Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 release date, price, performance and more

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 is a $329 graphics card aimed squarely at mainstream gamers and people looking to upgrade from the GeForce GTX 1060.

The card follows in the footsteps of the mighty $1,499 GeForce RTX 3090 flagship, the $699 4K-centric GeForce RTX 3080, the $499 GeForce RTX 3070, and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, a $399 GPU that very tough to buy.

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Available now if you can find it in stock, here's everything we know about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 so far.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 release date

The GeForce RTX 3060 was launched February 25, 2021. It's available to buy right now, thought low stock haven't made that easy, so check our buying guide for restocks and help.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 price

With a starting price of $329, the GeForce RTX 3060 is actually cheaper than the RTX 2060 did at launch, which started at $349.

With the performance the GeForce RTX 3060 is promising, this cheaper price makes it rather tantalizing. And AMD has yet to present a graphics card that offers the same performance for the same price or less. Nvidia could be onto a winner here.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 specs and performance

Sporting 3,584 CUDA cores, 12GB of GDDR6 video memory, a boost clock speed of 1.78GHz, and 192-bit memory interface the GeForce RTX 3060, sits a little below the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.

Compared to the GeForce GTX 1060, a card a lot of Nvidia fans are expected to upgrade from, it has twice the raster performance and 10x the ray-tracing performance.

With that in mind, we predict the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 will target high-fidelity and high frame rate gaming at 1080p to 1440p resolutions. We’d expect games to run at frame rates that top 60 frames per second with all graphical settings maxed out. And at 120 fps and above with a few settings turned down or the resolution dropped to 1080p in very demanding games.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 summary

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 is arguably the graphics card PC gamers on a decent but sensible budget have been waiting for. At $329, it offers a lot of potential bang for the buck.

So arguably this is Nvidia's could have a killer mainstream graphics card. It's just a pity it's tricky to buy at the time of writing.

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Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he’s also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.