EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti XC GAMING REVIEW

The FPS Review may receive a commission if you purchase something after clicking a link in this article.

Introduction

EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti XC GAMING with Box

Up on our testbed for review today is the EVGA GeForce 3060 Ti XC GAMING (08G-P5-3663-KR) video card, another retail add-in-board partner video card choice for midrange Ampere. This model slots in at the lowest end of EVGA’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Lineup, with a listed MSRP of $409.99 $459.99. At the higher end of the EVGA product stack are the $489.99 EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FTW3 GAMING and $499.99 EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING. This makes it so all of EVGA’s custom video card options carry a price premium over the $399.00 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition MSRP.

EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Models

EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Models
EVGA’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Lineup

EVGA’s other options are the more expensive FTW3 Models, with their included larger heatsinks and triple fan design. Atop of that these FTW3 cards both utilize dual 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, allowing them to draw more power than ours. Our EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti XC GAMING is rated at the same boost clock (1710MHz) as the higher end EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FTW3 GAMING, but it falls short of the EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING (1800MHz). This ensures that all models of EVGA’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti lineup are operating above the NVIDIA reference card’s 1665 MHz boost clock, while memory clocks between all models remain unchanged from the reference design at 14 Gbps.

EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti XC GAMING

This video card model is based on NVIDIA’s GA104 silicon, featuring the Ampere architecture and produced by Samsung’s 8 nm process. In this 392 mm2 die we have 4864 CUDA Cores, 152 Tensor Cores (3rd Gen), 38 RT Cores (Ray Tracing Cores) (2nd Gen), 152 TMU’s and 80 ROP’s. It has 8GB of GDDR6 memory at 14GHz on a 256-bit memory bus, which provide 448GB/s of total memory bandwidth. The TGP for this part is 200W. As we mentioned previously our video card has a roughly 3% boost clock increase over the 1665 MHz boost clock of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition, which equates to a factory boost clock of 1710 MHz. You also gain access to features like NVIDIA REFLEX, GeForce Broadcast, EVGA Precision X1, as well as GeForce RTX IO.

What really sets this video card apart from EVGA’s other offerings is its small size, coming in at just 7.94 in/ 201.8 mm in length, 4.33 in / 110 mm in height, and 1.5 in/ 38 mm in width. In turn we get one of the smallest RTX 3060 Ti’s available on the market, with the ASUS DUAL GeForce RTX 3060 Ti MINI being its only competition (7.9 in / 200 mm Length, 4.8 in / 123 mm Height, 1.5 in / 38 mm Width). While true that most ITX cases have evolved to accept larger GPUs, we still have some niche cases like the Skyreach 4 MINI that require a more diminutive video card such as this EVGA model. That size limit, of course, comes at the sacrifice of heatsink mass, a potential decrease in boost clocks, possibly an increase in noise, and temperatures. All of these concerns will be investigated during the course of this review.

We would be foolish to forget about EVGA’s usual 3-year standard warranty, which can be transferred to a second owner in a personal sale so long as you register your video card in a timely fashion. Buyers of this video card receive access to the EVGA step up program to upgrade to a different GPU, after you pay the difference and ship your old card back.

Photos

Build Quality

Upon receiving the product, we were again reminded just how compact this model is. The box is absolutely miniscule while still managing to be safely packed. This presentation feels decidedly more midrange, but in a way that helps you feel like frivolous costs were removed from the final price. Marketing on the box was fairly subdued, with some simple mentions of the current NVIDIA technologies on the market like DLSS, G-SYNC, and RTX.

Moving back to the physical card we see that cooling here is handled by a custom EVGA heatsink equipped with a dual fan cooling solution. EVGA has seen fit to implement a cooper cold plate with 4 heat pipes on this model, which is a welcome inclusion. That cold plate makes direct contact with the GA104 die and contact with all the GDDR6 memory modules by way of 3 thermal pads.

EVGA has also gone along with many other manufacturers by making sure to cut a small area out of the PCB to help reduce hotspots and increase cooling potential. Finally, we see a metal backplate on this model with a single thermal pad behind the GPU for increased heat dissipation. All in all, the card looks good, feels solid in its construction, and of course its compact which is something EVGA itself advertises on their webpage.

“The EVGA GeForce RTX 3060Ti XC Cards are designed for the no-frills gamer who needs a high-performance card that can also fit into tight spaces. Smartly designed to be cooled with two large fans, protected with an all-metal backplate, and carefully packaged into a short two-slot card for maximum compatibility with all types of gaming cases, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti XC cards embody what it means to have the Ultimate play.”

Recent News