The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is the new entry-level GPU in the RTX 30 series. If you’re looking for a ray tracing GPU, the RTX 3060 is the most affordable option. It has a slightly lower starting price than the RTX 2060, but despite having better performance and a lower starting price, it does not represent a significant upgrade if you already have the RTX 2060. Let us look at the reasons why.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs RTX 2060 Specs
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is a step up from the RTX 2060 hardware, but not in every way. The RTX 3060 features the new Ampere GA106 GPU, manufactured on Samsung’s 8nm process. The RTX 2060, on the other hand, was manufactured using the 12nm TSMC process. This increases the number of transistors. The RTX 2060 has 10.8 billion transistors, while the RTX 3060 has 13.25 billion. Let’s take a closer look at the two cards’ specifications.
| Category | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 |
|---|---|---|
| Shader (CUDA) Cores | 3584 | 1920 |
| Core Clock | 1320MHz | 1365MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1780MHz | 1680MHz |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6 192-bit bus width | 6 GB GDDR6 192-bit bus width |
| Memory Clock | 15Gbps | 14Gbps |
| Memory Bandwidth | 360GB/s | 336GB/s |
| RT Cores | 28 | 30 |
| Tensor Cores | 112 | 240 |
| Transistors | 13.25 billion | 10.8 billion |
| Node | Samsung 8nm | TSMC 12nm FFN |
| Architecture | Ampere | Turing |
| TDP | 170W | 160 W |
| Ports | 1 x HDMI 2.1 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a | 1 x HDMI 2.0b 2 x DisplayPort 1.4 1 x DVI 1 x USB C |
| Power Connector | 1 x 8 pin | 1 x 8 pin |
Note: Some specifications of the RTX 3060 and RTX 2060, like the ports, may vary per AIB model.
While there is a transistor count increase, unlike most other successor cards, the RTX 3060 appears to have a lower ray tracing core count than its predecessor. Memory bandwidth also does not appear to have increased significantly.
The performance boost isn’t as pronounced as previous successor comparisons. As a result, upgrading from the RTX 2060 to the RTX 3060 makes less sense than upgrading to a slightly higher-tier card. Let us now examine real-world performance. Read More; Nvidia RTX 4090 – Release Date, Price, Specs
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs RTX 2060 Performance
There is no Founders Edition card for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. Thus, real-world performance comparisons will vary depending on the configuration of AIB models, but the difference will be minimal. BENCHMARKS FOR GAMERS. have provided some FPS comparisons between the Palit RTX 3060 Dual and the KFA2 RTX 2060 Plus.
| Game | RTX 3060 (avg. FPS, 1080p) | RTX 2060 (avg. FPS, 1080p) | RTX 3060 (avg. FPS, 1440p) | RTX 2060 (avg. FPS, 1440p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyberpunk 2077 (RTX On) | 48 | 34 | 33 | 23 |
| Doom Eternal | 213 | 168 | 147 | 111 |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator | 48 | 40 | 36 | 28 |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | 70 | 58 | 53 | 42 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 71 | 59 | 54 | 44 |
| Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla | 63 | 50 | 50 | 39 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 85 | 72 | 60 | 49 |
The RTX 3060 is a good card for a new RTX 30 GPU, especially if you want to save as much money as possible, at least on paper! The RTX 3060 could be your card if you want to enter the RTX arena at the lowest possible price, but it doesn’t make sense as an upgrade from the RTX 2060.
Based on the performance differences, the difference is not significant enough to justify an upgrade. There is some performance improvement here, but not enough to make you want to sell your RTX 2060 and look for an RTX 3060. Both cards are 1080p, with the RTX 3060 having a slight advantage at 1440p.
The RTX 2060 still performs admirably for a 1080p GPU capable of ray tracing, so much so that NVIDIA is bringing it back into production to help fill out the lower mid-range of GPUs, which is suffering from stock shortages. This indicates that the card is still relevant for decent mid-range performance.
So should you upgrade to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 from RTX 2070?
No. The RTX 3060 is a good card in its own right, but it isn’t a worthwhile upgrade from the RTX 2060. The RTX 3060, like any of the best graphics cards on the market right now, is also extremely difficult to obtain due to supply issues.
Another factor to consider is that even if you could find an RTX 3060 in stock, the AIB card would cost much more than an RTX 3060 Ti or even an RTX 3070. Given the amount of effort required to track restocks and obtain an RTX 30 GPU at a reasonable price, the RTX 3060 does not appear to be a worthwhile upgrade.
The performance increase from the RTX 2060 to the RTX 3060 isn’t worth the upgrade, but if you really want to upgrade to the RTX 2060, the RTX 3070 is a better option. Our NVIDIA RTX 3070 review referred to it as the “perfect 1440p card,” making it an excellent upgrade from the RTX 2060. If you insist on a 3060 Series card, you should consider the 3060 Ti, a far superior upgrade.
This assumes you can find an NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU reasonably priced. If you’re still on 1080p and don’t intend to make a major upgrade, you should keep that RTX 2060 until the demand and supply situation for new silicon is resolved. Read Also; AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs. 5 5600X: Upgrade or Not
