GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q vs RTX 3080

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking26not rated
Place by popularity93not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation46.20no data
Power efficiency14.21no data
ArchitectureAmpere (2020−2024)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameGA102GA106
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date1 September 2020 (4 years ago)12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$699 no data

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 cores87043840
Core clock speed1440 MHz817 MHz
Boost clock speed1710 MHz1282 MHz
Number of transistors28,300 million13,250 million
Manufacturing process technology8 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)320 Watt60 Watt
Texture fill rate465.1153.8
Floating-point processing power29.77 TFLOPS9.846 TFLOPS
ROPs9648
TMUs272120
Tensor Cores272120
Ray Tracing Cores6830

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
InterfacePCIe 4.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length285 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 12-pinNone

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 typeGDDR6XGDDR6
Maximum RAM amount10 GB6 GB
Memory bus width320 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed1188 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth760.3 GB/s288.0 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 Connectors1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPortNo outputs
HDMI+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 Ultimate (12_2)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.56.5
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL2.02.0
Vulkan1.21.2
CUDA8.58.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 1 September 2020 12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount 10 GB 6 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 320 Watt 60 Watt

RTX 3080 has a 66.7% higher maximum VRAM amount.

RTX 3060 Max-Q, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 4 months, and 433.3% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce RTX 3080 is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q is a notebook one.


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 RTX 3080
GeForce RTX 3080
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q
GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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4.2 5847 votes

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3.5 183 votes

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Questions & comments

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