GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 vs GTX 690
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 365 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 51 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 1.48 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 3.32 | no data |
| Architecture | Kepler (2012−2018) | Ampere (2020−2024) |
| GPU code name | GK104 | GA104 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 3 May 2012 (12 years ago) | 1 September 2021 (3 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $999 | $329 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | 3072 | 3584 |
| Core clock speed | 915 MHz | 1320 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1019 MHz | 1777 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 3,540 million | 17,400 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 300 Watt | 170 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 130.4 | 199.0 |
| Floating-point processing power | 3.13 TFLOPS | 12.74 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 32 | 48 |
| TMUs | 128 | 112 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 112 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 28 |
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).
| Bus support | PCI Express 3.0 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Length | 279 mm | 242 mm |
| Height | 4.376" (11.1 cm) | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 2x 8-pin | 1x 12-pin |
| SLI options | + | - |
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 | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB (4 GB per GPU) GDDR5 | 12 GB |
| Memory bus width | 512-bit (256-bit per GPU) | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1502 MHz | 1875 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 384 GB/s | 360.0 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 Connectors | Two Dual Link DVI-I. One Dual link DVI-D. One Mini-Displayport 1.2 | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |
| Multi monitor support | 4 displays | no data |
| HDMI | Yes (via dongle) | + |
| HDCP | + | - |
| Maximum VGA resolution | 2048x1536 | no data |
| Audio input for HDMI | Internal | no data |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| 3D Blu-Ray | + | - |
| 3D Gaming | + | - |
| 3D Vision Live | + | - |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_0) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 6.6 |
| OpenGL | 4.2 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 3.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.1.126 | 1.3 |
| CUDA | + | 8.6 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 3 May 2012 | 1 September 2021 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB (4 GB per GPU) GDDR5 | 12 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 300 Watt | 170 Watt |
RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 has an age advantage of 9 years, a 200% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 76.5% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 690 and GeForce RTX 3060 12 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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