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The Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti is the latest in a long line of GPUs to have launched over the past couple of months, but importantly it is the cheapest of those, with a UK MSRP coming in at £369. Availability aside, the RTX 3060 Ti is an important step in getting the Ampere architecture to the wider market.
Despite the lower price tag, Nvidia claimed the RTX 3060 Ti is faster than the RTX 2080 Super, which launched for £669 in July 2019. Based on our testing today, that claim does hold true. Averaged over the 14 games we benchmarked, at 1080p the RTX 3060 Ti is 2% faster than the RTX 2080 Super, and that increases to 3% at 1440p. At most, the RTX 3060 Ti was 8% faster, and it came in 5% slower at worst. It's clearly not a big difference at all, and generally we'd call that level of performance a tie. Of those fourteen games we tested though, the RTX 3060 Ti is only slower in three of them.
That means this new Ampere GPU is on average 34% faster than the RTX 2060 Super at 1080p, and 39% faster at 1440p. It even looks relatively good against the RTX 3070, as it is just 11% and 12% slower on average, at 1080p and 1440p respectively – not bad considering it is also £100 cheaper.
It really is a very capable GPU for high refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p gaming, delivering solid frame rates across the board at either resolution. In fact, at 1440p, the lowest average frame rate we saw with the 3060 Ti was exactly 60FPS, and that came when playing Red Dead Redemption 2 at ultra settings, which is about as demanding as it gets.
We also tested 4K, but I wouldn't focus too much on this aspect of the card's performance. Just like the RTX 2080 Super, it certainly can play at 4K, hitting 60-70FPS in less demanding titles like Death Stranding or F1 2020. Anything that will stress the GPU more – something like Control, Gears 5 or the aforementioned Red Dead Redemption 2 – sees the frame rate drop down into the 30FPS range. For me, this is a quality 1440p 60FPS+ GPU, so while it can do 4K sometimes, for a proper 4K experience you'd need to step up to at least the RTX 3070, but ideally the RTX 3080.
It's no surprise to hear that Nvidia's Founders Edition once more delivers excellent thermal and noise performance. During our testing, the RTX 3060 Ti ran no hotter than 69C, while it proved to be very quiet under load. In both areas it is able to marginally improve on the RTX 3070's performance, as both cards use the same cooler, but the RTX 3060 Ti has less cores, and therefore uses less power.
Speaking of power, Nvidia rates the total graphics power (TGP) of the 3060 Ti at 200W, but during our testing it averaged 192W under load. Looking at the performance-per-Watt data, this means it is just about the most efficient GPU going for 1080p gaming, and it's joint top for 1440p performance-per-Watt, tied with the RTX 3070 and RX 6800. This means overall performance efficiency has improved by 27% compared to the RTX 2080 Super, which is hard to argue with when the RTX 3060 Ti is just as fast but also £300 cheaper at launch.
In terms of overclocking, our sample proved pretty limited when it came to pushing the core frequency any further, as we were only able to add an extra 70MHz – any further and we got application crashes. The Samsung GDDR6 memory however, continues to overclock like an absolute champ, and we added another 1300MHz, bringing speeds up from 14Gbps to 16.6Gbps. This resulted in performance gains between 6-7%, which is okay but not spectacular. We will test more custom RTX 3060 Tis soon though, so we may get better luck with an AIB card.
All in all, the RTX 3060 Ti is another highly impressive GPU from Nvidia. For 1080p or 1440p gamers, perhaps those hanging onto a GTX 970 or GTX 1070, this is a natural upgrade, and it is simply excellent value, offering the best cost per frame of any GPU to-date when using the £369 UK MSRP.
The main thing that stands out to me is that, currently, the 3060 Ti has no real competition. We are just waiting for RDNA 2 to trickle down the stack so we get some new mid-range options from AMD. Anyone determined to make sure they’re getting the absolute best value product may want to wait until we see the RX 6700 XT (or whatever it will be called), but for now the 3060 Ti is the default and uncontested option at this price point.
Availability is also likely to be a problem. Speaking with retailers in the UK, we have heard that the 3060 Ti launch will have the most supply of any Ampere GPU so far, which is positive. But whether or not that will be enough to satisfy demand is another matter and it seems highly unlikely based on what we have been told. General availability is slated for tomorrow, December 2nd, so hopefully we are wrong – if not, this could be just another excellent graphics card that proves nearly impossible to buy.
RTX 3060 Ti has a UK MSRP of £369 and will be available from tomorrow. Overclockers UK will have a range of custom models on offer.
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Pros
- New cost per frame market leader.
- Faster than the RTX 2080 Super, at £300 less.
- Market leading efficiency for 1080p gaming, and joint-first at 1440p.
- Founders Edition is beautiful and runs cool and quiet.
- Offers 60FPS ray tracing at 1080p.
Cons
- Some may want to wait to see what AMD has to offer in this market segment.
- Availability sounds limited.
KitGuru says: The RTX 3060 Ti is a great GPU for those unwilling to splash out £470+ for an RTX 3070 or above. It delivers great performance for 1080p and 1440p gaming and is the current market leader in terms of cost per frame.
