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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 — Specs & Performance Compared

Verdict: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 12% to 52%, including 15% in 3DMark Time Spy (8,747 vs 7,596). On llama3.1:8b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 generates 64.5 tokens/s (per tyolab.com) against 7.4 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (per DatabaseMart), best community run on file for each.

Side-by-side GPU comparison of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. Released 2019 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060), 2021 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060). MSRP range: $349 · $329. 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 2060NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
vram gb 612
vram type GDDR6GDDR6
tdp w 160170
cuda cores 19203584
process nm 12—

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, Notebookcheck, WCCFTech, PCGamesN, Legit Reviews, HardwareCooking, TopCPU, CpuTronic, PCBench, PassMark and Tom's Hardware; 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 2060NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
3DMark Fire Strike (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark, Notebookcheck		 16,961 points21,653 points
3DMark Port Royal (higher is better)
Source: WCCFTech, PCGamesN, Legit Reviews, 3DMark, HardwareCooking		 4,034 points5,074 points
3DMark Speed Way (higher is better)
Source: TopCPU, 3DMark		 1,423 points2,170 points
3DMark Steel Nomad (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark, CpuTronic		 1,766 points1,984 points
3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 Graphics Score (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 —1,978 points
3DMark Time Spy (higher is better)
Source: TopCPU, 3DMark, PCBench, Notebookcheck		 7,596 points8,747 points
3DMark Time Spy (overall score) (higher is better)
Source: Legit Reviews		 —9,755 points
PassMark G2D Mark (higher is better)
Source: PassMark		 —984 pts
PassMark G3D Mark (higher is better)
Source: PassMark		 14,076 points16,969 pts
Tom's Hardware GPU Hierarchy (lower is better)
Source: Tom's Hardware		 —12 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.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

All NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 AI benchmarks →

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

All NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 AI benchmarks →

Quick answers

Which is faster, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 12% to 52%, including 15% in 3DMark Time Spy (8,747 vs 7,596).

Which is better for running local LLMs?

On llama3.1:8b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 generates 64.5 tokens/s (per tyolab.com) against 7.4 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (per DatabaseMart), best community run on file for each.

What did the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 cost at launch?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 launched at a $349 MSRP and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 at $329. Street prices drift from launch pricing; the Where to buy section links current listings.

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