Hardware Unboxed compared the new GeForce RTX 3060 with 8GB of GDDR6 memory to the original GeForce RTX 3060 with 12GB of memory. The new version of the accelerator with a smaller amount of video memory turned out to be noticeably slower – by up to 18%.
Image Source: Hardware Unboxed
NVIDIA released a less powerful version of the GeForce RTX 3060 with 8GB of memory last month. Along with it, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti model with faster GDDR6X memory also debuted. Both new products are not replacements for the original GeForce RTX 3060 with 12 GB of memory and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with GDDR6 memory, but are intended to expand the range of GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards and provide gamers with more choice.
Along with the reduction in the amount of video memory, in the 8 GB version of the GeForce RTX 3060, the memory bus has narrowed to 128 bits from the previous 192 bits. As a result, the bandwidth of the memory subsystem suffered, dropping from 360 to 240 GB/s. This, in turn, negatively affected the performance in games. This difference will be especially noticeable when using a higher resolution.
The GeForce RTX 3060 8GB has no other changes. The memory runs at the same speed of 15Gb/s per pin, while the graphics card itself is based on a GA106 GPU with 3584 CUDA cores. The power consumption indicator also remained the same – 170 watts.
GeForce RTX 3060 8GB vs. GeForce RTX 3060 8GB in 1080p games
The Hardware Unboxed channel tested the new graphics card in 12 games using 1440p and 1080p resolutions so as not to overload the 8 GB memory buffer. In 1080p gaming, the performance difference between the 12GB and 8GB models was up to 17% in favor of the higher RAM version. The difference in gaming performance at 1440p was up to 18% in favor of the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB.
GeForce RTX 3060 8GB vs. GeForce RTX 3060 8GB in 1440p games
According to VideoCardz, in the US, the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB model is sold for almost the same price as the 12GB version. In Australia, the novelty is cheaper by about 100 Australian dollars (about 70 US dollars). The publication advises to choose the right model more carefully when buying, since it is very easy to make a mistake in this matter – NVIDIA, for some reason, decided not to change the name of the cut-down GeForce RTX 3060, although in fact there is a significant performance difference between the accelerators. However, this is indicated only by information about the amount of its video memory, which you can ignore when buying.
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