RTX 3060 8GB: Much slower, not cheaper, avoid, says first online review

The soft-launch downspec 8GB version of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (opens in new tab) was tested by Downunder Hardware unpacked (opens in new tab) and found terribly lacking, although for now they offer no cost savings.

The typical performance deficit compared to the original 12 GB model (opens in new tab) is around 15-20%, with some games dropping by as much as 26% at 1080p. In other words, the 12GB card is up to 35% faster at 1080p.

If we take Newegg as a reasonably representative example of retail pricing, current pricing is identical for the 8GB and 12GB models. The cheapest 8GB RTX 3060 from Newegg is $359 for both cards (opens in new tab).

It’s worth understanding that the performance deficit with the 8GB card goes beyond the mere lack of graphics memory. Both cards use the same GPU silicon in GA104 with the same number of 3,584 shaders and actually run at the same official boost clock of 1,777MHz. However, there are other key differences. For starters, the 8GB bus runs a 128-bit bus, while the 12GB bus runs a 192-bit bus. As a result, total bandwidth has dropped to 224 GB/s versus 360 GB/s. The 12GB also gets 50% more L2 cache.

The result is a huge performance advantage for the 12GB card in some games. The worst example is Dying Light 2 (opens in new tab). At 1080p and high graphics settings, the 12GB card runs 35% faster than the 8GB card. That’s 69 fps versus 51 fps. Just for a little more context, the much-maligned Intel Arc A770 (opens in new tab) The GPU achieves 85 fps in the same test.

Halo infinity (opens in new tab) is perhaps a little more representative of the typical performance gap, with the 12GB card gaining 21% at 1080p Ultra versus the new 8GB card. All in all, it makes for an ugly display for the 8GB.

The problem here is twofold. First, the very idea of ​​paying the same money for a much worse service is disastrous in itself. But even if the 8GB were a lot cheaper – which could happen in the future – the branding overlap could be an issue.

Is it fair to expect that anyone who isn’t bogged down in GPU lore can really see at a glance how big the difference between these two RTX 3060 boards is? I do not think so.

In fact, it’s hard to see how this dual RTX 3060 situation can be any better than the confusion caused by the dual RTX 4080s that Nvidia announced in October. Recognizing the problems caused by two cards with nearly identical branding but vastly different performance, Nvidia has pulled the unwanted RTX 4080 12GB from the market.

Feels like a lot of this. For now, we can only look forward to getting our hands on one of these 8GB cards so we can test them out for ourselves.

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