Nvidia reveals the RTX 3060 12GB starting at $329 and faster than the PS5

At CES on Tuesday Nvidia revealed new RTX GPUs although most of them were mobile the RTX 3060 12GB was their new desktop GPU announcement. The card starts at $329, is faster than the PS5 and launches in February. Nvidia technically didn't say that the desktop RTX 3060 is faster than the PS5 but actually the upcoming mobile version being 30% faster than the PS5. Since it is the mobile version the desktop version should be about about 15-30% faster than it. Considering that a 12GB VRAM model is sold at $329 I imagine one with 8GB VRAM should cost around $270.

The PS5 and Series X under perform in ray tracing and the 3060 has DLSS so it should be able to very noticeably beat them in visuals and performance. Nvidia made it even easier to build a budget PC that beats the consoles. Is the RTX 3060 12GB the console killer GPU?

@NoodleFighter: Ok try and build your "budget PC" at the same price point of either the PS5 or XSX .. you start with your $329 card (you cant use some imaginary 8GB card that has not been announced)... you have $170 left for the rest of your components.

So let me see how your system breaks down with the rest of the $170 budget

8GB isn’t even possible with that memory config. It’s 6GB or 12GB.

i love this 329 paper i just bought.

@regnaston: I wasn't thinking a budget build that cost the exact same as the consoles but more one that cost $200 more.

A single pc component is worth $70 less than the whole console. Okay.

12 GB for that price is sus.

Feels like the first batch of 3K series might have been rushed.

I'm guessing the 12 GB means this card is gonna be good-ish for years to come alongside the current gen consoles. Maybe act like the 750Ti/1060 3/6GB.

It has always been like that since the release of 3D accelerators. PC gaming hardware is expensive, yes.

Look at that price shooting up.

The 12GB is wasted on the 3060 and is just driving up the price. It is not a card meant for 4K. You will hit a massive performance bottleneck on any future game that warrants that much VRAM.

@hardwenzen: u can do a million times more things with that gpu over the ps5 though

great

and i can just plug this card into my socket,hook it up to my tv and insert my game?

If it was actually this price on the street this would be a good PC alternative to PS5/Sex for those on a budget/starting out.

But it wont be this price.

The reality is that a card like the 3060 will be able to drive almost all games, at the resolutions 99% of PC gamers use, at frame rates higher than 99% will be able to detect, and likely be able to continue to do so for quite a few years. The price you pay for it, or more correctly the price you save on it over buying a 3080, can be spent on buying a 5060 in a couple generations by time you actually need the additional performance a 3080 offers, and surpass the 3080 at that time.

PC gamers rarely actually play on 4K. We haven't been sold the same lie TV and console manufacturers have. Most PC gamers, probably higher than 90% of them are playing on 24" 1080P 60hz displays. The most serious PC gamers are playing on 27 to 32 inch 1440P displays that have a refresh rate of 144hz. And the only people I know or have met that use a 4K screen with a 100% or better sRGB rating use them for digital artwork, not gaming. Only a tiny minority of people have fallen for the 4K gimmicks in the PC world, and just as few have fallen for the 240hz and 360hz gimmicks.

@regnaston:

Correction you have 70 left for the rest there is a 400 PS5 and PC gamers dont use blu-Ray drives, so a 400 PS5 would do.

Is simply impossible unless you have a PC, and we know like most of the RT series it would be a paper launch.

This “build a PC for the same price” argument is so silly. Hyping power until it crosses the $500 line is also silly. Either you care about power or you don’t.

The PC market especially graphics cards is in a mess right now, I’m waiting for all this crypto crap to calm down before building my next machine. I’m good with my current set-up anyway.

Nvidia sure went out of their way and making everything backwards to the 3000 series with its VRAM.

• 3080 should've had 12GB
• 3070 should've had 10GB
• 3060Ti should've had 8GB
• 3060 should've had 6GB

The RTX 3060 would've done fine with 6GB, but because Navi 22 is coming out with 12GB of VRAM, Nvidia just had to match because of competition wise. Nvidia was counting on AMD Navi to be weak and when it turned out to be competitive in Rasterization, Jensen Huang's original game plan had to be thrown out of the window and moved his Ti refresh plans ahead of schedule. Jensen really underestimate Navi and now is trying to race ahead of the competition.

All in all, price doesn't mean a whole lot for excitement levels and what Nvidia (AMD as well) need to do is advertise their stock levels and production rate of the 306012GB, low prices doesn't mean squat if its out of stock!

Edit: RTX 3080Ti has been delay until further notice due to lack of supplies for existing SKU. Might as well just settle for regular 3080.

If only that was all you actually paid for a console. Do you play your console online? PC players do not have to pay for that privilege. So PC gamers can cross that $500 mark and still be paying substantially less than console.

@eoten: there are dozens of free to play games on the ps4 so your argument fails. Playstation owners can play warzone , pubg and fortnite all year without paying a dime. Add in a occasional 1 month purchase to play a new games online for a while and it still.

Not to mention the affordability over time factor of only paying 50 a year a way more affordable that spending 800 to 1000 at once

@com2006: No kidding. The situation’s even worse when you consider what was available when the last consoles came out; you could get a gpu under $200 that would handily best “the most powerful console in the world” for it’s entire lifespan. Hell I was looking up prices back then and you could get a Black Friday 2013 2GB 7850 (which again matched or exceeded the ps4 for its life) for $100! And now, months after the console’s release, we’re celebrating a card with a MSRP over triple that amount which will certainly be near impossible to find with grossly inflated prices when it is found.

No GPU is killing a console but, yeah, that's a pretty sweet piece of hardware at a great price.

I mean, you can do a million more things with a cheap laptop, but gaming is what's important, not those million things.

I agree but that also means that if you don't have the very best of the best you also fall into the same category of the PS5, power doesn't stop mattering because you beat the PS5 by some frames, if you do really care about nothing but power yeah the top of the line is what matter and you can buy several PS5 with what that cost you on CPU and GPU alone let alone other components.

The PS5 and xbox are good enough for what they cost, and matching them for equal or less money is impossible right now unless you have a PC already which obviously you already payed for any way.

The 30% number only counts for Tflops not actual performance. In other words it's probably bullshit. It's why the XSX should have a 18% advantage but somehow keeps losing.

Well you can buy the $999 laptop that will probably also crush both next-gen consoles while being portable and with a screen. Not that expensive compared to the cost of consoles over 6 year life span + online pay + more expensive games.

If 'price' is console's argument against PC then that's not a very sound one. You can also probably use the same laptop for school. If quality is your argument then you shouldn't play anywhere but PC. No matter how you slice it $400-500 argument is stupid.

$999 laptop crushing a $400 ps5? Proof?

Nvidia announced RTX 30 series laptops at CES beginning with $999 and it isn't really far fetched to believe it either. After all, two years old RTX 2080 Laptop performed better than PS5 in UE5 demo.

@eoten: Why do you keep peddling the paying for online BS as an advantage for PC?

Well i can sell my games on console when i'm done, and i can use that money to pay for my online and with the money left over i can buy more games, oh and with gold i get access to 48 games a year.

Things you dont have access to because you screwed yourself over by giving away all your rights by going all digital.

Come up with a better argument as this one sucks.

@goldenelementxl: Well the OP is the one who brought consoles into the conversation, so...

No it did not and you know it.

You can buy these parts and a slap a RTX 3060 in it and cost about $912 total. Basically for the price of a Xbox Series X and digital edition PS5 you can get a PC that outperforms them, has access to exclusives from both consoles along with its own, access to gamepass and free online. Then again at point you may as well fork over the extra $70 for a 3060Ti

This is just guesses and assumptions. I want a video from nexus or whoever else that shows a $999 LAPTOP outperforming the ps5. You also mentioned the rtx2080. Have you seen how expensive they're these days? The used ones go for a lot.

1. Games are WAY cheaper on PC.

2. These days you can mine for like 4-5 months (when you aren't gaming) and get the gpu for free (or even make a profit if you are willing to invest into more GPUs).

3. The free games that you get on PC are better and more numerous and aren't tied to forced online subscription.

4. You can sell digital games, there are many active account markets for it.

Have you ever stopped to think about why consoles are as cheap as they are and are even sold at a loss? Have you heard about the razor and blades business model?

Glad my 3080 will still outperform, but why the 12GB's? It's largely a waste, and the 3080 sits at 10GB's. What?

@crimson_v: Using your PC to mine, what a stupid thing to do, mine and not play games so you can buy a better GPU to use in the computer you use to mine lol

PC "gamers" (i use that term loosely) could you be any more clueless if you tried?

@lundy86_4: it is because of the memory controller in use. Nvidia likely figures it's cheaper to double the ram instead of adding costly silicon to the chip for controllers. It was either 6GB or 12 and since nvidia is shook from AMD it went with the latter to not look bad.

When companies are forced to compete, the consumer wins.

Oh you misunderstood something i only mine when i'm not using my pc, i use my pc for about 0.5-3 hours a day so that's 21-23.5 hours of mining a day, i usually buy 2 GPU's when the mining craze starts (this time it was 2 2070 Super's) 1 card paid for itself and the other paid for most of the rest of my rig (full disclosure i had to sell my second 2070 S for it to pay).

+It heats my house and also cuts into gas bill saving me even more money.

Why is this a "stupid thing to do" i got my rig basically for free and even saved some money on gas/heating?

I would actually consider a switch to Nvidia at this price point depending on what this GPU offers. I wouldn't mind finding something next gen with more or less the performance of a 5700 XT or better, at around the $300 price point if possible. I do not feel I NEED to upgrade all the way to a 6800 XT. I like to upgrade to more mid-range GPUs, save a few hundred, and with the money saved, upgrade the GPU in my PC twice as often. This allows me to also follow trends in hardware development a bit more closely.

Lmao pc users expecting the card to be sold at $329.

Yes, it did and no amount of DC or mental gymnastics will change it. Remain mad!

The laptops aren't released it. It will be released from Jan 26, I think, so for now you have to take Nvidia's word for it that it's faster than PS5. As for the RTX 2080, I said RTX 2080 Mobile (i.e. Laptop) not the desktop RTX 2080. Different things. Again, Nvidia was right in regards to the previous comments about their 2080 series laptops performing better than next-gen consoles.

PC gamers talk about how great their hardware is, you would think they would sit back and enjoy the system. Yet they are constantly trying to justify their investments against console players, as if console players care 😄

I'd love to see what CPU, motherboard, RAM, storage, power supply, case, keyboard and mouse you can cobble together for $70.

Can someone explain to me why their cheapest card has more ram than the 3080?

$69.69 actually

@eoten: Trust me, playing a game at 4k on a 65 inch screen isn't a "gimmick".

Squinting at a 24 inch display isn't all it's cracked up to be.....