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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104: Review and Analysis for 2025

April 2025

Introduction

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104 is an updated version of the popular entry-level graphics card that strikes a balance between price and performance. Despite the dominance of the RTX 4000/5000 series on the market, this model remains relevant due to optimizations and availability. In this article, we will discuss its architecture, gaming capabilities, and practical value in 2025.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Architecture: The foundation is based on the Ampere (GA104) architecture, but with refinements for 2025. The chip is manufactured using Samsung's 8nm process, ensuring stability and reducing costs.

Unique Features:

- RTX (Ray Tracing): Hardware support for 2nd generation ray tracing.

- DLSS 3.5: Artificial intelligence enhances image quality and increases FPS in 4K.

- NVIDIA Reflex: Reduces latency in esports games (e.g., Valorant, CS:2).

- Support for FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR): Compatibility with open AMD technologies for flexible settings.

GA104 Features: The GA104 chip, previously used in the RTX 3070, has been slightly cut down (3584 CUDA cores versus 5888 in the RTX 3070), allowing for a lower price without losing key features.

2. Memory: Type, Size, and Performance

Memory Type: GDDR6 with a 128-bit bus.

Size: 8 GB is sufficient for most games at 1080p and 1440p, but may become a bottleneck at 4K or when rendering complex scenes.

Bandwidth: 224 GB/s (14 Gbps × 128 bits / 8). This is less than the original RTX 3060 12 GB (360 GB/s), affecting texture loading speeds in demanding projects.

Advice: For games with high-detail mods (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077), it's better to use DLSS/FSR to reduce memory load.

3. Gaming Performance

Average FPS in Popular Games (1080p, Ultra):

- Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (with DLSS 3.5): 65-70 FPS.

- Starfield (2024): 75 FPS.

- Alan Wake 2 (with Medium RTX): 55 FPS.

Resolutions:

- 1080p: An ideal choice — stable FPS above 60 in any project.

- 1440p: 45-60 FPS in ray tracing games. Without RTX — up to 80 FPS.

- 4K: Only with DLSS/FSR Performance Mode (e.g., Horizon Forbidden West — 40-50 FPS).

Ray Tracing: Enabling RTX drops FPS by 25-35%, but DLSS 3.5 compensates for losses by adding frames through AI.

4. Professional Tasks

Video Editing:

- Premiere Pro: Render acceleration thanks to CUDA. Exporting a 4K video takes 8-10 minutes (compared to over 20 on CPU).

- DaVinci Resolve: NVENC support for H.265 encoding.

3D Modeling:

- Blender: Rendering a medium-level scene (OptiX) takes about 15 minutes.

- Maya: Smooth operation with polygon models up to 2 million polygons.

Scientific Calculations:

CUDA and OpenCL support allows the card to be used in machine learning (small models) and simulations (e.g., MATLAB).

Limitation: 8 GB of memory hinders work with heavy projects — for example, rendering 8K videos or complex neural networks.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

TDP: 170 W — the same as the original RTX 3060.

Recommendations:

- Power Supply: At least 550 W (e.g., Corsair CX550).

- Cooling: Models with 2-3 fans are optimal (ASUS Dual, MSI Ventus).

- Case: Minimum of 2 expansion slots and good ventilation (NZXT H510 Flow).

Temperatures: Under load — 70-75°C, which is acceptable for long-term operation.

6. Comparison with Competitors

AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (16 GB):

- Pros: More memory, better performance at 4K.

- Cons: Weaker in RTX, no DLSS 3.5. Price: $330.

Intel Arc A770 (16 GB):

- Pros: Cheaper ($280), good driver progress by 2025.

- Cons: Instability in older games.

Conclusion: The RTX 3060 8 GB GA104 wins in technology balance (DLSS, RTX) but falls short in VRAM volume.

7. Practical Tips

- Power Supply: 550 W + 8-pin PCIe cable.

- Compatibility: PCIe 4.0 x16, works on PCIe 3.0 with minimal losses.

- Drivers: Always update through GeForce Experience — this is critical for new games (e.g., GTA VI).

- Overclocking: Moderate overclocking (+150 MHz on the core, +500 MHz on the memory) will add 5-7% performance.

Price: $299 for new models (ASUS, Gigabyte) — a great offer for a budget up to $350.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Support for DLSS 3.5 and RTX.

- Low noise and heat levels.

- Optimal for 1080p/1440p.

Cons:

- 8 GB of memory — a limitation for future games.

- Narrow memory bus (128 bits).

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the RTX 3060 8 GB GA104 For?

This graphics card is an ideal choice for:

1. Gamers with 1080p/1440p monitors looking to play at high settings.

2. Streamers who value NVIDIA Broadcast and NVENC.

3. Beginning professionals in video editing and 3D graphics (when working with moderate projects).

Alternative: If the budget allows, it is better to go for the RTX 4060 12 GB ($399), but for those looking for an affordable option in 2025, the RTX 3060 8 GB GA104 remains a reliable solution.

Basic

Label Name

NVIDIA

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

October 2022

Model Name

GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104

Generation

GeForce 30

Base Clock

1320MHz

Boost Clock

1777MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 4.0 x16

Transistors

17,400 million

RT Cores

Tensor Cores

Tensor Cores are specialized processing units designed specifically for deep learning, providing higher training and inference performance compared to FP32 training. They enable rapid computations in areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion, and personalized recommendations. The two most notable applications of Tensor Cores are DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AI Denoiser for noise reduction.

112

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

112

Foundry

Samsung

Process Size

8 nm

Architecture

Ampere

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

8GB

Memory Type

GDDR6

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

128bit

Memory Clock

1875MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

240.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

113.7 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

199.0 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

12.74 TFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

199.0 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

12.995 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count

Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

3584

L1 Cache

128 KB (per SM)

L2 Cache

3MB

TDP

195W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

3.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 Ultimate (12_2)

CUDA

8.6

Power Connectors

1x 12-pin

Shader Model

6.7

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

450W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

12.995 TFLOPS

3DMark Time Spy

Score

8928

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon Pro Vega II Duo

13.808 +6.3%

Arc A770M

13.25 +2%

GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104

12.995

GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile

12.642 -2.7%

GeForce RTX 3060 GA104

12.485 -3.9%

3DMark Time Spy

Radeon RX 7700 XT

15945 +78.6%

RTX A4000

10952 +22.7%

GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GA104

8928

Radeon RX 5600 OEM

7004 -21.6%

GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max Q

4854 -45.6%