When NVIDIA initially announced the launch of the RTX 3070 , its acceptance grew exponentially because it was a GPU equal to or better than the RTX 2080 Ti but cost half the price. However, with the launch of the RTX 3060 Ti two months later, gamers’ attention shifted as it promised similar performance at an even lower cost. So, today we are going to make a technical comparison between the RTX 3070 and the RTX 3060 Ti to see which of the two graphics is more worth buying, hoping to get you out of doubt if you were between one and the other.
When we talk about graphics cards, as you know there are countless models customized by assemblers, so in this comparison we are going to pull down the middle street and what we are going to compare are the NVIDIA (Founders Edition) reference models , the starting point in terms of technical characteristics. Then the assemblers usually improve these models with their custom heatsinks, more power stages or higher clock speeds, but it would be impossible to make a comparison of all of them, so the reference models of the brand are the most reasonable.
NVIDIA RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti: Technical Specifications
| RTX 3070 | RTX 3060 Ti | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere |
| Lithographic process | 8 nm | 8 nm |
| GPU | GA104-300-A1 | GA104-200-A1 |
| Die size | 392 mm2 | 392 mm2 |
| Transistors | 17.4 billion | 17.4 billion |
| SM / CU | 46 | 38 |
| Shaders | 5888 | 4864 |
| TMUs | 184 | 152 |
| ROPs | 96 | 80 |
| RT Cores | 46 | 38 |
| Tensor Cores | 184 | 152 |
| L2 cache | 4 MB | 4 MB |
| Base Clock | 1500 MHz | 1410 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1725 MHz | 1665 MHz |
| Base Clock OC Mode | Do not | Do not |
| VRAM type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| VRAM Clock | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Bus | 256 bits | 256 bits |
| VRAM bandwidth | 448 GB / s | 448 GB / s |
| FP32 performance | 20.31 TFLOPs | 16.20 TFLOPs |
| PCIe version | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| TDP | 220W | 200W |
| Feeding | 12 pin NVIDIA | 12 pin NVIDIA |
| NVLink / SLI / Crossfire | Do not | Do not |
| Maximum temperature | 89º C | 95ºC |
| Video outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1 3x DisplayPort 1.4b |
1x HDMI 2.1 3x DisplayPort 1.4b |
| Launch price | $ 499 | $ 449 |
| Release date | 10/29/2020 | 02/12/2020 |
We are facing two graphics cards that, technically, use two variants of the same GPU , so the number of transistors and die size is exactly the same, which means that at the level of graphics architecture (both are Ampere GPUs at 8 nm manufactured by Samsung) there are no differences between one and the other.
Now, it is obvious that the RTX 3060 Ti has the GPU slightly shortened compared to the RTX 3070 since the number of Shaders, TMUs, ROPs and others is lower, as well as its dedicated hardware for ray tracing (RT and Tensor cores), which coupled with lower operating speeds will obviously lead to lower performance.
As for the dedicated memory, both graphics cards incorporate 8 GB GDDR6 with the same bus, the same interface and the same speed, so its bandwidth is a trace and therefore the performance is also. In a combination of all its parameters, the RTX 3070 has a theoretical gross performance of just over 20 TFLOPs in single precision calculations while the 3060 Ti offers just over 16 TFLOPs, which represents roughly 20% lower gross performance. .
This increase in performance means that, despite the fact that both graphics need the same power supply, the TDP of the RTX 3070 is slightly higher (220W vs 200W) and, curiously, the maximum temperature that NVIDIA supports is lower (89ºC vs 95ºC) although the reality is that the maximum temperature of both is the same (surely it is an error of NVIDIA).
Price, a determining factor?
Leaving aside the speculators and the hefty prices that some assemblers have set on their custom models of these graphics cards, we are talking about the base price of the RTX 3070 being $ 499 (which later became 519 euros) against 449. dollars (which for some reason has translated into 419 euros) of the RTX 3060 Ti, so the difference is about 100 euros.
In terms of the base price, we are therefore talking about an RTX 3070 costing almost 24% more than the RTX 3060 Ti and, in return, offering around 20% more performance. With this in mind, which of the two graphs should you choose?
Conclusion: which of these two GPUs is more recommended?
Either of these two graphics cards will give you performance to spare to play at Full HD resolution and with all the graphic settings at maximum (including Ray Tracing) in any last generation triple A game, so if this is your intention then no hesitate and go for the cheapest one because it will give you many joys.
Now, when what you want is to play at a higher resolution or at high refresh rates, that 20% of additional performance that the RTX 3070 provides will be noticeable and quite a lot, and really already in the price that these graphics cost the 100 euros of The more you will have to pay does not make a big difference, so we would tell you that it is worth paying them.
