ZOTAC gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Twin Edge OC 12GB GDDR6 192-bit 15 GBPS review

How much is power consumption in ZOTAC gaming GeForce RTX 3060 twin edge OC? It performs as good as a 2060 super when gaming and like a 2080ti when video editing. Power consumption is a few points below the 2060 super (I’m getting 125w while testing defaults.) fans are silent even when at 100%, amazing. Explore more in ZOTAC gaming GeForce RTX 3060 twin edge OC 12GB GDDR6 192-bit 15 GBPS review.

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Pros & Cons

Pros

Performant Ampere architecture
12GB GDDR6 memory
Cheaper than RTX 2060 at launch

Cons

$70 gets you a much faster card in the RTX 3060 Ti
Little off the pace for Ampere

Specs – ZOTAC gaming GeForce RTX 3060 twin edge OC 12GB GDDR6 192-bit 15 GBPS

GPU: GA106
CUDA cores: 3,584
Lithograpy: Samsung 8nm
GPU Boost clock: 1,777MHz
Memory bus: 192-bit
SMs: 28
RT Cores: 28
Tensor Cores: 112
Memory bandwidth: 360GB/s
TGP: 170W
Memory capacity: 12GB GDDR6
Memory speed: 15Gbps

Compare ZOTAC gaming GeForce RTX 3060 twin edge OC 12GB GDDR6 192-bit 15 GBPS

	RTX 3060 Ti	RTX 3070	RTX 3080	RTX 3090
Fab Process	8nm Samsung	8nm Samsung	8nm Samsung	8nm Samsung
Architecture	Ampere	Ampere	Ampere	Ampere
CUDA Cores	4864	5888	8704	10496
Base Clock	1410 MHz	1500 MHz	1440 MHz	1400 MHz
Boost Clock	1665 MHz	1730 MHz	1710 MHz	1700 MHz
Memory Size	8GB	8GB	10GB	24GB
Memory Type	GDDR6	GDDR6	GDDR6X	GDDR6X
Memory Clock	14 Gbps	16 Gbps	19 Gbps	19.5 Gbps
Memory Bandwidth	448 GBps	512 GBps	760 GBps	936 GBps
Memory Interface	256-bit	256-bit	320-bit	384-bit
Max. GPU Temp.	???	93°	93°	93°
Power Connectors	8-pin	8-pin	2x 8-pin	2x 8-pin
Graphics Card Power	200W	220W	320W	350W
Recommended PSU	600W	650W	750W	750W
Price	$399	$499	$699	$1,499

ZOTAC gaming GeForce RTX 3060 twin edge OC 12GB GDDR6 192-bit 15 GBPS review

Design

ZOTAC 3060 Twin Edge has a small footprint, measuring just 224mm long (and the PCB underneath the cooler is much smaller), with a dual-slot cooler and a thin back-plate. The cooler has Zotac’s IceStorm 2.0 branding, and features a pair of 11-blade fans and a wide stack of aluminum heatsink fins and copper heat-pipes.

Ports

On its output ports, it has three DisplayPorts 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1. It also a single 8-pin connector for power. There is no RGB lighting, but the “Zotac Gaming” logo on the front-side portion lights up in White.

Chips

If it’s fully enabled, the chip gives you 3,840 CUDA cores, 30 RT cores and 120 Tensor cores. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 has two of its Streaming Multiprocessor blocks disabled, giving you 3,584 CUDA cores, 28 2nd-gen RT cores and 112 3rd-gen Tensor cores.

Memory

That 12GB of GDDR6 memory sticks out like a sore thumb from the crowd of RTX 30-series GPUs before it: The RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti both come with 8GB of the stuff, while the RTX 3080 is fit with 10GB of GDDR6X. The chips denoted with that all-important ‘X’ are actually quite a bit faster than the standard GDDR6 silicon, though, so don’t make for direct comparison.

The RTX 3090 is the only RTX 30-series card to top the memory capacity of the RTX 3060, with 24GB of GDDR6X.

Frame rates

The average of 54fps and 99th percentile result of 32fps is playable in Metro Exodus, but the respective 41fps and 75fps results from the RTX 3060 Ti are significantly smoother. The RTX 3060 also struggled in Cyberpunk 2077 with Medium ray tracing – its 99th percentile and average results of 31fps and 35fps respectively are borderline playable, but you really want more headroom for a first-person shooter.

Temperature

Temps under stress load sits just under 70 degrees C, and that’s fine. Acoustics wise this was the loudest card we tested thus far. you’ll hit 41~42 DBa under gaming load, which is a notch too much in this day and era. The card exhibitors only very minor amounts of coil whine, no worries there. BTW I noticed another website claiming this card has no fan-stop, that is incorrect. Fan stop at IDLE works as expected.

Power consumption

This card peaks at 244 Watt (power always fluctuates as much as your frame times and FPS). Averaged out, the card sits at 219 Watt under gaming load, in idle 14 watts. We’re fine with all values.

ZOTAC gaming GeForce RTX 3060 twin edge OC 12GB GDDR6 192-bit 15 GBPS alternative

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

SPECIFICATIONS

CUDA cores: 4,864Base clock: 1,410 MHzBoost clock: 1,665 MHzTFLOPs: 16.20Memory: 8GB GDDR6Memory clock: 14 GT/sMemory bandwidth: 448 GB/s

REASONS TO BUY

+Finally! Something a little more affordable+2080 Super performance+Under $400

REASONS TO AVOID

-Annoying 12-pin power connector-Not quite good enough for 4K

The best value Ampere to date, the RTX 3060 Ti is very closely related to the RTX 3070. Both utilize the same GA104 GPU (the RTX 3060 Ti has fewer SMs enabled), with the same 8GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit bus.

While 17% less capable in core count, the RTX 3060 Ti makes up for it with some judicious GPU Boost frequencies. That partially explains why the RTX 3060 Ti can be within 17% to just single digits off the pace of the RTX 3070, despite operating at a silicon disadvantage. Not bad for a $399 card (if you can find it for that price).

If you haven’t already done the maths: At $399, the RTX 3060 Ti is 20% cheaper than the RTX 3070, so performance per dollar is on the up with the diminutive graphics card. That’s why we love it so; it’s a great GPU for the full stack of resolutions and has decent ray tracing capability to boot, courtesy of second-generation RT Cores.

If the RTX 3080 or RTX 3070 seem out of reach, the RTX 3060 Ti certainly makes for a decent stand-in. Perhaps most impressive of this graphics card is how it stacks up to the 20-series generation: It topples the RTX 2080 Super in nearly every test.