GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB
The GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB is Nvidia’s 12GB graphics card with a 170W board power rating, built on the Ampere GA106 architecture. Below you’ll find its full spec sheet and gaming and productivity benchmarks, plus all 8 board versions we track, each with its cheapest current price.
Prices update regularly and may differ at the retailer. This page contains affiliate links.
Gaming performance
Gaming score: geometric mean of in-game FPS, normalized so the RTX 5090 = 100. Render and synthetic scores are in the Benchmarks section below.
Gaming scores are normalised performance indexes derived from Tom’s Hardware’s published GPU benchmarks. Performance per dollar and per watt are our own calculations on top of that data.
1080p Gaming
1440p Gaming
4K Gaming
The GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB scores 35.5 at 1080p, 24.4 at 1440p, and 18.9 at 4K on a scale where 100 = the fastest GPU we test (RTX 5090). These scores apply to all board versions of this chip.
Performance-per-dollar rank among all GPUs with live pricing
Value at 1080p
#31
of 51
Value at 1440p
#34
of 50
Value at 4K
#29
of 46
Benchmarks
Standardized benchmark scores for this chip, each compared to the fastest card we track and linked to its source. They apply to every board version.
3D & gaming
Render
Compute & AI
GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB versions (8)
Every board version we track, cheapest first.
- MSI RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X$479.99235 mm
- ZOTAC RTX 3060 Twin Edge OC$494.99OC224 mm
- MSI RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X OC$499.99OC235 mm
- ASUS DUAL RTX 3060 V2$499.99200 mm
- MSI RTX 3060 GAMING X$659.00276 mm
- $679.99
- GIGABYTE RTX 3060 GAMING OC$695.00OC282 mm
- ZOTAC RTX 3060 Twin Edge$798.88224 mm
| Version | Boost Clock | Length | Color | From | Buy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSI RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X | — | 235 mm | — | $479.99 | | |
| ZOTAC RTX 3060 Twin Edge OCOC | — | 224 mm | — | $494.99 | | |
| MSI RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X OCOC | — | 235 mm | — | $499.99 | | |
| ASUS DUAL RTX 3060 V2 | — | 200 mm | — | $499.99 | | |
| MSI RTX 3060 GAMING X | — | 276 mm | — | $659.00 | | |
| ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3060 V2 GAMING OCOC | — | 300 mm | — | $679.99 | | |
| GIGABYTE RTX 3060 GAMING OCOC | — | 282 mm | — | $695.00 | | |
| ZOTAC RTX 3060 Twin Edge | — | 224 mm | — | $798.88 | |
8 board versions of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB are listed above, starting from $479.99. Prices update daily from live retailer stock. Click any version name for its full spec sheet and all current retailer prices.
Specifications
Board versions of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB range from 200–300 mm long, so check your case's GPU clearance before buying.
Performance
- Boost clock
- 1777 MHz
- Base clock
- 1320 MHz
- Shader cores
- 3,584
- SM count
- 28
- Texture units (TMUs)
- 112
- Render outputs (ROPs)
- 48
- RT cores
- 28 · 2nd gen
- Tensor / AI cores
- 112 · 3rd gen
Memory
- VRAM
- 12GB GDDR6
- Memory bus
- 192-bit
- Bandwidth
- 360 GB/s
- Memory speed
- 15 Gbps
- L2 cache
- 3 MB
GPU die
- Architecture
- Ampere GA106
- Process node
- Samsung 8N
- Foundry
- Samsung
- Die size
- 276 mm²
- Transistors
- 12 billion
- Generation
- GeForce RTX 30
Power
- TDP
- 170W
- Recommended PSU
- 550W
- Power connectors
- 1 12-pin
Display & outputs
- Max resolution
- 7680 × 4320
- Max displays
- 4
- HDCP
- 2.3
- Outputs
- 1 HDMI 2.1, 3 Displayport 1.4a
- PCIe interface
- PCIe 4.0 ×16
APIs & software
- DirectX
- 12 Ultimate (12.2)
- Vulkan
- 1.3
- OpenGL
- 4.6
- OpenCL
- 3.0
- CUDA
- Compute 8.6
- Shader model
- 6.8
Video encoding & decoding
| Codec | Encode | Decode |
|---|---|---|
| H.264 / AVC | Supported | Supported |
| H.265 / HEVC | Supported | Supported |
| AV1 | Not supported | Supported |
| VP9 | Not supported | Supported |
Encoder: NVENC 7th gen · Decoder: NVDEC 5th gen
Features
- Upscaling
- DLSS Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction
- Also runs
- FSR 3, FSR 3 Frame Generation, XeSS 2, XeSS 2 Frame Generation
- Resizable BAR
- Yes
Physical
- Reference length
- 242 mm
- Slot width
- 2 slots
- Released
- 2021-02-25
- MSRP
- $329.00
3,584 shader cores feed a 192-bit memory interface delivering 360 GB/s of peak bandwidth. 28 RT cores handle real-time ray tracing; 112 tensor cores accelerate AI workloads and DLSS Super Resolution. Compare the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB against the full GPU lineup on the full graphics card rankings.
Local AI performance
What the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB can run on your own machine, and how fast.
Largest model it can run (8K context)
- Q4 (the usual choice, near-original quality)
- ~14B
- Q8 (closer to original, half the model size)
- ~8.9B
- FP16 (unquantised, for training and research)
- ~4.7B
Parameter counts the card holds with room for an 8K conversation, counting the model weights plus its attention cache. A longer conversation needs more memory, so it lowers these figures.
Speed & value
- Speed, 8B model at Q4
- 58-68 tok/s
- Memory bandwidth
- 360 GB/s
- Price per GB of VRAM
- $40.00
Generation speed tracks memory bandwidth, because every word produced reads the whole model from memory. Shown as a range.
Models that fit, at Q4
| Model | Size | Memory needed | Est. speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starcoder2 15B | 16.0B | 9.7GB | 29-34 tok/s |
| Sqlcoder 15B | 15.0B | 10.1GB | 30-34 tok/s |
| Cogito 14B | 14.8B | 10.1GB | 30-34 tok/s |
Popular models small enough for this card at Q4, one per family. Speed is left blank for mixture-of-experts models, where a bandwidth estimate is not reliable enough to publish.
Across generations
Where the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB sits in Nvidia’s lineup — the generation before and after.
How the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB compares
Similar cards worth a look, based on live prices and 1440p gaming performance. Open a card for its full spec sheet, or a head-to-head for the side-by-side benchmark and price breakdown.
About 13% more 1440p performance, for 10% more ($50.01).
8GB · from $530.00
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