SHOULD you buy an RTX 3060 in 2023?

RTX 3060 Mid-Range KING, Should you buy it?

Taking another look at the RTX 3060 2 years after release. Is it still good or worth the money?

Hardware Unboxed RTX 3060 8GB Video
Videocardz Article

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:56 - Overview
2:16 - The RTX 3060
3:06 - Specs
3:31 - Gaming Benchmarks
4:38 - DLSS and Ray Tracing tests
7:51 - Final Thoughts, should you buy?

RTX 3060 12GB

RX 6650 XT

Please note: prices may change over time. These prices are current as of filming.

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[fuzzydunlop]

The 3060 is probably the best bang for buck content creator's card. That 12gb of VRAM might be overkill for 1080p gaming, but it's definitely getting used in apps like DaVinci Resolve and Blender.

[szczur]

I've just switched from a crappy beat up 2012 laptop that barely ran Minecraft to a 3060 12GB PC. There is literally nothing I can't do. No matter how hard I push this PC it still runs everything at 60fps+. The VRAM is overkill for my 1080p monitor. Amazing experience.

[carlosnumbertwo]

I’m sticking with my 3060 12gb for a while!

[arcanos]

I gotta say, i have to agree with nvidia knocking it out of the park with the GTX 1060. I bought mine 7 years ago and just this year its starting to choke. BUT! I can still run and play brand new titles on it with reduced graphics. That card is a beast. I hope the 3060 gives me the same longevity. Picking mine up when i see a sale on newegg soon

[tradehut]

Just got my 3060 yesterday 😊
Befor this I was using 7600x with its inbuilt GPU.
I see big improvement not just in games and photo editing (topaz labs AI). Even when opening and playing a YouTube video the experience is just better.
Before this I had stuttering issues when playing the videos in windowed mode.

[nftbandit]

The RTX 3060 is just that solid, dependable, best bang for your buck card. Now don't get me wrong, can you get a bigger, better card that will get you a bit more performance? Yeah of course but this card will play an AAA game with high FPS at 1080p or 1440p without breaking a sweat. I play Fortnite and I average 170fps with all of my settings on high with a couple on medium no problem. I can get wayyy more if I turn those settings down of course as well. If you're new to PC building or PCs in general and you were considering an RTX 3060 but everybody is trying to persuade you to go bigger but all you need it for is gaming and some multitasking, you're completely fine with this card. There's a weird culture in this space where people feel like they NEED the biggest and best cards as soon/shortly after they come out.

[techwolfcave]

I have a RTX 3060 too 😊😊😊 I'm happy with it. But most tech youtubers aren't.

[louwar]

i got this exact card 1 week ago. im only playing like csgo and fortnite using a 1080p 165hz 27inch monitor and i could not be happier with the purchase

[LarryManiccia]

I just picked up the 3060 12GB version of the card for $269 during the holiday sale season. I use it for photo editing, video editing, and some light gaming and have been happy with it so far.

[Mythdon]

I like how this video showcases how much performance tanks with DLSS off. A lot of benchmarkers benchmark the 30 series cards mainly with DLSS on, so it's nice to see the 30 series cards get reviewed for their raw performance for a change.

As to which card I want to get, I've been wanting to get a 3060 12GB, 3060 Ti or higher, but the 3060 12GB is the lowest I'll go if I have to settle. I'm definitely not getting the 3060 8GB thanks to this video (and a few other videos) showing how sluggish the 8GB version is.

Excellent review overall. Still undecided, but very informative nonetheless.

[Jrdan]

Another great detail that you don't really need to use auto preset or highest graphics preset, so you can get a lot of extra frames even in 1440p in vast majority of recent games without any noticeable visual difference.

[SynthXV]

Tech reviewers aren't big on this card admittedly but the actual user experience of those that own it is 99% of the time extremely positive
I'm a hardcore gamer and picked up this card after gaming on ps4 for quite some time
This thing genuinely feels like a beast and I'm able to play all games beautifully without having to worry about anything
The argument is made that AMD offered better value at the price point but I personally am not comfortable with the brand
It is what it is

[KidGacy]

I've been using this card for 3440x1440 and with optimized settings and DLSS or FSR you get a 60+ fps even on the most demanding titles, if you do the same thing on 1080p you can get a high refresh rate experience no problem.

[wteverisgud]

Considering the 4060 will only be a 10% or so increase over the 3060 i think it's a great deal. If you're waiting for the 4060 i wouldn't bother and just get the 3060 now and upgrade when the 5060 comes out. The 4060 will be like when the 2060 replaced the 1060 it sucked. But the 3060 over the 2060 was a big increase. It's a good card for 1440p gaming and even swings 4k in there but sub 60fps.

[SkoolConnor]

I just bought my 3060 yesterday, it's such an amazing card and I cant believe that Im getting this good of performance out of a $300 GPU. When I first built my PC I used a RX 570 8gb which was almost $200 and had less than half the performance that the 3060 has. I later upgraded to a 1660ti but that wasnt really too big of a change with performance, so this 3060 has been the best money I've ever spent.

[neitastamosiunas]

im planning to buy this
Gpu : RTX 3060 OC dual 12gb DDR6
Cpu : Ryzen 7 5800X
Power: 850w be quiet!
Ram: corsair 2x16
NVMe: 1 TB m.2
Motherboard: Gigabye b550m-ds3h
Case: i forgot

[JackieLombardi]

"...Apex Legends was the first game I tested"

Astronomically based. You've earned a sub just off of that alone LMFAOOO

[jpsp]

Thanks for your insight! I was on the fence on getting the 3060 and you really helped me with my decision!

[HelplessTeno]

I've had a GTX 1060 since 2018. Got it for under $200 at the time. I've had that card since and it was really showing it's age recently, especially with unoptimized games like Starfield. I decided to upgrade to a 3060 instead of a 4060 because more and more games are going above the 8GB VRAM cap, even at 1080p. Sometimes the performance difference is almost nominal or even worse for the 4060 depending on VRAM usage. Bought my 3060 3x Fan for under $300 over 5 years after my 1060 purchase and holy shit was it a fantastic upgrade. I only have an i5 9600K (OD'd to 5GHz) so getting a higher tier video card just didn't make sense. The 3060 even OCs better than any other card I've owned. I was able to get 190MHz extra on the core and 1000MHz on the memory! I'm getting triple the FPS in most games that I was on the same settings on the 1060. Went from playing Cyberpunk on low with FSR at 30ish FPS to playing on Medium at 60FPS. Starfield was the hardest game to run, days before I upgraded. Lowest settings, 50% res scale, I was getting 22-25FPS on my 1060. I'm currently playing on medium with 62% scaling at 60FPS most of the time, 40-50 in New Atlantis.

Also being able to take advantage of DLSS 3 is a great benefit for certain games, although FSR holds up and is often produces a sharper image. If you own a 1060/1060ti and are thinking of upgrading, the 3060 is the best mid-range NVIDIA card you can buy. There's a strong argument to get something like the AMD 6650xt or 6700xt (would be my choice for the $30 extra) instead, as it's better for the same cost minus the VRAM. But if you want to stick with NVIDIA the 3060 is a better purchase than the 4060 IMO due to games finally taking advantage of more than 8GBs of VRAM. The same couldn't be said when the 3060 originally launched, the 12GB just wasn't needed. Great mid-range card to "future-proof" your PC for a couple extra years.

[HikingFeral]

I'm buying one tomorrow to replace an overheating 6gb 2060. I do a lot of modding and game at 1080p with dual monitors so I honestly don't think another graphics card exists at this price point with enough vram to run a game and 50 mods and max settings. I cannot wait to get mine.