GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q vs GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB

Primary details

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

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitecturePascal (2016−2021)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameGP106GA107
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date27 June 2017 (7 years ago)11 May 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 cores12802048
Core clock speed1265 MHz712 MHz
Boost clock speed1480 MHz1057 MHz
Number of transistors4,400 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology16 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)80 Watt35 Watt
Texture fill rate118.467.65
Floating-point processing powerno data4.329 TFLOPS
ROPs4832
TMUs8064
Tensor Coresno data64
Ray Tracing Coresno data16

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 x8
Supplementary power connectorsNoneNone

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 amount3 GB4 GB
Memory bus width192 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed8008 MHz1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth192.2 GB/s176.0 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 Connectorsno dataNo outputs

API compatibility

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

DirectX12.012 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model5.06.6
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL1.23.0
Vulkan-1.3
CUDA6.18.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 27 June 2017 11 May 2021
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 4 GB
Chip lithography 16 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 80 Watt 35 Watt

RTX 3050 Max-Q has an age advantage of 3 years, a 33.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 128.6% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB and GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q. 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 Max-Q 3 GB
GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q
GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q

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Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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