- Nvidia has announced the new GeForce RTX 3060 GPU.
- The 3060 will act as a replacement the beloved GeForce GTX 1060, coming this February.
Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 GPU offered gamers years of fun and power, and now its time in the sun has set. It shows its age when it comes to graphically intense games, and Nvidia is ready to turn to the future. The new GeForce RTX 3060 is now official, and you’ll be able to grab yours starting in February for $329.
With an emphasis on impressive ray-tracing capabilities, the RTX 3060 will be most gamers’ first taste of Nvidia’s Ampere architecture. It has big shoes to fill too, as GTX-class GPUs power nearly 90% of all Steam-based GeForce gamers. The newest RTX 3060 follows up the still new RTX 3060 Ti, and it even outperforms its more expensive sibling in some respects.
You won’t find as much power on the RTX 3060, though that’s to be expected with a more affordable GPU. As for core specs, Nvidia’s new hardware offers the following:
- 13 Shader TFLOPs
- 25 Ray-Tracing TFLOPs
- 101 Sensor TFLOPs
- 192-bit memory interface
- 12GB of DDR6 memory
If you’ve seen the spec sheets for the RTX 3060 Ti — and even the RTX 3080 — you’ll know that 12GB of memory takes the cake. The 3060 Ti packs just 8GB and the RTX 3080 splits the difference at 10GB.
Another key feature of the new RTX 3060 is Nvidia’s Resizable BAR technology. It essentially allows the CPU to tap directly into the GPU’s memory for a nice little speed boost. That is, as long as you have the right hardware.
As mentioned, we can expect to see the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 hit shelves starting this February for $329. However, it may be tricky to get your hands on one if the rollout is anything like that of the previous RTX 30 GPUs.
Check out the full launch video below and don’t forget to read the rest of our CES 2021 coverage.