NVIDIA has officially launched its GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card based on the Ampere GA106 GPU architecture for a price of $329 US. The GeForce RTX 3060 is the most affordable GeForce RTX graphics card within the Ampere family and the second of the GeForce RTX 3060 series graphics cards.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB Graphics Card Now Official, Starting at $329 US – Here’s Where You Can Buy It
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card aims to be the mainstream Ampere GPU option with a price of sub $400 US. We reviewed the card today and found it to be faster than the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER for a $100 US lower price point. You can read our custom model review over here.
The GeForce RTX 3060 has received custom treatment from all AIBs and as such, there are over 100 models that are being released in the consumer segment today. As this a cheaper and affordable option, many gamers will be upgrading their older PCs by purchasing the graphics card. Following are some links through which the GeForce RTX 3060 can be bought:
Note: We will update the post with the links once the card goes on sale.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Listings (US):
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Listings (Microcenter In-Store Only):
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Listings (UK):
NVIDIA designed the GeForce RTX 3060, not just for any gamer but all gamers who want to have the best graphics performance at hand to power the next-generation of AAA gaming titles with superb visuals and insane fluidity at 1080p and 1440p resolutions. It’s not just the FPS that matters these days, it’s visuals, and a smoother frame rate too and this is exactly what the GeForce RTX 30 series is made to excel at.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Graphics Card Specifications – GA106 GPU & 12 GB GDDR6 Memory
At the heart of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card lies the GA106 GPU. The GA106 is one of the many Ampere GPUs that we will be getting on the gaming segment. The GA106 GPU is the third gaming GPU that NVIDIA has produced.
The new shader core on the NVIDIA Ampere architecture is 2.7x faster, the new RT cores are 1.7x faster while the new Tensor cores are up to 2.7x faster than the previous generation Turing GPUs. The 2nd Generation RT core delivers dedicated hardware-accelerated ray-tracing performance & features twice the ray/triangles intersection with concurrent RT graphics and compute operations.
For the GeForce RTX 3060, NVIDIA has enabled a total of 28 SM units on its flagship which results in a total of 3584 CUDA cores, 112 TMUs. In addition to the CUDA cores, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060 also comes packed with next-generation RT (Ray-Tracing) cores, Tensor cores, and brand new SM or streaming multi-processor units. The graphics card has a TDP of 170W.
In terms of memory, the GeForce RTX 3060 comes packed with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. The memory runs across a 192-bit bus wide interface and features an effective clock speed of 15.00 Gbps which delivers a cumulative bandwidth of 360 GB/s which is slightly higher bandwidth than the RTX 2060 6 GB model & you also end up with twice the memory while Ampere’s brand new compression architecture makes sure that the GPU isn’t bandwidth starved.
Desktop CPU and Chipset Support
As of February 25th, 2021, the following CPU chipsets and CPUs support Resizable BAR on GeForce RTX 30 Series desktop GPUs:
| AMD Chipsets |
| AMD 400 Series (on motherboards with AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5xxx CPU support) |
| AMD 500 Series |
| AMD CPUs | ||||
| AMD Zen 3 CPUs | Ryzen 3 5xxx | Ryzen 5 5xxx | Ryzen 7 5xxx | Ryzen 9 5xxx |
| Intel Chipsets | ||||
| Intel 10th Gen | Z490 | H470 | B460 | H410 |
| Intel 11th Gen S | All 11th Gen chipsets available as of February 25th, 2021 | |||
| Intel CPUs | |
| Intel 10th Gen | Intel 11th Gen S-Series |
| i9-10xxx CPUs | i9-11xxx CPUs |
| i7-10xxx CPUs | i7-11xxx CPUs |
| i5-10xxx CPUs | i5-11xxx CPUs |
| i3-10xxx CPUs | |
“Intel has been working with NVIDIA to enable Resizable BAR, an advanced PCI-Express technology, across the PC ecosystem,” said Fredrik Hamberger, GM of Premium & Enthusiast Laptop Segments at Intel. “This feature can give gamers an extra boost in gameplay FPS on Intel’s new 11th generation H/S and select 10th generation systems when paired with supported graphics cards, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs.”
Motherboard Support
NVIDIA is working with motherboard manufacturers around the world to bring Resizable BAR support to compatible products. As of February 25th, 2021, the following manufacturers are offering SBIOS updates for select motherboards to enable Resizable BAR with GeForce RTX 30 Series desktop graphics cards:
| Motherboard Manufacturers Supporting Resizable BAR | |||||
| ASUS | ASRock | COLORFUL | EVGA | GIGABYTE | MSI |
Please head to the manufacturers’ website to discover whether your motherboard is compatible, and to download and install updates if available. Additionally, please refer to the manufacturer’s documentation for enabling Resizable BAR support in the BIOS.
Enabling Resizable BAR On Your GeForce RTX 30 Series Graphics Card
Having updated your motherboard, you’ll need to update your GPU, and download our newest Game Ready Driver.
VBIOS Update
GeForce RTX 3060 desktop graphics cards launched February 25th, 2021, with a pre-installed Resizable BAR-ready VBIOS. If you purchase one, all you need is a compatible motherboard and motherboard SBIOS, described above, and our newest Game Ready Driver, detailed below.
Late March, NVIDIA will release downloadable VBIOS updates for all Founders Edition GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs to enable Resizable BAR, and likewise, partners will release VBIOS updates for their custom models, too.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series ‘Ampere’ Graphics Card Specifications:
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Name | Ampere GA106-300 | Ampere GA104-200 | Ampere GA104-300 | Ampere GA102-200 | Ampere GA102-300 |
| Process Node | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm |
| Die Size | TBC | 395.2mm2 | 395.2mm2 | 628.4mm2 | 628.4mm2 |
| Transistors | TBC | 17.4 Billion | 17.4 Billion | 28 Billion | 28 Billion |
| CUDA Cores | 3584 | 4864 | 5888 | 8704 | 10496 |
| TMUs / ROPs | 112 / 64 | 152 / 80 | 184 / 96 | 272 / 96 | 328 / 112 |
| Tensor / RT Cores | 112 / 28 | 152 / 38 | 184 / 46 | 272 / 68 | 328 / 82 |
| Base Clock | 1320 MHz | 1410 MHz | 1500 MHz | 1440 MHz | 1400 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1780 MHz | 1665 MHz | 1730 MHz | 1710 MHz | 1700 MHz |
| FP32 Compute | 13 TFLOPs | 16 TFLOPs | 20 TFLOPs | 30 TFLOPs | 36 TFLOPs |
| RT TFLOPs | 25 TFLOPs | 32 TFLOPs | 40 TFLOPs | 58 TFLOPs | 69 TFLOPs |
| Tensor-TOPs | 101 TOPs | 192 TOPs | 163 TOPs | 238 TOPs | 285 TOPs |
| Memory Capacity | 12 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 10 GB GDDR6X | 24 GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Bus | 192-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 320-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Speed | 16 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 19.5 Gbps |
| Bandwidth | 384 Gbps | 448 Gbps | 448 Gbps | 760 Gbps | 936 Gbps |
| TGP | 170W | 175W | 220W | 320W | 350W |
| Price (MSRP / FE) | $329 US | $399 US | $499 US | $699 US | $1499 US |
| Launch (Availability) | 25th February 2021 | 2nd December 2020 | 29th October 2020 | 17th September 2020 | 24th September 2020 |
[ad_2]