NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 12GB 1080P
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 12GB UPDATE
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 12GB PC

For a deeper look at what’s new in the RTX 30-series “Ampere” GPU architecture, check out our much more detailed explanation in the beginning of our RTX 3080 review.

Of course, as a modern GeForce GPU, the RTX 3060 includes the latest ray tracing and tensor cores inside (we’ll dig into that later), as well as support for all of Nvidia’s wide range of value-adding features, such as Shadowplay, DLSS, Nvidia Broadcast, Nvidia Reflex, G-Sync, and more.

Nvidia also added a hashrate limiter that cuts the performance of Ethereum mining in half, which should hopefully discourage cryptocurrency miners from snatching this up in droves. (AMD’s Smart Access Memory works with all games.) Nvidia says it will whitelist new games quickly.

Currently, Nvidia activated ReBAR compatibility for only eight titles, so its usefulness is very limited.

NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 12GB UPDATE

If you want to use it, look for a compatible BIOS update for your specific motherboard. Support varies from vendor to vendor and even motherboard to motherboard.

NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 12GB PC

The image above, taken from Nvidia’s ReBAR explainer, shows which PC hardware currently supports the technology. AMD kicked it off with its Ryzen 5000 processors and X570/B550 motherboards, though compatibility has also come to a variety of Intel platforms via BIOS updates. You’ll need a compatible CPU and motherboard to enable Resizable BAR support, however. Most of those gains are modest, as we discovered testing Smart Access Memory on the RX 6900 XT, but they can go all the way to 10 percent or more in the right games, running the right graphics settings and resolutions.

Resizable BAR lets your CPU see your graphics card’s memory, rather than accessing it in 256MB chunks, which can result in performance gains on compatible systems. The GeForce RTX 3060 is also Nvidia’s first desktop graphics card to support the PCIe Resizable BAR feature, following in the footsteps of AMD’s Smart Access Memory (which is based around ReBAR). Going with 6GB of memory would’ve been too little now that some games are pushing the 8GB barrier more regularly, however, so as-is, we’re glad to see the RTX 3060 ship with 12GB. If this wasn’t a rushed response to AMD’s moves, 8GB of memory would suffice–and cost less. If you nudge games up to 1440p, you’ll often need to reduce graphics settings to achieve 60 frames per second at that resolution, which similarly reduces memory demands.

NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 12GB 1080P

The big 12GB memory buffer is overkill for the 1080p gaming Nvidia claims this card was built for. It’s probably the right choice from a marketing perspective-AMD’s forthcoming Radeon RX 6700 XT will indeed come with 12GB of its own-but practically, it’s a bit weird. Resizable BAR lets the CPU tap fully into the GPU’s memory, offering performance gains in some scenarios. The 192-bit memory bus on the RTX 3060 can handle either 6GB or 12GB capacities, and we suspect the RTX 3060 was originally intended to receive 6GB before AMD struck. It’s clear that AMD’s decision to load up its new Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards with plenty of memory caught Nvidia by surprise. This GPU is paired with an ample 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM, besting the 8GB of GDDR6 in the RTX 3060 Ti and 3070, and even the 10GB available in the beastly GeForce RTX 3080 (although that’s of the much-faster GDDR6X variety). The most interesting part of the RTX 3060’s design is its memory. That drags the overall gaming performance far below the 3060 Ti’s level, though the new graphics card remains competitive for the segments it targets. The GeForce RTX 3060 sports a slightly higher boost clock than its Ti cousin-which matters during gaming sessions that load up the GPU-but dramatically fewer CUDA cores. …and last-generation’s $350 GeForce RTX 2060. Here’s how the GeForce RTX 3060 stacks up technically against the RTX 3060 Ti… Nvidia Because of that, while the RTX 30 Ti share the same name, they’re wildly different under the hood.

The non-Ti RTX 3060 uses a totally different GPU-the smaller GA106 graphics chip, rather than the beefier GA104 chip found in the Ti model and the $5. The more affordable (in theory) GeForce RTX 3060 more closely targets no-compromises 1080p gaming, though 1440p gaming is certainly possible in most cases. In an unusual turn of events, Nvidia released the step-up GeForce RTX 3060 Ti before the base RTX 3060, and that Ti version is a spectacular 1440p gaming option. GeForce RTX 3060 specs, features, and price

Nvidia geforce rtx 3060 12gb