GeForce RTX 3060 Ti vs GTX 260M SLI

Place in the ranking	746	49
Place by popularity	not in top-100	26
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	67.47
Power efficiency	1.51	18.29
Architecture	G9x (2007−2010)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	NB9E-GTX	GA104
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	2 March 2009 (15 years ago)	1 December 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$399

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores	224	4864
Core clock speed	550 MHz	1410 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1665 MHz
Number of transistors	1508 Million	17,400 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	200 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	253.1
Floating-point processing power	no data	16.2 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	80
TMUs	no data	152
Tensor Cores	no data	152
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	38

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 size	large	no data
Interface	no data	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	242 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 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 type	GDDR3	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	950 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	448.0 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

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 Connectors	no data	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	10	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	no data	6.5
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	2.0
Vulkan	-	1.2
CUDA	+	8.6

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 260M SLI 3.29

RTX 3060 Ti 53.15
+1516%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

GTX 260M SLI 8959

RTX 3060 Ti 78597
+777%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	8−9 −1675%	142 +1675%
1440p	4−5 −1850%	78 +1850%
4K	3−4 −1533%	49 +1533%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	2.81
1440p	no data	5.12
4K	no data	8.14

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −1364%	161 +1364%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −1086%	83 +1086%
Elden Ring	7−8 −1914%	141 +1914%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	9−10 −1189%	110−120 +1189%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −1027%	124 +1027%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −1200%	91 +1200%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 −1367%	220 +1367%
Metro Exodus	6−7 −1783%	113 +1783%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 −791%	95−100 +791%
Valorant	3−4 −10567%	320 +10567%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	9−10 −1189%	110−120 +1189%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −864%	106 +864%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −1057%	81 +1057%
Dota 2	9−10 −1478%	142 +1478%
Elden Ring	7−8 −2571%	187 +2571%
Far Cry 5	18−20 −472%	103 +472%
Fortnite	18−20 −1083%	210−220 +1083%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 −1180%	192 +1180%
Grand Theft Auto V	9−10 −1467%	141 +1467%
Metro Exodus	6−7 −1517%	97 +1517%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	30−33 −617%	210−220 +617%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 −709%	89 +709%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −1350%	170−180 +1350%
Valorant	3−4 −7467%	220−230 +7467%
World of Tanks	55−60 −381%	270−280 +381%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	9−10 −1189%	110−120 +1189%
Counter-Strike 2	10−12 −782%	97 +782%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −971%	75 +971%
Dota 2	9−10 −1400%	135 +1400%
Far Cry 5	18−20 −522%	110−120 +522%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 −1060%	174 +1060%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	30−33 −617%	210−220 +617%
Valorant	3−4 −9033%	274 +9033%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	1−2 −9600%	97 +9600%
Elden Ring	3−4 −3267%	101 +3267%
Grand Theft Auto V	2−3 −4750%	97 +4750%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	21−24 −661%	170−180 +661%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 −2750%	57 +2750%
World of Tanks	21−24 −1383%	300−350 +1383%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 −2733%	85−90 +2733%
Counter-Strike 2	9−10 −589%	62 +589%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −1567%	50 +1567%
Far Cry 5	8−9 −1900%	160−170 +1900%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 −6850%	139 +6850%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	4−5 −2525%	100−110 +2525%
Valorant	10−11 −2090%	219 +2090%

4K
High Preset

Dota 2	16−18 −569%	107 +569%
Elden Ring	1−2 −5600%	57 +5600%
Grand Theft Auto V	16−18 −569%	107 +569%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	9−10 −1944%	180−190 +1944%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 −1800%	38 +1800%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 −569%	107 +569%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 −2100%	65−70 +2100%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −2300%	24 +2300%
Dota 2	16−18 −581%	109 +581%
Far Cry 5	3−4 −2933%	90−95 +2933%
Fortnite	2−3 −4250%	85−90 +4250%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −8300%	84 +8300%
Valorant	3−4 −3967%	122 +3967%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Metro Exodus

+0%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	36 +0%	36 +0%
Metro Exodus	43 +0%	43 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Counter-Strike 2

60−65

+0%

60−65

+0%

This is how GTX 260M SLI and RTX 3060 Ti compete in popular games:

RTX 3060 Ti is 1675% faster in 1080p
RTX 3060 Ti is 1850% faster in 1440p
RTX 3060 Ti is 1533% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Valorant, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RTX 3060 Ti is 10567% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 3060 Ti is ahead in 59 tests (94%)
there's a draw in 4 tests (6%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.29	53.15
Recency	2 March 2009	1 December 2020
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	200 Watt

GTX 260M SLI has 33.3% lower power consumption.

RTX 3060 Ti, on the other hand, has a 1515.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 587.5% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 260M SLI in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 260M SLI is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is a desktop one.

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