GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104 vs GTX 1060 5 GB

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking236not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency13.58no data
ArchitecturePascal (2016−2021)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameGP106GA104
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date26 December 2017 (6 years ago)October 2022 (2 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 cores12803584
Core clock speed1506 MHz1320 MHz
Boost clock speed1709 MHz1777 MHz
Number of transistors4,400 million17,400 million
Manufacturing process technology16 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)120 Watt195 Watt
Texture fill rate136.7199.0
Floating-point processing power4.375 TFLOPS12.74 TFLOPS
ROPs4064
TMUs80112
Tensor Coresno data112
Ray Tracing Coresno data28

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).

InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length250 mm242 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin1x 12-pin

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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount5 GB8 GB
Memory bus width160 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed2002 MHz1875 MHz
Memory bandwidth160.2 GB/s240.0 GB/s

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 DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI++

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.46.7
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.23.0
Vulkan1.2.1311.3
CUDA6.18.6

Pros & cons summary


Maximum RAM amount 5 GB 8 GB
Chip lithography 16 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 120 Watt 195 Watt

GTX 1060 5 GB has 62.5% lower power consumption.

RTX 3060 8 GB GA104, on the other hand, has a 60% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 100% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB and GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104. We've got no test results to judge.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB
GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104
GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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4.1 648 votes

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3.4 56 votes

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Questions & comments

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