Nvidia’s RTX 30-series graphics cards made a big splash when they began arriving all the way back in 2020. Those products delivered a huge performance leap in their day, but time marches on for us all. The oldest Ampere cards are just a few months away from their sixth birthdays, and even though Nvidia has continued to support 30-series cards with its latest Game Ready driver optimizations and DLSS model upgrades, other signature GeForce features like DLSS Frame Generation are never coming to Ampere.

Even where new software features are technically supported, Ampere comes with big asterisks. DLSS 4.5 is the first upscaling model to take advantage of FP8 acceleration that’s exclusive to RTX 40- and 50-series Tensor Cores. RTX 30-series cards can still technically run DLSS 4.5 upscaling models, but the improved image quality they offer now demands a significant performance penalty from Ampere compared to past DLSS versions. And if you want to experiment with frame generation, you have to deal with the lower image quality of AMD’s cross-platform FSR 3.1 framegen tech, assuming it’s available at all in a given title.

Those software limitations aren’t insurmountable obstacles to a good gaming experience, but VRAM is a different story. Ampere cards arrived when games were less hungry for VRAM than they are today, and even the RTX 3080 has just 10GB to play with. Unless you bought into the highest end of the Ampere range, you’re likely feeling constrained by your card’s 8GB of VRAM with max settings in the latest games at resolutions higher than 1080p.

If any or all of those limitations have you itching for a more powerful, more flexible modern GPU, and you’d rather not navigate our GPU Hierarchy to figure out what constitutes a true upgrade, worry not. We’ve done the hard number-crunching work and thought through the most common gaming scenarios to arrive at the best upgrade path for each common Ampere card.

So what defines an upgrade for the purposes of this guide? First and foremost, we want to see at least a 1.5x improvement in overall raster performance from GPU to GPU as a baseline, and larger leaps are even better. The architectural advances of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell GPUs naturally mean you’ll enjoy improved RT gaming performance from our picks, as well.

Whatever your individual feelings for upscaling and framegen might be, you’ll enjoy greater freedom to play with DLSS 4.5 and MFG on the latest GeForces. Our path-traced performance results with Pragmata illustrate why you should use those features to the fullest, but it’s ultimately your choice. All told, raster gaming performance boosts still matter most, so that’s our hard line.

If you’re already in the Nvidia fold, we expect that you want to stay there, so we’ve made our picks assuming as much. But where a given Radeon card might make sense, we’ve included it as a suggestion if you’re open to switching.

Monitoring the situation

Before we talk about specific upgrade paths for your GPU, we need to take a moment and consider the monitor you’re using with it. If you only have a 1080p or 60Hz monitor, a fixed-refresh-rate panel, or all of the above, your graphics card likely shouldn’t be your first or only upgrade. It’s overwhelmingly likely that you won’t enjoy a perceptibly smoother or lower-latency gaming experience on a 60Hz monitor than you currently do with the graphics card you already own.

The continuing development of high-quality upscaling tech means that monitor resolution is no longer a hard wall for gaming smoothness and responsiveness. Instead, it’s a hard cap on the image quality you can achieve. To get the most out of DLSS (or FSR), you really want to give those upscalers the highest output resolution and highest refresh rate to work with that you can. Upscaling from lower resolution to 1080p just isn’t worth it anymore unless you absolutely must, while upscaling to 4K using DLSS 4.5 Performance requires only a small frame-rate penalty relative to native 1080p output.

Along with more and more affordable OLED options, we’re seeing plenty of dual-mode monitors that can offer high-refresh-rate 4K output alongside even faster 1080p modes for downright affordable prices. And broadly compatible variable-refresh-rate tech is now in virtually every gaming monitor, so you can likely enable G-Sync or G-Sync Compatible modes with the GPU you already have.

Best of all, displays are one of the few PC gaming products that don’t rely heavily on advanced logic chips or DRAM to work, so prices for gaming monitors have remained reasonable even as everything else has gotten eye-wateringly expensive. If your monitor is older than your Ampere GPU, it’s likely high time for an upgrade. Start there first.

RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3090, and RTX 3090 Ti: Wait for a compelling upgrade

If you’re one of the lucky gamers with an RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3090, or RTX 3090 Ti, you can rest easy knowing that your graphics card has plenty of life left in it. Any upgrade right now is elective rather than essential, especially if you’re already using DLSS upscaling. The RTX 3080 Ti’s 12GB of VRAM is the only conceivable pain point we can see in this upper tier of Ampere.

The only cards that are likely to feel like major upgrades for you are the RTX 4090 or RTX 5090, and unless you’re willing to compete with local LLM trailblazers for a used 4090 or put down nearly 2X MSRP for a new 5090, your best bet is to hold onto your current card unless you’re really feeling limited by its ray-tracing or path-tracing horsepower, the lack of FP8 Tensor Core acceleration for DLSS 4.5, or the lack of high-quality framegen support.

If you’re only gaming, 24GB of VRAM isn’t doing much for you, and you might ponder selling your RTX 3090 or 3090 Ti to one of those same LLM enthusiasts while the market is hot and putting the proceeds toward a new RTX 5080, which is substantially faster and more power-efficient than those cards and gives you full-speed access to DLSS 4.5 and MFG. But both of those things are nice to have rather than essentials.

RTX 3080: Upgrade if you’re feeling the VRAM pinch

The RTX 3080 isn’t constrained so much by its compute horsepower, which remains strong in pure raster gaming, as it is by its 10GB of VRAM. Especially if you’re trying to game at 1440p or 4K with max settings and minimal upscaling, you are likely finding that your 3080’s VRAM is the biggest obstacle to achieving the best combo of performance and image quality nowadays.

Unfortunately, the most tangible upgrades for the 3080 are the currently pricey RTX 5070 Ti or the chronically overpriced RTX 5080. Both of those cards will feel much faster for both raster and ray-traced games, they enable full-speed DLSS 4.5 upscaling for practically free performance boosts, and they give you access to framegen and MFG juice that the 3080 doesn’t support at all.

But you’d have to be really hurting for an upgrade to shell out for either of those cards, given their stiff premiums over MSRP right now. A faster, higher-resolution monitor paired with DLSS 4 upscaling (Preset K in Nvidia App override language) is a cheaper, easier path if you haven’t already tried it.

But if you’re a 3080 gamer looking for that “wow” moment from a new GPU, the RTX 5070 Ti and 5080 are the way, and their prices are what they are.

RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti: Upgrade now

As with the RTX 3080, the biggest performance constraint for the RTX 3070 and 3070 Ti these days isn’t necessarily raw compute, but VRAM. Nvidia only ever offered these cards in 8GB flavors, and they still offer solid 1080p gaming performance with the latest titles. But if you’ve tried to max out settings at 1440p or above, you’ve likely felt the squeeze of that limited VRAM pool.

And VRAM-hungry RT gaming is inadvisable on the 3070 and 3070 Ti, as you’re going to be leaning hard on DLSS to even get to a fuzzy 1080p output. It’s just not worth it.

The RTX 5070 neatly solves all of the problems. It delivers the large baseline performance boost we want to see for a true upgrade, it has 12GB of VRAM for more demanding games at higher resolutions, and its support for DLSS 4.5 and MFG unlocks the latest tools for achieving high output image quality and smoothness. And it does all of this at a relatively reasonable price, even in today’s graphics card market.

If you don’t bleed green, you can get even more VRAM and a bit higher performance with the impressively fast and efficient Radeon RX 9070, whose prices also haven’t risen too terribly amid the current RAMpocalypse.

But that move is a bit of a leap of faith given the spotty support for FSR 4 AI upscaling and frame gen in the latest titles, and it also comes with the risk that you’ll be entirely locked out of next-gen features like path tracing, as we’ve seen in the latest Capcom games. If none of that sounds bothersome to you, though, the RX 9070 is worth a look as a possible option.

RTX 3060 Ti: Upgrade now

Like the RTX 3070 and 3070 Ti, Nvidia only ever offered the RTX 3060 Ti in an 8GB flavor, and that’s a tough enough limitation these days. But the 3060 Ti’s somewhat lower compute horsepower is a correspondingly greater liability as games march ever forward.

As with the RTX 3070 and 3070 Ti, your best upgrade bet is the RTX 5070. You’ll feel an even bigger boost in performance than you will with the 3070 duo, and you get more VRAM and better DLSS support than your existing card to go with it. Easy.

RTX 3060 12GB: Upgrade if you can make the 5070 leap

The RTX 3060 12GB keeps going and going thanks to its unusually large VRAM pool for a budget-friendly GPU. But that VRAM is paired with just so-so compute horsepower that’s really showing its age in the latest games.

The most natural upgrade for the 3060 in normal times would be the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, which delivers the performance leap we want at a reasonable MSRP. But the ongoing RAMpocalypse has made those cards too scarce and too pricey to recommend. And the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB’s performance is all too likely to fall off a cliff due to its small VRAM pool, so we’d never suggest it as an upgrade.

Sorry to repeat ourselves, but the best step up from the 3060 12GB in today’s chaotic market is the RTX 5070, assuming you can afford it. It more than doubles the 3060 12GB’s gaming performance even at 1080p, and that gap becomes even more pronounced at 1440p and beyond.

Critically, the 5070 doesn’t leave you with less VRAM than you already have. Add in vastly better RT performance and support for DLSS Multi Frame Generation, and an RTX 5070 is a truly transformative gaming upgrade.

If you need a more budget-friendly upgrade than the RTX 5070 amid the RAMpocalypse, your only reasonable choice is the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB. That card delivers the 1.5x basic performance improvement that we want to see for the money, it runs FSR 4 AI upscaling and framegen where it’s available, and it slots into roughly the same power envelope as the RTX 3060 12GB. But you’ll need to be comfortable with leaving the Nvidia fold, and that might be too big a leap for some.

RTX 3050: Upgrade now

As the entry-level Ampere card, the RTX 3050 was already wimpy when it hit the market, and time hasn’t treated it well. It lands well below the 60 FPS mark in our overall standings, even at 1080p, and we’ve found that its baseline performance is so low that DLSS doesn’t improve things much.

If you’re still gaming on an RTX 3050 and have the freedom not to, it’s dead simple to find a compelling upgrade. Even the humble RTX 5060 handily doubles the 3050’s average frame rate across our tests at 1080p, and assuming you don’t run into VRAM limitations, the 5060 can even deliver a smooth 1440p gaming experience if 60 FPS is an acceptable baseline on average. That major performance boost barely comes with increased power requirements, so you won’t have to budget for a PSU upgrade, either.

But the 5060’s 8GB of VRAM means that you might still run into performance pitfalls in modern games, especially if you want to try out RT and DLSS framegen. If you’re only playing Counter-Strike 2, Fortnite, or Apex Legends, that’s less of a problem than it might be if you’re keen for the latest AAA experiences or PlayStation ports. But you’ll always be thinking about

If you’re looking for a card with greater longevity than the 8GB 5060 and aren’t married to the Nvidia ecosystem, we’d also check out the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB. It’s even faster than the 5060 in our tests and will allow you to start properly exploring ray tracing in titles that support it. It offers high-quality FSR 4 upscaling and framegen, and it won’t crush a small or aging PSU.

Bottom line

Nvidia graphics cards are lasting longer than ever, thanks to common architecture capabilities like RT and Tensor Cores, in addition to a continuously improving DLSS software suite that boosts both performance and image quality. But even with those benefits, games are continuously advancing, too, and today’s titles are starting to put pressure on even the top-end RTX 30-series GPUs of yore.

The AI boom and the accompanying RAMpocalypse both make this a tough time to upgrade for gamers’ wallets, but if you’re still using an RTX 30-series GPU and are starting to feel the upgrade itch, the relative stability of gaming GPU roadmaps also means that you can make the leap to a Blackwell card (or competing Radeon) with some confidence that you won’t be taken by a surprise next-generation GPU launch any time soon.

That said, if you’re still happy with your current graphics card and gaming monitor setup, don’t mind missing out on DLSS Multi-Frame Generation, and don’t feel the need to explore maxed-out ray-traced or path-traced effects in the latest titles, we wouldn’t blame you for squeezing every last bit of life out of your Ampere GPU. No matter which path you take, it’s hard to lose.

If you’re looking for a budget upgrade this Black Friday, Gigabyte is now offering an Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB at an all-time low on Amazon. The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC 12G (Rev2.0) is currently less than $264—an 18% discount from its list price of $319.99. This sale price makes it even more affordable than the two-fan Gigabyte Windforce version, which is listed for $269.99.

Although the RTX 3060 is more than three years old at this point, it’s still a good budget GPU for 1080p gaming. More than that, the Gigabyte’s Gaming OC variant will allow you to get more performance out of the same card, especially with its triple-fan setup and factory overclocking. Tom’s Hardware’s own GPU benchmarks hierarchy testing shows the RTX 3060 hitting more than 100 FPS at 1080p Medium, and if you prefer Ultra settings, you could still hit a respectable 70 FPS or higher.

This GPU’s 12GB of VRAM, a 50% bump from the memory you’ll usually find on older and lower graphics cards. More than that, the RTX 3060 will let you enjoy Nvidia’s DLSS technology, allowing you to use AI and machine learning to get a few extra frames for smoother gameplay. This GPU also gives you two DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.1 outputs, so you can have as many as four displays for those who are into multi-monitor setups.

If you’re tired of relying on your PC’s integrated graphics card or want to move up from an older GTX video card, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC 12G (Rev2.0) is a great upgrade that will not break the bank. It’s also a good option if you’re building a gaming PC on a budget and must have a discrete graphics card to enjoy your favorite titles.

We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you're looking for other products, check out our Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

A Redditor has shared details and images, charting their work in creating an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Mini ITX Founders Edition (FE). Nvidia never released such a card, so this project was based upon previous 'mini FE edits', and Clashmains_2-account's dreams. In the subreddit, the plucky individual says that they bought a compact RTX 3060 and a 3D printer to make their wishes come true.

Sometimes it is easy to be disappointed when a company doesn't make a product that fits in with your wishes or expectations. It is harder to do something about it, and thus we applaud Clashmains_2-account for investing their time, money and energy in what looks like a great attempt to realize this card that never was.

The main ingredient of the home-made GeForce RTX 3060 FE was a Gainward GeForce RTX 3060 Pegasus. This made a great starting point as Clashmains_2-account wanted their finished FE card to be an ITX design. As sold, the Pegasus is just 170mm in length. To get started the Redditor says that they copied the physical dimensions of the Pegasus PCB and heatsink, and designed around that constant.

Another change that Clashmains_2-account was inspired to implement was swapping out the Gainward fan for more compact model, fitting within the FE design ethic - to have a fan that doesn't encroach on the clean edged shroud. A 92mm Noctua fan was chosen for the task, and though it looks smaller than the model it replaced, Noctua has a great reputation for quiet and high performance spinners.

Many will probably agree that this Nvidia Founder Edition inspired GeForce RTX 3060 Mini ITX model looks very cool, though the Redditor humbly highlights some "rough spots" in their 3D printer output. It was, after all, their "first 3D print project." If you hit the source link, you will see several helpful Redditors discussing print filament materials that would better fit this kind of product, and discussions about improving fit and finish. The print was created in PLA, a plastic which hasn't the greatest resilience to high temperatures, it become malleable at around 60 - 80 degrees Celsius. The project creator is clear when they say that this is not a functional piece, rather more of a test. They also state that future builds will be printed in ABS or PETG.

The GeForce RTX 3060 is getting a bit long in the tooth now, so has dropped out of our Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2023. Perhaps some enthusiastic PC DIYers will be inspired to Mini ITX FE redesign something like the newer GeForce RTX 4060. For this, or your other inspired 3D printing projects, take a look through our recently updated Best 3D Printers 2023 feature for recommendations across a variety of price points.

Nvidia's GeForce X060-tier cards are usually among its most popular SKUs, so we are on tenterhooks for the launch of the RTX 4060, which poses to be one of the best graphics cards. Today, leak-centric video cards site VideoCardz says it managed to obtain some 3DMark scores from reviews in progress, being prepared for "the official embargo lift on June 28th." It has shared extensive comparative scores featuring several near-neighbor SKUs, purportedly taken from 3DMark Speed Way, Port Royal, Time Spy, and Fire Strike synthetic tests.

Before sharing and discussing some of the scores, it is essential to point out that our headline highlights the apparent 23% gen-on-gen uplift delivered by the upcoming RTX 4060 8GB against the established RTX 3060 12GB. The relatively recent addition of the RTX 3060 8GB is left much further behind by the new Ada Lovelace architecture entrant. According to the figures gathered by VideoCardz, the new RTX 4060 is reportedly 47.9% faster than the RTX 3060 8GB version. The source also highlights that both 8GB cards mentioned have a 128-bit memory bus and PCIe Express 4.0 8x interface making them likely unsuitable for modern 1440p (2560x1440) gaming.

We have reproduced an abridged set of results from VideoCardz sources. Remember to add a pinch of salt to these numbers, but also that they are synthetics. UL designs its 3DMark benchmarks to resemble games people play across generations and APIs. Still, with the variety of 3D engines, the correlation between these scores and gameplay FPS isn't always powerful.

Table data via VideoCardz

We would have liked to see an RTX 3070 and RX 6700 comparing the results. For bang-for-buck reasons, PC enthusiasts and DIYers might look sideways at old-stock and used GPUs instead of products like the RTX 4060 / Ti 8GB. Our upcoming review will be much broader than these results and feature many of the most popular games and display resolutions in 2023.

Remember that Nvidia is also preparing GeForce RTX 4060 Ti models with 16 GB of VRAM on board starting in July. Models with doubled VRAM will still be hindered by the 128-bit memory bus, so we will have to try and see if and when they are worth considering.

Some of the first purported benchmarks for the upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 have leaked out. Benchleaks has spotted two different Geekbench 6 runs, apparently using this graphics card: the first run was the GPU Compute test using the Vulkan API, and there was another one using OpenCL. According to the leaks, the shiny new RTX 4060 runs almost a fifth faster than the RTX 3060 if these tests are genuine and representative of the final product. Take the data with a pinch of salt for now.

Nvidia revealed its plans for RTX 4060-class graphics cards back in mid-May and we know that we should expect the RTX 4060 8GB model in July. This, the first AD107 GPU-based desktop graphics card to be launched, has since had its launch date officially pinpointed to June 29th at 6 AM Pacific time. With a little over a week to go until launch day it wouldn't be surprising if reviewers and similar early access testers have put this GPU through Geekbench, precipitating these leaks.

We mentioned that these early Geekbench 6 GPU compute benchmarks indicate that the upcoming RTX 4060 is about a fifth faster than its predecessor, the RTX 3060. Let us look closer at the numbers, and throw in a couple of other reference points for a wider picture. 

Please remember that the RTX 4060 result, if genuine, appears to be based upon a single sample so the Geekbench average could change quite a bit when more cards run these tests. We'll be covering the RTX 4060 in full detail when it launches. Keep the salt handy for now.

Pondering over the table's Vulkan API scores, it looks like the new RTX 4060 is about 12% faster than the RTX 3060. In Open CL tests the difference is better, with the new Ada Lovelace card being very nearly 20% faster. Geekbench scores have a reputation for not correlating very closely with gaming performance, so we will be looking out for further leaked third party benchmarks to get a clearer picture of the RTX 4060 between now and next Thursday.

The specs of the upcoming GeForce RTX 4060 are going to be a GPU with 24 SMs, 3072 CUDA cores, 24 MB of L2 cache. This will be paired with a memory subsystem featuring 8 GB of 17 Gbps GDDR6 memory, operating on a 128-bit wide bus for 272 (453 effective) GBps bandwidth. The reference card will run at approximately 115 W TGP. The launch price we have is $299, but with luck there will be some models released cheaper than this.

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4060 might just do enough to earn a place on our list of the Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2023, we shall have to wait and see.

AMD's latest Radeon RX 7600 was just a hairline from making the list of best graphics cards — a price cut to bring it closer to the RX 6650 XT would help. So when challenged by a Twitter user to compare the Radeon RX 7600 to its rivals, Sasa Marinkovic, senior director of gaming marketing at AMD, tweeted a chart where the Radeon RX 7600 dominates the GeForce RTX 3060. However, the cheeky comparison was against the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB, a cut-down version of the original, rather than the far more common GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB).

Marinkovic's chart showed that the Radeon RX 7600 delivered, on average, up to 34% faster performance than the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB at 1080p (1920x1080) and maximum settings. The Radeon RX 7600 was up to 61% in some titles, such as Borderlands 3. While we don't think AMD's results are inaccurate, we believe the chipmaker should have made the comparison with the 12GB RTX 3060 and not a hampered variant that no sane person would buy.

Besides the difference in memory capacity (8GB vs. 12GB), the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB has a narrower memory interface. Nvidia reduced the original 192-bit bus to 128-bit on the 8GB model, so the memory bandwidth took a substantial hit. The trimmed-down memory interface diminished the bandwidth by 33% on the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB.

The GeForce RTX 3060 8GB was basically a stealth release, similar to the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB, except it was a considerably less desirable graphics card. While we never had the opportunity to get the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB in our lab for testing, multiple publications have corroborated that it's approximately 15% slower than the regular GeForce RTX 3060 with 12GB of memory.

That means the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB lands about midway between the 12GB card and the GeForce RTX 3050. That in itself isn't the problem. The real deal killer is that the 3060 8GB launched at the same price as the 12GB card. These days, it's about $20 cheaper, but it's still not a popular card. The RTX 3060 12GB starts at $279, RTX 3060 8GB at $259, and RTX 3050 at $219.

The Radeon RX 7600 is faster than the GeForce RTX 3060, but only in rasterization performance. Nvidia still has an edge in ray tracing performance. By our benchmarks, the Radeon RX 7600 offers 17% higher rasterization performance than the GeForce RTX 3060 at 1080p with ultra settings. However, the Radeon RX 7600 is up to 22% slower in ray tracing performance. The only reason AMD used the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB for comparison was to make the Radeon RX 7600 look better. Logically, a 34% delta looks way more compelling than 17%.

It's also worth pointing out that AMD doesn't factor in DLSS performance. While FSR 2.0 can often deliver similar performance gains for AMD GPUs, we've seen numerous cases (most recently in Diablo IV and Lord of the Rings: Gollum) where FSR 2.0 results in far blurrier images than DLSS. DLSS support is also more widespread than FSR 2.0 support.

There were many doubts about the Radeon RX 7600 before the graphics card's launch. Many users were concerned about whether the Radeon RX 7600 could offer a worthwhile performance improvement over the existing Radeon RX 6650 XT. The Navi 33-based graphics card ended up beating its predecessor by an insignificant margin, with a higher price and similar power draw. That explains why AMD hasn't posted any data comparing the Radeon RX 7600 to the Radeon RX 6650 XT.

The Radeon RX 6650 XT is why the Radeon RX 7600 doesn't have a seat around the best graphics card table. The Radeon RX 7600 launched at $269, and with custom Radeon RX 6650 XT models retailing for as low as $229, it's hard to justify the $40 difference when the Radeon RX 7600 offers a minimal performance uplift. You do get AV1 encoding support, but it's not a particularly exciting package.

As we said in our review, the RX 7600 isn't a terrible graphics card by any stretch, but it costs more than similarly performing AMD GPUs that were already available. As long as supplies and pricing of the RX 6600-class GPUs dominate the value graphics card sector, the 7600 will have a tough time attracting potential buyers.

Memorial Day weekend sales are in full swing and it seems to be a great time to snag an RTX 3060 graphics card. Right now, you can find the MSI GeForce AERO ITX 12G OC RTX 3060 GPU for just $279, down from its usual price of $364 at Newegg.

With newer graphics cards on the horizon, it’s not hard to find quality ones from recent generations at a moderate discount. This particular edition uses PCIe Gen 4 interfaces and can reach a maximum speed of 1792 MHz.

The MSI GeForce AERO ITX 12G OC RTX 3060 GPU comes with 12GB of GDDR6. According to MSI, it has a total of 3584 CUDA cores. For a graphics card in its class, this graphics card makes for a worthy upgrade along with a price that’s fairly notable for anyone shopping on a budget.

Users have a few video outputs to take advantage of including three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and one HDMI 2.1 output. The card is capable of outputting a maximum digital resolution of 7680 x 4320px.

Visit the MSI GeForce AERO ITX 12G OC RTX 3060 GPU product page at Newegg for more details and purchase options. It’s not clear for how long this discount will be made available.

Nvidia graphics card makers, sometimes referred to as add-in-board (AIB) partners, are in the middle of a big changeover, according to sources speaking to China's Benchlife. The tech site confirmed with its AIB sources that production of RTX 4060 family graphics cards was ramping up. It sought this confirmation after Chinese tech BBS sources indicated that Nvidia had "stopped supplying GeForce RTX 3060 Ti chips."

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has had a good run as a midrange GPU contender and currently sits at number 22 in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy for rasterization performance, and number 19 for ray tracing performance. It scored well in reviews when it debuted in early 2021, with the main dampener being its availability at anything close to its official $399 MSRP — this was during the peak crypto-craze of 2020–2022, in case you've been trying to wipe that time period from your memory. There were also modest concerns about potential limits from having just 8GB of VRAM, which still remain and will likewise apply to future 8GB cards.

The RTX 3060 Ti is no longer on our current list of the best graphics cards for gaming, mostly due to updates that have introduced newer models like the RTX 4070. With the touted imminent arrival of the RTX 4060 series, expected to offer regular and Ti SKUs in both 8GB and 16GB VRAM models, it seems right to divert any RTX 3060 Ti resources to producing the faster and more efficient latest generation products.

Traditionally, the GeForce RTX xx60-class graphics cards rank among the biggest sellers for Nvidia and its AIBs. The most recent Steam Hardware Survey has the RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, GTX 1060, and RTX 2060 all ranked in the top five most popular graphics solutions. As such, Nvidia and its partners will want to have warehouses well-stocked with these new graphics cards, ready to roll out between the end of May to mid-July.

There are reportedly still quite a lot of GA104 GPUs in the channel — that's the GPU in the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3070 Ti graphics cards. With the RTX 4060 family launch purportedly so close, there may be a chance to get one of the RTX 3060 Ti cards at a good discount. Certainly we wouldn't suggest paying anywhere close to $400 for the soon-to-be-replaced cards.

The question of discounts for last-gen stock also raises the specter of pricing for the new RTX 4060 family. Nvidia's RTX 40-series pricing has been widely criticized by reviewers and the public. Its current cheapest Ada Lovelace GPU is the $599 RTX 4070 (non-Ti) model with 12GB of VRAM. That's a big step above the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti launch price ($399), so we should expect some of that gap to be filled with models like the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, and RTX 4060 8GB. Hopefully, those last two will land at or under the $399 mark.

Some pressure will also be exerted by AMD's new entry-to-midrange hope, the Radeon RX 7600, which we reckon could debut at $299 (based on rumors). It's set to launch by the end of the month, according to leaks. How it will stack up against AMD's existing RX 66xx model cards remains to be seen.

In summary, it makes sense for Nvidia to halt production of its previous generation midrange part. Ampere chips are being retired as their Ada Lovelace successors become available. There's no official confirmation from Nvidia, but with multiple sources and a healthy dash of common sense, there's little doubt that Ampere GPUs are on the way out.

After almost two and a half years of service and three different variants, Nvidia may finally be ready to move on from the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Fresh rumors out of China claim that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which used to be one of the best graphics cards, has reportedly reached the decline stage of its product life cycle.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti debuted in 2020 with a launch price of $399. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti offers excellent bang for gamers' buck, which is how the Ampere-based graphics card has remained relevant over the last couple of years. Although the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti never topped the Steam Hardware Survey or best-selling graphics card charts, the graphics card always maintained a strong position (usually in the top ten) among even the latest offerings.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti didn't enjoy the same success as Nvidia's seven-year-old GeForce GTX 1060. Nonetheless, it was still a pretty important SKU for Nvidia. So important that the chipmaker would later refresh the graphics card twice in 2020. The first refresh was a simple die swap from the original GA104 silicon to the GA103 silicon. As a result, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103 was born. Meanwhile, the second refresh came shortly after Nvidia upgraded the GeForce RTX 3060's GDDR6 memory to faster GDDR6X chips. In any event, neither the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103 nor the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X brought any perceptible performance uplifts.

Word of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's discontinuation originated from China's Board Channels forum, a place where retailers and distributors share industry news. Although not all the rumors are fake, some do materialize. Either way, we recommend you approach the information cautiously.

The rumor is that Nvidia will stop producing the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. However, the thread starter didn't throw out any specific dates. Nvidia will allegedly notify its partners to clear the leftover GeForce RTX 3060 Ti stock. However, the user assessed that retailers would likely require several months to deplete their inventories.

We can see some credence in the rumors since the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is supposedly around the corner. The leaked specifications for the Ada Lovelace graphics card didn't look very impressive, but it should bring a nice generational upgrade over the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, rumored to come in both 8GB and 16GB variants, allegedly launches along the GeForce RTX 4060 before the end of this month. If the rumors are accurate, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB should arrive on the retail market on May 24, while the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB is purportedly for a second-half launch in July.

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and GeForce RTX 4060 will contend with AMD's imminent Radeon RX 7600. In addition, we've already seen some early retailer listings of the RDNA 3 graphics card, rumored to launch on May 25. Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards have been criticized for their high pricing. Let's hope that Nvidia keeps GeForce RTX 4060 Ti's MSRP at a reasonable level.

Nvidia's upcoming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti aims to be one of the best graphics cards. However, if the latest listing from Russian distributor Marvel (via momomo_us) and rumors are accurate, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti specifications look underwhelming on paper compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. However, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti does wield Nvidia's latest Ada Lovelace architecture, so there's definitely a performance uplift, but the question is just how much?

The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti rumoredly features 4,352 CUDA cores, 11% less than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. This is because so much of the increased performance on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti comes from the new architecture. Accordingly, the Geforce RTX 4060 Ti would also have fewer Tensor and RT cores. But, again, the Ada-based graphics card uses the latest 4th-generation Tensor and 3rd-generation RT cores, which improve AI and ray tracing performance over the last-generation GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.

According to early speculation, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti might debut with a 2,310 MHz base clock and 2,535 MHz boost clock. Some premium, heavily-overclocked models will allegedly boost up to 2,685 MHz. Unfortunately, FP32 performance is a terrible metric for measuring gaming performance. But for discussion's sake, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti would deliver 22.06 TFLOPs, 36% higher FP32 performance than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The figure looks impressive but remember that FP32 performance doesn't translate to real-world gaming performance.

GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Specifications

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

Russian distributor Marvel listed four custom Palit GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards with 8GB of GDDR6 memory that operates through a 128-bit memory interface. The specifications align with other retailers' GeForce RTX 4060 Ti listings and the original leak. However, the memory configuration certainly has us wondering what Nvidia is doing with the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has a 256-bit memory interface. Even the GeForce RTX 3060 has a 192-bit bus. A 128-bit bus with 8GB of GDDR6 memory is the kind of setup that's on a GeForce RTX 3060 8GB or a GeForce RTX 3050. It's not a combination that you typically find on a Ti-tier SKU.

The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti reportedly wields 18 Gb/s memory, but even the faster memory won't help the Ada graphics card punch out more memory bandwidth. Limited by a 128-bit memory interface, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti supplies 288 GB/s, 36% below the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with its 14 Gb/s chips and 256-bit memory interface. Nonetheless, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti's more enormous L2 cache (32MB) will help mitigate the lower memory bandwidth, similar to AMD's Infinity Cache.

Palit GeForce RTX 4060 Ti

The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti may already be around the corner. The latest rumors claim that Nvidia will start shipping GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards to the channel on May 5. That explains why we're seeing more listings from retailers worldwide.

There's no firm launch date yet, but Nvidia allegedly wants to launch the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti before the end of May. Despite all the leaks and retailer listings, the pricing for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti remains unknown. So far, GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards have launched with premium pricing. If we look at previous launches like the GeForce RTX 4090 ($1,599), GeForce RTX 4080 ($1,199), GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ($799), and GeForce RTX 4070 ($599), the upward trend in pricing is evident. So it would be foolish to think that the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti will debut at $399, the MSRP for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. We're not saying it can't happen, but it's unlikely.

One of Nvidia's Best graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 3060, has dropped from first place in the latest Steam Hardware Survey, falling to third place in just one month. Well, sort of. There was some very unusual data in last month's Steam Hardware Survey, which caused several Nvidia GPUs to spike extraordinarily high in adoption rates. Things have apparently been corrected, with the affected GPUs returning to normal.

The adoption rates, particularly for the RTX 3060 (desktop and laptop variants), GTX 1060, RTX 2060, and GTX 1650 changed drastically in Steam's Hardware Survey during the month of April (which reports on GPU market share in March). The RTX 3060 (desktop) sat at the top, replacing the GTX 1650 as the most popular GPU among Steam gamers and garnering a whopping 6.31% increase in "market share" in just a single month's time.

The second place position was also shaken up with the RTX 2060 replacing the GTX 1060, garnering an impressive (and highly unlikely) 3.42% uptick in popularity among Steam gamers, with the GTX 1060 falling to third place as a result. But the GTX 1060 also saw an unusually high 2.57% uptick in adoption rates as well. Filling out the rest of the top five GPUs in April were the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti, which both had outlier increases of 2.52% and 2.14%, respectively. Meanwhile, users with RTX 3060 Laptop GPUs saw a big drop to eighth place, where previously (before April) it was in third place.

This was all quite unusual, as the month-to-month GPU changes typically vary by less than 0.5% in the Steam Hardware Survey. Increases and decreases of several percent obviously indicated something went very wrong with Steam's data collection. With that issue fixed, we're greeted by similarly large changes in the opposite direction for May's results.

Steam Survey Results for May 2023

The Steam Hardware Survey for May (which looks at GPU market share for April) has reshuffled all the affected GPUs back to their normal hierarchy from before April. That means the GTX 1650 is once more in first place, with the GTX 1060 in second. There are a few other changes since we last reported on the Steam Hardware Survey in February.

The RTX 3060 desktop card now sits in third place, with the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU right below it, and the RTX 2060 takes the fifth spot. Before (in February), the RTX 3060 desktop card wasn't even in the top 5 list, with the RTX 3060 laptop GPU sitting in third place, RTX 2060 in fourth, and the GTX 1050 Ti in fifth.

However, those rankings can vary by GPU generation, as Steam lumps certain mobile and desktop GPUs together (e.g. GTX 1650 includes laptops and desktops), while newer models are broken apart (e.g. RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Laptop GPU). Combining all results for a particular model number (so all RTX 3060 SKUs including desktop, mobile, non-Ti, and Ti parts), the RTX 3060 series is by far the most popular with a market share of 13.44%. Second place goes to the GTX 1650 series at 8.83%, then GTX 1660 series at 6.93%, GTX 2060 series at 6.34%, and RTX 3070 series at 6.12%.

In terms of generational popularity, the RTX graphics cards continue to hold a massive lead over the competition, with the 30-series coming in with 29% market share and the RTX 20-series with 11% market share. Unsurprisingly, RTX 40-series meanwhile sits at just 1.61% total, which itself is double last month's figure. AMD's various GPUs aren't doing nearly as well, with 2.97% among all RX 6000-series cards, 1.42% for all RX 5000-series parts, and 3.38% for the RX 500-series. All Vega-series GPUs (which includes integrated parts) account for 2.03%. AMD's latest RX 7000-series remains MIA, as far as the Steam Hardware Survey is concerned.

Here's the top 20 GPUs from the past month, according to Steam. We're using adjusted data from the API page, where we sum up the entire column of results and then divide each GPU by the total sum. That's because, for reasons unknown, the columns don't sum to 100% — April's total for DX12 systems is 91.53%, for example. We figure anything that isn't a DX12-capable GPU and thus isn't in the table... shouldn't count!

We've also broken down the totals by GPU family, though the Vega group includes both desktop Vega 64/Vega 56 cards as well as mobile Vega GPUs that are of an entirely different performance class.

According to a Tweet by @HKEPC, Nvidia has forced MSI to recall its RTX 3060 Ti G6X Super 3X graphics card model one week after the company launched the product in China. Apparently, the "super" nomenclature was too similar to Nvidia's own Super nomenclature found in its refreshed RTX 20 series GPUs and would make people believe this RTX 3060 Ti is a new RTX 30 series SKU rather than a new AIB partner model.

It is understandable why MSI canceled this card due to its confusing nomenclature. But, strangely, the company waited until after the SKU launched before taking action. If we had to speculate, Nvidia could be making another Super refresh of its RTX 30- or RTX 40-series GPUs, which would interfere with MSI's nomenclature.

Given how expensive Nvidia's RTX 40-series GPUs have become, a Super refresh wouldn't be surprising. It would bring down RTX 40-series pricing to more palatable levels for consumers at the expense of some performance. This was how Nvidia's RTX 20-series mid-cycle refresh was constructed, offering new SKUs with a better price-to-performance ratio than the standard versions.

To refresh your memory, the MSI RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X was a new AIB partner model made solely for the Chinese market. The SKU's confusing "Super 3X" nomenclature referred to the graphics card's beefy triple-fan cooling solution, based on MSI's flagship "SUPRIM" cooler designs. MSI probably called this card "super" because it is the biggest RTX 3060 TI MSI has ever created, measuring 335 x 140 x 62mm. On top of this, MSI also added GDDR6X memory to this model for a slight bump in performance over the standard GDDR6 RTX 3060 Ti variant.

We don't know if Nvidia influenced the cancelation of this card due to an upcoming super refresh or if it was an innocent mistake. Still, it is somewhat interesting that MSI's canceled the card right after launch. Nonetheless, we suspect MSI is discussing renaming this 3060 Ti GDDR6X model so the card's development and production costs don't go to waste.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is still one of the best graphics cards for gamers, so it's no wonder that MSI hasn't given up on it. The company (via HKEPC) has launched the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X in regular and factory-overclocked formats for the Chinese market.

While the name may give off the vibes of an unreleased graphics card, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X is just a rewarmed GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X. Nvidia silently gave the regular GeForce RTX 3060 Ti a minor upgrade last year to bring the three-year-old GA104-based graphics card's memory up to the latest GDDR6X standard. Unfortunately, individual reviews have shown that the GDDR6X variant is only slightly faster than the original. Nonetheless, both versions continue to exist, although many retailers are dominantly carrying the newer GDDR6X version.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X evidently sports MSI's distinctive Suprim cooler with vibrant RGB lighting (the big Suprim logo is on the backplate if there is any doubt). Strangely enough, the company preferred to market the Ampere-powered card as the "Super 3X", which refers to the triple-fan cooling solution. The Suprim series used to be MSI's exclusive lineup for the top models only, so it's weird to see it on a mainstream GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The only explanation we can think of is that MSI must have a lot of inventory for Suprim coolers that it needs to get rid of, one way or another.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X boosts clock speeds up to 1,755 MHz, while the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X OC can hit 1,845 MHz effortlessly. The reference GeForce RTX 3060 Ti comes with a 1,665 MHz boost clock. Therefore, the standard version features a 5.4% higher boost clock, whereas the OC version exhibits a 10.8% margin. It's a decent factory overclock but nothing to drool over, especially since the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio 8GD6X already offers consumers the same boost clock speed as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X OC. MSI is probably just depleting the leftover stock at this point in the game.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio 8GD6X has a 323 x 140 x 56mm footprint, though, while the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X measures 335 x 140 x 62mm. Thanks to the large Suprim cooler, the graphics card is longer and thicker than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio 8GD6X.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X has a 265W TDP (as does the overclocked model). This means both graphics cards still need two 8-pin PCIe power connectors for external power, and the minimum power supply recommendation of 600W still stands.

MSI has yet to share pricing or availability for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Super 3X 8GD6X. 

Nvidia's forthcoming GeForce RTX 4060 aims to compete with the best graphics cards for gaming. However, if the rumored specifications are accurate, the GeForce RTX 4060 may disappoint a lot of gamers.

Nvidia's GeForce RTX x060-tier graphics cards have always been a fan favorite for budget-conscious gamers. The latest Steam Hardware Survey can attest to the statement. The last three generations of GeForce RTX x060-series models are among Steam's top ten most used graphics cards. The GeForce GTX 1060 and GeForce RTX 2060 are currently the second and fourth most popular graphics cards, while the GeForce RTX 3060 finds itself in sixth place. Although the Ada Lovelace architecture offers a significant upgrade over Ampere, the GeForce RTX 4060's potential specifications look disheartening.

According to hardware leaker kopite7kimi, who has a solid track record of reliable information, the GeForce RTX 4060 reportedly uses the AD107 silicon. It's a die that we already know about because Nvidia utilizes it for the company's mobile GeForce RTX 4060 and GeForce RTX 4050 SKUs. So yes, barring any changes, the GeForce RTX 4060 appears to use a die tailored to mobile graphics cards.

The GeForce RTX 4060 seemingly employs the PG190 PCB with the AD107-400-A1 at heart. That means the Ada-powered graphics card will wield 3,072 CUDA cores, 96 Tensor cores, and 24 RT cores. The last-generation GeForce RTX 3060 had 3,584 CUDA cores, 17% more than the GeForce RTX 4060. Both use different architectures, of course.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Specifications

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

The GeForce RTX 4060 may arrive with 8GB of 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory. The memory modules are reportedly faster since the regular GeForce RTX 3060 uses 15 Gbps modules. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB, apparently, 50% more than the GeForce RTX 4060. It's a substantial compromise that'll ultimately affect performance in modern titles, such as Hogwarts Legacy, that can devour VRAM. 

The leaker didn't share the memory interface for the GeForce RTX 4060, but there aren't too many options. The GeForce RTX 4060 is unlikely to retain the 192-bit memory bus, which has been the norm since the GTX 1060. That means the GeForce RTX 4060 may only offer up to 288 GB/s of bandwidth, representing a 20% less than the GeForce RTX 3060.

The GeForce RTX 4060 will receive an L2 cache upgrade because of the Ada Lovelace architecture. The hardware leaker pegged the GeForce RTX 4060 with a 24MB L2 cache, 700% larger than the one on the GeForce RTX 3060. If we compare the GeForce RTX 4060 to the other Ada-based SKUs that have launched, it sports half the L2 cache of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Given the other Ada GPUs have up to 8MB of L2 cache per 32-bit interface, it would appear that the RTX 4060 is also cut down in that area as well.

Maybe Nvidia's decision to roll with mobile silicon was to lower the power requirement for the GeForce RTX 4060. Kopite7kimi believes that the GeForce RTX 4060 will have a 115W TDP. That's crazy because it would put the GeForce RTX 4060 almost on the same level as a GeForce GTX 1660 (120W) in terms of TDP. For comparison, even the GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (120W) consumes more power. The GeForce RTX 3060 sports a 170W rating, so the GeForce RTX 4060 has a 32% lower TDP.

Overall, if the leaks are correct, RTX 4060 is shaping up to be a rather odd solution. The lack of VRAM will certainly prove limiting, and while the L2 cache could make up for the loss in bandwidth, it still ends up feeling like less of an upgrade than other models. But then we said the same thing about the RTX 4070 Ti with its 192-bit interface. Time will tell how the RTX 4060 actually stacks up, and how much it will cost.

Whether you're looking for a gaming laptop under $1,000 or comparing the best gaming desktops available today, you're always looking for the most amount of bang for your buck, and a product that meets your requirements. Although I prefer to build my own PCs and find them more cost-effective, this is not the case for everyone, and a lot of people are more comfortable purchasing a pre-built desktop PC or laptop. 

With an RTX 3060 graphics card and 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700 — consider the Legion Tower 5i gaming desktop is on sale for $999 from Best Buy. This computer has more than enough powerful hardware to play the latest games on decent settings. However, you may want to upgrade the amount of storage at a later date as it only comes with a 256GB SSD, and a slower 1TB HDD that isn't great for the high-speed loading of modern games data. 

For a laptop alternative, there's this excellent deal in-store at Microcenter — you can get hold of an MSI Pulse GL66 gaming laptop for only $999. This laptop model sports a 15.6-inch IPS FHD panel with a 144Hz refresh rate, an Intel Core i7 12700H processor, and an RTX 3070 GPU with 8GBs of GDDR6 VRAM.

If you do want to go down the build-your-own PC route then consider this deal that will give you a good head start — an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU and MSI B550-A PRO motherboard bundle at Amazon for $271. This bundle lets you save a few dollars more than if you bought the parts individually. 

We found more Lenovo desktops and MSI laptop deals with different hardware configurations below. 

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• Lenovo Legion 5i Desktop PC (RTX 3060): now $999 at Best Buy (was $1,399)
• MSI Pulse GL66 Gaming Laptop (RTX 3070): now $999 at Microcenter (was $1,599)
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X / MSI B550-A Pro bundle: now $271 at Amazon (was $326)
• Lenovo Legion 5i Desktop PC (RTX 3050): now $849 at Best Buy (was $1,139)
• MSI Pulse GL76 Gaming Laptop (RTX 3050 Ti): now $849 at B&H Photo (was $1,349)

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When you think there can't be more variants of the GeForce RTX 3060, another one pops up. TechPowerUp's GPU database editor has shared a validation report of a GeForce RTX 3060 SKU previously hidden in the shadows. The obscure graphics card dubbed the "GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP" arrives with the full GA106 silicon and substantially higher clock speeds.

The original GeForce RTX 3060 features the GA106 die and 12GB of GDDR6 memory. However, Nvidia later released the GeForce RTX 3060 GA104 to recycle silicon that didn't satisfy the requirements for a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. That wasn't the end of it, though. Last year, the chipmaker rolled out the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB, which, as the model name implies, features 4GB less memory than the regular version. It also has a smaller memory interface. The last upgrade to the mid-range Ampere graphics card came in the shape of the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X, where Nvidia switched out the original GDDR6 memory for the faster GDDR6X modules.

The latest Steam Hardware & Software survey revealed that the GeForce RTX 3060 is the sixth most popular gaming graphics card on the gaming platform. It's easily comprehensible why Nvidia hasn't abandoned the GeForce RTX 3060.

Until recently, there were four GeForce RTX 3060 variants in the wild. T4C Fantasy, the database editor at TechPowerUp, highlighted that the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP has existed since 2021; however, he didn't pay any attention to the mysterious graphics card since it could have been an engineering sample. According to his information, almost every Nvidia AIB partner has the unreleased SKU. There are entries for vendors such as Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte, as well as big-name OEMs, including Dell and HP.

GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP Specifications

On a silicon level, the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP houses the same GA106 silicon as the regular variant. While the GeForce RTX 3060 only has 28 out of 30 SMs enabled, the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP uses the complete die. The two additional SMs gives the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP 256 more CUDA cores, equivalent to a 7.1% increase. The clock speeds had remained constant between versions; however, the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP broke the mold since it has substantially improved clock rates.

While the GeForce RTX 3060 has a 1,320 MHz base clock, the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP operates at 1,627 MHz. The latter represents a 23.3% base clock upgrade. The boost clock, on the other hand, didn't get the same treatment. The GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP only appears to have a 4.2% higher boost clock. However, if we look at the FP32 figures, the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP delivers up to 11.8% higher FP32 performance. TechPowerUp has a validation entry for an Asus model that boosts up to 1,942 MHz.

The memory subsystem on the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP is slightly different, though. There's still 12GB GDDR6 with a 192-bit memory interface, though T4C Fantasy has also confirmed that there's a 6GB SKU. However, the memory clocks in at 14 Gbps as opposed to the regular GeForce RTX 3060's 15 Gbps. That means the RTX 3060 3840SP has a maximum theoretical memory bandwidth of up to 336 GBps, 6.7% lower than the regular version.

Overall, it would seem that it's a mixed bag regarding memory. The TechPowerUp page shows that some vendors are sticking to 15 Gbps modules, whereas others downgraded to 14 Gbps modules. We'd be particularly wary of any 6GB cards, as the RTX 2060 has started to show its age due to the limited VRAM capacity.

Despite the CUDA core upgrade and higher clock speeds, the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP sticks to the original 170W TGP. As a result, a single 8-pin PCIe power connector is sufficient for the graphics card. A 450W power supply is a minimum to feed the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP.

Obviously, the pricing is unknown for the GeForce RTX 3060 3840SP. In addition, the graphics card is a rare breed, and according to T4C Fantasy, it's only present in some OEM systems. Ultimately, a couple more SMs and slightly higher clocks isn't going to radically change the performance, particularly if you end up with one of the cards that has slightly slower VRAM.

Despite its age, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is still one of the best graphics cards for modern-day gaming. So there was some excitement when word got out that Nvidia would give the Ampere-based graphics card a GDDR6X makeover. But unfortunately, the memory upgrade may end up disappointing.

Polish news outlet ITHardware has put the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X through its paces against the regular model and the more powerful GeForce RTX 3070. As a quick overview, all three Ampere graphics cards use the same GA104 silicon. The difference is that the GeForce RTX 3070's die comes with 46 enabled SMs for 5,888 CUDA cores, whereas the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti only sports 38 SMs for 4,864 CUDA cores. Of course, it would be foolish to think that a memory upgrade can close a 21% gap in CUDA cores, but it'll be interesting to see how close the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X can get to the GeForce RTX 3070.

Remember that the core specifications for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and its GDDR6X counterpart are identical. So we're looking at the same amount of CUDA cores and equal clock speeds. However, the latter arrives with 19 Gbps GDDR6X memory instead of the regular model's 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory. As a result, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X boasts a memory bandwidth of up to 608.3 GBps, a whopping 36% more than the GDDR6 model. It also commands a 225W TDP, 25W more than the vanilla version.

GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X Benchmarks

ITHardware utilized the KFA2 GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X 1-Click OC Plus, Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition, and Palit GeForce RTX 3070 GamingPro OC for the comparison. The only flaw from the review is that the publication didn't secure the two GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with equal clock speeds for a more fair comparison. The Asus GDDR6 model boosts to 1,755 MHz, and the KFA2 GDDR6X sticks to the reference boost clock (1,665 MHz). The boost clock speed difference will impact the results.

According to the average performance numbers, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X outperformed the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti by 4% at 1080p and 2% at 1440p and 4K. In return, the GeForce RTX 3070 beat the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X by a 13% margin at 1080p, 14% at 1440p and 4K.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti presently starts at $399 and the GDDR6X version has a similar starting price. Even though the performance difference is minuscule, common sense says to grab the GDDR6X variant if available. In other markets where the price varies between the two models, one would need to evaluate if the extra 2% performance uplift is worth the extra money.

With a name like the 'Katana' you hope it will help you cut through all the enemies in your game, but, luckily it looks like the Katana has had a chunk a of money sliced off the price. You can pick up MSI's Katana GF76 for $1,129 from Target, and with a 17-inch IPS screen, 12th Gen Intel CPU and RTX 3060 this gaming laptop should be able to play all of the latest games comfortably and could be a contender for one of the best gaming laptops under $1.500.

The price of the Gigabyte M28U 4K monitor has dropped to $509 at Newegg if you use promo code DYMCNA7256. The M28U comes with a KVM switch, HDMI 2.1 support, and a speedy 144Hz refresh rate. 

Another gaming laptop deal today as Best Buy drop the price off the MSI GP66 Leopard gaming laptop to $1,699. This laptop is a gaming beast with a powerful Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card inside. Other specs include an Intel CPU and a 15-inch screen. 

See more Real Deals below.

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• MSI Katana GF76 17-Inch Gaming Laptop: now $1,129 at Target (was $1,499)
• Gigabyte M28U 28-inch 4K: now $509 at Newegg with promo code (was $649)
• MSI GP66 Leopard (RTX 3080) gaming laptop: now $1,699 at Best Buy (was $2,799)
• Monoprice Dark Matter 42770 (144 Hz 1080p, IPS, Edge-lit): now $169 at Newegg (was $229)
• AOC CQ27G2 Curved 27-inch QHD: now $219 at Amazon (was $289)

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With laptops containing the latest generation 40-series mobile GPUs just around the corner, we are starting to see some of the 30-series laptops drop a little in price which is excellent news if you're looking to get a deal on a gaming laptop.

So if you're after a tidy little gaming laptop that has the beans to play most current games at fairly high settings, then you might want to consider the G5 (model-KE-52US213SH) from Gigabyte which is currently reduced to $899. This G5 comes with an Nvidia RTX 3060 and a 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12500H, as well as a 15.6-inch IPS 144Hz FHD screen.

If laptops aren't your thing, and you prefer a pre-built desktop computer, then Dell is offering one of its XPS Desktop systems for a reduced price of $1,349. This desktop computer contains a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700 CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and 16GB of DDR5 (4400MHz) memory. 

Beef up your storage with an extra 2TBs of WD Black SN850X M.2 SSD for only $169. See our review of Western Digitals Black SN850X and read why we gave this superfast RAM our Editor's Choice award for its excellent performance.

Please keep scrolling to see more of today's Real Deals.

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• Gigabyte G5 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop: now $899 at Newegg (was $1,199)
• Dell XPS Desktop: now $1,349 at Dell (was $1,599)
• WD Black SN850X 2TB: now $169 at Western Digital (was $289)
• Dell G2722HS IPS 27-inch FHD: now $149 at Amazon (was $217)
• Crucial P3 Plus 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD: now $124 at Best Buy (was $189)

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AMD has unveiled the company's new Radeon RX 7600M and Radeon RX 7000S graphics card for laptops. The mobile RDNA 3 graphics cards, which power performance gaming and thin and light devices, respectively, will arrive on the market starting in February.

The Radeon RX 7600M and Radeon 7000S series wield unified RDNA 3 compute units with RT and AI accelerators. In addition, they support AV1 encoding and decoding and AMD's new Smart Technologies. On a silicon level, the Radeon RX 7600M and Radeon 7000S series feature a monolithic die that measures 204 mm² and is a product of TSMC's 6nm process node. AMD uses the same silicon across all four mobile graphics cards with disabled compute units when needed. The chipmaker didn't reveal the silicon, but it's likely the Navi 33 die. For comparison, Navi 23 measures 237 mm², so Navi 33 is 14% smaller.

The Radeon RX 7600M XT targets high-framerate gaming laptops at 1080p (1920x1080). It wields 32 compute units, equivalent to 2,048 shader processors. The 32-compute-die configuration is probably the full Navi 33 die since Navi 23 also tops out at 32 compute units. The Radeon RX 7600M XT delivers up to 32 TFLOPs of FP32 performance. The graphics power range without AMD SmartShift for the Radeon RX 7600M is between 75W to 120W.

On the other hand, the Radeon RX 7600M checks in with 28 compute units, just four less than the XT variant. The graphics card offers 28 TFLOPs of FP3 performance, so it's not so far behind the Radeon RX 7600M XT. The lower core count allows the Radeon RX 7600M to play within the 50W to 90W power range.

AMD equips the Radeon RX 7600 series with 8GB of GDDR6 memory, a 128-bit memory interface, and a 32MB Infinity Cache. The capacity of the Infinity Cache has not changed in the transition from Navi 23 to Navi 33. Only the memory speed varies between the two models. The Radeon RX 7600M XT has 18 Gbps memory, whereas the Radeon RX 7600M sticks to 16 Gbps.

It wasn't just about RDNA 3, though. Instead, AMD added three new SKUs to the company's existing RDNA 2 Radeon RX 6000M lineup: the Radeon RX 6550M, Radeon RX 6450M, and Radeon RX 6550S.

The Radeon RX 7000S offerings are almost identical to the Radeon RX 7600M series. The Radeon RX 7700S and RX 7600S have the exact core count and memory configuration. The differentiating factor is the power limit. The Radeon RX 7700S has a power range between 75W to 100W compared to the Radeon RX 7600M XT's 75W to 120W limit. Meanwhile, AMD rates the Radeon RX 7600S for 50W to 75W instead of the 50W to 90W range on the Radeon RX 7600M.

According to AMD, the Radeon RX 7600M XT is between 18% to 39% faster than the previous Radeon RX 6600M. The chipmaker's results also have the Radeon RX 7600M XT between 7% to 37% ahead of Nvidia's desktop GeForce RTX 3060. On average, it's over 31% faster. Surprisingly, AMD didn't provide any benchmarks for the Radeon RX 7600M, so its performance remains a mystery for now.

The Radeon RX 7700S will also offer a significant upgrade over the Radeon RX 6700S. AMD's tests exhibit improvements that range from 13% up to 40%.

The Radeon RX 7600M and Radeon RX 7000S series will support AMD's Smart Technologies, including SmartShift to balance processor and graphics card power and SmartAccess, allowing the processor to tap into the graphics card's memory. With these Smart Technologies turned on, consumers could expect up to 30% faster transcoding, 60% better battery life in League of Legends, and up to 33% higher FPS in Forza Horizon 5.

AMD has also introduced SmartShift RSR, a technology that combines uses the APU and GPU together to get the best performance for rendering, upscaling and presentation. SmartShift RSR will arrive in 1H 2023. 

Other features include AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.0; 230 titles currently support older versions FSR. There's also  AMD HYPR-RX to look forward to, a feature that unleashes additional gaming performance with a single click. AMD claims that the technology improves performance and minimizes input lag. AMD HYPR-RX combines Radeon Anti-Lag, Radeon Boost, Radeon Super Resolution, and other technologies into a single package. It'll also arrive in 1H 2023.

The biggest sales event of the year has just passed by, but there is no time to mourn Black Friday, as we're already in the build-up to the festive holiday season. With more bargains to be had on your favorite tech brands, and some of the best peripherals on the market. 

The first of the Lenovo offerings - the Legion 5i Gaming Laptop is on sale for $1,099 at B&H and comes with a 12th Gen Intel 12700H CPU and Nvidia's RTX 3060 GPU. With these hardware specs and at this price, the Legion 5i is a competitor for the best gaming laptop under $1,500.

The second Lenovo laptop in our deals sights today is another Legion model, the Legion 5. With a matching screen size and Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU, this model comes with an AMD 5600H CPU, but unfortunately only 8GB of RAM. You can pick up this Lenovo Legion 5 for $899 from Amazon. 

Last but not least we have a great little 65% keyboard from Asus. The RoG Falchion NX is only $89 on Amazon at the moment. It sports unique side-mounted touch controls and wireless connectivity. See our review of the Falchion for more details. 

More deals on great peripherals can be found below. 

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• Lenovo Legion 5i Gaming Laptop (12700H/RTX 3060): was $1,729, now $1,099 at B&H
• Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming Laptop (5600H/RTX 3060): was $1,149, now $899 at Amazon
• Asus ROG Falchion NX 65% Gaming Keyboard: was $149, now $89 at Amazon
• Logitech G502 Wired Gaming Mouse: was $79, now $29 at Amazon
• Logitech G PRO TKL League of Legends Mechanical Gaming Keyboard: was $129, now $88 at Amazon

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A review posted at EXPreview gives us our first look at Chinese GPU maker Moore Thread's new mid-range gaming competitor, the MTT S80 graphics card. This GPU is one of Moore Thread's most powerful graphics cards to date, packing a triple fan cooler setup and theoretically competing with Nvidia's RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti, some of the best graphics cards available, even close to two years after they first launched.

For the uninitiated, Moore Thread is a Chinese GPU manufacturer that was established just two years ago, in 2020. The company has reportedly tapped some of the most experienced minds in the GPU industry, hiring experts and engineers from Nvidia, Microsoft, Intel, Arm and others. Moore Thread's aim is to produce domestic (for China) GPU solutions completely independent from Western nations. These are supposed to be capable of 3D graphics, AI training, inference computing, and high-performance parallel computing capabilities, and will be used in China's consumer and government sectors.

The MTT S80 graphics card was developed with Moore Thread's 'Chunxaio' GPU architecture, which supports FP32, FP16, and INT8 (integer) precision compute, and is compatible with the company's MUSA computing platform. The architecture also employs a full video engine with H.264, H.265 (HEVC), and AV1 codec support, capable of handling video encoding and decoding at up to 8K.

The MTT S80 comes with a fully unlocked Chunxaio GPU core, featuring 4096 MUSA cores, and 128 tensor cores, and clocked at 1800 MHz. The memory subsystem uses 14 Gbps GDDR6 modules operating on a 256-bit wide bus, with a 16GB capacity. As far as specs go, it at least looks decent on paper.

The GPU operates with a target board power rating of 255W, powered by both a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, and a single 8-pin EPS12V power connector — yes, it's using a CPU EPS12V rather than an 8-pin PEG (PCI Express Graphics) connector. That's because the EPS12V can deliver up to 300W, and for users that lack an extra EPS12V connector the card includes a dual 8-pin PEG to single 8-pin EPS12V adapter. And for the record, that's more power than even the RTX 3070 requires.

Display outputs consist of three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors and a single HDMI 2.1 port, the same as what you'll find on most Nvidia GeForce GPUs from the RTX 40- and 30-series families. The graphics card has a silver colored shroud, accented by matte black designs surrounding the right and left fans. The cooler features a triple-fan cooler design, with two larger outer fans and a smaller central fan in the middle. The card dimensions are 286mm long and two slots wide.

The RTX 3060 Beats the MTT S80 in Early Benchmarks

Earlier reports on the Chunxaio GPU suggest it can achieve FP32 performance similar to that of an RTX 3060 Ti. The 3060 Ti has theoretical throughput of 16.2 teraflops, while the Chunxaio has a theoretical 14.7 TFLOPS. That's a bit lower than Nvidia, but it does have twice the VRAM capacity, so the hardware at least appears capable of competing with Nvidia's RTX 3060 Ti.

Unfortunately, according to EXPreview, the MTT S80 suffers from very poor driver optimizations. While the MTT S80 is aimed at the RTX 3060 Ti in terms of raw compute performance, in gaming benchmarks Nvidia's RTX 3060 reportedly outpaces the MTT S80 by a significant margin. The problem with the testing is that no comparative charts are provided for the games with RTX 3060 or other GPUs; only text descriptions of the actual gaming performance are provided, while the charts are for an odd mix of titles.

EXPreview ran its benchmarks on an Intel test rig with a Core i7-12700K, Asus TUF B660M motherboard, RTX 3060 12GB Strix, 16GB of DDR4 memory, and an 850W PSU running Windows 10 21H2.

The best potential example of actual gaming performance was Unigine Valley, where the RTX 3060 12GB was anywhere between 2x and a whopping 7.6x faster than the MTT S80 in the DX9 and DX11 tests at 1080p and 4K resolutions. The MTT S60 averaged 26.1 FPS in the 4K DX9 test, while the RTX 3060 spat out a whopping 197.9 FPS. Note also that Unigine Valley was developed and first released in 2009.

3DMark06 — yes, another rather ancient application — showed similar results with the RTX 3060 being 2.5x faster than the MTT S80 on average, at 1080p and 4K resolutions.

The MTT S80 managed to come out on top in some of the synthetic tests, like PCIe bandwidth and pure fill rates. That's understandable on the PCIe link, as the S80's PCIe 5.0 x16 configuration should vastly outpace the RTX 3060's PCIe 4.0 x16 spec. In the OCL Bandwidth Test, the S80 averaged 28.7 read and 42.8GB/s write speeds. The RTGX 3060 managed 18.3GB/s and 14.2GB/s respectively. In 3DMark06's texturing tests, the MTT S80 hit 134.8 GTexels per second in the Single-Texturing Fill Rate test, and 168.5 in the Multi-Texturing test. The RTX 3060 was much slower in the Single-Texturing test, with 59.9 GTexels/s, but came back with 177.3 GTexels/s in the Multi-Texturing test.

Besides these the synthetic and graphics tests, EXPreview did run some actual games: League of Legends, Cross Fire, QQ Speed, QQ Dance, Fantasy Westward Journey, The Great Heroes, Audition, Running Kart, Diablo III, Ultimate Street Fighter IV, Siege, My World, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit III. We'll forgive you if you don't recognize some of those, as we don't either. Some are Chinese variants of popular games like Counter-Strike and Final Fantasy.

Performance in a vacuum of course doesn't tell us much. 149 fps at 1080p in League of Legends with max settings, and 128 fps at 4K? Great! How did the RTX 3060 perform? We don't know. Other performance results are equally bad, like hitting the 40 FPS framerate limit in QQ Speed, a rather simplistic looking game.

But the review does mention driver problems, texture corruption, and other issues. It concludes with, "Compatibility needs to be improved and the future can be expected," according to Google Translate. That's hardly surprising for a new GPU company. Hopefully future 'reviews' of the MTT S80 will actually show more real-world comparisons with modern games rather than old tests that have little meaning in today's market.

China-based Moore Treads on Friday began sales of its latest MTT S80 graphics card based on the Chunxiao architecture for client PCs. The add-in-board promises compute performance comparable to Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, but its performance in real games remains unknown. Meanwhile, it is available at JD.com, a store that delivers worldwide. However, there is a catch.

A GeForce RTX 3060 Ti-Like GPU from China

Moore Threads' MTT S80 graphics board is based on the company's Chunxiao graphics processor featuring 4,096 stream processors, 128 tensor cores, 256 texture units and 256 render outputs clocked at 1.80 GHz. In addition, the card carries 16GB of GDDR6 memory with a 14 GT/s data transfer rate connected to the GPU using a 256-bit interface (up to 448 GB/s peak bandwidth). 

From a compute performance point of view, the MTT S80 delivers up to 14.4 FP32 TFLOPS, slightly below the peak compute performance of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16.2 FP32 TFLOPS), which is one of the best graphics cards. Meanwhile, the actual performance of the MTT S80 AIB in real games needs to be tested. 

The GPU comes with drivers that support Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface, Khronos Group's OpenGL/OpenGL ES, proprietary MUSA, and multiple specialized APIs. However, Moore Threads openly says that its DirectX support is in its infancy, and only 20 popular titles are initially supported (e.g., Call of Duty, Crossfire, Counter-Strike, Diablo 3, League of Legends, etc.), so do not expect much from the card for now. Meanwhile, the company says that it is working closely with developers of Unity and Unreal Engine as well as designers of actual games to ensure compatibility and performance with the two popular engines. 

The Chunxiao graphics chip also has a capable video engine that can handle AV1, H.264, and H.265 codecs for up to 8K videos. Unfortunately, Moore Threads does not disclose which players support its hardware-assisted video decoding. Meanwhile, the MTT S80 AIB has three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.1 interface. 

Interestingly, the MTT S80 is the world's first client graphics card with a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, as Nvidia's Ada Lovelace GPUs support a PCIe Gen4 bus. AMD has yet to disclose the host interface of its latest RDNA 3 GPUs in general and Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon 7900 XTX in particular.

Only Available in Bundles

The Moore Threads MTT S80 graphics card is now available at JD.com (via VideoCardz) for ￥2999 ($373 without VAT). However, the AIB does not come alone, as it is bundled with the Asus TUF Gaming B660M-PLUS D4 motherboard priced at ￥1029. If you subtract the value of the motherboard, then the graphics board will cost $245 without VAT, which is relatively cheap given its compute capabilities. Still, since the performance of the product is unclear, we can only wonder whether it is actually worth $245. 

Another thing to point out is that according to VideoCardz, the initial release of the MTT S80 will be very limited, and it is unclear how many units were actually made. It is also unclear when the second batch is set to come and how big it is.

A New Kid on the Block?

There are about a dozen known developers of graphics processors in China. Some target only datacenters (including AI and HPC), while others design client GPUs yet only aim local market. Founded in October 2020, Moore Threads designs GPUs for many applications (except HPC) and seems intent on selling its products outside of China. This is why the company makes its MTT S80 available at JD.com, which ships worldwide and works with developers of popular engines and games to ensure compatibility with western titles. 

Will it succeed? That depends on multiple factors, including engineering talent availability, willingness to invest, and ability to execute. Moore Threads is a very young company, and while so far it has released four AIBs (MTT S10, MTT S50, MTT S60, and MTT S2000) with two incoming (MTT S80 and MTT S3000), we can only wonder whether it has enough people to address all of its declared market opportunities. After all, AMD, Intel, and Nvidia employ thousands of people to work on gaming and datacenter GPUs. 

Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether western companies will work closely with a Chinese entity even on such things as video games. Given the strict curbs the U.S. government imposes against Chinese semiconductor and supercomputing sectors, some companies may consider it risky to work with China-based high-tech companies. In fact, there are things that they might deem potentially toxic.

The Chunxiao GPU in its MTT S80 form is aimed at consumer applications and therefore is not designed for any artificial intelligence or high-performance computing applications. Also, Moore Threads has the MTT S3000 32GB server grade board that offers a 15.2 FP32 TFLOPS throughput and supports datacenter-oriented features, such as up to 32-way GPU partitioning as well as SR-IOV PCIe virtualization. Meanwhile, the Chunxiao graphics processor supports FP32, FP16, and INT8 precision. Therefore, assuming that it also supports an appropriate instruction set, it can theoretically be used for AI or even some light HPC workloads that do not need FP64.  

Based on what we know about the Chunxiao graphics processor, we believe it is aimed primarily at gaming and entertainment applications. The datacenter MTT S3000 will likely mainly be used for remote Android games rendering, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and video streaming services.  

Whether the MTT S3000 can actually be used for non-consumer AI and technical computing applications in datacenters efficiently is something we do not know. We have reasonable doubts given the form factor, power consumption, and performance. Yet, if the U.S. further tightens its sanctions against the Chinese high-tech industry, there might be ramifications even for a consumer-oriented company like Moore Threads. 

Galax has quietly introduced its first GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Plus graphics cards equipped with 8GB of GDDR6X memory. The boards feature higher memory bandwidth than regular GeForce RTX 3060 Ti boards and, therefore, offer somewhat higher performance than regular models in cases where memory bandwidth matters. In some situations, the Galax RTX 3060 Ti Plus could rival Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070. 

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Plus is based on a GA103 or GA104 graphics processor with 4864 CUDA cores (just like the regular GeForce RTX 3060 Ti) that are mated with 8GB of 19 GT/s GDDR6X memory using a 256-bit interface (vs. 14 GT/s GDDR6 on regular models). As a result, the new graphics board can offer a peak memory bandwidth of 608 GB/s, which is 36% higher than standard GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 cards. 

Performance numbers demonstrated by Galax and republished by VideoCardz show that the RTX 3060 Ti Plus can indeed be faster than the model RTX 3070 in certain cases, though these numbers need independent verification. 

Meanwhile, since GDDR6X uses PAM4 encoding, this memory increases power consumption for both the GPU and memory. Furthermore, GDDR6X, which is exclusively available from Micron, tends to be more expensive than the regular GDDR6 that is sold by three major memory makers. 

Speaking of Galax's GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Plus graphics cards, the company has two models: the Galax GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Plus SG with a 1695 MHz boost clock and a triple-slot triple-fan cooler, as well as the Galax GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Plus with 1680 MHz boost clock and a dual-slot dual-fan cooler. In addition, both cards have one eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connector and four display outputs (three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.1 connector). 

Given the somewhat odd configuration of the Galax RTX 3060 Ti Plus, it remains to be seen how much the graphics cards will eventually cost. In theory, the model RTX 3060 Ti Plus should sit between the regular RTX 3060 Ti ($399) and RTX 3070 ($499), but since the product will rival the latter, at least in some cases, its pricing will probably fall closer to Nvidia's reference GeForce RTX 3070.

Manli has introduced the industry's first Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card with only 8GB of memory. The new board has the same compute performance as fully-fledged GeForce RTX 3060 12GB product, but it cuts down the memory capacity and bus width, which in turn reduces memory bandwidth. All of those changes should have a tangible effect on performance.

Manli's GeForce RTX 3060 8GB GDDR6 graphics card (via VideoCardz) presumably uses the same GA106 graphics processing unit as the 12GB card. It comes with 3584 CUDA cores with a 1777 MHz boost clock, the same clocks as the reference RTX 3060 12GB.

Unlike the typical GeForce RTX 3060 12GB board that features a 192-bit memory bus with 360 GB/s peak memory bandwidth, the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB only features a 128-bit memory interface. That likewise cuts the peak memory by 33%, down to just 240 GB/s. In cases where memory bandwidth matters, the new board will end up being significantly slower than the existing GeForce RTX 3060 with 12GB of GDDR6 memory.

Other than the narrower memory bus, the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB has the same specs as the 12GB card. It comes with a 170W TBP (Total Board Power) rating, a dual-slot cooling system, and four display outputs (three DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.0).

Neither Manli nor Nvidia have given an MSRP on the new RTX 3060 8GB model, though since it should land between the GeForce RTX 3050 8GB ($249) and GeForce RTX 3060 12GB ($329), it will likely be priced accordingly. We expect other graphics card vendors will follow Manli shortly with their own variants of the RTX 3060 8GB.

The impetus behind the card appears to be a desire to offer something between the rather anemic GeForce RTX 3050 and the existing RTX 3060 12GB. The 3050 gets pummeled by AMD's RX 6600 as well as Intel's Arc A750, both in price as well as performance. However, while trimming the memory capacity may reduce the price relative to the 12GB card, it will also drop performance.

Our best guess is that Nvidia probably has loads of GA106 graphics processors, some of which may not have three fully functional 64-bit GDDR6 controllers but which still have nearly all of the potential 30 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) available. This looks like a way to try and bump up the price relative to the 3050 while providing a modest boost to performance.

Nvidia's goal will be to use any and all opportunities to sell off as many Ampere GPUs as it can in the next several months in a bid to clear the road for its next-generation GPUs based on the Ada Lovelace architecture. We can't help but think it would find more success if it cut prices, rather than trying to fill the gap between the existing 3050 8GB and 3060 12GB cards.

Although Nvidia has launched its GeForce RTX 40-series (Ada) graphics cards, the chipmaker isn't ready to bid farewell to Ampere yet. Likewise, Nvidia hasn't officially announced the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X, but Asus has just confirmed the new Ampere SKU's existence.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X is part of the rumored refresh, including models like the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X, GeForce RTX 3060 8GB, and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GA102. The refresh suggests that Nvidia may have accumulated too many Ampere dies and is finding ways to get rid of them. Therefore, the next contenders for the best graphics cards could hail from Nvidia's Ampere family rather than Ada.

As first spotted by VideoCardz, Asus has listed the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8G GDDR6X and TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition 8G GDDR6X graphics cards, with the latter model arriving with a factory overclock. The standard version boosts to 1,665 MHz, the same boost clock as the regular GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. However, Asus' graphics card has an OC mode that further ups the clock speed to 1,695 MHz. Meanwhile, the OC edition has a 1,775 MHz default boost clock and a 1,785 OC boost clock.

Asus GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X Specifications

The improved boost clock speeds will help the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X offer higher performance over the vanilla version. However, the show's real star is the switch from 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory to 19 Gbps GDDR6X memory. Even though the amount of memory and 256-bit interface remains the same, the GDDR6X memory will boost the Ampere graphics card's memory throughput.

While the standard GeForce RTX 3060 Ti offers a memory bandwidth of up to 448 GBps, the GDDR6X variant delivers up to 608 GBps. The new SKU represents a 36% improvement. In a previous leak, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X outperformed the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti by up to 10% in synthetic benchmarks, which don't always tell the whole story. It remains to be seen whether the higher memory bandwidth offers a perceptible uplift in real-world gaming.

Unfortunately, Asus didn't list the TDP for the custom GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X graphics cards. It's still a mystery how much impact the GDDR6X memory has on the graphics card's TDP. It would seem that the new variant does draw more power, according to Asus' design.

The TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition 8GB GDDR6 only uses a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. In contrast, Asus has outfitted the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition 8G GDDR6X with two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Both graphics cards feature the same boost clock, so the clock speeds aren't the reason for the higher power requirement. Instead, it comes down to the type of memory.

It's a radical change considering that each 8-pin PCIe power connector is suitable for 150W. However, the extra power connector doesn't necessarily mean that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X pulls the total 150W. Asus still suggests a 750W power supply for the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition 8G GDDR6X despite its twin 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It's the same minimum recommendation as the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition 8GB GDDR6. We can conclude from the power connector arrangement that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X likely has a higher TDP but is not significant enough to warrant a bigger power supply, at least in Asus' case.

It's unknown when Nvidia will unveil the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X; it shouldn't be long, though, since Asus has already listed the brand's custom models.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti may not be the only Ampere graphics card getting a GDDR6X memory upgrade. Slovakian retailer DT digital (via momomo_us), which specializes in Lenovo products, has listed an unreleased GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card with GDDR6X memory.

Similar to the situation with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X, the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X would be the third iteration of the GeForce RTX 3060. The original model debuted last year with the GA106 die. A second variant arrived on the market a few months later with identical specifications but a bigger GA104 die. Since Nvidia hasn't announced the GDDR6X model, it remains a mystery whether it utilizes the GA106 or GA104 die.

Starting with subtle changes, the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X seems to rock a 1,780 MHz boost clock, 3 MHz faster than the vanilla GeForce RTX 3060. It's not something to brag about since it represents a less than 1% uplift. However, a higher boost clock speed slightly bumps the FP32 performance from 12.7 TFLOPs to 12.8 TFLOPS. It's not something the average gamer will notice in real-world scenarios.

GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X Specifications*

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

The GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 15 Gbps. With access to a 192-bit memory interface, the GeForce RTX 3060 pumps out a memory bandwidth of 360 GBps. DT digital's product listing confirms that the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X sports "super fast G6X memory for a great user experience." Unfortunately, the retailer didn't provide memory speed. We can only speculate since GDDR6X frequencies span from 19 Gbps to 21 Gbps.

We think the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X is in all likelihood rocking 19 Gbps GDDR6X memory chips. If so, the graphics card could offer a memory throughput of 456 GBps, a significant 27% improvement over the regular GeForce RTX 3060. Of course, the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X upgrade isn't as considerable as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X (36%), but the latter does have a wider memory interface.

It would appear that the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X retains the same 170W TDP as the other two variants. The graphics card can get all the juice from the expansion slot and a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. However, expect heavily-overclocked models to come with 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors.

While the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X could have a similar MSRP as the original, the pricing for the GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X is still in the air. DT digital didn't expose the price for the Lenovo GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X (4X61E72194). However, the same graphics card has appeared in two U.S. retailers, but the pricing is all over the place.

The Lenovo GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X is on Newegg for $589 and $675 through third-party sellers. Meanwhile, Provantage sells it for $546. These are likely prices before the Ethereum mining bubble burst. With regular GeForce RTX 3060 starting at $369, the GDDR6X model should have a similar, if not lower, price tag.

The rumor about Nvidia giving the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti a refresh seems true. U.K. retailer Scan Computers (via VideoCardz) has listed Nvidia's unannounced GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with upgraded GDDR6X memory.

Nvidia launched the original GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in 2020, but the chipmaker would introduce a second variant earlier this year. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti leveraged the GA104 silicon, whereas the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103, as its unofficial name implies, used the GA103 silicon. It was a die-swap on Nvidia's part since the  GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103 retained the exact specifications as the vanilla model. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X flaunts a substantial upgrade in the memory subsystem.

The funny thing about the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X is that Nvidia U.K. doesn't list it on the company's website yet. Instead, the chipmaker still lists the regular GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Adding the GA104-based graphics card to your basket changes to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X. Apparently, Scan Computers is the retailer selling the new variant; however, it's not on the U.K. store's website either. But the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X appears in stock and allows you to checkout.

GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X Specifications*

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

Whether the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X utilizes the GA104 or GA103 silicon is unknown. The shopping basket shows the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X with a 1,410 MHz base clock and 1,670 MHz boost clock. The base clock is the same as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti; however, the boost clock is 5 MHz higher. It's not a big deal since the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X's FP32 performance still maxes out at 16.2 TFLOPs.

The memory quota between the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X remains unchanged at 8GB. Both models still conform to a 256-bit memory bus. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X features faster memory, though. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti sports 14 Gbps GDDR6, while the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X has 19 Gbps GDDR6X. The extra firepower will push the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X's memory bandwidth to 608 GBps, a massive 36% uplift over the normal version.

The GeForce RTX 3060 and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GA103 adhere to a 200W TDP, but the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X model probably has a higher rating. GDDR6X consumes less power per transferred bit in comparison to GDDR6. Despite that, total power consumption is higher on GDDR6X because it operates at a faster frequency.

Nvidia U.K. lists the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X for £369, which translates to $409. It's even cheaper than some of the custom models. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X only has a $10 higher price tag than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's $399 MSRP. It's good to see that the GDDR6X premium only raised the price by 3%.

It's funny to see Nvidia launch a third variant of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti this late in the game. True, Intel recently launched the Arc A770, but we've already seen that the Arc Alchemist graphics card doesn't pose a threat to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Although the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti received a fat memory upgrade, it won't magically catch up to the GeForce RTX 3070 either because there's a 21% CUDA separation between the two, and not even GDDR6X memory can close that performance gap. Therefore, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X is likely just Nvidia's way of dumping Ampere inventory. Now that the cryptocurrency mining fiasco is over, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 series are starting to climb the Steam charts. What better way to keep the momentum than injecting another model into the market?

The latest Steam Hardware Survey (SHS) is out, and as usual it provides insight into the dynamics of the PC hardware configurations favored by gamers. What caught our eye this month was the impressive surge in Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 / 3060 Mobile usage, one of the best graphics cards. Added together, these 3060 category Ampere GPUs become the only double digit percentage ranked entry in the survey. It's arguable whether such a merge is ‘justified’ or not, but the previous two GeForce generations don’t separate out the desktop and mobile GPUs as far as the SHS is concerned.

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 has become something of a legend for mainstream gaming. It has every right to its success, as it was priced competitively, provided a great gen-to-gen performance uplift, and can still be used for PC gaming fun today. Ironically, Team Green might be looking forward to the demise of the GTX 1060 more than its rivals, as it continues to frame modern PC gaming in terms of features that aren’t supported by ye olde Pascal architecture — ray tracing, DLSS, and so on.

It's no surprise the GeForce GTX 1060 is still holding onto the official top spot in the SHS GPU tables with 7.24% (DX12 PC gaming figures derived from the survey will be used throughout this article). It's even made sporadic gains over the last few months — perhaps cards have been sold by upgraders and are being subsequently enjoyed in ‘new’ entry level systems.

Again, bear in mind that there's only a single entry for "GTX 1060" in the charts. That aggregates GTX 1060 6GB and 3GB desktop variants, plus any laptop models as well. There's no question that the 1060 was a very popular card back in its heyday, though it's less so now.

If we merge the GeForce RTX 3060 and 3060 Mobile into one, using Steam's data, it turns out the unified RTX 3060 entity eclipsed the GTX 1060 between May and June of this year. In the newest September data, the RTX 3060 products are very clearly in the lead with a total of 10.53%, the only GPU to make double digits in the table.

Even as separate line items, the GeForce RTX 3060 and 3060 Laptop GPUs are 6th and 5th, respectively. If we didn’t ‘help’ the RTX 3060 with the merged figures, they could still easily make it to first and second position on their own steam (sorry) sometime in 2023. Also note that there's no launch window in sight for the RTX 4070 or below. Nvidia’s increased pricing might mean something like the RTX 4050 could end up as the best selling Ada Lovelace generation GPU.

Elsewhere in the Steam survey, hexacore CPUs have very firmly cemented their lead over recent months. In OS usage, Windows 11 continues to look strong and will certainly break the 25% milestone before the next survey is published.

Lastly, there has been some VR headset controversy. Upload VR noted that Valve has had to step in and correct the VR headset market share information, as it had some ‘extreme’ figures for the Oculus Quest 2 (now Meta Quest 2) and ‘Other’ headsets. Apparently, there might be some misreporting in this segment due to the hardware detection method.

And that is reason enough to question all Steam hardware survey results. We've long wondered whether Valve uses proper statistical methods (ie, fully random sampling), rather than looking for other trends in hardware use. Sadly, Valve never says precisely what it's doing, though it remains the best publicly available insight into PC hardware.

Nvidia and partners are purportedly concocting at least three more GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards, according to Twitter leakster Zed Wang, aka MEGAsizedGPU. In the pipeline, according to this latest green team rumor, are an RTX 3060 8GB, an RTX 3060 Ti with GDDR6X, and an RTX 3070 Ti based on the GA102 GPU. However, we think adding these cards shortly would signal that there are still several months to wait for mid-range GeForce RTX 40-series (Ada Lovelace) cards to hit the market.

If true, introducing a new GeForce RTX 3060 with 8GB of RAM might make the biggest splash, as the X060 is often the most popular SKU of any generation. Of course, this new model will have less VRAM than the original (12GB cut to 8GB), but there is no light shone on any other spec changes. In the worst-case scenario, Nvidia might cut the bus from 192-bit to 128-bit for 8GB, reducing both memory quota and bandwidth. Without rebalancing in some other way (CUDA cores, clocks, memory speeds), it will simply be inferior to the currently marketed RTX 3060 and be a change that would draw heavy fire from enthusiasts.

A more positive change might be coming to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti refresh if Zed Wang’s info is correct. This model is said to be getting a significant memory speed upgrade. It will move from 8GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 to the same quota, using 19 Gbps GDDR6X. Given this info, we should expect about a 35% boost to memory bandwidth.

Last but not least, the source reckons there will be a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti leveraging the GA102 GPU. This GPU powers Nvidia’s flagship cards which it seems keen to shift recently. Perhaps there are bins full of GA102 GPUs with just enough working cores for this new RTX 3070 Ti. Such economics are often the reason behind production re-jigs like this.

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

It is almost certain that Nvidia will launch the first Ada Lovelace architecture GPUs during a GeForce Beyond special broadcast a week from Tuesday. However, it is hotly tipped and customary for Nvidia to start at the premium consumer end of things and then work its way down over the following months. With Ampere, things were highly protracted, with the journey from GeForce RTX 3090 to RTX 3060 launches taking five months, and it’s best not to mention the RTX 3050 (add a further 11 months).

So, at GeForce Beyond on September 20, we expect the RTX 4090 launch and probably some details about pricing and availability. If we are lucky, we have similar information about the GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4070.

Tom’s Hardware’s graphics editor has recently warned not to buy into the high-end Ampere series. Meanwhile, Nvidia and partners push the RTX 3080 and above harder with price drops and the new Spider-Man Remastered promotion.

As promised, Intel has released a new video highlighting the ray tracing technology behind its Arc Alchemist graphics cards. While the Arc A770 has yet to prove itself, the looming graphics card aims to fight for a spot on the list of best graphics cards.

We've already seen how the Arc A380 measures up to the competition in ray tracing performance. However, the Arc A380 is the entry-level SKU with just eight ray tracing units (RTUs), whereas the Arc A770 bears the flagship crown and has 32 RTUs. The Arc A770 is much more interesting, especially since Intel's backing up its previous claims that Arc is competitive or even a bit better than Nvidia's second-generation RT cores inside Ampere.

That's quite the claim, though Intel does go on to provide some low-level details of its ray tracing hardware. Unlike AMD's Ray Accelerators and the Radeon RX 6000 series of GPUs, Arc has full ray tracing acceleration. AMD uses the texture units to do ray/box BVH intersections at a rate of 4 box/cycle. Intel does the BVH traversal in hardware and can do 12 ray/box intersections per cycle. Beyond that, both AMD and Intel can do 1 ray/triangle intersection per cycle, per core. Nvidia can do twice the ray/triangle intersections per RT core with Ampere, but it's not exactly clear what the ray/box rate is — for Turing or Ampere.

Intel details its BVH cache, which further speeds up BVH traversal. The RTUs also have a Thread Sorting Unit that takes the results of the ray tracing work and then groups them according to complexity to help maximize utilization of the GPU shader cores. It all sounds pretty good on paper, but how does it work in the real world of gaming?

According to Intel's benchmarks, the Arc A770 delivered better ray tracing performance than the GeForce RTX 3060 at 1080p (1920x1080) on ultra settings. Alchemist outperformed Ampere between 1.04X to 1.56X. The Arc A770 only lost to the GeForce RTX 3060 in four titles, including F1 2022, Guardians of the Galaxy, Battlefield V, and Deathloop. Intel's graphics card is tied with the GeForce RTX 3060 in The DioField Chronicle.

Ray tracing taxes the graphics card regardless of the resolution. As a result, performance drops as you increase the resolution. That's where Intel's XeSS AI upscaling technology comes in to save Arc. Intel used the highest possible settings for its XeSS 1440p tests with ray tracing configured to the maximum.

The results showed that the Arc A770 struggled to deliver frame rates above 40 FPS in titles such as Ghostwire Tokyo and Hitman 3. However, with XeSS enabled on a balanced preset, the Arc A770 showed 1.77X higher performance in Ghostwire Tokyo and 1.61X in Hitman 3. That's with the balanced preset, though. So if you value performance over eye candy, the XeSS performance setting can help boost performance further.

With XeSS on the performance preset, the Arc A770 offered over 2X better frame rates in Ghostwire Tokyo and Hitman 3. The graphics card also revealed visible performance upflits (up to 1.68X) in the other tested titles, like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Arcadegeddon, or The DioField Chronicle.

Barring any further delays, the Arc A770 should arrive on the retail market before the end of the year. Intel has kept a tight lip on the graphics card's pricing. However, new clues suggest that the Arc A770 could cost around the $400 mark. That would make sense, considering the official MSRP for the RTX 3060 is only $330. It's not at that price, at least not yet, but with Ada Lovelace on the horizon, we could see GPU prices continue to fall.

In a new video on its YouTube channel, Intel has shared fresh benchmarks of the chipmaker's upcoming Arc A750 Limited Edition graphics card. According to Intel's 1080p and 1440p results, the Arc A750's performance is on the same level as Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060, one of the best graphics cards.

The cumulative results claim that the Arc A750 delivered up to 3% higher performance than the GeForce RTX 3060 at 1080p and up to 5% in 1440p across 43 DirectX 12 titles. The Arc A750 performed slightly faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 in games that use the Vulkan API as well. Intel recorded up to a 4% performance delta at 1080p and 5% in 1440p in favor of the Arc A750.

Intel hasn't officially revealed the specifications for the Arc A750. However, the graphics card will likely come with 24 Xe cores, 3,072 shaders, and 12GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit interface. In addition, the boost clock speed probably hovers around the 2,300 MHz mark. Meanwhile, Intel used EVGA's GeForce RTX 3060 XC Gaming for comparison, one of the faster custom GeForce RTX 3060 on the market, flaunting a 1,882 MHz boost clock.

Intel benchmarked the Arc A750 and GeForce RTX 3060 identical systems powered by the Core i9-12900K, the current Alder Lake flagship. The testbeds also had 32GB of (2x16GB) Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-5200 C38 downlocked to 4,800 MHz memory, MP600 Pro XT 4TB SSD. Intel used Windows 11 and the balance power plan for the tests.

One thing to note is that the Arc A750 was on Intel's engineering driver, whereas the GeForce RTX 3060 used the GeForce 516.59 WHQL driver. Arc Alchemist's drivers are still a work in process, so that could be holding the Arc A750 back in the gaming benchmarks. Intel has admitted that Arc underperforms in older APIs, so the company only used DirectX 12 and Vulkan titles.

Intel still has a lot of time to get its driver act together. The company hasn't committed to a specific timeframe for desktop Arc Alchemist's launch. However, the chipmaker stated in a recent blog post, "Intel Arc GPUs are scheduled for release later this year."

We've been used to Founders Edition cards going out of stock and then basically only showing up on sites like eBay in the past. But these days it's becoming more common to see GPUs and the occasional Founders Edition card back in stock online and on shelves as they should be. You can get your hands on an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti FE at Best Buy for $399, making it one of the cheapest 3060 Ti's on the market currently. See our GPU Hierarchy and review of the RTX 3060 Ti for more details on the card.  

If you're in the market for a CPU instead (or as well) this the cheapest we've seen the Ryzen 5 5600G processor, at only $127 on Amazon. That's a fantastic price for a great-performing CPU. See our list of the best CPUs for gaming and review of the 5600G for more information.  

You can also grab an EVGA Z15 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard for only $39, which is an absolute steal seeing as you get a hot-swappable board that comes with quality Kaihl switches and per-key RGB. 

More deals are below. 

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB Founders Edition: now $399 at Best Buy
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600G: was $259, now $127 at Amazon
• EVGA Z15 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard: was $129, now $39 at Amazon
• EVGA SuperNOVA 80 Plus Gold 1300W G2: was $309, now $159 at Amazon
• Netgear Nighthawk AX3000 WiFi 6: was $109, now $49 at Walmart

Today’s best deals in detail

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Alienware's Aurora R13 is reduced to $1,736 at the moment. This particular version sports the latest Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake Core i7-12700F CPU, which is one of the best CPUs for gaming, and also has an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti for graphics power.  

Now is a great time to build a PC, as GPU shortages are no longer an issue. If you're looking to put together a more budget-oriented rig, this MSI Mech Radeon RX 6600 for $249 may interest you. It's capable of playing many of the latest games and has a comfortable 8GB of VRAM, this card should be a great fit in any build. 

Beef up your connection with the Asus ROG Rapture (GT-AX11000) gaming router for $319. With a 2.5G Ethernet Port, four Gigabit Lan Ports and a strong 5GHz wireless signal, this router could improve your gaming connectivity. 

Check out some more of our featured deals below. 

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• Alienware Aurora R13 Gaming 12th Gen Intel: was $2,120, now $1,736 at Dell
• MSI Mech Radeon RX 6600: was $389, now $249 at Newegg with rebate
• Asus ROG Rapture WiFi 6 Gaming Router (GT-AX11000): was $449, now $319 when you apply $30 coupon at Amazon
• Zalman S3 Mid-Tower Case: was $60, now $54 at Amazon
• Razer Kraken V3 X Gaming Headset: was $69, now $38 at Amazon

Today’s best deals in detail

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We don't blame you if you've never heard of the GeForce RTX 3060M. It's not an official graphics card Nvidia, and you won't find it in the list of best graphics cards. 

The GeForce RTX 3060M materialized when Nvidia cracked down on cryptocurrency miners. The chipmaker had heavily enforced the Lite Hash Rate (LHR) Ethereum anti-mining limiter on its GeForce RTX 30-series (Ampere) graphics cards to combat miners. Chinese OEMs would repurpose Ampere silicon from laptops into desktop graphics cards as a workaround. Nvidia was hard on slipping LHR silicon into its desktop products, but the mobile counterparts didn't get the same treatment. Nvidia's blind eye lead to the eventual existence of the so-called GeForce RTX 3060M and GeForce RTX 3070M.

In terms of silicon, the GeForce RTX 3060M utilizes the same GA106 (Ampere) silicon as the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile. Therefore, the 3,840 CUDA cores and 6GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 remain intact. However, the GeForce RTX 3060M has a desktop cooling solution, allowing sport up to a 300 MHz higher clock speed than the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile. It also has a lower TDP of 80W, compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile 105W.

The GeForce RTX 3060M isn't far behind the desktop GeForce RTX 3060. According to Korean TechTuber 뻘짓연구소's 3DMark tests, the GeForce RTX 3060 was only faster than the GeForce RTX 3060M by 2% in Fire Strike and 4% in Time Spy, respectively. The two models have a small gap because the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile has 256 more CUDA cores than its desktop counterpart (3,584 CUDA cores). However, synthetic benchmarks don't always tell the whole story, and the GeForce RTX 3060's more powerful memory system may give it a more significant lead in real-world gaming.

GeForce RTX 3060M Benchmarks

The YouTuber didn't share the graphics settings for his game testing. We could only see that he performed the benchmarks on a resolution of 1920x1080. While the GeForce RTX 3060M couldn't beat the GeForce RTX 3060, it was faster than the vanilla GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (105W).

The GeForce RTX 3060M delivered 3% higher average frame rates in Forza Horizon 5 than the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile. However, in PUBG: Battlegrounds, the former was up to 17% faster. As for Overwatch, the GeForce RTX 3060M led the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile by a 14% performance margin.

Now that we're nearing Ethereum's merge, cryptocurrency miners have started to unload their graphics cards on the second-hand market. In addition, Chinese merchants are also getting rid of their inventory on popular e-commerce platforms, such as JD and Taobao. The GeForce RTX 3060M used to sell for between $545 to $570; now, it goes for as low as $280. The GeForce RTX 3060M may sound enticing, but its biggest problem is the lack of official driver support. The graphics card only works with a modified GeForce Game Ready 512.15 driver, so it's already a couple of versions behind. Buying one means you're stuck with the aforementioned driver and lose out on future performance, feature and security updates. It's not a good deal in the long run.

Welcome to Wednesday and your midweek deal post. Discounted deals today start off with the Victus 15L from HP for $1,099. Powered by an Intel Core i7-12700 and Nvidia's Geforce RTX 3060, this desktop is reasonably priced for mid-tear gaming thanks to this early 4th of July deal from HP.

If you're looking for a little more SSD storage for your system then you can get $10 off Gigabyte's Aorus 1TB Gen4 SSD (with Heatsink) for only $99. This is a great price for 1TB of storage that has read/write speeds of 5000/4400MB/s.

The HP X32 for $289 is a great IPS paneled 31.5-inch monitor that is now under the $300 mark, thanks to a $100 discount at the HP Store. It features a QHD resolution and large display, combined with a 165Hz refresh rate and 1ms gray to gray response time, you get a lot of monitor for the money at this price. 

More deals are below, so please check them out.

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• HP Victus 15L Desktop PC: was $1,399, now $1,099 at HP
• Gigabyte Aorus NVMe M.2 2280 Gen4 1TB SSD: was $109, now $99 with code GBJUNE222 at Newegg
• HP X32 QHD Gaming Monitor: was $389, now $289 at HP
• Razer Huntsman Mini: was $119, now $64 at Amazon
• Kingston DataTraveler Max 256GB USB-C Flash Drive: was $62, now $46 at Amazon

Today’s best deals in detail

Looking for more deals?

• Best deals on tech & PC hardware
• Best gaming laptop deals
• Best monitor deals
• Best PC and laptop deals
• Best SSD deals
• Best CPU deals
• Best Dell and Alienware deals
• Best 3D printer deals
• Best Raspberry Pi deals

Intel announced the company's Arc Alchemist mobile lineup back in March. The high-end Arc 7 A730M and A770M won't hit the U.S. market until summer, but they're already shipping in select laptops in China. In a new reviewer's guide, Intel claims that the A730M and A770M are faster than Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile and RTX 3060 Mobile, respectively.

The A730M and the A770M are the top performers from the A-series mobile lineup. The discrete graphics cards feature Intel's ACM-G10 silicon baked with TSMC's 6nm process node. The A730M comes with 24 Xe cores, 24 ray tracing units, and a clock speed up to 1,100 MHz. The superior A770M has eight more Xe cores and ray tracing units while also enjoying a clock speed that hits 1,650 MHz. As a result, the A770M offers twice the compute performance as the A730M. There's also a significant gap in memory configuration between the A730M and A770M. The A730M has 12GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit memory interface, whereas the A770M wields 16GB of GDDR6 and a 256-bit memory bus.

As always, we recommend you approach vendor benchmarks with caution. The disparity between the hardware for the four gaming laptops that Intel used in its tests is evident. The A730M pre-production unit features the latest Core i7-12700H, a 14-core Alder Lake-H chip, and 16GB of DDR5-4800. On the other hand, the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile belongs to the ROG Zephyrus M16, which has the previous octa-core Core i7-11800H Tiger Lake chip and 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory. More importantly, Asus' device uses the 60W version of the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. For reference, there are 70W and 80W variants, so the one inside the ROG Zephyrus M16 isn't the best-performing SKU.

There's even a more notorious difference between the A770M and GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile machines. The A770M's pre-production laptop has a 14-core Core i9-12900HK, the flagship Alder Lake-H SKU, and 16GB of DDR5-4800 memory. The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile emerges inside the MSI Pulse GL66, which has nearly the exact same specifications as the ROG Zephyrus M16. The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile has a TGP range between 60W and 115W, and the MSI Pulse GL66 features the 85W variant.

Caveats on the discrepancies in test hardware notwithstanding, let's go ahead and hit the Intel-provided benchmarks.

Arc A730M, A770M Benchmarks

According to Intel's 1080p (1920x1080) results, the Arc A730M was up to 13% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. Intel didn't specify the TGP for the A730M, so we can't put those numbers into perspective. We know that the A730M wiggles in between 80W and 120W, and the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile spans from 35W to 80W. Intel used the 60W SKU for comparison paired with a slower processor. Even then, the difference wasn't very substantial.

The Arc A770M, the flagship mobile Arc SKU, delivered up to 12% higher performance than the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile. But again, the TGP for the A770M remains a mystery. As per Intel, the A770M sits between 120W and 150W. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile was at 85W and had the same last-generation processor as the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile offers TGP limits between 60W and 115W, so the tested variant is basically at the halfway point.

The performance delta between the Alchemist and Ampere graphics cards was less than 15%. The margins would probably be lower if Intel had paired Ampere with identical processors like the Intel units and used the higher TGP versions. Perhaps, it may have even tipped the scales. Then again, that's the problem with vendor benchmarks. You can't trust them.

Overall, it's good to see that Intel might be able to deliver GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile levels of performance, and pricing will, of course, be a factor to consider. Intel offers AV1 encoding hardware, which you don't get on other GPUs right now, and it also has some synergies it can leverage when you pair an Arc GPU with an Intel 12th Generation Alder Lake CPU — things like Hyper Encode and Deep Link.

Drivers and gaming performance, meanwhile, seem like they'll fall toward the mainstream and budget sector, so hopefully, vendors will price laptops accordingly. The fact that Intel is doing all of the Arc GPUs, both mobile and desktop, as China first launches doesn't give us a lot of confidence either, but perhaps by the time the U.S. launch rolls around, more bugs will have been squashed.

A Korean TechTuber has shared photo that is said to show the bare PCB of a desktop graphics card that features an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 mobile GPU. BullsLab Jay says that the PCB shot, centered on the GPU and 6GB worth of memory ICs, shared some interesting comments on this unofficial silicon mish-mash.

According to the TechTuber, those who get their hands on one of these RTX 3060 Mobile add-in-cards for desktop PCs will have to rely on a "custom driver." BullsLab Jay clarified by stating that Nvidia's "official drivers [are] not recognized."

When we reported upon spotting piles of these mixed-up GPUs being sold on the internet in China back in March, we mentioned that they were very likely to be cryptomining GPUs. In brief, the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile never featured Nvidia's Light Hash Rate (LHR) cryptocurrency mining limiter, so these unofficial hybrids were quite popular. Reports suggested there were similarly cobbled together RTX 3070 mobile GPUs on desktop cards too.

With the cards meant for cryptomining, the reliance on a custom driver wouldn't be much of a bother. However, those with any intention of gaming, (and avoiding drivers of unknown provenance, which is just good security practice) may be upset that they won't get regular updates and optimized drivers for games. 

The TechTuber also had some insight into the performance of the RTX 3060 mobile / desktop cards. We aren't sure if this is first hand knowledge but he says that users of these unofficial designs should expect much the same performance as one would get in a laptop – with the bonus of better cooling and a 10W higher power budget. The GPU power budget was one of the big factors holding back the RTX 30 mobile series, though the GPUs were cut back in other ways too (CUDA cores, memory etc).

Last but not least, what looks like the collapse of cryptomining is flooding the market with used GPUs. Some of the used crypto cards will likely be experiencing 'wear' issues – which could be a trivial fan replacement or re-paste, or something more serious. If we get these mobile / desktop cards thrown onto used marketplaces, with dodgy specification misreporting BIOS files and so on, it means buyers have to be extra vigilant to avoid getting ripped off.

Nvidia graphics card partner Galaxy has teamed up with some cartoon character designers and publishers to create a doggedly different limited edition. The partnership between Galaxy, Dodowo, Bemoe, and Station B has precipitated one of the most bizarre-looking GeForce RTX 30-series (Ampere) graphics cards we have ever seen. The design pays tribute to a cartoon dog with the body of a vegetable.

If you were a fan of this dog, which we think is a character called Caigu in the Dodowo animations, then this will be a very appealing package. There are plenty of supporting accessories in the box besides the pastel yellow GPU with red flourishes on the front and a happy Caigu shouting encouragement on the back. The package includes a 360 x 275mm mouse mat, an intelligent device stand with clock, a 55mm square die with six facial expressions posted by Caigu and the gift box.

We should look at the graphics card more closely, as that is our job here, but it is nothing special under the dog/cabbage-themed paint job. The GeForce RTX 3060 is suitable for playing mainstream AAA games at 1080p with smooth frame rates and support for graphics technologies like real-time raytracing, DLSS, and Nvidia Reflex. Regulars will know from one of several reviews RTX 3060 we have published. Coincidentally, we reviewed a Galaxy-made model, the Galax GeForce RTX 3060 EX, in November last year.

This new limited edition model is a triple fan model but won't be much different compared to the twin fan models we have reviewed. An RGB logo provides additional eye candy on the cooling shroud and RGB fans. We guess Dodowo fans will set them to a cabbage green and leave them like that.

You are probably desperate to buy one of these cute Galaxy GeForce RTX 3060 designs. However, it looks like this limited edition will be limited to China, where the Dodowo animation is created and has an established fan base. 

The dog/cabbage gift boxed and themed set has a limited edition of 500 and went on sale at 8 pm. They sell for 3,099 yuan in China, and if we change that to USD directly, at the time of writing, it would be equivalent to $460. That isn't much of a premium over competing branded standard RTX 3060 graphics cards when we checked online retailers in China today. Happily, even with the not terrible pricing, we don't think many of these cute graphics cards will go to the crypto miners. Cryptocurrencies are further declining this weekend, with ETH, for example, valued at under $950 at the time of writing.

If you are after a serious graphics card, feel free to review our famous GPU Hierarchy of 2022 and our list of Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2022.

Colorful is best known as an Nvidia graphics partner but has been broadening its portfolio for a few years to include RAM, SSDs, motherboards, and even PCs. Today it announced a new all-in-one (AiO) for gamers, the Colorful G-One Plus, and it surprised us with its design and processing power.

The new Colorful G-One Plus is heralded as a substantial AiO built around an impressive 31.5-inch 165Hz 2K IPS display. Moreover, Colorful boasts of the performance power within, offering 12th Generation Intel Core processors with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 for graphics duties.

Look a bit closer, and you will see that Colorful is using Intel's 12th Gen mobile CPUs (H-Series) and Nvidia's RTX 3060 laptop GPU. These are understandable choices in an AiO, where the major PC components are squirreled into the back of the monitor and/or stand – but it isn't made clear these are H-Series GPUs until about halfway down the press release. Moreover, you have to peer closely at the specs table at the foot of the release to see that this RTX 3060 is the laptop version.

These performance laptop components reside in a tightly confined chassis, so cooling must still be carefully considered. Colorful assures that its cooling tower pedestal design helps dissipate heat, with a quintet of heat pipes and independent cooling channels addressing the CPU and GPU. In addition, turbofans with a new 52-blade design are easily switchable between four modes using the Colorful iGame Center app.

An AiO's monitor is a component you certainly want to be happy with, as you can't just trade up like you would with a traditional desktop PC. Luckily, the G-One Plus appears to have some enticing specs, given the price.

This 31.5-inch 2K (2560x1440 pixels) IPS display offers HDR 400 color, with 99% sRGB gamut coverage. Gamers should appreciate the Nvidia G-Sync compatibility with the display running at up to 165 Hz. Sadly, there is no information on response times, max brightness, and max contrast. And if you prefer flat rather than curved displays, you are in luck.

As an AiO machine, there are plenty of other specs to consider. Colorful fits 16GB of RAM as standard (up to 64GB possible) and up to a 1TB NVMe SSD (there is a spare M.2 slot available). Design niceties include aluminum alloy construction, RGB lighting, a pop-up webcam, twin 5W speakers, the ergonomic adjustable stand with wireless charging dock (up to 15W), Wi-Fi 6E, rear I/O including HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4, two USB 2.0 ports, a 2.5 GbE LAN port, USB Type-C (USB 3.2 Gen2) port, plus dedicated side I/O for USB mouse, USB keyboards, and audio I/O. Colorful has also included brightness and volume adjusting buttons on the side of the display.

Colorful says that the first G-One Pus configuration, with Intel Core i7-12700H CPU, will be available in the US at $1,999. The Core i5 and i9 models are to be scheduled for a later date.

Intel Arc A7-powered laptops won't be available in the U.S. market until late summer. But while we wait, Weibo user "Golden Pig Upgrade" has put the Arc A730M through its paces — and it looks like Intel's graphics card can't keep up with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile.

According to the review, the user's Arc A730M and GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile laptops use the same 14-core Core i7-12700 (Alder Lake-H) processor, so both devices are on an equal playing field. With mobile Ampere, Nvidia gave laptop vendors the freedom to tweak the TDP to their liking. As a result, there are tons of GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile SKUs with thermal values ranging from 80W to 115W. The model used in Golden Pig Upgrade's tests is the top 115W SKU, which has another 15W of provision for Dynamic Boost 2.0. In comparison, the Arc A730M has a maximum graphics power of 120W. 

The reviewer ran his tests using Intel's new Arc A730M-supporting graphics driver, Graphics Driver 30.0.101.1735, which was just released today. 

Even in his new video, the Weibo user didn't specify whether he enabled Dynamic Tuning Driver (DTT) on the Arc A730M laptop. As a quick reminder, DTT is Intel's equivalent to AMD SmartShift or Nvidia Dynamic Boost, which allows the laptop to reallocate the power that goes to the processor or graphics card depending on the workload. It's a fine piece of technology for battery life and performance optimization, but it can limit the device's performance in gaming.

Intel Arc A730M Benchmarks

The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile pulled a resounding victory over the Arc A730M. If we calculate the geometric mean for the average framerates, the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile finished with a score of 109.58, while the Arc A730M put up 67.63. The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile was up to 62% faster than the Arc A730M. The performance delta looks accurate, considering that the Arc A730M performed like a GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile in previous gaming benchmarks.

In eight of the titles, the Arc A730M only managed to score a victory over GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. On the other hand, Alchemist delivered up to 6.59% higher average framerates than its Ampere rival. Some of the most significant performance margins were in Boundary and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile machine was utilizing Nvidia DLSS in the former, giving it an unfair advantage.

The reviewer also provided some workstation GPU results in the shape of the popular SPECviewperf 2020 benchmark. The scenario didn't change, and the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile continued to dominate the Arc A730M with performance deltas spanning from 20% up to a whopping 515%.

A new laptop packing Intel's Arc Alchemist A730M mobile GPU was tested in 3DMark Time Spy, as seen in this Weibo post. The notebook, called the Mechanic Dawn Exploration Edition 2022, features an Alder Lake i7-12700H CPU and is already on sale. The Time Spy result of 10,107 puts the A730M laptop into competition with RTX 3060-equipped laptops in both performance and value.

The A730M comes from the upper end of Intel's mobile A-series lineup, sitting one step down from the flagship A770M. The A730M sports 24 Xe-cores and 24 ray tracing units, with an 1100 MHz graphics clock and 12GB of GDDR6 operating on a 192-bit bus. Power consumption depends on the notebook manufacturer and can be anywhere between 80 and 120 watts.

The notebook sells for approximately $1,277 on item.jd.com and features a solid spec sheet: Intel Core i7-12700H, 16GB of GDDR5 memory, and Intel's new Arc A730M mobile GPU. The notebook comes in a 16-inch form factor with a respectable 165Hz screen featuring 100% sRGB color output.

We aren't sure if this particular model will make it to the U.S. market, but at $1,277 it would definitely make for a competitive offering against RTX 3060 laptops.

You'd be hard-pressed at the moment to find a laptop with RTX 3060 performance and an i7-12700H processor for under $1300. Most of the laptops with the RTX 3060 in that price range currently have 11th or 10th gen Intel Core i7 processors.

3DMark Time Spy Results

Let's dive into the 3DMark Time Spy results: The A730M-powered notebook achieved an overall score of 10,138 points, with a graphics score of 10,107 points and a CPU score of 10,321 points. This is a respectable result for a midrange gaming notebook.

One of the closest Time Spy results we could find in the 3DMark browser was with a notebook powered by a Core i7-11800H CPU and RTX 3060 mobile GPU, which had a Time Spy benchmark result of 10,546 points. The graphics and CPU score results were 10,269 points and 12,455 points respectively.

The A730M comes very close to matching the highest-performing RTX 3060 mobile GPU in graphics performance. Every other RTX 3060 mobile GPU in 3DMark has a graphics score under 10,000, which means the A730M would take second place if we jammed it into the RTX 3060 mobile GPU lineup.

If Intel can duplicate this value proposition with its Arc A730M in notebooks from Asus, MSI, Dell, Lenovo, etc. the A730M could be a great competitor against the midrange RTX 3060 laptops. Of course, the bigger question is how 3DMark Time Spy performance will translate to real-world gaming workloads. There have been plenty of rumors suggesting drivers and compatibility are a primary concern for Intel's Arc GPUs, and we've seen our share of issues with the previous generation Iris Xe graphics solutions.

It's far easier to optimize drivers for a major benchmark like 3DMark rather than focusing on a wide suite of games. Obviously, getting the drivers to work properly and run fast with games is more important in the grand scheme, but at least this early 3DMark result looks competitive. We're looking forward to testing A730M and A770M in shipping laptops as soon as we can. Note that the A770M has substantially higher clock speeds and 33% more GPU cores, meaning if Intel gets its drivers into shape, it could compete with mobile RTX 3070 or even 3070 Ti laptops.

Today we've trawled the internet for deals on various gaming and professional content creating laptops. First off, we have the Gigabyte A5 K1 for $1,199 that features an Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU. 

Next, there's the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 for $1,099 at Walmart. This gaming laptop from Asus incorporates a powerful Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and an RTX 3050 Ti. There is also the MSI GE66 Raider on sale for $1,679 at Amazon with an amazing 240Hz QHD screen powered by an RTX 3070.

There are more laptop deals below. Check them out and you may find a bargain that applies to you. 

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• Gigabyte A5 K1 (RTX 3060) Gaming Laptop: was $1,399, now $1,199 at Amazon
• Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 (RTX 3050 Ti) Gaming Laptop: was $1,599, now $1,099 at Walmart
• MSI GE66 Raider (RTX 3070) Gaming Laptop: was $2,299, now $1,679 at Amazon
• MSI Creator 17 (RTX 3070) Professional Laptop: was $2,749, now $2,226 at Amazon
• MSI Bravo 15 AMD Gaming Laptop: was $1,099, now $699 at Walmart

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It's been a long wait for a lot of people wanting a new or replacement GPU for their current system or a new build. Prices of graphics cards have been well over the MSRP originally set by Nvidia, and scalpers further increased prices into the stratosphere. Thankfully, with a change in mining and availability, these prices have fallen dramatically to where they should have been a year and a half ago. Today you can get the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 12GB Ventus 2X for £369 from Ebuyer. I'd like to see prices fall even further, but the price drops have slowed over the last couple of weeks. 

The MSI GeForce RTX 3060 12GB Ventus 2X features 3584 CUDA Cores, 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a 256-bit memory interface. Clock speeds can boost up to 1777 MHz for higher performance in some applications. Connectivity-wise, the RTX 3060 12GB Ventus 2X comes with 1x HDMI and 3x Display Port.

The RTX 3060 is an entry-level 30-series card that sits just below the Nvidia RTX 2070 Super on our GPU Hierarchy chart. It has an impressive amount of VRAM with 12GBs of GDDR6 memory, which is more than ample for the majority of PC games. 

If you're looking for something of similar performance, and are not too bothered about Ray Tracing then you may want to take a look at AMD's Radeon RX 6600. It doesn't feature as much VRAM (only 8GB), but it does compare well in non-DXR benchmarks and is usually a little cheaper.

It has been impossible to purchase a modern gaming graphics card at its recommended price for the past six or seven quarters, but with recent restock campaigns by Nvidia and EVGA, things are slowly getting back to normal. Right now, EVGA is selling its custom GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming graphics board with a $30 discount from its list price.  

The GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming (12G-P5-3655-KR) is currently in stock at EVGA's online store for $369.99, which is $30 below EVGA's list price (due to a $30 instant rebate). At present, GeForce RTX 3060 boards are selling for around $500 and higher by retailers. Cards like these cost at least $470 on eBay, but most offerings are still around $500 or higher, so EVGA's offering looks quite competitive. Nvidia's MSRP for the GeForce RTX 3060 is $329, so EVGA's RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming is very close to that. 

Nvidia and EVGA's restock campaigns are clearly aimed to bring GeForce RTX 30-series graphics boards to gamers at more or less decent prices. It looks like Nvidia has managed to increase supply of its Ampere GPUs either by improving yields at Samsung Foundry or by placing additional orders as prices of graphics board have been declining for several weeks now, according to our frequently updated GPU Pricing Index. 

Interestingly, Nvidia's chief financial officer Colette Kress implied several times that shortages of its up-to-date products would begin to ease around middle-2022 and as we see from pricing and availability of GeForce RTX 30-series offerings, this is what may be happening. In fact, supply situation may get even better in the second half of 2022, Kress said back in January. 

EVGA's GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming graphics card is powered by Nvidia's GA106 GPU with 3584 CUDA cores clocked at up to 1777 MHz (boost), which is in line with Nvidia's recommendations. The board carries 12GB of GDDR6 memory with a 192-bit interface and a 15 GT/s data transfer rate. The card has four display outputs (three DisplayPort 1.4a, one HDMI 2.1) and comes with a rather minimalistic (by today's standards) dual-slot dual-fan cooling system. The device is about 20 cm long, so it will fit into most modern gaming desktops. 

Spotted at Costco for $1,599, we have an MSI Aegis ZS pre-built desktop PC which includes an AMD Ryzen R7 5800X processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPU. This is a great hardware setup for gaming and more than powerful enough to play all of the latest games. 

As graphics cards prices keep falling, Best Buy has listed the MSI AMD Radeon RX 6800 Gaming X Trio for only $769 which is down from its previous $999 price tag. Need a monitor to go with any of the above? Check out the Samsung Odyssey G50A for $249 from B&H— this 165Hz QHD panel is a bargain at that price. 

Even more deals below on computer peripherals, so make sure you scroll down.

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• MSI Aegis ZS (RTX 3060 Ti) Gaming Desktop: was $1,899, now $1,599 at Costco
• MSI AMD Radeon RX 6800 Gaming X Trio GPU: was $999, now $769 at Best Buy
• Samsung Odyssey G50A 27-Inch Gaming Monitor: was $449, now $249 at B&H
• Razer Huntsman Mini 60% Gaming Keyboard: was $119, now $69 at Woot
• Razer Power Up Gaming Bundle: was $170, now $79 at Walmart

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B&H has the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X OC in stock for $469 at the moment, further supporting the rumors of much more widely available stock going forward. This entry-level 30-series GPU is great for 1080p gaming, and you can see how it fares in our GPU Hierarchy.

If you're looking for a pre-built gaming setup, then we have the ABS Gladiator Gaming PC (i7 12700KF - RTX 3070 Ti) configuration with $200 off of its usual asking price, and featuring the latest 12th Gen Core i7-12700KF from Intel and a powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. 

Need a monitor to go with any of the above? The Zero-G 27-inch curved gaming monitor from Monoprice is on sale for only $199. It features a 1500R curve and QHD resolution on a VA panel. 

Scroll below for more detail on today's deals. 

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• MSI GeForce RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X OC: now $469 at B&H
• ABS Gladiator (Intel i7 12700KF, RTX 3070 Ti) Gaming PC: was $2,499, now $2,199 at Newegg
• Monoprice Zero-G 27-Inch Curved Gaming Monitor: was $259, now $199 at Newegg
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVMe M.2 4TB: was $749, now $699 at Amazon
• WD Easystore 14TB external hard drive: was $362, now $199 at Best Buy

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Happy Monday! Today's deals include great savings on laptops, monitors, and a bunch of premium Razer products. First off, we have fantastic savings on an MSI Katana RTX 3060 gaming laptop for only $949 at Costco.

Next up is a 27-inch Razer Raptor monitor that's down to $559 on Amazon and a 34-inch ultrawide Gigabyte G34WQC display for only $347 at Newegg.  It's also a great time to get some money off of some premium Razer gaming headsets and mice. 

Have a look down below for our other great deals.

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

• MSI Katana RTX 3060 Gaming Laptop: was $1,299, now $949 at Costco
• Razer Raptor 27 (2K, 144 Hz) Monitor: was $699, now $559 at Amazon
• Gigabyte G34WQC A-SA 34-Inch Monitor: was $449, now $347 at Newegg
• Razer Kraken Ultimate Headset: was $129, now $54 at Amazon
• Razer DeathAdder v2 Pro Gaming Mouse: was $129, now $59 at Amazon

Today’s best deals in detail

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The latest version of FinalWire's AIDA64 benchmarking and diagnostic software brings in support for Nvidia's unannounced GA102F graphics processor. The chip is cloaked in mystery as Nvidia seems to be rolling it out very late in Ampere's lifecycle, and it has never previously added letters to designations of its GPUs.

FinalWire's AIDA64 version 6.60.5933 beta can read GPU information for Nvidia's GA102F processor, according to release notes (discovered by @momomo_us). The release notes do not disclose what product will be powered by the GA102F or how the chip will be used, but it was important enough for Nvidia share its ID and specifications with FinalWire to include in AIDA64.

Being the world's largest supplier of graphics processing units with about 85% market share, Nvidia can afford the luxury of developing GPU silicon aimed at very specific market segments. Just recently Nvidia introduced its GA103 chip (featuring a 496 mm^2 die size) that was specifically for the laptop-bound GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, but which is also being used in the desktop GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The design costs for such a chip are in the hundreds of millions of dollars range, but as it can be used in a wide range of products from enthusiast-grade gaming laptops to performance graphics cards, its design is well justified.

But Nvidia's GA102 is a massive 628 mm^2 graphics processor containing 28.3 billion of transistors, so its design costs are in the hundreds of millions and its re-spin costs are extremely high as well. Making a new revision of this chip a couple of quarters ahead of the rumored Ada / RTX 40-series launch is an extremely odd move, given GA102 is only used for a relatively limited range of products. Nonetheless, just a couple of weeks before the company is expected to launch its flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GPU, AIDA64 has added GA102F support.

Perhaps GA102F is indeed a version of GA102 with some changes designed to improve yields of full-fat silicon and make the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti somewhat more practical from manufacturing point of view. Or maybe GA102F is a version of GA102 designed specifically for cloud datacenters and therefore prone to high temperatures and constant load. Another possibility is that this is a chip aimed at cryptocurrency mining that's been adjusted in some fashion — or potentially the opposite, a chip designed specifically not to do well at mining.

Assuming the GA102F ends up in cards for the PC gaming market, it will certainly compete with the best graphics cards. We expect more details will come to light in the coming weeks.

A Weibo user (via cnBeta) has shown some rather exciting custom GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards on Goofish, a popular platform in China for selling second-hand items. The graphics cards reportedly use recycled GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile dies to sidestep Nvidia's Ethereum anti-mining limiter.

Surprisingly, Nvidia's Light Hash Rate (LHR) cryptocurrency mining limiter has held up pretty well since its introduction. There have been multiple efforts to break Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series (Ampere) LHR models. We've seen software enabled to restore up to 70% of the mining performance on LHR graphics cards and other alternatives to mine two cryptocurrencies simultaneously to maximize performance. More recently, a piece of software claimed to have broken Nvidia's LHR algorithm, but it turned out to be malware instead. However, these custom GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards from China appear to be the real deal.

While the origin of the GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards is unknown, it would seem that a company essentially took the GA106 dies that are supposed to go into laptops and turned them into desktop graphics cards. The bypass sounds so easy that it surprises us that no one has thought of it until now. Chipmakers do it all the time. AMD's latest Radeon RX 6500 XT uses the Navi 24 silicon, a die originally designed for mobile devices.

Repurposing mobile dies into a desktop graphics card is not something that an average consumer can accomplish from his garage, so we suspect it has been a graphics card maker injecting the mysterious GeForce RTX 3060 models into the Chinese market.

The quality of the graphics cards appears quite good--at a glance, you may not be able to tell the difference between these graphics cards and those from a known brand like Asus or Gigabyte. The 3060 cards come with a black, dual-slot shroud with a cooling system consisting of two copper heat pipes and dual-fan cooling. The card provides one HDMI port for connecting displays. It even has a matching backplate and Nvidia stickers on the fans. However, if you look closely, the coloring on the Nvidia logo has a more yellow tone to it than the green that Nvidia uses. This yellowish Nvidia logo appears on fake Nvidia graphics cards, labeled as 黄伟达 (Huang Weida) in China.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile uses a variant of the GA106 silicon that has 30 enabled stream multiprocessors (SMs), whereas the desktop variant has 28 SMs. In addition, it bumps the mobile variant's CUDA core count to 3,840, 7.1% more than the desktop variant. However, the big difference is that the desktop version has twice as much memory (12GB of GDDR6) as the mobile variant (6GB of GDDR6). The other specifications of the mobile card carry over to the custom GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards.

The Chinese seller shared screenshots of the custom GeForce RTX 3060 hitting a hash rate up to 50 MH/s, which is impressive as it matches the original GeForce RTX 3060's Ethereum mining performance before Nvidia's anti-mining crackdown. For reference, the GeForce RTX 3060 LHR tops out at 34 MH/s. The merchant even had nine of these bad boys side-by-side in a system, collectively pumping out 246.8 MH/s and pulling around 910.7W from the wall socket.

The modified GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards sell for between $545 to $570 on the Chinese market, depending on how many units the buyer wants. They're cheaper than your regular GeForce RTX 3060, starting at $680 in the U.S. market, and they don't have the LHR lock. Unfortunately, the graphics cards won't offer excellent gaming performance since they have half the memory and a lower TDP than regular models. So instead, we're looking at the same performance of a GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, but in a desktop form factor.

It's not the first time we've seen cryptocurrency miners using mobile graphics cards to do their bidding. When Ampere first dropped, Chinese miners were utilizing Ampere-based gaming laptops to mine, and it wasn't unusual to find laptop mining farms around China. However, turning a GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile into a desktop graphics card is easier on the pockets than buying a laptop, which is more likely to die sooner due to the demanding workload inside a thermally constrained laptop. Additionally, you can't scale with laptops as you can with desktop graphics cards.

These GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards are only the tip of the iceberg. Rumor has it that the manufacturer behind the feat has given the GeForce RTX 3070 a similar treatment, although we haven't seen any recycled GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile in a desktop form on the Chinese market yet.