GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile vs 256 DDR

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot rated168
Place by popularitynot in top-10069
Power efficiencyno data27.94
ArchitectureCelsius (1999−2005)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameNV10 A3GA106
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date23 December 1999 (25 years ago)12 January 2021 (3 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA coresno data3840
Core clock speed120 MHz900 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1425 MHz
Number of transistors17 million13,250 million
Manufacturing process technology220 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)no data80 Watt
Texture fill rate0.48171.0
Floating-point processing powerno data10.94 TFLOPS
ROPs448
TMUs4120
Tensor Coresno data120
Ray Tracing Coresno data30

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
InterfaceAGP 4xPCIe 4.0 x16
Width1-slotno data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeDDRGDDR6
Maximum RAM amount32 MB6 GB
Memory bus width128 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed150 MHz1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth4.8 GB/s336.0 GB/s
Shared memoryno data-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors1x VGANo outputs

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX7.012 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Modelno data6.5
OpenGL1.24.6
OpenCLN/A2.0
VulkanN/A1.2
CUDA-8.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 23 December 1999 12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount 32 MB 6 GB
Chip lithography 220 nm 8 nm

RTX 3060 Mobile has an age advantage of 21 year, a 19100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 2650% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce 256 DDR and GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce 256 DDR is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce 256 DDR
GeForce 256 DDR
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile
GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.4 208 votes

Rate GeForce 256 DDR on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.1 5029 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.