Asus Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version Overview

If the whole thing were customary within the desktop GPU global at the moment, the release of the GeForce RTX 3060 would had been met with enthusiasm for bringing ray tracing results to a brand new mass-market payment level in addition to the standard generational efficiency features. On the other hand, issues are a long way from customary – cryptocurrency miners are as soon as once more inflicting massive shortages available in the market, each AMD and Nvidia are not able to offer sufficient chips into the marketplace, and costs have shot in the course of the roof. In India particularly, it is laborious to search out graphics playing cards in line with any of Nvidia’s 30-series or AMD’s 6000-series GPUs at any place close to their professional release costs. Issues are not anticipated to ease up until no less than the center of 2021.

The GeForce RTX 3060 drops proper into this chaos, and so we do not actually know at this level whether or not there will probably be good enough inventory available in the market and whether or not costs will probably be cheap. Judging worth for cash will probably be particularly tricky. On best of that, Nvidia is not going to be promoting a Founders Version graphics card in any respect, so many of the choices available in the market can have increased MRPs than Nvidia’s beneficial Rs. 29,500.

You can to find more than one fashions in line with the similar GPU from all of Nvidia’s spouse manufacturers. I am reviewing Asus’ ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version, which is a top rate implementation of this new GPU.

The Asus Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version has 3 lovers on its outsized cooler

 

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 structure and specs

Nvidia has had numerous good fortune with its GeForce GPU architectures for the previous a number of years, whilst competitor AMD has most effective only in the near past controlled to catch up. The corporate describes its present Ampere GPU structure, which powers all of the GeForce RTX 30-series, as its biggest generational bounce ever. That is announcing so much, however it additionally glosses over the truth that RTX 30-series playing cards are extraordinarily pricey, and the top rate GPUs that experience introduced up to now are neatly out the achieve of maximum moderate avid gamers.

The objective for the GeForce RTX 3060 is avid gamers who’re upgrading from a mid-range card that is two or extra generations outdated, in particular the GeForce GTX 1060 which continues to be so broadly used that it is lately on the best of the Steam world {hardware} survey over 4 years after it introduced. The xx60 tier is in most cases an enormous supplier for Nvidia, and that is the place the majority of the marketplace is targeted.

In step with Nvidia, you’ll be expecting two times the efficiency of the GeForce GTX 1060 or more or less similar efficiency to that of the GeForce RTX 2070. In fact the brand new structure additionally way higher and extra environment friendly ray tracing, which is indisputably catching on in trendy video games. The efficiency goal for the GeForce RTX 3060 is over 60fps with ray tracing enabled at 1080p in lately’s widespread AAA titles. If you are now not in particular concerned about ray tracing, it is advisable additionally step as much as increased resolutions and graphics high quality settings at a (theoretically) cheaper price than has up to now been imaginable.

Nvidia has pared down its Ampere design, and so the GeForce RTX 3060 GPU (codenamed GA106) has 3,584 CUDA execution cores, 28 RT cores for ray tracing, and 112 Tensor cores for AI acceleration, all clustered into 28 clusters known as Streaming Multiprocessors. The bottom clock pace is 1.32GHz and the spice up pace is 1.78GHz, no less than for Nvidia’s hypothetical reference design. The chip makes use of an 8nm production procedure and helps PCIe Gen 4.Zero pace. You’ll be able to run as much as 4 displays at a time. Energy draw is rated at 170W and no less than a 550W energy provide is beneficial.

As with higher-end GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs that we’ve got already reviewed, the Ampere structure doubles throughput for some forms of floating level operations in addition to ray tracing efficiency, for practical lights and shadow results. The AI comes into play principally for Nvidia’s Deep Studying Supersampling function, or DLSS, which upscales rendered graphics permitting the remainder of the GPU to paintings at a decrease answer, thus decreasing its workload and bettering pace.

Asus has long gone with two HDMI ports and 3 DIsplayPort video outputs

 

All GeForce RTX 3060 graphics playing cards, without reference to producer or design, can have 12GB of GDDR6 RAM on a 192-bit bus, handing over 360GBps of reminiscence bandwidth. Curiously, 12GB is a lot more than the 8GB you can get with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070, and much more than the 10GB that the top rate RTX 3080 is geared up with. That is an excessively atypical anomaly within the lineup, possibly motivated by way of AMD going with 12GB for its RDNA2-based Radeon RX 6000 collection. In fact efficiency is not made up our minds by way of reminiscence capability on my own, however it is value noting.

Ray tracing is lately supported by way of 39 video games and every other 16 are at the approach. During the last 12 months, main titles reminiscent of Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Canines Legion, COD: Black Ops Chilly Warfare, Godfall, or even the extra informal Fortnite and Minecraft had been within the information for committing to ray tracing. Additionally it is been introduced as a function being added to Doom Everlasting, The Witcher 3, A ways Cry 6, and Filth 5.

There also are advantages to the brand new structure past gaming. You’ll be able to accelerate 3-D and video content material advent in inventive and manufacturing device. Nvidia has additionally presented its Broadcast suite with this era, which leverages AI efficiency for noise removing, background substitute and head monitoring whilst livestreaming. AV1 decode enhance can lend a hand scale back CPU utilization when streaming compressed high-res video from services and products that use this codec.

Any other good thing about all this processing energy is that trendy GPUs are uniquely fitted to operating this type of repetitive mathematical algorithms which are used to generate or “mine” cryptocurrency. This can be a main issue within the world scarcity of GPUs in retail channels. Nvidia has on the other hand made up our minds that it is time to promote other {hardware} in particular for mining, in particular its new CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor). As such, the GeForce RTX 3060 is the primary to be intentionally designed (or handicapped, as you might even see it) to restrict mining efficiency.

It is still noticed whether or not this may occasionally have an effect on the marketplace in any important approach, however it does imply that different RTX 30-series playing cards simply were given extra fascinating to bulk patrons – and subsequently most likely much more tricky to shop for. If you are a gamer who likes casually mining on a unmarried GPU to recoup one of the most price of your {hardware} or simply earn a small passive source of revenue, you can be suffering from this.

You can want just a unmarried 8-pin PCIe energy connector

 

Asus Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version design and lines

Asus is considered one of a number of manufacturers that will probably be promoting graphics playing cards constructed across the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU. The ROG Strix circle of relatives is beautiful excessive up on Asus’ product hierarchy, and is geared toward avid gamers who do not thoughts paying a top rate for construct high quality, extra elaborate RGB lights, and somewhat bit of additional doable balance and overclockability in some circumstances.

Avid gamers do love to sing their own praises and Asus has designed this card to be a lot better than it almost definitely must be. The cooler and shroud are very generously proportioned and there are 3 axial lovers. The center one spins in the other way to the opposite two, optimising airflow and decreasing turbulence. In addition they spin down utterly when the cardboard is not being wired. Asus says they’ve smaller hubs and longer fins to additional fortify airflow.

The Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version will absorb 3 slots’ area on your PC cupboard – Asus lists it as a “2.7 slot” design which is successfully the similar factor. It is just about a foot lengthy at 300mm, which is longer than many enthusiast-class playing cards, and hangs over the threshold of a typical ATX motherboard. It’s possible you’ll need to test for clearance and airflow problems on your cupboard earlier than purchasing this card.

Predictably, the PCB itself is way smaller than the shroud round it. The backplate has a big hollow for airflow to the heatsink fins, and naturally there is an RGB-illuminated ROG brand as neatly. You can discover a unmarried 8-pin PCIe energy connector close to the top. There may be additionally a BIOS transfer that permits you to toggle between the usual Efficiency profile and a 2nd Quiet profile with none device tweaking.

Asus has long gone with 3 DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and two HDMI 2.1 ports at the rear. That is moderately beneficiant and must permit for versatile configurations together with simple swapping with a VR headset attached. It additionally displays that now not as a lot area is wanted for vents as on higher-end playing cards. The cardboard comes with plastic mud stoppers for the entire ports and the PCIe connector, which might be all the time preferred.

There is a massive RGB LED strip throughout all of the best of the shroud, which you’ll customize with more than a few lights patterns thru Asus’ Armory Crate device. The lighting shine in the course of the heatsink fins and are visual in the course of the fan blades as neatly, making for a captivating impact no less than on my open-air take a look at rig. There are some angular steel accents at the entrance of the cardboard which will probably be face-down and hidden in maximum PC cupboards.

The RGB LED lights can also be customised the usage of Asus’ Armory Crate device

 

Asus Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version efficiency

In fact efficiency in video games is what issues maximum, and it is time now to peer how neatly the Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version does in our artificial assessments and in handbook gameplay. AMD is predicted to release similar Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs quickly, however for now the older Radeon RX 5700 and 5600 XT are the nearest suits, price-wise. Asus additionally despatched over a TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti for comparability – this card does not have relatively the similar visible aptitude because the higher-end Strix collection fashions, however is geared toward extra price-conscious patrons and it is the GPU at its center that we are concerned about evaluating in opposition to.

Each, the Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version and the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, had been examined on an AMD Ryzen 2700 CPU, ASRock X470 Taichi Final motherboard, 2x8GB of G.Ability F4-3400C16D-16GSXW DDR4 RAM, a 1TB Samsung 860 Evo SSD, and a Corsair RM650 energy provide. The track used to be a 4K Asus PB287Q. . I used Nvidia’s pre-release 461.64 driving force, and Home windows 10 used to be up to date to model 2H20 with the entire newest patches.

Beginning with artificial workloads, the trusty 3DMark now comprises devoted assessments that spotlight ray tracing in addition to DLS efficiency. We see a moderately giant gulf in efficiency figures between the GeForce RTX 3060 and its beefier sibling, the RTX 3060 Ti. You’ll be able to be expecting more or less about 70-75 p.c the efficiency, however going by way of Nvidia’s reference costs, you do not save quite a lot of cash.

The brand new GPU is more or less similar to the older GeForce RTX 2060 Tremendous in legacy assessments, and must (once more, theoretically) price much less whilst additionally considerably bettering effects with ray tracing. We additionally see the GeForce RTX 3060 buying and selling blows with the Radeon RX 5700 in usual assessments. For reference, an MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X graphics card scored 4,273 and three,168 in 3DMark’s Time Undercover agent and Hearth Strike Extremely assessments when reviewed on the time of its release.

Coming to in-game benchmarks, I fired up Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 4K the usage of the Perfect high quality preset. With DLSS enabled, I were given an excessively decent moderate of 53fps. Including ray traced shadows at Medium high quality introduced that right down to 49fps. With out DLSS or ray traced shadows, the typical got here to 44fps and visible high quality would now not be considerably distinguishable to the informal observer. If you wish to keep above 60fps, you will have to drop the answer to no less than 1440p, even with DLSS.

A ways Cry Five controlled 49fps on moderate at 4K the usage of its Extremely preset. Taking the answer right down to 1440p led to a miles smoother run averaging 82fps. In a similar fashion, Murderer’s Creed: Odyssey averaged most effective 36fps at 4K the usage of its Extremely Prime preset, however that went as much as 53fps at 1440p and 62fps at 1080p. Heart Earth: Shadow of Warfare is a bit more forgiving, with averages of 48fps at 4K and 77fps at 1440p.

Metro Exodus’ benchmarking software has an RTX preset which permits DLSS, units ray tracing high quality to Prime and total recreation high quality to Extremely. At 1920×1080, this produced a median of 53.98fps which isn’t relatively ideally suited however nonetheless moderately just right. The minimal did drop relatively a bit of with one phase dipping as little as 28.85fps. Those rankings believe the 99^th percentile which gets rid of probably the most drastic outliers that might skew averages.

Any other recreation that makes use of ray tracing and DLSS is Regulate. I enabled DLSS with the render answer at 1080p and show answer at 4K. With the standard in addition to ray tracing set to Prime, I used to be in a position to moderate more or less 45-50fps. As for non-RTX video games, Doom Everlasting is all the time a laugh and runs really well even on modest {hardware}. This recreation averaged 75-80fps at 4K the usage of its Extremely Nightmare high quality preset.

One giant benefit of the outsized cooler is that the Asus Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version by no means were given too scorching and the lovers by no means were given too loud in use.

The Asus Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version is thick sufficient to want 3 unfastened slots on your PC cupboard

 

Verdict

The GeForce RTX 3060 GPU is a superb mainstream GPU and gives nice efficiency even at excessive settings in relatively older video games in addition to the enchantment of ray tracing. On the other hand, it does not appear to provide as just right worth because the RTX 3060 Ti, relating to efficiency vs payment. The professional payment of Rs. 29,500 is so much increased than what the GeForce GTX 1060 used to promote for. That is a outcome of a better base payment, negative foreign money change charges, and excessive import taxes.

In fact Nvidia’s professional payment of Rs. 29,500 is not even in fact what corporations are charging for his or her playing cards. The Asus Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version has formally been introduced for Rs. 48,000 which is relatively frankly a ludicrous quantity. You’ll be able to pick out up a GeForce RTX 3070 Founders’ Version for not up to that – supplied you good fortune out with the Indian distributor’s lottery machine on any of the uncommon events that it is in inventory. Unfortunately, present marketplace forces, and the truth that there is not any Founders Version, imply that stores don’t have any reason why in any respect to promote those playing cards at decrease side road costs.

When you do suppose the GeForce RTX 3060 is true on your wishes, and if playing cards in line with it do finally end up being broadly to be had, you must nonetheless search for a lower-priced model from Asus’ TUF or Twin lineups, or believe what different manufacturers are providing. The outsized cooler and RGB LEDs on my own don’t warrant this sort of giant distinction. This actual card isn’t the most productive worth that you’ll get on your cash, and it’ll take some legwork and good fortune to discover a cheap deal.

This example displays poorly on Nvidia as the corporate at the back of the GeForce emblem. It seems to be as although avid gamers who’ve very tight budgets must dangle directly to their previous-generation playing cards for some time longer.

Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Version
Value: Rs. 48,000 + taxes

Professionals

• Runs cool and quiet
• Excellent efficiency at >1080p in lots of video games
• Ray tracing and DLSS ship just right effects in combination 

Cons

• Extraordinarily pricey 
• Outsized cooler

Rankings (out of five)

• Efficiency: 4
• Worth for Cash: 2
• General: 3