Recently Nvidia launched their all-new Ampere-based GPU in the mid-range market. This is the Geforce RTX 3060. Based on the latest Ampere technology, this GPU boasts a whopping 12GB VRAM. With this new release, Nvidia hopes to convince the GTX 1060 users to upgrade to the RTX 3060. Not only the performance will double but also the VRAM is going straight from 6GB to 12GB.
Soon after the launch, we got to see all the RTX 3060s from different graphics card manufacturers and today we will check out the Zotac RTX 3060 Twin Edge Graphics Card.
Specifications
GPU: GA106
Manufacturing Process: Samsung 8Nm
CUDA cores: 5,888
RT Cores: 28
Tensor Cores: 112
GPU Boost clock: 1,777MHz
Memory bus: 192-bit
VRAM capacity: 12GB GDDR6
Memory speed: 15Gbps
Memory bandwidth: 360GB/s
TDP: 170W
Performance
With the 12GB VRAM on the RTX 3060, we can somewhat predict what kind of performance we might manage to juice out of the graphics card. So we tested out the card in 3 resolutions namely, 1080p, 1440p & 4K.
On the 1080p and 1440p resolutions, the card performed well with no issues at all. Because of the high amount of VRAM, the card performs really well even when the settings are cranked up to the top.
1080P Resolution (Average Frame rate)
Total War : Three Kingdoms (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 68FPS
Civilization VI (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 132FPS
Metro Exodus (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 69FPS
Horizon Zero Dawn (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 92FPS
F1 2020 (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 143FPS
Assassins Creed Odyssey (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 65FPS
Wolfenstein Young Blood (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 216FPS
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (HIGHEST SETTINGS) – 121FPS
The Division 2 (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 85FPS
1440P Resolution (Average Frame rate)
Total War : Three Kingdoms (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 46FPS
Civilization VI (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 110FPS
Metro Exodus (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 52FPS
Horizon Zero Dawn (ULTIMATE QUALITY SETTINGS) – 73FPS
F1 2020 (ULTRA HIGH SETTINGS) – 106FPS
Assassins Creed Odyssey (ULTRA HIGH SETTINGS) – 52FPS
Wolfenstein Young Blood (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 136FPS
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (HIGHEST SETTINGS) – 78FPS
The Division 2 (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 67FPS
4K Resolution (Average Frame rate)
Total War : Three Kingdoms (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 22FPS
Civilization VI (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 76FPS
Metro Exodus (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 31FPS
Horizon Zero Dawn (ULTIMATE QUALITY SETTINGS) – 37FPS
F1 2020 (ULTRA HIGH SETTINGS) – 62FPS
Assassins Creed Odyssey (ULTRA HIGH SETTINGS) – 37FPS
Wolfenstein Young Blood (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 72FPS
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (HIGHEST SETTINGS) – 42FPS
The Division 2 (ULTRA SETTINGS) – 32FPS
Ray Tracing/DLSS Performance
3D Mark Port Royale – Score 4739
3D Mark DirectX Ray Tracing – 20FPS
Wolfenstein Young Blood (ULTRA w/ RTX 1440p) – 173FPS
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (HIGHEST SETTINGS w/ RTX 1440p) – 58FPS
Metro Exodus (HIGHEST SETTINGS w/ RTX 1440p) – 45FPS
Thermals
The RTX 3060 temperatures doesn’t go beyond 69 degrees average while maintaining the boosts and the clock speeds.
Conclusions
The RTX 3060 delivers a fantastic performance and its a good upgrade from the last generation 2060 or an older generation 10 series cards. The RTX 3060 launch was priced lower than the 2060 and still maintaining the performance gain. But a little more investment can get you an RTX 3060Ti which is a much more of a gain in performance considering the price difference.
The RTX 3060 is a 12GB Graphics card which is at times useful but not always. It will serve properly for running games in the future which will require a lot of VRAM but on what kind of settings, that might be a questain.
Thats all folks!
A 30-year-old avid gamer by choice dabbles in all things tech. Whether spending hours in single-player narrative-based games or going through the latest innovation in technology and chip manufacturing, he prefers to stay on top of things. At the other times, you’ll find him tucked away drumming and headbanging to Rock and Roll Classics.