GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Out Now: Faster Than RTX 2080 SUPER, Starting At $399 | GeForce News
By Andrew Burnes on December 01, 2020
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GeForce RTX GPUs
The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, the first member of the RTX 3060 family, is coming December 2nd. Faster than the $699 RTX 2080 SUPER, and beating the RTX 2060 SUPER by an average of 40%, the new $399 RTX 3060 Ti is a tremendous addition to the GeForce RTX 30 Series.
Whether you’re playing rasterized games or cutting-edge ray-traced titles, or powering through creator and productivity workflows, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers the best possible experience in its class.
This is possible thanks to the advanced NVIDIA Ampere Architecture, featuring 2nd Generation Ray Tracing Cores, 3rd Generation Tensor Cores for AI, and critically acclaimed tech like NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and NVIDIA Broadcast. These technologies improve your gaming, accelerate your gameplay, make voice chat clearer and better, and enhance your video calls with friends, family and colleagues.
No other platform offers these advantages – if you want the best possible experience, whether that’s in a game, productivity task, creative workflow, or simply when chatting and video calling, GeForce RTX is the only game in town.
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This year we’ve worked hand in hand with CD PROJEKT RED, Activision, Ubisoft and others to bring immersive, game-changing ray-traced effects to Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Watch Dogs: Legion, and more.
We’ve also brought performance accelerating NVIDIA DLSS technology to over 25 games, and more are adding this transformative, sought-after tech every month.
Better performance, as-good-as or better anti-aliasing and visual clarity, and other improvements make it a no-brainer, giving GeForce RTX gamers massively faster frame rates.
By the end of the year, nearly a dozen games will have adopted our newest technology, NVIDIA Reflex. This reduces system latency (‘input lag’), making games more responsive, giving players in competitive multiplayer titles an extra edge over the opposition — hopefully leading to more kills and wins.
With NVIDIA Broadcast, an evolution of the highly regarded RTX Voice beta app, we have audio and video AI enhancements you can apply to your Discord chats, Skype calls and video meetings. And now, we have released the technology powering NVIDIA Broadcast to our partners so they can add these AI effects to their apps and give users more control.
This allows users to remove background noise per audio track in XSplit Broadcast, apply noise removal to videos in Adobe Premiere Pro with VoiceFX, do motion tracking with a simple webcam in Notch, and capture your content at 4K on a second PC without the need of a capture card with NDI.
All this is to say that the $399 GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is just as feature-rich as the GeForce RTX 30 Series cards that came before it. It offers the same set of powerful features, with the industry’s best ray tracing technology. And, it also supports NVIDIA DLSS, our AI-powered performance accelerator that massively boosts frame rates in graphically demanding titles.
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPUs come bundled with a one-year GeForce NOW Founders membership, available to existing or new members. So, when you’re away from your rig, you can still play your favorite games with amazing GeForce features like RTX and DLSS, even on a Mac, Chromebook, Android or iPhone. That’s the power of GeForce NOW.
And if you do buy one of these amazing new graphics cards, be sure to download and install the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Game Ready Driver on December 2nd to unlock its full potential.
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X May Only Cost $10 More Than The Original
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GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
(Image credit: Nvidia)
The rumor about Nvidia giving the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti a refresh seems true. U.K. retailer Scan Computers (via VideoCardz) has listed Nvidia’s unannounced GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with upgraded GDDR6X memory.
Nvidia launched the original GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in 2020, but the chipmaker would introduce a second variant earlier this year. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti leveraged the GA104 silicon, whereas the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103, as its unofficial name implies, used the GA103 silicon. It was a die-swap on Nvidia’s part since the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103 retained the exact specifications as the vanilla model. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X flaunts a substantial upgrade in the memory subsystem.
The funny thing about the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X is that Nvidia U.K. doesn’t list it on the company’s website yet. Instead, the chipmaker still lists the regular GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Adding the GA104-based graphics card to your basket changes to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X.
Apparently, Scan Computers is the retailer selling the new variant; however, it’s not on the U.K. store’s website either. But the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X appears in stock and allows you to checkout.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Graphics Card | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103 | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | GA104 | GA103 | GA104 |
| Process Technology | Samsung 8N | Samsung 8N | Samsung 8N |
| Transistors (Billion) | 17.4 | ? | 17.4 |
| Die size (mm²) | 392.5 | 496 | 392.5 |
| TPCs | 19 | 19 | 19 |
| SMs | 38 | 38 | 38 |
| GPCs | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| GPU Cores | 4,864 | 4,864 | 4,864 |
| Tensor Cores | 152 | 152 | 152 |
| RT Cores | 38 | 38 | 38 |
| Base Clock (MHz) | 1,410 | 1,410 | 1,410 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 1,670 | 1,665 | 1,665 |
| VRAM Speed (Gbps) | 19 | 14 | 14 |
| VRAM | 8GB GDDR6X | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| VRAM Bus Width | 256 | 256 | 256 |
| ROPs | 80 | 80 | 80 |
| TMUs | 152 | 152 | 152 |
| TFLOPs FP32 (Boost) | 16. 2 |
16.2 | 16.2 |
| Bandwidth (GBps) | 608 | 448 | 448 |
| TDP (watts) | ? | 200 | 200 |
| Launch Date | 2022 | 2022 | 2020 |
| Launch Price | ? | $399 | $399 |
*Specifications are unconfirmed.
Whether the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X utilizes the GA104 or GA103 silicon is unknown. The shopping basket shows the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X with a 1,410 MHz base clock and 1,670 MHz boost clock. The base clock is the same as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti; however, the boost clock is 5 MHz higher. It’s not a big deal since the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X’s FP32 performance still maxes out at 16.2 TFLOPs.
The memory quota between the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X remains unchanged at 8GB.
Both models still conform to a 256-bit memory bus. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X features faster memory, though. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti sports 14 Gbps GDDR6, while the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X has 19 Gbps GDDR6X. The extra firepower will push the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X’s memory bandwidth to 608 GBps, a massive 36% uplift over the normal version.
(Image credit: Nvidia U.K.)
The GeForce RTX 3060 and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103 adhere to a 200W TDP, but the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X model probably has a higher rating. GDDR6X consumes less power per transferred bit in comparison to GDDR6. Despite that, total power consumption is higher on GDDR6X because it operates at a faster frequency.
Nvidia U.K. lists the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X for £369, which translates to $409. It’s even cheaper than some of the custom models. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X only has a $10 higher price tag than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti’s $399 MSRP. It’s good to see that the GDDR6X premium only raised the price by 3%.
It’s funny to see Nvidia launch a third variant of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti this late in the game. True, Intel recently launched the Arc A770, but we’ve already seen that the Arc Alchemist graphics card doesn’t pose a threat to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Although the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti received a fat memory upgrade, it won’t magically catch up to the GeForce RTX 3070 either because there’s a 21% CUDA separation between the two, and not even GDDR6X memory can close that performance gap. Therefore, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X is likely just Nvidia’s way of dumping Ampere inventory. Now that the cryptocurrency mining fiasco is over, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 series are starting to climb the Steam charts. What better way to keep the momentum than injecting another model into the market?
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Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti video card officially presented The device is based on the 8nm GA104 graphics processor, familiar from the GeForce RTX 3070 model. The new GPU modification “under the knife” sent CUDA cores and other blocks, but at the same time, the memory interface remained unchanged.
The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has 4864 Ampere CUDA cores, 152 tensor and 38 RT cores, as well as 152 texture units (TMUs) and 80 render units (ROPs). The video buffer is represented by eight gigabytes of GDDR6 with a 256-bit bus and an effective frequency of 14 GHz. Memory bandwidth – 448 GB / s.
The Nvidia GA104 GPU runs at 1410 to 1665 MHz in dynamic overclocking, delivering 16.2 teraflops of raw processing power.
The nominal TGP (Total Graphics Power) is 200 watts.
| Video card | GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 3080 | GeForce RTX 3070 | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | GA102 | GA102 | GA104 | GA104 |
| Number of transistors, mln. pieces | 28 300 | 28 300 | 17 400 | 17 400 |
| Process technology, nm | 8 (Samsung) | 8 (Samsung) | 8 (Samsung) | 8 (Samsung) |
| Number of CUDA cores | 10496 | 8704 | 5888 | 4864 |
| Number of tensor cores | 328 | 272 | 184 | 152 |
| Number of cores RT | 82 | 68 | 46 | 38 |
| Boost core frequency, MHz | 1695 | 1710 | 1725 | 1665 |
| Memory bus bit | 384 | 320 | 256 | 256 |
| Memory type | GDDR6X | GDDR6X | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| Memory frequency, MHz | 19 500 | 19 000 | 14 000 | 14 000 |
| Memory, GB | 24 | 10 | 8 | 8 |
| Computing power (FP32) | 35. 6 Tflops |
29.8 Tflops | 20.4 Tflops | 16.2 Tflops |
| Power, W | 350 | 320 | 220 | 200 |
| Interface | PCI-E 4.0 | PCI-E 4.0 | PCI-E 4.0 | PCI-E 4.0 |
| Release date | September 24, 2020 | September 17, 2020 | October 29, 2020 | December 2, 2020 |
| Official price | MSRP $1499 | MSRP $699 | MSRP $499 | MSRP $399 |
The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition model inherited the cooling system and circuit board from the similar version of the GeForce RTX 3070. Note that the novelty was missing one phase of the GPU voltage. A set of video outputs is represented by three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.1, and an additional power supply is connected via a 12-pin connector.
In Nvidia’s own tests, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers performance on par with the GeForce RTX 2080 Super and beyond.
More detailed information about the performance of new items can be found in the reviews. A copy of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is already being tested in our test lab, the corresponding material will be published in the near future.
In terms of MSRP, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards will be available in the US starting at $399. Of course, models made by Nvidia’s AIB partners will cost more. Regarding the price for Ukrainian retail, no information has been received at the moment. Sales of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti will start tomorrow, December 2.
In Ukrainian stores, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti will cost at least 14,990 hryvnia.
Overview of the video card GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G
Until recently, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti was the youngest model in a new line of graphics cards with NVIDIA processors based on the Ampere graphics architecture. After the announcement of the GeForce RTX 3060, the honorary position is assigned to this adapter.
However, increased interest in the traditionally more powerful “titanium” modification certainly remains. Today we review the original model GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G.
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Contents
- 1 Package contents
- 2 Design and layout
- 3 In progress
- 4 4K performance
- 5 Performance 2560×1440
- 6 Performance 1920×1080
- GPU
- 8 Overclocking
- 9 Power Consumption
- 10 Summary
Package Contents
The graphics card comes in a medium sized box. Only a brief paper manual is supplied with the device.
Design and layout
Externally, the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G resembles an oblong bar with a graphite-colored plastic protective casing with gray inserts that contrast against the general background.
Chopped panel shapes and accentuated surface grinding in the central part give the device some visual aggression. The total length of the device is 286 mm.
The video card uses one of the manufacturer’s three-fan coolers – WINDFORCE 3X. In the proposed version, we are talking about a fairly massive radiator design, consisting of three sections of stacked aluminum plates, which are combined by four heat pipes. Another one is looped in the central block.
The design of the cooler assumes direct contact between the heat pipes and the GPU chip. This method makes it possible to exclude an additional link in the heat transfer chain, accelerating its removal to remote sections of the radiator. At the same time, in the area of technical grooves between the tubes, the formation of zones of increased heating is possible. To prevent this from happening, a tight arrangement of elements and a good surface finish are important.
A frame is fixed around the contact pad, used for additional cooling of memory chips located next to the GPU.
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The VRM power elements are also additionally cooled. Through thermal pads, they are connected to one of the three radiator cassettes.
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G uses an eight-phase DrMOS-based GPU power management scheme controlled by UPI uP9 controller512R. Two more phases with a separate control channel are used for GDDR6 memory chips.
Three 80mm axial fans are used to blow the heatsink. The blades have a specific shape with additional fins and a bend in the impeller to increase air pressure.
According to the manufacturer, the fans use a special lubricant containing graphene, which doubles the life. According to this parameter, the fans used are comparable to models equipped with double ball bearings, but they are quieter
Another option for the cooling system is multidirectional rotation of the central and side fans.
This technique is increasingly used by video card manufacturers with a three-fan CO layout. It is generally accepted that in this way it is possible to reduce the probability of the formation of turbulence zones.
Two connectors are provided for connection of additional power: 6-pin and 8-pin. In this case, a non-standard configuration for the location of connectors is used. They are placed outside the rather compact printed circuit board (~200 mm) and fixed on the rear protective plate at the top panel. At the edge of the PCB are compact transitional connectors that are connected to the 12V connectors using power conductors.
The reference GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is equipped with a 12-pin connector and is content with an adapter from one 8-pin 12V connector. Tue At the same time, GIGABYTE advises equipping systems with a tuned graphics card with blocks of 650W or more.
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G is equipped with two BIOS chips, switching between them involves changing the cooling algorithm.
A miniature toggle switch is provided on the upper edge of the printed circuit board, which is set quite low. A special technological groove on the PCB allows you to change the position of the slider without additional tools.
In the case of the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G, the developers did not overdo it with additional lighting. Of course, things could not do without RGB illumination, but here it is used very metered. The company logo is illuminated on the top edge. Nearby on the edge in a specially created chamfer there is a thin strip with a light guide that repeats the effects of the logo.
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The RGB Fusion 2.0 application is used to adjust the backlight. The utility has several preset modes with the ability to adjust the brightness of the glow and the intensity of the effects.
Here it is also possible to synchronize the illumination with that of other components of the system or turn off the lights.
A metal plate covers the back of the adapter. The plate gives integrity to the external design of the device, increases the overall strength of the structure, while protecting surface-mounted elements from possible physical damage. Additional thermal pads are not provided, and therefore in this case the plate is not used for heat dissipation.
Part of the panel in the area of the power connectors has a noticeable perforation. A popular technique for three-fan coolers with an extended base, which allows blowing through the radiator cassette. In the interpretation of GIGABYTE developers, this solution is called screen-cooling. It should be noted that power cables block a certain blowing area, reducing the pumped volume.
At the same time, let’s pay attention to the tightly muffled side face – an attempt to control the direction of air masses is visible.
The interface panel has four video outputs – two full-sized DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.1. A significant part of the mounting plate is occupied by ventilation holes. Given the directionality of the radiator fins, the generated flow of heated air is small.
Of the design features of the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G, it is worth highlighting the low overall height of the device – only 115 mm. Often, video cards of this class are noticeably larger in height. Often this is not critical, but it can be important when assembling a system in a compact case with reduced thickness.
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The reviewed version of the adapter has a 2.5-slot design. At the same time, the manufacturer recently proposed a modification of Rev.2.0, which assumes a 2-slot layout.
Despite the design differences and PCB changes, the new version will have the same name – GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G. The features of the device of the second revision can be found on the manufacturer’s website.
In progress
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G supports hybrid cooling mode. Video card stops fans at minimal load.
In this state, the temperature of the GPU on the open stand (+23C) was kept at 40C.
Under load, the GPU warmed up to 64 degrees. At the same time, the rotation speed of the cooling system fans increased up to 1925 rpm. Everything is fine with temperatures, but the considerable values of rotational speed draw attention to themselves and rather even surprise. The fact is that the emitted noise level remains relatively low. That is, of course, it is not a slow-moving one, but at the same time, the video card is quieter than one might expect, looking at the tachometer readings. Plain bearings with grease containing graphene may really “work” here.
During gaming tests, the actual GPU frequency was raised up to 1980 MHz. A very good result, given the declared factory overclocking. The power consumption of the video card is fixed at 246 watts.
We also tested the graphics card using the Silent profile with an additional BIOS version selected. In this case, the stated frequency formula remains the same, but the fan operation algorithm has changed. During the tests, their rotational speed barely exceeded 1500 rpm. At the same time, the peak heating of the GPU increased slightly – the temperature of the GPU increased by an average of 5C – from 64 to 69degrees. Recall that such values were obtained in an open testbed. In a closed case, the performance may vary and will depend on the effectiveness of internal ventilation in each individual case.
Peak frequencies are slightly lower (1965 MHz vs. 1980 MHz), but in this case we are talking about measurement errors, because the test results in both modes are actually identical.
4K performance
In general, the capabilities of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB video cards are already well known to us from the first acquaintance with the adapters of the series.
Graphics adapters based on the somewhat lightweight GA104 chip show performance on par with the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB. With the change in the generation of NVIDIA discrete graphics, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti models actually climbed not one, but two steps at once, approaching the top solutions with the Turing architecture.
For 4K mode, the performance of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti can be considered minimally sufficient. In some heavy projects, you will probably have to play around with the settings to get a comfortable amount of fps, but this is unlikely to be a problem. In addition, often you do not have to go down even to medium parameters.
In cases where games support DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology, more frivolity can be allowed in terms of graphics quality settings or even the mode used.
Particularly impressive are the results when using second-generation smart scaling technology, DLSS 2.0. In some cases, when using a high quality preset, the detail of the final image may be even higher than the original in native resolution. At the same time, productivity not only does not suffer, but, on the contrary, it increases. A very telling example here is Death Stranding.
DLSS support comes in very handy in projects that support ray tracing. Activating effects with realistic, lighting, reflections and shadows significantly reduces performance. Intelligent scaling allows you to stretch fps to acceptable values. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is not easy to handle heavy 4K projects with active tracing. For such conditions, the RTX 3080 is already desirable. However, DLSS saves the situation even in such cases.
DLSS is also well illustrated Cyberpunk 2077 . A difficult project, which in 4K mode is very difficult to handle even for video cards of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti level.
With this resolution, even using a profile with medium quality settings, we have an average of about 40 frames / s, and at maximum – only 25-27 fps. In the latter case, tracing activation drops performance to 15-20 fps.
DLSS connection in “balanced” mode returns 40 fps, and the “ultra performance” profile allows you to see more than 60 fps. Of course, in this case, you should not count on the maximum detail of the picture, but the many available settings for settings allow you to get the optimal combination of quality and performance.
By the way, in Cyberpunk 2077 you still can’t activate tracing effects on AMD video cards, despite using the standard DirectX Raytracing API. The developers soon promise to open this possibility for new Radeons, which also have hardware blocks to speed up RT rendering, but the exact timing has not yet been announced. Judging by the amount of work that developers still have to do to fix numerous technical flaws, this is definitely not their first priority.
Therefore, the “beams” in Cyberpunk 2077 are currently only available on NVIDIA RTX video cards.
The collection of games that support DLSS and ray tracing is replenished with increasing intensity. So DLSS will be implemented in the promising co-op shooter Outriders, already available in the battle royale of Call of Duty: Warzone and Iron Conflict, and also expected in the action role-playing game Edge of Eternity. The RT+DLSS graphic combo will be featured in Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach and F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch. The same bundle will be available in the horror film The Medium, which is scheduled for release on January 28 this year.
It looks like RT skeptics will soon have to reconsider their dogmas.
The number of projects supporting ray tracing will increase, so there is no need to deliberately limit yourself.
Performance 2560×1440
As we have already noted, owners of GeForce RTX 3060 Ti video cards with a 4K monitor will periodically have to play around with the settings to get comfortable performance. At the same time, for screens with a resolution of 2560×1440, video cards of this class initially offer a good supply of power even at maximum quality settings.
Even in the heaviest projects, you can count on 60+ fps. Yes, of course, there are exceptions. As you can see, in the same Cyberpunk 2077, you will already have to connect DLSS. Well, it’s good when there is such an opportunity.
1920×1080 performance
The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is already a bit overkill for Full HD monitors, but if we are talking about a screen with an increased refresh rate, then such a bunch will certainly be justified.
In most of the projects used in the test, the video card provided more than 100 fps at maximum graphics quality settings.
For this mode, the performance is enough with a good margin. Of course, there is always the possibility of additionally loading the video card with higher resolution textures, resource-intensive mods, or the same ray-traced effects.
In addition to the nominally high fps during games, it is important to ensure maximum system responsiveness. NVIDIA offers a special Reflex technology that reduces latency by improving the system’s response to user actions. From the moment the mouse button is pressed to the display of the action on the screen, a whole chain of events passes. To radically improve the situation, it is important to reduce delays at all stages. This is a complex hardware and software task, but the road will be mastered by the walking one.
Responsiveness is of fundamental importance in competitive projects, where fractions of a second can decide the outcome of a duel.
Therefore, it is in such games that support for Reflex technology is very important. She was recently added to Overwatch and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege.
GPU workloads
In addition to gaming, a discrete graphics card can be of great help in a wide range of computing-intensive workloads. By using OpenCL, CUDA, and even the capabilities of RTX, you can speed up various steps involved in data processing. The scope of video cards is constantly expanding. In the case of NVIDIA solutions, the developer’s website contains a list of key applications with a basic description of the acceleration capabilities.
Evaluating the capabilities of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in tasks used by OpenCL and CUDA, we note that the new product has a noticeable advantage over the GeForce RTX 2080 FE. In some cases, the advantage can exceed 40%. Obviously, Ampere’s architectural improvements come into play here.
The possible effect of using a video card in work tasks is clearly demonstrated by the results in the IndigoBench 4.
4.15 test using the Indigo 4 rendering engine. The tuned version of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti coped with the task an order of magnitude faster than the 8-core Core i7-9 processor700K. Of course, such benefits will not be universal, but these are not isolated cases.
For example, in Blender 2.90 the advantage over CPU was 6x when using CUDA. At the same time, video cards with RTX were able to accelerate further when switching to OptiX.
Overclocking
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G factory overclocking definitely adds a few fps in games, but the graphics card can definitely give the owner even more performance.
You can use the updated proprietary AORUS Engine application to search for frequency potential. In addition to the frequency characteristics, here you can also manually adjust the CO operation algorithm and monitor the key indicators of the adapter.
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G allows you to increase the Power Limit by 12%, expanding the standard power limit.
Experimentally, the base clock frequency of the GPU was increased by 150 MHz – from 1410 to 1560 MHz. At the same time, the average value of dynamic acceleration increased to 1920 MHz. GDDR6 memory chips from Samsung also willingly worked at higher frequencies – 16,000 MHz, instead of the standard 14,000 MHz. An increase of 14.3% will certainly affect the bottom line.
Under load, the processor regularly overclocked to frequencies of 2080-2110 MHz, while the GPU-Z utility recorded a peak value of 2130 MHz. The nature of the cooling system has not changed much, and the temperature of the GPU has increased by only 1 degree – up to 65C.
After additional overclocking, the power consumption of the video card also increased slightly. The monitored parameter Board Power Draw has increased from 246 to 262 watts. Let’s look at the justification for additional energy costs.
Self-boost increased performance of GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G by 7-10%.
In a number of projects, this has already turned out to be enough to overtake the GeForce RTX 3070. In some, the advantage of the older model remains, but the gap is reduced to ~ 5%.
Power Consumption
Reference GeForce RTX 3060 Ti claims 200W of power. It is obvious that the accelerated modification will require a little more energy, which is easy to guess even from the recommendations for the PSU power. However, there are no significant differences.
In fact, during practical gaming tests, the power consumption of a system with a GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC PRO 8G was very similar to that required for a PC with a reference GeForce RTX 3070 (TDP – 220W). A platform with an 8-core Core i7-9700K processor and 16 GB of DDR4-3600 memory consumed about 350 watts under a gaming load.
Results
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti video cards are at the junction of mid-range and high-end graphics adapters. The capabilities of the devices of the line are optimal for a very comfortable game in 1440p mode.
Owners of 4K monitors will sometimes have to play around a bit with the picture quality settings, but in this case it will definitely do without much simplification. With DLSS support, you may not even need to lower the resolution by activating ray-traced effects.
The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti does not yet have a direct competitor from AMD’s new line, so it would have a very advantageous position in the market if offered at a recommended price ($399 – USA, 14,999 UAH – Ukraine). The cryptocurrency storm has once again disrupted all well-coordinated model positioning schemes, and the actual retail price tags of $1000+ are not conducive to popularity among those who need such a video card for gaming or even work tasks. We hope the situation will improve soon, because the demand for devices of this class is very high.
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