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*
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Graphics Card
GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6X
GeForce RTX 3060 GA104
GeForce RTX 3060
Architecture
GA106
GA104
GA106
Process Technology
Samsung 8N
Samsung 8N
Samsung 8N
Transistors (Billion)
12
17.4
12
Die size (mm²)
392
392
276
SMs
28
28
28
GPU Cores
3,584
3,584
3,584
Tensor Cores
112
112
112
RT Cores
28
28
28
Base Clock (MHz)
1,320
1,320
1,320
Boost Clock (MHz)
1,780
1,777
1,777
VRAM Speed (Gbps)
19
15
15
VRAM
12GB GDDR6X
12GB GDDR6
12GB GDDR6
VRAM Bus Width
192
192
192
ROPs
48
48
48
TMUs
112
112
112
TFLOPs FP32 (Boost)
12.8
12.7
12.7
Bandwidth (GBps)
456
360
360
TGP (watts)
170
170
170
Launch Date
2022
2021
2021
Launch Price
?
$329
$329
*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.
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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.
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
