NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce RTX 3060 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 8GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 360 GB/s |
| Shaders | 2944 | 3584 |
| Boost Clock | 1710 MHz | 1777 MHz |
| TDP | 215W | 170W |
| Architecture | Turing | Ampere |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 1,745 | 1,965 |
| Best Price | $699 | $250 |
| Value Score | 18/100 | 54/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 is faster but costs more. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 offers better value for money. Your choice depends on budget vs. performance priority.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060: Which Should You Buy?
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 is 17% faster at 1440p ultra (63.2 fps against 54 fps). That is roughly one settings notch — enough to matter if you are chasing a specific refresh rate, not enough to rescue a bad price.
You pay a 180% premium for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 ($699 against $250) to get 17% more frames. The extra frames do not keep up with the extra cost — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is the better value here.
Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 carries 12GB against 8GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 8GB cards age badly; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 draws 45W less (170W versus 215W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is 3 years newer (2021 versus 2018), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.