When it comes to graphic cards, the two mainstream GPUs that found a place in almost every gamer’s PC are RTX 3060 and 4060. Although RTX 4060 is the successor of Nvidia Geforce 3060 , according to some users, there is no significant difference between the two. Both are mid-range graphic cards from Nvidia and can support up to 1080p and 1440p resolution. Still, both are not perfectly identical; in some aspects, Rtx 4060 outperform 3060. The GeForce 3060 was released 2 years before RTX 4060. The Geforce 3060 was built on Ampere Architecture that features up to 3,584 CUDA cores, and 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM; on the other hand, the 4060 was a product of its successor, the Ada Lovelace architecture. This blog explores the difference between two mainstream Nvidia GPU cards, 3060 12 GB and Nvidia Rtx 4060.
Is It Worth Upgrading From 3060 to 4060?
RTX 3060 vs 4060, both GPUs have been at the top of the line due to their best performance at an affordable budget. While the RTX 4060 benefits from DLSS 3 with Frame Generation, higher clock speeds, and improved ray tracing capabilities, it has faced massive criticism for cutting off on VRAM size to 8GB from its predecessor Rtx 3060 12GB. The Reduced Vram often deteriorate performance in memory-intensive games. The public has shown their preference for buying Rtx 3060 or Rtx 3060 ti over Rtx 4060. However, there are features that offers better performance compared to Nvidia Geforce 3060.
Reasons Why Rtx 4060 Is Better Than 3060?
Upon the arrival of 4060 gamers were wondering whether is it worth upgrading from 3060 to 4060? Here are some of the reasons why Rtx 4060 is better than GeForce 3060.
- Rtx 4060 has a GPU clock speed of 1830MHz, and Nvidia 3060 has 1320 MHz, making 4060 have 510 MHz faster GPU clock speed than Nvidia geforce rtx 3060.
- Regarding floating point performance, the RTX 4060 has 2.37 TFLOPS higher performance compared to its predecessor, the Geforce 3060 and 3.46 TFLOPS higher than its variant, the Geforce 3060 Ti. RTX Geforce 4060 vs 3060 vs 3060 Ti has a Floating performance of 15.11 TFLOPS, 12.74 TFLOPS.
- RTX 4060 takes around 170 watts of power, while 3060 takes 115 Watts; 4060 takes 40 watts less than 3060 and 3060 Ti.
- RTX 4060 has a 250 MHz faster memory clock speed, considering 3060 can support an 1875 MHz memory clock, and 4060 has a 2125 MHz memory clock.
- The number of textured pixels that can be rendered to the screen every second is 199 GTexels/s in Geforce 3060; on the other hand, in RTX 4060, the Texture rate per second is 236.2 GTexels/s.
- In addition to that, there are more shading units in Geforce 3060 compared to 4060. Shader units are small processors within the graphic cards that can handle shader graphics from very complex angles.
Rtx 4060 vs RTX 3060 12GB: Specs Comparison
Rtx 3060 vs 4060 are two of Nvidia’s best GPUs, and they constantly compete against each other regarding different features. Rtx 4060 is the successor of 3060 rtx and is expected to be better than 3060. However, when we evaluate its performance, there is not much difference between the two. When it comes to gaming, RTX 4060 is 15-30% faster than Geforce 3060. Here is the complete specifications comparison chart for RTX 4060 vs Geforce 3060 12 GB and Rtx 3060ti 8GB.
| Features | RTX 4060 8GB | RTX 3060 12 GB | RTX 3060ti 8GB |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere | Ampere (GA-106) |
| Transistors | 18,900 million | 12,000 million | 17, 400 million |
| Process Size | 5nm | 8nm | 8nm |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Ray Tracing | 3rd Generation | 3rd Generation | 3rd Generation |
| Base Clock | 1830 MHz | 1320 MHz | 1410 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2460 MHz | 1777 MHz | 1665 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 2125 MHz | 1875 MHz | 1750 MHz |
| Memory Size | 8gb | 12gb | 8gb |
| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0x 16 | |
| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shading units | 3072 | 3584 | 4864 |
| TMUs | 96 | 112 | 152 |
| ROPs | 48 | 48 | 80 |
| Tensor Cores | 96 | 112 | 152 |
| L1 Cache | 128 KB | 128 KBs | 128 KBs |
| L2 Cache | 24 MB | 3MB | 4MB |
| Power Connectors | 1x 12-pin | 1x 12-pin | 1x 12-pin |
| Suggested PSU | 300W | 450 W | 550 W |
| Thermal design Power | 115 W | 170 W | 200 W |
| CUDA | 8.9 | 8.6 | 8.6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 272 GB/s | 360 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Memory Bus | 128-bits | 192- bits | 256-bits |
| Release year | 2021 | 2023 | 2020 |
| Price | 299$ |
Price Comparison: RTX 3060 vs 3060 Ti vs RTX 4060
Price competitiveness is one of the important aspects when buying a graphic card. Despite being launched in 2021, the GPU is still worth a purchase. One of the reasons is its ampere architecture, which ensures perfect performance for mid-tier gaming and content creation tasks. That’s what makes it perfect for mainstream gamers and mid-level pc graphic users. Considering the price, Geforce 3060 is available for under 300$. The cheapest GPU among all brands is a gigabyte, available at 289$. On the other hand, MSI GeForce is available at 289$ at Walmart. Asus dual Nvidia GeForce V2 is available at 299$ at Amazon. However, the pre-owned Rtx 3060 graphic card is available at varying prices from 150$ to 200$. Asus dual GeForce RTX 4060 V2 is the cheapest among all brand’s variations. It is difficult to find a Geforce RTX 3060 or 4060 on sale now. However, you can get a flat 10% discount on direct macro. You get authentic products with a 30-day return or exchange policy.
Conclusion
In short, we reach the following conclusion about the overall performance all three graphic cards:
The RTX 4060 is a powerful graphic card in terms of higher clock speed and frame generation. But it often gets second priority to gamers due to low Vram. On the other hand, RTX 3060 12GB makes the best graphic both in terms of performance as well as budget. The Geforce RTX 3060 ti, having more CUDA cores, and 256-bit memory bus makes the best graphic card for Vram-heavy games.
Overall, the Nvidia GeForce rtx 3060 is a high-performing graphic card that offers top-notch 1080p experience. It delivers around 70-80fps frame rates in nearly all of today’s biggest games. Even in the most demanding games it provides up to 60fps frame rate.
FAQ’s
Is RTX 3060 better than 4060?
Overall, the RTX 4060 offers better features compared to the 3060. However, 3060 offers more frames per second compared to 4060. Regarding gaming, 3060 extra 4GB VRAM is beneficial for high-resolution gaming. It has more CUDA Cores that help parallel processing.
What is an acceptable temperature for a RTX 3060?
It is acceptable if your GPU’s temperature is going up to 60 – 65 degrees. However, under heavy workload, it can go up to 70 – 80 degrees. You should still aim to keep it lower than that by getting an efficient CPU cooler.
Which AMD graphics card is equivalent to RTX 3060 ti?
The best competition for Geforce RTX 3060 ti is AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT. Launched a few months after 3060, AMD’s RX 6700 was built on 7nm. Its DirectX 12 Ultimate capability helps with hardware raytracing and variable rate shading.
