Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti Officially Unveiled

The RTX 3000 graphics card line-up from Nvidia has just gotten a lot more interesting thanks to the introduction of the 3060 Ti! If you’re scratching your head right now, however, know that you’re not in the minority. This is the first time Nvidia has ever introduced a GPU with the Ti suffix before its standard variant. It’s not the logical way of doing things, but Nvidia can definitely get away with it.

If anything, it’s foreshadowing the existence of a standard (“budget-friendly”) 3060, which is definitely a cause for celebration. Of course, we always knew Nvidia would provide something to budget-conscious buyers, but we never had a concrete date to work with. This time, however, it’s becoming quite obvious that they’re planning on releasing multiple new products over the coming weeks and months. Just in time for the holiday season!

In that sense, the RTX 3090, 3080, and 3070 were just the beginning — pricey products targeting a very specific segment of the market. So what’s makes the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti so special? Well, for starters, it’s priced at $399. That’s the MSRP, although we’ll have to wait a bit before its price actually stabilizes. It’s not exactly cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not insanely expensive either.

Plus, when you factor in just how strong it truly is, it’s actually a bargain!

Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti | Benchmarks

Benchmarks, of course, is the only thing that matters in the grand scheme of things. So how does the 3060 Ti perform? Well, in short: exceptionally well. It’s faster than an RTX 2080 Super. Now sure, that’s a last-gen graphics card, but it’s a mighty powerful one. Plus, it’s more than sufficient for 1440p and 4K gaming. You’re basically getting a noticeably stronger card for less money which is just insane.

The performance improvement Nvidia was able to pull off with their Ampere series is simply dumbfounding. Of course, it all depends on the title you’re playing and how well it’s optimized, but you can expect between a 5% and 20% improvement over an RTX 2080 Super. Again, it’s always title-dependent, but the point still stands.

In any case, as a solid rule of thumb: triple A titles at 4K will run at 60 FPS. If you’re aiming at 1440p, you might be able to reach that oh-so-alluring 144 FPS mark. This, of course, varies wildly depending on the game. In any case, even if you can’t reach 144 FPS, your 1% lows will still improve tenfold, meaning the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti offers a fantastically smooth gaming experience. This holds true for any resolution, although if you’re focused solely on 4K gaming, it might be wise to splurge a bit more and get something like the RTX 3070 or an equivalent GPU from AMD.

RTX Galore

As with any other RTX 3000 graphics card, the 3060 Ti offers sublime ray-tracing performance along with improved DLSS 2.0. The latter is crucial when it comes to reaching respectable framerates without any noticeable drop in visual fidelity. It truly makes a world of difference, especially at higher resolutions.

There’s really no better (cheaper) option on the market. The RTX 3060 Ti is basically a jack of all trades. Still, it’s just the start as AMD isn’t one to be outdone. You can expect a similarly priced alternative (probably a 6600XT) to be announced in a matter of months if not weeks.

Finally, the RTX 3060 is all but official at this point. How much it’ll retail for still remains to be seen, but somewhere between $299 and $349 is a solid guess. It won’t be as good for 4K gaming, but it should tackle 1440p without breaking a sweat. So with that in mind, if you’re fixated on 4K, it might be better to hold off for a bit and wait and see what AMD and Nvidia have planned for the more affordable segment of the market.