Should You Buy an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 for $ 329?
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 your money. Usually, I would say that you shouldn’t buy anything on launch day without seeing how it works, whether it’s a game you’ve been looking forward to or a graphics card that has yet to be played through by reviewers. and enthusiasts.
However, we live in strange times. There is a huge GPU shortage, exacerbated by hungry quarantined fans looking to upgrade their devices with graphics cards that allow them to play the latest games at 4K resolution and at absurd quality settings. In other words, the deferred demand was already quite large. Now add a bunch of scalpers that gobbled up a lot of resources through bot networks so they can resell these cards at great prices, and life really sucks if you just want to give a boost to your aging gaming PC.
Here’s my thought: if you’re in doubt about an upgrade, try buying a GeForce RTX 3060 ASAP. You can always return it if you later find that it doesn’t provide the graphical appeal you hoped for, or if you’re lucky and you actually have a chance to order, say, a GeForce RTX 3080.
But, of course, it’s not quite that simple. As an entry-level card, the GeForce RTX 3060 isn’t for everyone, and I wouldn’t go with it because you won’t find anything better. You need to know what matters most to your setup in order to determine the lowest-end graphics card that will give you a decent upgrade.
For example, if you’re rocking a 4K monitor and want to play ray-traced games with a bunch of modern, graphically intensive games, I’m concerned that the RTX 3060 won’t be enough to upgrade. According to Nvidia’s own benchmarks, which tend to be a little more generous than actual testing, the RTX 3070’s performance in a number of games (without the mentioned resolution) falls somewhere between its RTX 2060 and RTX 3070 cards. And yes, I’m making a guess on this last point, but I doubt Nvidia will release a lower-end card that is faster than a higher-end card soon after the latter debuted. It’s just not good business.
Referring to some benchmarks courtesy of the Overclockers Club , the RTX 3070 and RTX 2060 show the following frame rates at 4K resolution and top quality settings:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare ( 3070 ): 55.18;
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare ( 2060 ): 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 the performance of the RTX 3060 will be exactly in the middle of what you get from the RTX 2060 and RTX 3070, I think it’s safe to say that you won’t see the RTX 3070 – like the performance with your RTX 3060 card. If you want to play in 4K with high quality settings and beam kicks, you’ll have to be very choosy about which games you play in order to get anywhere from well- so-so performance. And your frame rate will never exceed your monitor’s refresh rate.
In this case, I think it’s worth holding onto the expensive RTX 3080 card . It’s the best card you can get in the GeForce lineup for 4K gaming (aside from the too expensive and not for gamers the RTX 3090), and it will give you a lot more options for future graphically painful gaming that is yet to come. There really isn’t much point in upgrading to the RTX 3060 if you’re playing 4K – unless you’re willing to sacrifice quality. And if you’re willing to make that kind of compromise, I’d ask for more tests to see how much you need to lower the settings for the frame rate you’re trying to achieve.
The best place for the RTX 3060 is 1080p gaming. In theory, you should be able to get close to that legendary 60fps in some pretty harsh games (with higher quality settings and ray tracing enabled). And if you don’t care about ray tracing, or want to lower your game quality to just below top quality, I think you will get a reliable graphics upgrade if you come from anything worse than a single GPU, GeForce RTX 2000 series graphics card. Super. (If you have a dual 2000-series GPU or one of the Super-brand cards, I probably wouldn’t upgrade to the RTX 3060.)
If you’re a 1440p gamer, the decision gets trickier. Assuming you want to maximize quality settings and use ray tracing in all supported titles (including those that don’t use DLSS ), the RTX 3060 should give you at least 30fps in most modern, graphics-intensive titles – save for more extreme games such as Cyberpunk 2077 if you set it to maximum. I would have lasted anyway and spent an additional $ 170 on the RTX 3070; you’ll have to make less compromise to get close to 60fps in harsh games.
Nvidia’s small family of graphics cards make it easy to determine what you need depending on your gaming system:
- Typical 60Hz 1080p monitor : The RTX 3060 is probably good for most games.
- 1080p Gaming Monitor (> 60Hz): It really depends on the games you are playing and the quality level you want. (Does that mean so much ray tracing to you?) If so, then the RTX 3070. If not, the RTX 3060 will probably be fine for small games, but be aware that you won’t push 120fps at the highest quality settings in demanding games. graphics. games. If you really need to stick to a budget, how about a tradeoff? Share the difference with the RTX 3060 Ti ($ 400). I would wait to see some direct comparison tests between this and the RTX 3060 before opening the box if you get it now, but my money is on the RTX 3060 Ti, which is the best price / performance combination.
- 1440p Monitor: RTX 3070. But you can do without the RTX 3060 Ti; that’s just about a 10% increase in productivity at a 25% increase in cost. Depending on the game, you may not notice the difference. But unless you plan on updating again for some time, I wouldn’t settle for a slower card.
- 4K Monitor: RTX 3080 (Best you get without spending an outrageous surcharge for slightly better performance from the RTX 3090)
As always, if you are most concerned about performance, wait for the official benchmarks and decide on the next card you buy based on what you find out there. I think it’s always best to buy the fastest graphics card you can afford, but given the supply constraints, I understand that some gamers might just want to get a pretty good update instead of a better one .
When comparing cards, don’t just look at frame rates; Think about what games you play, what settings you usually use, what settings you are willing to compromise on, and how all of this affects your CPF analysis. As I illustrated earlier, if a card only gives you a meager performance boost at a significant price increase, it may not be worth it for the thrifty unless it really takes you away from “unplayable” to “playable” territory. At least that’s how many people have approached Nvidia’s flagship RTX 3090 GPU; it might be the fastest you can get from Nvidia, but the price just doesn’t justify the increase. Use the same clever approach to find out if the RTX 3060 is right for you.
Update 1/13/21 12:30 PM: I’ve updated the title of the article to reflect the fact that you can’t pre-order a new card right now. You can subscribe to launch day notifications, and it’s likely some retailers might allow pre-orders, but we haven’t seen anything yet. Instead, the question is more: “Should I buy the 3070 on launch day?” And the answer to that is still: it depends on the circumstances.