GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB vs GeForce RTX 4080 — Specs & Performance Compared
Verdict: The GeForce RTX 4080 is ahead of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB on all 5 shared benchmarks on file, by 124% to 242%, including 214% in 3DMark Time Spy (27,392 vs 8,718). On qwen3:14b, the GeForce RTX 4080 generates 62.0 tokens/s (per Hardware Corner) against 33.4 for the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB (per TyoLab), best community run on file for each.
Side-by-side GPU comparison of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB and the GeForce RTX 4080. MSRP range: $329 · $1,199. Specs, synthetic benchmarks, AI inference tok/s, and Amazon availability below; each column header links to that part's benchmark page.
GeForce RTX 4080
*Price sourced from Amazon.com. Price and availability subject to change.
Where to buy
A listing for each part; the current price and stock are on the retailer's page.
Specs side-by-side
| Spec | GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB | GeForce RTX 4080 |
|---|---|---|
| vram gb | 12 | 16 |
| vram type | — | GDDR6X |
| tdp w | — | 320 |
| cuda cores | — | 9728 |
| rt cores | — | 76 |
| tensor cores | — | 304 |
| process nm | — | 5 |
Synthetic benchmarks
Each row says whether a higher or a lower number is better (ranks and times are lower-is-better). Scores come from Overclocking.com, 3DMark, WCCFTech, Hyper Cyber, TopCPU.net, UL Benchmarks, Tom's Hardware, Geekbench Browser and PassMark; each row links its sources, and where they differ the cell shows their median. Empty cells mean we don't yet have that benchmark on file for the SKU.
| Benchmark | GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB | GeForce RTX 4080 |
|---|---|---|
| 3DMark DirectX Raytracing (higher is better) Source: Overclocking.com |
— | 85 FPS |
| 3DMark Fire Strike (higher is better) Source: Overclocking.com, 3DMark |
21,653 points | 48,524 points |
| 3DMark Port Royal (higher is better) Source: WCCFTech, 3DMark, Hyper Cyber |
5,168 points | 17,650 points |
| 3DMark Speed Way (higher is better) Source: Overclocking.com, 3DMark, TopCPU.net |
2,294 points | 7,376 points |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad (higher is better) Source: UL Benchmarks |
1,974 points | 6,595 points |
| 3DMark Time Spy (higher is better) Source: 3DMark, TopCPU.net, Tom's Hardware |
8,718 points | 27,392 points |
| 3DMark Time Spy Extreme (higher is better) Source: WCCFTech |
— | 14,078 points |
| Geekbench 6 OpenCL (higher is better) Source: Geekbench Browser |
82,071 points | — |
| Geekbench 6 Vulkan (higher is better) Source: Geekbench Browser |
91,383 points | — |
| PassMark G2D Mark (higher is better) Source: PassMark |
— | 1,250 pts |
| PassMark G3D Mark (higher is better) Source: PassMark |
— | 34,433 pts |
| Tom's Hardware GPU Hierarchy (lower is better) Source: Tom's Hardware |
— | 1 rank |
AI inference (tokens/sec)
Top community-reported tokens-per-second results for popular LLMs whose weights fit the card's memory, each linked to its source. See the per-SKU benchmark page for the full set including quantization and prompt length.
GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB
- llama3.2:1b: 211.9 tok/s (TyoLab)
- llama3.2:1b: 211.9 tok/s (TYO Lab blog)
- llama3.2:1b: 185.0 tok/s (LocalScore (Mozilla Builders))
GeForce RTX 4080
- qwen3:30b-a3b: 147.5 tok/s (Glukhov.org — 16GB VRAM LLM benchmarks (llama.cpp))
- llama2:7b: 143.5 tok/s (knightli.com)
- llama2:7b: 142.5 tok/s (llama.cpp GitHub Discussion #15013)
Quick answers
Which is faster, the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB or the GeForce RTX 4080?
The GeForce RTX 4080 is ahead of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB on all 5 shared benchmarks on file, by 124% to 242%, including 214% in 3DMark Time Spy (27,392 vs 8,718).
Which is better for running local LLMs?
On qwen3:14b, the GeForce RTX 4080 generates 62.0 tokens/s (per Hardware Corner) against 33.4 for the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB (per TyoLab), best community run on file for each.
What did the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB and the GeForce RTX 4080 cost at launch?
The GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB launched at a $329 MSRP and the GeForce RTX 4080 at $1,199. Street prices drift from launch pricing; the Where to buy section links current listings.
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