Nvidia just announced its entry-level 3000-series graphics card, the $ 329 GeForce RTX 3060 – also known as the best way to get ray tracing in your games without breaking the bank. Usually, I would take a moment to say you shouldn’t be tooorder anything without seeing how it plays out, whatever that is a game you were looking forward to or a graphics card that has not yet been put through the stages by reviewers and enthusiasts.
However, we live in strange times. There’s a huge shortage of GPUs, exacerbated by hungry, sticky quarantine fans who want to update their lads with graphics cards that allow them to play the latest titles at 4K resolutions and absurd quality settings. In other words, yes already very large pent-up demand. Now, throw in a handful of scalpers that have built up a lot of the inventory with bot networks so that they can generally resell these cards price multiples, and life will suck if you’re just looking to give up your aging gaming PC increase.
Here’s my take: If you’re on the fence about updating, go ahead and try preorder the GeForce RTX 3060. You can always return it if you find out later that it doesn’t provide as much graphics oomph as you had hoped – or if you are lucky enough to get out and order, say, a GeForce RTX 3080.
But of course not well as simple as that. As an entry level card, the GeForce RTX 3060 is not designed for everyone, and I would not come to it oir you can’t get anything better. You need to know what makes the most sense for your situation in order to work out the lowest graphics card that would give you a proper update.
For example, if you’re mocking a 4K monitor and looking to do a little gameplay with ray tracing in a bunch of modern, graphically intensive titles, I’m worried the RTX 3060 won’t be enough of an update . By Nvidia’s own standards, which tend to be a bit more generous than real-world tests, the performance of the RTX 3070 over a number of games (with no stated intention) sits somewhere between the RTX 2060 and RTX 3070 cards. aige. And yes, I accept that last point, but I doubt Nvidia would release a lower-end card that is faster than a higher-end card as soon as possible after the first iteration. That’s not just good business.
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Turns to some criteria, courtesy of Club Overclockers, RTX 3070 and RTX 2060 basin define the following frame rates at 4K resolution, highest quality settings:
- Call of Duty: Modern War (3070): 55.18
- Call of Duty: Modern War2060): 29.39
- Control (3070): 25.01
- Control (2060): 4.31
- Metro Exodus (3070): 34.39
- Metro Exodus (2060): 17.83
- Metro Exodus (3070, DLSS): 48.38
- Metro Exodus (2060, DLSS): 0
- Battlefield V (3070): 37.0
- Battlefield V (2060): 20.02
- Battlefield V (3070, DLSS): 51.14
- Battlefield V (2060, DLSS): 30.16
While I don’t think RTX 3060 performance is going to sit in the middle of what you would get from RTX 2060 and RTX 3070, I think it’s safe to say that you won’t see RTX 3070- like to perform with your RTX 3060 card. So, if you want to make a game at 4K with first-rate settings and kicking ray scratches, you have to be very picky about the games you are playing to get anywhere from eh to so so performance. And your frame rates will never hit your monitor’s refresh rate.
In this case, I think it would be worth holding out for an expensive one RTX 3080 chart. This is the best card you can find in the GeForce line for 4K gaming (except the RTX 3090 which is too expensive and not for gamers), and will give you a lot more protection in the future for highly graphic titles yet to come. It certainly doesn’t make sense to upgrade to RTX 3060 if you’re making a 4K game – not if you’re not willing to provide quality. And if that’s a trade you’re willing to make, I would be on the lookout for more criteria to see how far you have to close down your options for the frame rates that are you are trying to achieve.
The sweet RTX 3060 seems to be a 1080p game. You should, in theory, be able to get much closer to the famous 60 frames per second in titles that are quite punitive (with settings quality bent up and ray detection enabled). And if you don’t care about finding rays, or if you’re willing to kick your game to a little less than the highest quality setting, I think you’ll get a hard graphic update if you come from nothing worse than a single-GPU, GeForce RTX 2000-series Super card. (If you’re sporting a 2000-series dual GPU card or one of the Super-brand cards, I might not upgrade to RTX 3060.)
If you are a 1440p player, the decision will be more difficult. Assume you want to increase your quality settings and use ray tracing in all supported titles (including non-used ones) DLSS), the RTX 3060 should get you at as less 30 frames per second in the latest graphically challenging titles – save for worse games like Cyberpunk 2077, if you narrow your preferences to the maximum. I would still stick out and spend an extra $ 170 for the RTX 3070, though; you have to compromise a little less to get nearly 60 frames per second in penalty games.
The small family of Nvidia graphics cards makes it easy to figure out what you need based on your game system:
- Standard 60Hz 1080p monitor: RTX 3060 is probably quite right for most games.
- 1080p game monitor (> 60Hz): It really depends on the games you play and the quality levels you are looking for. (Does ray-maxed-out tracking mean that to you?) If so, RTX 3070. If not, RTX 3060 probably ok for smaller titles, but you know you won’t be pushing 120fps on the highest quality settings in graphically challenging games.
If you really have to stick to a budget, what about compromise? Share the difference with the RTX 3060 Ti ($ 400). I’d wait to see a few straightforward benchmark comparisons between that and the RTX 3060 before you open the box, if you get your hands on one now, but I have the money on the RTX 3060 Ti as the mix best value and performance.
- Monitor 1440p: RTX 3070. You can get away with the RTX 3060 Ti, though; it is only about a 10% increase in performance for a 25% increase in cost. Depending on the game, you may not notice the difference. But if you don’t plan on updating again for a while, I wouldn’t settle for the slightly slower card.
- Monitor 4K: RTX 3080 (The best thing you can get without spending too much for slightly better performance from RTX 3090).
As always, if you are concerned about performance above all else, wait for official criteria to hit and decide on the next card to buy from what you will learn there.. I think it’s always better to buy the fastest graphics card you can, but with supply constraints, I find that some gamers can be quite expensive just to have good enough replace the replacement the best update.
When comparing cards, don’t just look at the frame rates; think about what games you play, what situations you usually use, what situations you are willing to settle for, and how that all involves analysis cost-per-frame. As I’ve said before, if a card only gets you a small performance boost for a big price increase, it may not be worth the budget if it doesn’t really drag you from “non-play” to land “Playable”. At least that’s how many people have switched to Nvidia’s flagship GPU, the RTX 3090; This may be the fastest you can get from Nvidia, but its price just doesn’t confirm the increase. Use the same smart approach to find out if the RTX 3060 makes sense to you.