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GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 — Specs & Performance Compared

Verdict: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is ahead of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB on all 3 shared benchmarks on file, by 503% to 698%, including 698% in 3DMark Port Royal (41,238 vs 5,168). On qwen3:14b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 generates 123.8 tokens/s (per Hardware Corner) against 33.4 for the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB (per TYO Lab blog), best community run on file for each.

Side-by-side GPU comparison of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. MSRP range: $329 · $1,999. 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

SpecGeForce RTX 3060 12 GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
vram gb 1232
vram type —GDDR7
tdp w —575
cuda cores —21760

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, TechPowerUp, WCCFTech, Overclocking.com, 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.

BenchmarkGeForce RTX 3060 12 GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
3DMark Fire Strike (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 21,653 points—
3DMark Port Royal (higher is better)
Source: TechPowerUp, 3DMark, WCCFTech		 5,168 points41,238 points
3DMark Speed Way (higher is better)
Source: Overclocking.com, 3DMark, TopCPU.net		 2,294 points15,488 points
3DMark Steel Nomad (higher is better)
Source: UL Benchmarks, 3DMark		 1,974 points11,906 points
3DMark Steel Nomad (4K) (higher is better)
Source: Tom's Hardware		 —14,133 points
3DMark Time Spy (higher is better)
Source: TechPowerUp, 3DMark, TopCPU.net		 8,718 points39,365 pts
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		 —1,412 pts
PassMark G3D Mark (higher is better)
Source: PassMark		 —38,935 pts
Tom's Hardware GPU Hierarchy (lower is better)
Source: Tom's Hardware		 —2 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

All GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB AI benchmarks →

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

All NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 AI benchmarks →

Quick answers

Which is faster, the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is ahead of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB on all 3 shared benchmarks on file, by 503% to 698%, including 698% in 3DMark Port Royal (41,238 vs 5,168).

Which is better for running local LLMs?

On qwen3:14b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 generates 123.8 tokens/s (per Hardware Corner) against 33.4 for the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB (per TYO Lab blog), best community run on file for each.

What did the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 cost at launch?

The GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB launched at a $329 MSRP and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 at $1,999. Street prices drift from launch pricing; the Where to buy section links current listings.

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