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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 — Specs & Performance Compared

Verdict: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 9% to 196%, including 115% in 3DMark Time Spy (18,824 vs 8,747). On qwen3:14b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 generates 70.0 tokens/s (per Hardware Corner) against 33.4 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB (per TyoLab), best community run on file for each.

Side-by-side GPU comparison of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. Released 2021 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB), 2020 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090). MSRP range: $329 · $1,499. Specs, synthetic benchmarks, AI inference tok/s, and Amazon availability below; each column header links to that part's benchmark page.

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*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

SpecNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
vram gb 1224
vram type GDDR6GDDR6X
tdp w 170350
cuda cores 358410496

Synthetic benchmarks

Each row says whether a higher or a lower number is better (ranks and times are lower-is-better). Scores come from 3DMark, Legit Reviews, esports.hwbot.org, Wccftech, HWBOT, Notebookcheck, Geekbench Browser, PassMark and PCBench; 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.

BenchmarkNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
3DMark Fire Strike (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 21,653 points—
3DMark Port Royal (higher is better)
Source: Legit Reviews, esports.hwbot.org, 3DMark, Wccftech, HWBOT		 5,074 points15,039 points
3DMark Speed Way (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 2,192 points5,075 points
3DMark Steel Nomad (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 1,976 points5,229 points
3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12 Graphics Score) (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 —5,112 points
3DMark Time Spy (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 8,747 points18,824 points
3DMark Time Spy (overall score) (higher is better)
Source: Legit Reviews		 9,755 points—
3DMark Time Spy Extreme (higher is better)
Source: Notebookcheck		 —9,800 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		 984 pts1,069 pts
PassMark G3D Mark (higher is better)
Source: PassMark, PCBench		 16,969 pts26,548 pts

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.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB

All NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB AI benchmarks →

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

All NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 AI benchmarks →

Quick answers

Which is faster, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 9% to 196%, including 115% in 3DMark Time Spy (18,824 vs 8,747).

Which is better for running local LLMs?

On qwen3:14b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 generates 70.0 tokens/s (per Hardware Corner) against 33.4 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB (per TyoLab), best community run on file for each.

What did the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 cost at launch?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB launched at a $329 MSRP and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 at $1,499. Street prices drift from launch pricing; the Where to buy section links current listings.

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