Nvidia’s new RTX 3060 Ti graphics card costs the same as AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT at $400 USD, so what are the differences between them? I’ve compared both in 13 games at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p resolutions as well as content creator workloads to show you the differences.
Spec Differences
Starting with the spec differences, both cards have 8 gig of GDDR6 memory at the same speeds. The 5700 XT is around 18 months older though, and it uses more power. Both have the same $400 MSRP, but based on what we’ve seen from the other Nvidia 3000 series GPUs, availability of the 3060 Ti could be small leading to higher prices closer to launch.
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
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the game's benchmark tool. The 5700 XT was actually slightly ahead of the 3060 Ti at 1080p, but at higher resolutions the 3060 Ti pulls out in front, coming in 6% faster in average frame rate at 1440p, and 11% faster 4K, but this is one of the smallest differences between the two out of all 13 games tested. 
Microsoft Flight Simulator on the other hand saw one of the largest differences between these two graphics cards. The 1% lows from the 3060 Ti were very close to the average FPS of the 5700 XT at 1080p, then at higher resolutions the 3060 Ti was even further ahead, with a 33% higher average FPS at 1440p, and a massive 53% improvement at 4K, the largest out of all 13 games at this resolution. 
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the games benchmark, this was another win for the 3060 Ti, which was 31% faster at 1440p and 40% at 4K. The gap was smaller comparitively at 1080p, with the 3060 Ti just 23% ahead.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, and the differences here were much smaller compared to the last couple of games tested. The 3060 Ti was still able to pass 60 FPS at 4K even with the highest ultra setting preset, putting it 16% ahead of the 5700 XT, granted you could of course just lower settings to improve frame rate. 
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the game's benchmark. A larger win for the 3060 Ti in this one, which was 29% faster than the 5700 XT at 1080p, 27% faster at 1440p, and 33% faster at 4K. 
Watch Dogs Legion was also tested with the games benchmark, and was a test where the 3060 Ti was offering a significant boost to 1% low performance. At 1080p for instance, the 3060 Ti was offering a 37% higher 1% low, while the increase to average FPS was lower at 19%, then at higher resolutions the 3060 Ti’s 1% low was ahead of even the 5700 XT’s average FPS. 
I’ve tested Control with ray tracing and DLSS disabled, however these features are benefits on offer with the RTX 3060 Ti that the 5700 XT misses out on. This game typically favours Nvidia hardware, and that was the case here. At 1080p, the 3060 Ti was 36% ahead of the 5700 XT, the largest difference at this resolution out of all 13 games tested.
Dirt 5 on the other hand typically favours AMD, so it wasn’t too surprising to see the 5700 XT coming out a little ahead at 1080p, however at higher resolutions the 3060 Ti is back on top, but again nowhere near as much difference when compared to some of the others tested. 
I’ve tested Metro Exodus with the game's benchmark tool. This test typically sees small changes to 1% lows compared to average FPS, and that was also the case here. At 1080p the 3060 Ti was reaching 25% higher average FPS, then 27% higher at both 1440p and 4K. 
The differences in The Witcher 3 were close to the averages of all games tested, though the 5700 XT was still able to run around 60 FPS at 4K even with the highest ultra setting preset in use, but the 3060 Ti was 25% higher here, with a 1% low that was ahead of the 5700 XT’s average. 
Death stranding wasn’t quite passing 60 FPS at 4K max settings with the 5700 XT. It’s not far behind, and the 3060 Ti was 22% ahead, with a larger 27% boost to the 1% low. 
Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested in campaign mode, and had a below average difference out of the games tested, but nevertheless, the 3060 Ti was still the winner making it kind of an easy pick if both are the same price.
Rainbow Six Siege on the other hand had one of the biggest improvements with the 3060 Ti, this was the only game with Vulkan tested. The 5700 XT is definitely still offering more than playable frame rates even at the highest ultra setting preset, but the 3060 Ti was 29% faster at 1080p and 33% ahead at 1440p.
1080p Game Results
At 1080p on average over all 13 games tested the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti was 18% faster than the Radeon RX 5700 XT in average FPS. Only Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Dirt 5 were performing better on the 5700 XT, but the margins were small anyway. Control typically favours Nvidia, so it’s not too surprising to see it up the top.
1440p Game Results
Stepping up to 1440p and the 3060 Ti was now over 22% faster than the 5700 XT. This time the 5700 XT wasn’t ahead in any of the 13 games tested. This trend of bigger differences at higher resolutions is expected as the GPU can get to work and system limitations depend less on the other components.
4K Game Results
The lead of the 3060 Ti increases further at 4K for this reason, now coming out almost 29% ahead of the 5700 XT on average. Some games like Microsoft Flight Simulator had a massive 50% gain with the 3060 Ti, while others like Assassin’s Creed were much more modest at just 10%, showing that differences really come down to the specific game.
Cost Per Frame
The 3060 Ti is obviously the winner in terms of value when we look at cost per frame, it costs the same price but in almost all cases performs better than the 5700 XT. At least if we’re working on the assumption of a $400 MSRP for both, which is all I’ve got to work with while making this review prior to the launch of the 3060 Ti and seeing what early prices are actually like.
Power Draw
When we look at total system power draw from the wall, the 5700 XT was actually using slightly more power. Although the difference in power draw here is small, if you recall, in this game at 4K the 3060 Ti was hitting 45% higher average FPS.
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. The 3060 Ti is more efficient as it’s using less power while also performing better in games.
Content Creator Workloads
I’ve also compared both in content creator workloads to see what the differences are outside of gaming.
I’ve tested DaVinci Resolve with the Puget Systems benchmark, and the 3060 Ti was scoring around 33% higher than the 5700 XT, a larger difference when compared to most of the games previously.
I’ve used Adobe Premiere to export one of my review videos at 4K, and the 3060 Ti was completing the export around 10% faster than the 5700 XT, so not as big of a difference. 
Blender was tested with the Open Data benchmark. The longer classroom test was completing around 43% faster on the 3060 Ti, while the shorter BMW test was completing 81% faster, so some of these types of rendering workloads had big gains with the 3060 Ti.
Conclusion
So as expected, the RTX 3060 Ti is the better choice when compared against AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT. This isn’t too much of a surprise given the 3060 Ti is around 18 months newer, despite coming in at the same price. The 3060 Ti of course also has extra benefits like ray tracing and DLSS that the 5700 XT does not have, but given AMD only just recently launched the 6000 series of graphics cards I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a $400 option that does have ray tracing capabilities, like a 6700 XT or something, but we’ll have to wait and see. I think that’s going to be a much more interesting comparison, but at the time of the 3060 Ti launch, the 5700 XT is the best option from AMD at the $400 price point, and that’s why I thought it would still be worthwhile comparing the two.
Nvidia also has a $400 option from last generation too, the RTX 2060 Super, and I’ve compared that against the 3060 Ti, so it’s definitely worth checking out if you want to get an idea of how far the 3060 Ti has come over what they had available last generation.
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