Test Setup
Please read our GPU Test Bench and Benchmarking Refresher for an explanation of our test system, procedures, and goals. Note that since the writing of that article, we have further upgraded our CPU to a Ryzen 7 5800X. More information on our GPU testing can be found here. Check out our KIT page where you can see all the components in our test system configuration for reviewing video cards.
System Setup
We are using the motherboards current default BIOS settings. This means that AMD Smart Access Memory (PCI-Express Resizable Bar) is disabled by default as per the BIOS. Our methodology in testing requires we test at default motherboard configuration, and default driver configuration. We do not tweak or change anything in the motherboard for video card testing. We rely on stock, default, motherboard “Optimized BIOS” settings with DOCP enabled. We touch nothing else, as a rule. In addition, we touch nothing of the driver settings either, simply installing the driver, and running our benchmarks. We do not touch or tweak or manipulate driver settings as a rule. This keeps everything fair, and on the same playing field.
For the comparison cards, they were tested one week before the arrival of the RTX 3060, we used the latest public drivers available. For the RTX 3060, since we got ours post-launch, we used the latest public driver that was just posted for it.
Comparisons
For our comparison video cards today we are going to include the $399 MSRP GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. We are including this higher-priced video card to give us a big picture of where the GeForce RTX 3060 lands compared to the next fastest video card in the lineup. We can see how close or far away they are, so we can see where it all lines up.
We are also including last generation’s GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition video card which lines up in the same price range as the GeForce RTX 3060. In this way, you can see how much of an upgrade the new GeForce RTX 3060 offers coming from the RTX 2060. We can also see how much faster the RTX 3060 is at Ray Tracing compared to the RTX 2060.
Finally, the third video card we are using for comparison is from AMD. We are including the AMD Radeon RX 5700 video card. Don’t forget, this video card was launched in 2019 with an MSRP of $349. Therefore, it also fits within this price range of GeForce RTX 3060. We can see how much of a performance bump you’d get if you upgraded from the Radeon RX 5700 to the GeForce RTX 3060 in this review.