Player graphics card: GeForce RTX 3060 Ti comes for an MSRP...

Nvidia introduces the fourth graphics card from the GeForce RTX 3000 gaming series, aka Ampere. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has a price recommendation of 400 euros below the (theoretically) 500 euros expensive GeForce RTX 3070 and should be available for order from the afternoon of December 2, 2020.

Like the GeForce RTX 3070, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti uses the ampere graphics chip GA104, but in a slimmed-down version with 4864 instead of 5888 active shader cores. At the same time, Nvidia reduces the GPU clock frequency to a nominal boost of 1665 MHz. For the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, this means around 20 percent lower FP32 computing power of 16.1 TFlops.

Performance of a GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER

Since the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has retained the memory expansion with 8 GB GDDR6 on 256 data lines (448 GB / s) and 3D games do not scale perfectly with shader cores, the distance between GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 should be within the range Reality turn out to be a little lower than the FP32 computing power would suggest.

Nvidia promises gaming performance at the level of the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER from the last generation, which is around 15 percent slower than the GeForce RTX 3070. This makes Nvidia’s upper middle class more attractive than in the 2000 series – provided the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti will actually be available for 400 euros.

The predecessor GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER started in summer 2019 for the recommended 420 euros. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti should achieve around 40 percent higher frame rates in 3D games. If you use a graphics card from an even older series, such as Nvidia’s GTX 1000, you will get a good upgrade option here.

In theory unrivaled

AMD has little to offer in this price range: The Radeon RX 6800 only starts at an RRP of 580 euros – with significantly higher retail prices – and the Radeon RX 5700 XT from 390 euros falls significantly with a performance on the level of a GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER slower off. In addition, it lacks modern features such as hardware acceleration of ray tracing graphic effects. A successor in the form of the Radeon RX 6700 XT is not expected until early 2021.

Nvidia is now taking over the PCB and the cooler of the GeForce RTX 3070 for its own Founders Edition of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The model is 242 mm long, occupies two slots and comes with a 12-pin power connector – an adapter to PCIe-8 -Pin is included. As usual, other manufacturers will offer their own versions, some with stronger coolers.

(mma)