NVIDIA Announces GeForce RTX 3060 Graphics cards (updated)
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cucaulay malkin
let feb,lol.
BlackScout
One could argue they have plenty of 3060s in stock from ""bad"" 3080 bins but I'm skeptical.
cucaulay malkin
different die
Undying
High end 4k gpu dont need more than 10gb while lower end 1080/1440p needs 12gb. They way its meant to be played.
itpro
If someone can get 12GB GDDR6 gaming gpu under 400$, isn't something bad at all. It will deliver better and more futureproof experience than any new gen console. You won't even need to uninstall this GPU if you upgrade your main PC years after, you can keep this installed at a spare rig.
Undying
Yeah, its actually good choice compared to other ampere cards. 3060 12gb for less than 400$ is great. I really hope amd hurry up with 6700xt.
Denial
To be fair in that response they specifically say "Extra memory is always nice to have but it would increase the price of the graphics card, so we need to find the right balance."
I don't know how much more GDDR6x costs but presumably it's more than GDDR6 + I'm sure they want to slot the card in at a certain price range. I personally haven't found a situation at 4K where the 10GB on my card isn't enough and I plan on upgrading next year anyway because the card still isn't powerful enough for real 4K gaming IMO.
Venix
my best bet is that the 192 bit bus can utilize effectively 6 gb or 12 ..or 24 24 would be stupid ...6 is low i guess they could make 8gb but that would most likely result in the same thing that happen with the 970 .... i think at least
Chert
More VRAM than the 3060 ti but less performance. What is the use of this card then? It would've made more sense if this could've been a 3060 ultra, a 3060 ti with more VRAM.
TimmyP
"The 3060 will probably sit between the 3070 and the 3070S, and 8 GB VRAM would be enough for that performance. And it would make the card cheaper."
Uhm. No.
schmidtbag
So far, the only GPU in the 3000 series with a "normal" amount of VRAM is the 3060 Ti.
itpro
Do we have any info for the expected TDP? If it's less or equal to half 3080 consumption it's an instant buy for me.
vbetts
Moderator
12gb vram is an odd amount. It's gotta have something to do with the memory bandwidth setup and requirements for Ampere with lower cores. Must not need to cache as much on a higher end ampere die, but the lower ones probably need that extra cache and bandwidth from the memory to operate effectively. I know this is how Polaris operated at least.
tunejunky
until the DDR6 supply is well sorted (meaning lower profit margin items) there will be an even greater delay for this model as that self same gddr6 can go to a more profitable card in shorter supply.
just reality
ezodagrom
170W
If I'm understanding this right, because of the 192 bit bus width, only 6GB or 12GB are possible (6x 1GB or 6x 2GB VRAM chips), they probably deemed 6GB not enough for this card, and since 1.5GB GDDR6 chips are not being manufactured, something in-between, 9GB, wouldn't be possible.
The same applies for the other cards, 256 bit bus width on the 3060 Ti and 3070 means only 8GB or 16GB (8x 1GB or 8x 2GB chips), the 320 bit bus width on the 3080 means only 10GB or 20GB, and the 384 bit bus width on the 3090 means only 12GB or 24GB.
Chert
A 12gb card would've been very useful for VR. But this 3060 probably has the same raw performance as a 1080 ti. However, a card with this level of performance is not anymore enough for the newer VR headsets.
vbetts
Moderator
Not really, VR relies more on the CPU than the GPU. Even say a 1070 level card today wouldn't have any major issues with VR.
alanm
They simply wanted more than 6gb but cant do 8 or 10 due to constraints with the 192-bit bus. So its either 6 or 12gb.
tsunami231
maybe they should stop using 192bit on xx60 series i can under stand if for xx50 and lower but the xx60? i can not
ezodagrom
Yep.
If 1.5GB GDDR6 chips existed, they could have gone with 9GB for the 3060, 12GB for the 3060 Ti and 3070 and 15GB for the 3080, but unfortunately they don't.
I'm guessing that supporting a 256 bit bus width on the GA106 GPU would have costed more than using 2GB chips on the 3060.
