Nvidia’s new RTX 3060 Ti graphics card has the same $400 MSRP as the RTX 2060 Super from last generation, so what are the differences, which one should you buy, and is it worth upgrading if you’ve already got a 2060 Super? I’ve compared both in 13 games at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p resolutions as well as content creator workloads to show you what the differences are.
Spec Differences
Starting with the spec differences, both cards have 8 gig of GDDR6 memory at the same speed, and boost clocks are very similar. The newer 3060 Ti has more CUDA cores and uses more power, but at the same $400 price point, of course pending availability, so let’s see what the performance differences are.
Test PC Setup
This is the system that I’m using to test out both graphics cards, so an overclocked i9-10900K at 5.2GHz with 32gb of DDR4-3200 CL14 memory in dual channel. We’ll first dig into the gaming results, then check out cost per frame, power draw, and content creator workloads afterwards.
Gaming benchmarks
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge. We can see that the 3060 Ti is doing a fair bit better than the 2060 Super, the average frame rate at 1080p is 32% faster with the 3060 Ti, and at the higher resolutions even the 1% lows from the 3060 Ti were ahead of the average FPS of the 2060 Super.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the games benchmark tool, and this test saw the largest improvement with the 3060 Ti out of all 13 titles tested, so the differences in this game are well above average. Even at 4K the 3060 Ti was able to run above 60 FPS, putting it almost 62% ahead of the 2060 Super. 
Battlefield 5 on the other hand saw a below average difference between these two GPUs, however despite that even the 1% lows from the 3060 Ti were ahead of even the average FPS from the 2060 Super, a trend we’ll see in many of the games covered. The 3060 Ti was more than 30% ahead in average FPS at all resolutions, and still delivered above 60 FPS even at 4K ultra settings. 
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games built in benchmark and produced above averaged gains with the 3060 Ti, which was 41 to 43% faster over the three resolutions tested. Not quite 60 FPS in 4K this time, but this is max settings which you could obviously turn down. 
For Control I’ll start with ray tracing off results. Neither were going too well at 4K with the high setting preset, but again you could always lower settings. Both were running much better at 1440p though, where the 3060 Ti was 38% faster than the 2060 Super, a nice improvement for the same price. 
With ray tracing on 1440p was still playable on the 3060 Ti, but not so great on the 2060 Super, while both were alright at 1080p, granted the 3060 Ti had a 45% higher average frame rate there. This game does of course have DLSS which will further boost performance on both graphics cards, I just wanted to see raw ray tracing only results. 
Dirt 5 was also tested with and without ray tracing. Without ray tracing the 3060 Ti has a below average boost to average frame rates, but still the 1% lows were well above the averages from the 2060 Super.
With ray tracing enabled frame rates are cut significantly, probably not too worthwhile given even 1080p is below 60 FPS, granted I’m using max settings which could be lowered. 
I’ve tested Metro Exodus with the game's benchmark tool, and the differences here were pretty close to the 13 game average of all titles I’ve tested, though smaller differences in 1% lows between the two in this one. 
Death Stranding on the other hand was another game where the 3060 Ti’s 1% lows were for the most part ahead of the average FPS from the 2060 Super. Like some others, the 3060 Ti was able to surpass 60 FPS even with the highest setting preset at 4K, putting it 41% faster than the 2060 Super. 
The Witcher 3 saw one of the smallest differences out of all games tested here, but even the 2060 Super was close to 60 FPS at 4K with the highest ultra settings in this one. The 3060 Ti was 26% ahead, so still a reasonable boost, but yeah also one of the smaller differences out of the 13 titles tested. 
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the games benchmark, and like The Witcher 3 previously, it was one of the smaller differences out of all titles tested. The 3060 Ti gets us over 60 FPS at 1440p with the highest setting preset, putting it almost 29% ahead of the 2060 Super. 
Watch Dogs Legion was also tested with the games benchmark. This game saw huge gains to 1% low performance with the 3060 Ti, at 1440p for instance it was a massive 108% higher, and average FPS was still 41% higher than the 2060 Super. 
Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested in campaign mode. This game saw above average improvements with the 3060 Ti in use, almost at 60 FPS even at 4K max settings, where it was 44% faster than the 2060 Super. Like many other games tested, even the 3060 Ti’s 1% lows were ahead of the averages from the 2060 Super. 
The differences in 1% low weren’t quite as large in Rainbow Six Siege, but there were instead large differences in average FPS. The 3060 Ti was 47% faster than the 2060 Super at 4K, 43% faster at 1440p, and 39% faster at 1080p.
1080p Differences
At 1080p on average over all 13 games tested the 3060 Ti was 35% faster than the 2060 Super in terms of average FPS. The biggest difference was seen in Red Dead Redemption 2, which was over 45% faster, but even worst case there’s still a 26% improvement with the 3060 Ti.
1440p Differences
Stepping up to 1440p and the 3060 Ti was now 38% ahead of the 2060 Super. Red Dead Redemption 2 was again at the top here and was now 54% faster on the 3060 Ti. This trend of bigger differences at higher resolutions is expected as the GPU can get to work and system limitations depend less on other components.
4K Differences
Finally at 4K the 3060 Ti is now 42% faster on average than the 2060 Super in the 13 games tested here. Again Red Dead Redemption 2 had the biggest gains, easily over a 60% difference now at 4K, and worst case there was still a 30% boost with the 3060 Ti.
Cost Per Frame
The 3060 Ti is obviously the winner in terms of value when we look at cost per frame. Both have the same $400 MSRP, and the 3060 Ti is performing substantially better for the same cost as the 2060 Super. A second hand 2060 Super could be a different story if you’re on a budget though.
Power Draw
When we look at total system power draw from the wall, the system with the 3060 Ti installed was using around 11% more power, which I don’t think is too bad given the improvements to performance that are available.
Performance Per Watt
The performance per watt measurements aren’t perfect as I’m taking the wattage numbers from the last graph which is one game and applying them to the average frame rates of all 13 titles tested, so take this as an approximation. Despite the 3060 Ti using more power, it’s still more efficient and can get more done with the same amount of power. If you care about more than just gaming, then don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
Content Creation Benchmarks
Next, let’s also check out how both compare in different content creator workloads.
I’ve tested DaVinci Resolve with the Puget Systems benchmark, and the 3060 Ti was scoring 10% higher than the 2060 Super, so an improvement, but not one that’s anywhere near as high when compared to the games we just looked at. 
Adobe Premiere wasn’t much different, the 3060 Ti was less than 4% faster in this test, or just a 20 second difference in a 9 minute render.
It was a different story in the V-Ray benchmark though, the 3060 Ti was scoring 68% higher than the 2060 Super. I’ve shown in other review that Ampere GPUs are offering huge gains over Turing based options from last generation in this test, the 3000 series really seem to shine in compute heavy workloads. 
Blender was tested with the Open Data Benchmark with the BMW and Classroom tests, and again there were nice improvements with the 3060 Ti here too, which was over 200% faster in the longer classroom test and 81% faster in the shorter BMW test.
Conclusion
So as expected, the 3060 Ti is the better choice when compared to the 2060 Super, surprising no one. They’re both the same price, but the 3060 Ti was always performing better, which you’d hope given it’s about 18 months newer. I thought it was offering pretty big gains compared to the 2060 Super which is just one generation old, which I think really goes to show how poor Turing was from a value perspective, that said it’s going to depend entirely on availability of the 3060 Ti and if you can actually buy this thing.
As it has been difficult to buy 3000 series graphics cards near launch. If you’ve already got a 2060 Super and can sell it, it could be worth upgrading to the 3060 Ti, again assuming you can find out. It’ll cost some extra money, but I think the performance difference could be worthwhile depending on what you’re doing. At the same time though, the 2060 Super is definitely still a capable option. It just depends on what sort of frame rates you’re targeting and at what resolutions.
I’m also going to compare Nvidia’s RTX 3060 Ti against AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT in the next review, as that also has the same $400 MSRP.
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