NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060 Gets a Release Date: February 25th
by Ryan Smith on February 12, 2021 12:30 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- NVIDIA
- GeForce RTX
- Ampere
- RTX 3060
NVIDIA this morning has sent over a quick note revealing the release date for their next GeForce desktop video card, the RTX 3060. The mainstream(ish) video card, previously revealed at CES 2021 with a late February release date, has now been locked in for a launch on February 25th, with prices starting at $329.
As a quick recap, the RTX 3060 is the next card down in NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture consumer video card stack. Using the new GA106 GPU – which is already shipping in RTX 3060 laptops – the RTX 3060 follows the traditional price/performance cadence for video card launches, with NVIDIA releasing a cheaper and lower performing video card for the mainstream-enthusiast video card market. NVIDIA’s 60-tier cards have long been the company’s workhorse parts for 1080p gaming – as well as some of their highest-volume parts in North America – and the RTX 3060 is expected to fill the same role within the Ampere/30-series family.
| NVIDIA GeForce Specification Comparison | ||||||
| RTX 3060 | RTX 3060 Ti | RTX 2060 | GTX 1060 | |||
| CUDA Cores | 3584 | 4864 | 1920 | 1280 | ||
| ROPs | 64? | 80 | 48 | 48 | ||
| Boost Clock | 1.78GHz | 1.665GHz | 1.68GHz | 1.709GHz | ||
| Memory Clock | 14Gbps? GDDR6 | 14Gbps GDDR6 | 14Gbps GDDR6 | 8Gbps GDDR5 | ||
| Memory Bus Width | 192-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | ||
| VRAM | 12GB | 8GB | 6GB | 6GB | ||
| Single Precision Perf. | 12.8 TFLOPS | 16.2 TFLOPS | 6.5 TFLOPS | 4.4 TFLOPS | ||
| Tensor Perf. (FP16) | 51.2 TFLOPS | 64.8 TFLOPS | 51.6 TFLOPS | N/A | ||
| Tensor Perf. (FP16-Sparse) | 102.4 TFLOPS | 129.6 TFLOPS | 51.6 TFLOPS | N/A | ||
| TDP | 170W | 200W | 160W | 120W | ||
| GPU | GA106 | GA104 | TU106 | GP106 | ||
| Transistor Count | ?B | 17.4B | 10.8B | 4.4B | ||
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere | Turing | Pascal | ||
| Manufacturing Process | Samsung 8nm? | Samsung 8nm | TSMC 12nm "FFN" | TSMC 16nm | ||
| Launch Date | 02/25/2021 | 12/02/2020 | 01/15/2019 | 07/19/2016 | ||
| Launch Price | MSRP: $329 | MSRP: $399 | MSRP: $349 | MSRP: $249 Founders $299 |
||
NVIDIA has already published most of the specifications for the card back in January. Including the fact that it offers 28 SMs (3584 CUDA cores), and 12GB of GDDR6 running on a 192-bit memory bus. As with previous 60-tier cards, the non-power-of-two memory bus means that NVIDIA is shipping with a somewhat odd amount of memory, in this case 12GB, which is actually more than what comes on even the RTX 3080. However with the only other option being an anemic-for-2021 6GB, NVIDIA is opting to make sure that the card isn’t for want of VRAM capacity.
Meanwhile, for better or worse the RTX 3060 is all-but-guaranteed to fly off of shelves quickly. With every video card more powerful than a GTX 1050 Ti seemingly getting shanghaied into mining Ethereum, desperate gamers will be fighting with hungry miners for supplies. Even with the 192-bit memory bus, I would be shocked if the RTX 3060 wasn’t profitable, especially with Ethereum reaching record highs. So for anyone thinking of grabbing the card, best be prepared to camp out at your favorite retailer or e-tailer on that Thursday morning.
On a final note, unlike the other RTX 30 series cards launched to date, NVIDIA will not be producing any Founders Edition cards for the RTX 3060 series. So all of the cards released will be AIB cards with their own respective designs. And, if tradition holds, don't be surprised if we see the AIBs outfit their cards with premium features and raise their prices accordingly.
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Peskarik - Saturday, February 13, 2021 - link
Ha! Ha! Ha!I can tell you something, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090 is getting released soon!
Who needs unobtanium 3xxx series when there is 5xxx series on horizon!
Ah, yes, 4xxx series was released but you cannot get it either.
Peskarik - Saturday, February 13, 2021 - link
I LOVE how the world turned into USSR is less then a year.A new product is released, buy it....in 10 years, if you are lucky, from a scalper.
Lovely.
Sivar - Saturday, February 13, 2021 - link
I am more interested in the 3080. When is its release date?haukionkannel - Saturday, February 13, 2021 - link
It was released in a Galaxy far far away!iranterres - Sunday, February 14, 2021 - link
Any GPU news these days are as useful as paperweight.eastcoast_pete - Sunday, February 14, 2021 - link
Now if we would just know which retailer will get the one 3060 card that'll be available to the one lucky buyer on the 25th. As for the rest of us, it's vaporware or scalper central.jbwhite1999 - Monday, February 15, 2021 - link
I'm not a huge gamer - I'd be happy with a 6GB 3050 (to replace my 3GB 1060 that I bought used on eBay like 3 years ago). What I'd love to see is something with decent power, but ideally to fit in the 75w PCIe slot power budget for maybe $199 or so. Hopefully nVIDIA will go one more level down the stack.As to people complaining about supply - the whole chip industry is in turmoil - net is that there haven't been any 6" wafer foundries built in 20 years - and as everyone wants chips, there just isn't capacity. nVIDIA is competing with companies supplying Lenovo, HP, and Dell - and they will not get first dibs. I mean, Ford has cut down on F150's and Chevy has idled some plants.
The next thing that is going to happen is that prices will be going UP.
Yojimbo - Monday, February 15, 2021 - link
The issue affecting automobiles is a different one from what's affecting NVIDIA and AMD. And NVIDIA is supplying Lenovo, HP, and Dell. NVIDIA is near the top of the food chain. Ahead of it are the flagship smartphone SoC manufacturers because of the yearly turnover of that market, and especially Apple because of its size. But in terms of leading-edge high powered chips NVIDIA and AMD are at the top of the chain. And the leading-edge chip manufacturers have it better than those trying to produce on cheaper older nodes, because the investment is going into the leading edge as that's where the foundries can make the best margins.But foundry capacity is not the biggest issue for NVIDIA. I think the issue is getting enough of various components used in the manufacture of chips. One of these components that has been reported as being in short supply is a certain high-insulation matrix for routing the signals and power between the PCB and the compute area of the chip. This high performance version is only necessary in chips that require the higher power densities, so it is affecting NVIDIA's GPUs while not affecting many other chips. I don't know exactly what needs it and what doesn't. I also don't know why it's in short supply. From what I can gather one Japanese company (Ajinimoto) makes the material, which does not seem to be in short supply, and a few Taiwanese companies use that to provide the component for chip manufacturing. That's where the supply constraint seems to be, and those companies are increasing their production but it is taking time to do so.
I believe those auto chip manufacturers are mostly producing on 8 inch wafers, by the way, not 6 inch wafers. I think the machines are not made any more so they can't really build new fabs for them. But it costs less to produce on those processes so that's why they've designed their chips for them. Many applications have been switching from 12 inch back to 8 inch in recent years. But they are going to have to design a certain amount of their chips for 12 inch wafer processes going forward, I would imagine. Unless they are willing to have no options every time there's a demand surge or supply crunch.
In any case, AMD is certainly also dealing with foundry space restrictions, whether NVIDIA is or is not, and there are also reports of a lack of GDDR6 DRAM, which is something that is fixable because the DRAM manufacturers have spare capacity, but it takes them time to use it to catch up to demand in one particular area.
domboy - Monday, February 15, 2021 - link
I wonder if the assumed 3050 is going to have the same supply issues as the xx60 and cards up due to mining. Are the xx50 class cards good for mining? I haven't really followed mining so really have no idea...Gothmoth - Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - link
who the F*** cares?everything is sold out and will be sold out.
here in germany you may get a GT 710 with 2GB DDR5 for 90-110 euro if you are very lucky.
and most tech press is reporting about new stuff as if nothing has changed.
it´s like michelin is reporting about fantastic restaurants in north korea.... you write fiction at this moment.