NVIDIA · Ampere
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
12 GB VRAM170W TDP$329 MSRP2021
Full NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 benchmarks →
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB — Specs & Performance Compared
Side-by-side comparison of 2 GPU parts: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB. All released in 2021. Specs, synthetic benchmarks, AI inference tok/s, and Amazon availability — click into any column header for the per-SKU benchmark page.
*Price sourced from Amazon.com. Price and availability subject to change.
Specs side-by-side
| Spec | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB |
|---|---|---|
| vram gb | 12 | — |
| vram type | GDDR6 | — |
| tdp w | 170 | — |
| cuda cores | 3584 | — |
Synthetic benchmarks
Higher is better. Per-row scores come from public benchmark databases (PassMark, TechPowerUp, Geekbench, Cinebench). Empty cells mean we don't yet have that benchmark on file for the SKU.
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB |
|---|---|---|
| 3DMark Fire Strike | 21,653 points | 21,653 points |
| 3DMark Port Royal | 5,264 points | 5,072 points |
| 3DMark Speed Way | 2,159 points | 2,192 points |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 1,984 points | 1,978 points |
| 3DMark Time Spy | 8,747 points | 8,754 points |
| Geekbench 6 OpenCL | — | 82,071 points |
| Geekbench 6 Vulkan | — | 91,383 points |
| PassMark G2D Mark | 984 pts | — |
| PassMark G3D Mark | 16,969 pts | — |
| Tom's Hardware GPU Hierarchy | 12 rank | — |
AI inference (tokens/sec)
Top community-reported tokens-per-second results for popular LLMs. See the per-SKU benchmark page for the full set including quantization, prompt length, and source citations.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
- llama3.2:1b: 184.0 tok/s
- llama3.2:3b: 128.3 tok/s
- llama3.2:3b: 128.3 tok/s
GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB
- llama3.2:1b: 211.9 tok/s
- llama3.2:1b: 184.0 tok/s
- llama3.2:3b: 128.3 tok/s
Keep exploring
More guides & deep dives from the SpecPicks archive
Browse all articles & guides →- Best Retro Handhelds in 2026 — From $35 to $500
- The Complete Voodoo5 5500 AGP Driver Guide (2026 Edition)
- How to Build a Windows 98 Retro PC in 2026
- Best 1440p Gaming GPUs in 2026
- Best Budget Gaming PC Build 2026 — ~$1,000 ($800 on Sale)
- RTX 4070 Super vs RX 7800 XT — Which to Buy in 2026
- Emulation Hardware in 2026: FPGA, Software, and Cart-Reader Ecosystems
More reviews from the SpecPicks archive
Browse all reviews →- How Fast Is Local LLM Inference on a Ryzen 7 5800X (CPU-Only, No GPU)?
- Arc B580 12GB vs Arc A770 16GB: Which Intel GPU Wins at 1440p in 2026?
- Build Your Own Air Quality Monitor: Skip the $300+ Price Tag
- OpenAI Tripled Revenue to $5.7B but Burned $3.7B: What It Means for Local AI
- Best Arcade Fight Stick & Controller for PlayStation Fighting Games (2026)
- Modern Retro Console Mods: 2026 Upgrade Guide
- Self-Host Jellyfin on a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB in 2026
- Best Apartment Sim Racing Wheel Setup: Quiet and Clamp-On (2026)
- Adafruit Reverse-Engineers the Creative Katana V2X Soundbar
- Thrustmaster TH8A vs the G29's Stock Shifter: Is a Standalone H-Pattern Worth It?
- How to run Qwen 3 32B on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
- Best Streaming Setup Bundle in 2026: 5 Picks From Mic to Stream Deck
- Raspberry Pi 5 8GB Review (2026): Still the SBC to Beat
- Beijing's $295B AI Buildout Wants 80% Domestic Chips — What It Means for GPU Buyers
- Can a 12GB RTX 3060 Run Gemma 4 31B? Quantization & Tok/s Reality Check
- GPT and Claude Flunked Bridgewater's Finance Test — Why a Local RAG Box Fills the Gap
- Best X870E Motherboards for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in 2026
- Intel Arc B60 Stable Diffusion: Setup & Benchmarks 2025
- Ryzen AI Max 400 192GB vs RTX 3060 for Local LLMs
- Intel llm-scaler-vLLM 1.4: vLLM Lands on Arc — How It Stacks Up vs an RTX 3060
- Logitech G29 vs HORI vs Thrustmaster: Best Sim Racing Wheel for Beginners
- RX 9070 XT vs RTX 3060 12GB for Local LLMs in 2026
- Expanding the SNES Classic and Genesis Mini Library in 2026
- Build a DualSense PC Dongle with a Raspberry Pi Pico: Adaptive Triggers and Haptics on Windows
More buying guides from SpecPicks
Browse all buying guides →- Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2026
- Best External SSDs for Content Creators in 2026
- Best GPUs for Running Local LLMs in 2026
- Best DDR5 RAM for Gaming PCs in 2026
- Best Controllers for PC Gaming in 2026
- Best Retro Gaming Consoles & Handhelds for 2026
- Best NVMe External Enclosures for 2026
- Best 4K Monitors for Content Creators in 2026
- Best CPUs for Content Creators in 2026
- Best Tools for Building and Repairing Retro PCs in 2026
- Best CPU Coolers for 2026
- Best GPU for Running 27B-32B Local LLMs in 2026
- Best Gaming Monitors for 2026
- Best NVMe SSDs for Gaming in 2026
- Best AM5 Motherboards for 2026
- Best PC Cases for Building in 2026
- Best Mechanical Keyboards for Gaming in 2026
- Best Gaming Mice for 2026
- Best 1440p 240Hz Gaming Monitors in 2026
- Best CPUs for Gaming in 2026
- Best GPUs for 4K Gaming in 2026