you should only consider it if it’s at least $20 cheaper than the vanilla 10400: An iGPU is useful for troubleshooting, swapping GPUs, and it even assists in some video encoding tasks making it a worthwhile feature unless the price is right to do without it. 

Best All-rounder CPU for RTX 3060 Ti

The Intel Core i7-10700K is Intels ‘Comet lake’ 8 core offering. With a 5.1 GHz boost speed and hyperthreading presenting 16 logical cores, it’s equally adept at gaming and productivity. The $350 price point sees it outperform the AMD Ryzen 7 3800X in per-core performance, but it saves $100 over the 10 core i9-10850K and the new Zen 3 Ryzen 5800X which also has 8 cores but is slightly faster. The i7-10700K makes a strong case as the ‘do it all’ CPU if you mix work and pleasure on the same PC but need a cost-effective pairing with the RTX 3060 Ti. This CPU will happily support high-performance games as well as demanding titles like Cyberpunk or Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, but will also be capable in productivity tasks like photo and video editing and rendering or graphic design. Use a Z490 Chipset motherboard to gain access to overclocking of both the CPU and RAM and extract maximum potential from this CPU. With intel now being forced to compete on price, this is a great value CPU considering the performance on offer.

Best Productivity CPU for RTX 3060 Ti

Intel may have lost the ultimate performance crown to AMD but it would be unwise to dismiss their products as outdated. The Core i9-10850K is a 10-core, 20-thread CPU with a 5.2GHz boost clock and ideally runs on the Z490 platform. It is in effect a slightly downclocked i9-10900K, but loses very little in actual performance. It shines in tasks that can use high core counts, like rendering video and 3D scenes but it’s no slouch for gaming either. It will also work well in audio production and Games development environments like Unity.  At $400 it significantly undercuts even the last generation Ryzen 3900X, whilst the Ryzen 5900X outperforms the i9 but costs at least $150 more and is suffering supply restrictions at present. Therefore the i9 CPU makes a good alternative and isn’t lacking performance at the price point. It’s a great pairing with the RTX 3060 Ti and will form the basis of a powerful workstation whilst keeping costs in check. 

Conclusion

Whilst it’s easy to get trapped by the halo effect of the top-performing products, it’s usually the case that you get best value looking a little bit lower down the price list. The CPUs in this article are all recent high-performance CPUs that excel in the areas we’ve described: Pick one of these and you’ll be sure that you maximise the performance of your next RTX 3060 Ti-based PC whilst keeping a firm check on the budget. 

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After the release of a new generation of GPUs, it’s only natural to compare these recent models with more expensive older ones, and see whether or not the generational leap is great enough to warrant an investment – because if it isn’t, these older models can be found at excellent prices.

A few weeks after the “release” of AMD’s two mid-range GPU options – the Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT – Nvidia decides to launch, what is currently, the cheapest GPU to feature their new Ampere architecture: The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. It is this price range that the RTX 3060 Ti aims to dominate, as AMD has not yet announced, let alone release, an equivalently priced GPU.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the RTX 3060 TI has no competition, since the new-generation consoles – the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X – offer decent gaming performance at only a fraction of the cost of building a gaming PC: costing only $100 more than the RTX 3060 Ti itself. Of course, a console can only handle gaming tasks, where a PC can process far more diverse applications and can be upgraded later down the line. 

Choosing which previous generation Nvidia to compare to the RTX 3060 Ti is quite simple. We know it won’t compare to the RTX 2080 Ti – seeing as how the RTX 3070 just barely outperforms this previous generation flagship GPU – so, the next best option is the RTX 2080 Super. 

So, let’s see how well this new Ampere RTX 3060 Ti graphics card fares against a previous generation GPU that had a 75% more expensive launch price, and determine if this new graphics card provides enough value to be placed in a build in today’s incredibly competitive PC hardware market.  

RTX 3060 Ti vs RTX 2080 Super

	RTX 3060 Ti	RTX 2080 Super
Design
MSRP	$399	$699
Processing Node	8 nm Samsung	12 nm TSMC
Transistor Count	17.4 Billion	13.6 Billion
Die Size	392 mm²	545 mm²
VRAM Storage	8 GB GDDR6	8 GB GDDR6
Memory Bandwidth	448 GB/s	495.9 GB/s
CUDA Cores	4864	3072
TMUs	152	192
ROPs	80	64
Tensor Cores	152	384
RT Cores	38	48
SM Count	38	48
Pixel Rate	133.2 GP/s	116.2 GP/s
Texture Rate	253.1 GT/s	348.5 GT/s
FP16 Performance	16.20 TFLOPS	22.30 TFLOPS
FP32 Performance	16.20 TFLOPS	11.15 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance	0.2531 TFLOPS	0.3485 TFLOPS
TDP	200 W	250 W
AIB Cards	RTX 3060 Ti Database	RTX 2080 Super Database
Availability	Amazon.com	Amazon.com

Specification Comparison

Comparing the specifications between the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti to the GeForce RTX 2080 Super, we see how much more efficient the former model is. 

With its 33% smaller processing node, it manages to fit an extra 3.8 billion transistors in a die that is 153 mm² (28%) smaller in size than the GeForce RTX 2080 Super. It has less TMUs, Tensor Cores, and RT cores, but makes up for it by using their next generation equivalents that are capable of outputting twice the throughput. This allows the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti to effectively surpass the GeForce RTX 2080 Super in theoretical performance; both in the FP32 range, as well as the pixel rate – assisted by its 58% more CUDA cores and 25% more ROPs.

The VRAM of these two models is identical in terms of storage size, but the GeForce RTX 2080 Super does have a slightly faster bandwidth. Of course, this will result in little to no difference in terms of performance, at least when it comes to gaming.

Features

Most of the features that are included with these two GPUs are identical, though the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti uses them in a more efficient fashion. DLSS 2.0, next generation ray tracing, and further optimized Nvidia Reflex are just some of the inherent advantages in the newer Ampere architecture. Both RTX GPUs still share Nvidia’s AI boosted Studio and Broadcast platforms, GeForce Experience, and G-Sync. With the purchase of a GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU, one also receives a 1-year membership for GeForce NOW.

Power Efficiency

Despite having more powerful graphical processing power, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti requires even less energy than the GeForce RTX 2080 Super; needing only 200 Watts to operate: which is 20% less than the GeForce RTX 2080 Super. 

Price & Availability

Currently, neither of these two GPUs are easy to find, and, if by chance, you do find them, it will be at a much higher price than their original MSRP; thanks to the overwhelming demand, Nvidia’s low amount of stock, and, of course, the ever-so-pleasant scalpers. If we were to compare the launch price of the two graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is clearly superior, but, when it comes to availability, the GeForce RTX 2080 Super does have more units circulating, as it can be found in a used condition at an excellent price.

Benchmarks

The benchmarks prove what the specifications make apparent, which is that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the superior graphics card in all aspects related to gaming applications. It not only outperforms the GeForce RTX 2080 Super in the 1080p and 1440p resolutions, but surprisingly enough it also surpasses it in 4K as well. Perfect for a 1080p 144 Hz monitor, a 4K 60 Hz monitor, and perhaps even a 1440p 144 Hz monitor if the graphics of the gaming title are scaled down. 

Because of its lower MSRP, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti displays almost double the value for its price. In fact, it places first in every price-to-performance category tested by TechSpot. 

Verdict

Overall, it’s hard to argue in favor for the GeForce RTX 2080 Super against the RTX 3060 Ti, no matter what the intended use for them will be. Even for half its original price, the GeForce RTX 2080 Super would still not be worth the investment – not so much for the difference in performance, which is not that significant, but due to the newer architecture and technologies of the RTX 3060 Ti that will be further optimized as the new generation of games progresses.

But, all-in-all, this comparison serves to demonstrate how much technology has progressed in only a couple of years, to where the new generation $400 GPU can outperform the same company’s $700 graphics card that launched in July of 2019 (September of 2018 for the GeForce RTX 2080). Great for new PC builders, and inevitably frustrating to those who invested in the previous generation GPUs, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles for PC hardware components.

• Related: RTX 3060 Ti Aftermarket Card Database

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Nvidia’s Ampere launch has brought a large step forwards in performance at every price point. The three mainstream cards currently released, the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 all excel in high resolutions and the most demanding current games. The RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 are closest in specification and price, with the RTX 3060 Ti priced at around $400 and the RTX 3070 starting at $500 for the various partner cards. In this review, we’ll take an in-depth look at those two cards to find out which is going to be best for your needs. We’ve run hundreds of benchmarks and spent many hours tweaking these GPUs to best inform you of their relative strengths, so let’s dig in!

RTX 3060 Ti vs RTX 3070

Specifications

	RTX 3060 Ti	RTX 3070	RTX 3080
Design
Price (MSRP)	$399	$499	$699
VRAM	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6	10GB GDDR6X
VRAM Bus	256bit	256bit	320bit
GPU Core	GA104-200-A1	GA104-300-A1	GA102-200-KD-A1
Process	Samsung 8N	Samsung 8N	Samsung 8N
Cuda Cores	4864	5888	10496
RT Cores	38	46	68
Tensor Cores	152	184	272
PCie Bus	PCIe 4.0x16	PCIe 4.0x16	PCIe 4.0x16
Pixel Rate	133.2 GPixel/s	165.6 GPixel/s	164.2 GPixel/s
Texture Rate	253.1 GTexel/s	317.4 GTexel/s	465.1 GTexel/s
Base Clock	1410 MHz	1500 MHz	1440 MHz
Boost Clock	1665 MHz	1725 MHz	1710 MHz
TDP	200W	220W	320W
AIB Cards	RTX 3060 Ti Card Database	RTX 3070 Card Database	RTX 3080 Card Database

The main similarity between these cards is in their memory specification: Both have 8GB of GDDR6 Memory operating at 448GB/second bandwidth, across a 256bit bus. They forgo the faster GDDR6X memory specification of the RTX 3080. 

The differences lie in the core. Whilst both use the GA104 core, the RTX 3060ti makes do with a cut down version of it. The RTX 3070 has 5888 shader units, 184 tensor cores, and 46 Ray tracing cores. It boosts to around 1725MHz. The RTX 3060Ti has 1000 fewer shader units at 4864, 152 Tensor cores, and 38 Ray tracing cores. It also boosts slightly lower in reference specification, to 1665MHz. In operation, both comfortably exceed their reference boost clocks.

In real terms, we should see performance commensurate to those key specification differences. 

To test this, we’ve got our hands on an example of each card. The 3060 Ti is a Zotac Twin Edge OC, a twin fan 2 slot model. This card claims a 1695 MHz boost clock but our example self boosts to sustain 1860MHz and is unusual in that it’s a pure 2 slot design and relatively short at just 222mm. Other than that it has the same specifications as any other RTX 3060Ti.

The RTX 3070 is EVGA’s XC3 Ultra model. It’s a 3 fan card with a ‘2.2’ slot thick cooler, and EVGA claims a boost clock of 1770Mhz for this model, but in fact, it itself boosts to 1950 MHz happily and will sustain a 2150Mhz boost when overclocked. 

All tests were conducted on an identical test rig: The System comprises of a Ryzen 7 5800X CPU with PBO enabled, A MSI Mortar B550 motherboard, and 16GB of RAM clocked at 3600MHz Cl16 and operating in dual channel mode. Power Supply is a 650W Gold Antec unit.

‘Real World’ Testing

A note on how we test: These tests are conducted on what we consider ‘real world’ settings. That is, High or Highest unless the very highest settings are a serious detriment to performance. We’re aiming to present to you the cards performance as close as possible to how you will experience them on your own PC, whilst playing the games you love. The tests are completely standardised and identical in each benchmark so the cards are being tested like-for-like. Please see the footnote for details of each benchmark.

Performance

Firstly let’s check out some synthetic benchmarks, to see how the GPUs perform in a standardised test and also to verify that our examples are comparable to other versions. We’ll also take a quick look at overclocked performance just to see how much performance there is on the table, although this isn’t an in-depth look at overclocking these cards. We’ve included the GTX 1080 Ti and the RTX 2080 Ti for reference.

In Firestrike we can see the clear segmentation between these cards – the stock 3060 Ti matches the 1080 Ti in this Direct X 11 test that renders at 1080p. The RTX 3070 makes good its promise of matching the RTX 2080 Ti, whilst the RTX 3080 sits in a league of its own at the top. You can see an overclock adds a little to the RTX 3070 and 3060 Ti, but doesn’t bridge the gap between them and the next card up.

In Time Spy which is direct X12 and renders at 1440p, the Ampere cards come into their own with the 3060Ti clearly beating the 1080ti. The RTX 3070 perfectly brackets the 2080 Ti with it’s stock and overclocked configuration, whilst again the RTX 3080 sits at the top over 2000 points clear. 

To evaluate Ray Tracing performance we can look at the Port Royal Benchmark, which yields a single score based on overall GPU performance. Here again, we see the RTX 3080’s clear lead, but focussing on the RTX 3060ti we can see it is 1000 points short of the 3070, and an overclock does little to help. The 3070 gains a little more from an overclock, but still falls a little way short of the claimed ‘RTX 2080ti beating claim’.

How does this translate into actual gaming performance though? We’ll focus on the two cards in question here to work out the differences between them.

Gaming Benchmarks

Looking first at some fast-paced shooters, COD Warzone shows how capable both of these GPUs are at 1080p and 1440p, and even at 1440p ultrawide, we’re still at around 144FPS making full use of a high refresh rate monitor. We’re using high settings here so you’re not even sacrificing fidelity for speed and you could push framerates higher with lower settings. This game is actually heavily dependent on CPU as well so if it’s the game you care about, you’ll get better results with the 3060Ti and a great CPU than you will with the 3070 and a compromised CPU. By 4K we are struggling to exceed 100FPS so I wouldn’t recommend these GPUs – or playing warzone in 4K on them. Note how close the two GPUs remain across the board with just 10-15FPS separating them.

Rainbow 6 Siege is even faster-paced, and again both GPUs exceed 240FPS at 1080p, 1440p and 1440p ultrawide. They even exceed 144FPS at 4k, and this in on very high settings across the board. Again, we see limited performance improvement from the additional spend on an RTX 3070, and CPU performance is always going to be more important here.

Finally, as an example of a well optimised first-person shooter, Doom eternal on Ultra Nightmare settings shows strong scaling both with hardware and resolution. Again, we see very high framerates of around 300FPs average on 1080p, over 200 for both the 3060Ti and 3070 at 1440p, and well over 144Fps at 1440p ultrawide. Here, about 20FPS separate the 3060Ti and 3070 with settings like for like, but realistically the difference to the player of 205 FPS vs 225 is minimal, both provide an excellent experience and exceed the refresh rates of very high-performance monitors at 1440p and 1440p ultrawide, and it does well at 4K too.

Moving on to more demanding AAA titles, this is where we perhaps see a little more separation between the two cards.

Red Dead Redemption’s inbuilt benchmark gives us an insight into the demands of current games. These have all been run at identical settings, a mix of high and ‘ultra’ and favoring visual quality to best show off the game’s graphics. In reality, you can drop settings for more performance at no real cost to the visual quality of the game. Nonetheless exceeding 60FPS is our target here. Even at 1080p, we see averages below 100FPS: That’s a function of both of the demands of the game but also the fact that the rendering pipelines in Ampere are set up to be more efficient at higher resolutions so you’re not seeing their full potential at 1080p. Moving on to 1440p both GPUs exceed 60 FPS, but the 3070 scores 87FPS to the 3060Ti’s 69 FPS. Both are totally playable, but you can see that you will have to lower settings a bit more on the 3060ti for equivalent performance – manually forcing settings to ‘high’ except keeping textures at ultra sees performance to 81FPS on the 3060Ti, but keeps the games visual flair intact. At 1440p ultrawide again we see that both remain playable but there’s a hit to the performance with 59 FPS on the 3060Ti and 68 on the 3070. Again, moving to high in place of ultra on the 3060Ti equals the 3070’s performance here and both GPUs remain very enjoyable to play.  At 4K, still on ultra, we’re seeing 45 and 50 FPS respectively and this will probably look jarring to many people. We need a mix of medium and high settings on the RTX 3060 Ti, and high and ultra on the RTX 3070, to hit 60FPS average. Getting the very best out of titles like Red Dead 2 at 4K needs more GPU power but if you’re willing to accept some compromise to settings either card plays acceptably well.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is either less ambitious or just better optimised depending on your point of view, but still delivers state of the art visuals. At the highest settings, you’re getting the full effect and at 1080p you can see both GPUs comfortably exceed 144FPS. At 1440p both are just above 100FPS, with the 3070 around 15 FPS ahead, but this is an excellent result for both. Moving up to ultrawide, we’re at 81 and 94 FPS respectively, again close enough to not see a vast difference when gaming, and within reach of a few settings tweaks to equal performance.  At 4K we fall under the 60FPS target with the 3060 Ti struggling a little at 54FPS, but the 3070 managing 63 FPS average. The game will play acceptably well at 4K on these cards, and this is at the very highest settings. 

And finally, Flight Simulator 2020 requires a brutal mix of next-generation graphical and CPU power, and you can see that by the fact we’re CPU limited at 1080p high settings on both cards with GPU utilization rarely exceeding 90%. This test comprises a 3-minute low-level flight over Manhattan and 60FPS is the highest performance possible on this system – not even an RTX 3080 exceeds it. At 1440p and 1440p ultrawide, the 3070 takes a 10% lead over the 3060 Ti and extends it to more like 20% at 4K. Both of these GPUs are exceptionally capable in this title at 1440p and 1440p ultrawide, and you can mix ultra and high settings for stunning scenery and near 60FPS performance. As the first-person shooters, this is a title that actually needs careful consideration of the whole system to get the best performance out of it. See our Flight Simulator Performance Analysis guide for more benchmarks and recommendations for this title.

Cyberpunk 2077

Much of the hype around the Ampere cards has focussed on Cyberpunk 2077, thanks to it’s highly demanding graphics and implementations of both RTX and DLSS 2.0. Whilst we have spent significant time playing it and testing it, we don’t feel it’s ready for anything more than a qualitative assessment at the moment. Performance is changing all the time with fixes and updates – hopefully for the better. Similarly, the complexities of performance variations with RTX on or off, and the various DLSS settings by their nature make it largely a matter of opinion as to what you prefer. DLSS is also somewhat of a ‘black box’ – AI-powered upscaling is by its nature hidden from the user and provides remarkable results but ones that may feel a little strange to players not accustomed to it. We’re planning a more in-depth look at these features soon, but for now, let’s consider it like this: Do these GPUs allow you to play and enjoy the game, and does the RTX 3070 offer a significant advantage over the RTX 3060Ti?

Both GPUs allow 60+FPS  in-game without using RTX or DLSS at 1440p. Using RTX for lighting and reflections means you need DLSS turned on to achieve acceptable performance on either GPU, but even the 3060Ti manages 60FS with DLSS in balanced mode rendering at an internal resolution of 960p and upscaling to 1440p. It looks remarkably good doing this and it’s likely going to come down to personal preference how you want to play the game. The RTX 3070 is powerful enough to also run RTX shadows and higher quality RTX lighting and maintain 60FPS, or simply hit higher frame rates. There’s so much customisation built into just the RTX and DLSS settings that you’re bound to find a compromise that works for you and this goes for either GPU. At 1440p ultrawide, both cards begin to struggle to hit 60FPS, and at 4K you are either looking at maximum assistance from DLSS or unacceptable performance, particularly on the 3060Ti. RTX isn’t viable with frame rates dropping to the 30’s. With RTX off and DLSS set to balanced the 306 0Ti is still capable of 60FPS at 4K though, showing the value of that upscaling technology.

For Cyberpunk 2077, either the RTX 3060 Ti or 3070 provide a more than acceptable experience at 1440p.

At 1440p ultrawide or 4K, we’d recommend the RTX 3080 to experience the full gamut of next-gen graphics this title has to offer. 

Value

Value is of course relative: If you want the higher performance of the RTX 3070 and are prepared to pay for it, then that represents value to you. However, looking at the various performance differences, we see the RTX 3070 is around 10% faster at 1080p, 12-14% faster at 1440p and ultrawide, and 15% faster on average at 4k. However it’s 20% more expensive at suggested retail price. Further, as we’ve shown in these tests the RTX 3060 Ti is just as capable as the RTX 3070 and it’s often just a case of slight settings tweaks to bring the cheaper card up to the same level of performance. Factors like the identical VRAM specification make it even harder to separate them.

If you want the best value then that’s clearly the RTX 3060 Ti.

If you’re prepared to pay for that slightly richer visual experience or extra performance, then the RTX 3070 brings that to the table for around $100 more. 

Conclusions and Recommendations

Best for 1080p High-FPS Gaming

At 1080p you’re not getting the best of these cards – although they’re obviously excellent performers. You’ll want to pair them with a top flight CPU to get as much performance as possible, and a very high refresh rate 1080p monitor. There’s just a 10% average difference here across all the titles, and we’re already achieving high framerates, so if you must go overkill at 1080p the RTX 3060 Ti is the right choice. Nvidia has a new GPU model release imminently and this should better cater for 1080p gaming.

Best for 1440p Gaming

At 1440p again the RTX 3060 Ti is a strong performer, with the RTX 3070 offering slightly higher framerates or visual settings, whichever is your preference. But there’s no night-and-day difference between these cards and if you’re working to a budget the RTX 3060 Ti is the right choice.

Best for 1440p Ultrawide Gaming

At 1440p ultrawide, you do see slightly more performance from the RTX 3070, and if you’re intending on playing AAA titles at that resolution it’s a great starting point. For occasional or more casual gaming the RTX 3060 Ti also does well.

Best for 4K Gaming

And finally, at 4K, either of these cards can provide an acceptable experience but if you’re planning a 4K Gaming PC then that really is still the realm of the RTX 3080. 

Footnote: Game settings used in benchmarks

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