News outlet VideoCardz has treated us to the first photographs of Nvidia's unannounced GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. The mid-range Ampere-based graphics card is rumored to debut on December 2 - a little under two weeks from today.
Design-wise, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition doesn't deviate much from Nvidia's design on the GeForce RTX 3070. The aluminum shroud flaunts a finned radiator design with dual-axial cooling fans. According to VideoCardz's discernment, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition exhibits a stronger silver tone, though. A metal backplate is still present to provide rigidity to the graphics card and protect it from potential damage.
Whether you dig it or not, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition appears to employ Nvidia's 12-pin PCIe power connector that will probably be situated at the center of the graphics card like the GeForce RTX 3070. VideoCardz noted that the corresponding adapter, which converts the 12-pin to two 8-pins, is included with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. There's no need to worry since custom models will likely come with standard PCIe power connectors.
Although Nvidia hasn't officially revealed the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, a pretty convincing GPU-Z submission has reportedly spilled the beans on the mid-range performer. For starters, if the report is accurate, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti will wield the GA104 (Ampere) silicon. It may come with 38 enabled Stream Multiprocessors (SMs), adding up to 4,864 CUDA cores, 152 Tensor cores, and 38 RT cores.
So far, the information points to the Founders Edition arriving with a 1,410 MHz base clock and a 1,665 MHz boost clock. As per usual, we can expect Nvidia's partners to put out factory-overclocked models to satisfy the more demanding gamers.
The GPU-Z submission also shows the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with the same memory subsystem as the GeForce RTX 3070. If so, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has 8GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory at its disposal. With a 256-bit memory interface, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti could theoretically pump out memory bandwidth up to 448 GBps.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Specifications
| Header Cell - Column 0 | GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 3080 | GeForce RTX 3070 | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture (GPU) | Ampere (GA102) | Ampere (GA102) | Ampere (GA104) | Ampere (GA104) |
| CUDA Cores | 10,496 | 8,704 | 5,888 | 4,864 |
| RT Cores | 82 | 68 | 46 | 38 |
| Tensor Cores | 328 | 272 | 184 | 152 |
| Texture Units | 328 | 272 | 184 | 152 |
| Base Clock Rate | 1,400 MHz | 1,440 MHz | 1,500 MHz | 1,410 MHz |
| Boost Clock Rate | 1,700 MHz | 1,710 MHz | 1,730 MHz | 1,665 MHz |
| Memory Capacity | 24GB GDDR6X | 10GB GDDR6X | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Speed | 19.5 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Memory Bus | 384-bit | 320-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 935.8 GBps | 760 GBps | 448 GBps | 448 GBps |
| ROPs | 96 | 88 | 96 | 80 |
| L2 Cache | 6MB | 5MB | 4MB | 4MB |
| TDP | 350W | 320W | 220W | 200W |
| Transistor Count | 28.3 billion | 28.3 billion | 17.4 billion | 17.4 billion |
| Die Size | 628 mm² | 628 mm² | 392 mm² | 392 mm² |
| MSRP | $1,499 | $699 | $499 | ? |
*Specifications are unconfirmed.
VideoCardz previously shared an unconfirmed Nvidia slide that claims that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti outperforms the GeForce RTX 2080 Super without a hiccup. In its time, the GeForce RTX 2080 Super retailed for $699. We won't know the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's exact pricing until launch, but rumors put the graphics card in the sub-$400 bracket.
AMD has introduced its Radeon RX 6000 (Big Navi) offerings, more specifically the Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6800. Unfortunately, the Red Team doesn't have any graphics card that compete at the same price range as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The cheapest Big Navi graphics card, the Radeon RX 6800, sells for $579.
Nvidia would effectively beat AMD to the punch with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. However, AMD probably already has an answer for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in the shape of the Radeon RX 6700 or RX 6700 XT that could launch as early as January 2021.
