NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

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GeForce GTX 1060 compared with GeForce RTX 3060

	NVIDIAGeForce GTX 1060	NVIDIAGeForce RTX 3060
Overview
Released
Released	July 2016	February 2021
Performance
Chip maker
Chip maker	NVIDIA	NVIDIA
Architecture
Architecture	Pascal	Ampere
Shader cores
Shader cores	1,280 or 1,152	3,584
Boost clock
Boost clock	1,708 MHz or –	1,780 MHz
Architecture
Architecture	Main figures and photo describe the original 6 GB Founders Edition. The 3 GB card has 1152 CUDA cores rather than 1280. Later 9 Gbps GDDR5 and GDDR5X cards were partner designs; unpublished general revision figures remain blank in their configurations.	NVIDIA reference GPU specifications; photo shows Gainward's stock-clock 12 GB Ghost partner card. NVIDIA announced worldwide partner availability of the 8 GB revision from November 2022.
Manufacturing process
Manufacturing process	16 nm FinFET (original GP106)	8 nm (Gainward Ghost datasheet)
Ray tracing
Ray tracing	No dedicated RT Cores	Second-generation RT Cores
AI cores
AI cores	No Tensor Cores	Third-generation Tensor Cores
Upscaling and frame generation
Upscaling and frame generation	No NVIDIA DLSS	NVIDIA DLSS upscaling; no DLSS Frame Generation
Base clock
Base clock	1506 MHz base and 1708 MHz boost for the original 6 GB and stock-clock 3 GB cards. MSI GAMING X+ 6G (9 Gbps GDDR5) has 1708 MHz boost in Silent Mode, 1784 MHz Gaming Mode and 1809 MHz OC Mode. MSI ARMOR 6GD5X OC specifies 1544 MHz base and 1759 MHz boost; these factory OC figures are not assigned to every GDDR5X card.	1.32 GHz; NVIDIA rounds boost to 1.78 GHz, while Gainward's stock-clock 12 GB Ghost and 8 GB Pegasus both specify 1,777 MHz
Cache
Cache	1536 KB L2 cache (original GP106)	–
Memory
Video memory
Video memory	6 GB GDDR5, 3 GB GDDR5 or 6 GB GDDR5X	12 GB GDDR6 or 8 GB GDDR6
Memory bus
Memory bus	192-bit	192-bit or 128-bit
Memory bandwidth
Memory bandwidth	192 GB/s or –	360 GB/s or 240 GB/s
Memory detail
Memory detail	Original 6 GB and 3 GB cards have 8 Gbps GDDR5, 192-bit bus and 192 GB/s bandwidth. NVIDIA confirms the later 9 Gbps GDDR5 refresh; MSI GAMING X+ lists 9026 MHz Gaming/Silent and 9126 MHz OC memory speed. MSI ARMOR 6GD5X OC verifies 6 GB GDDR5X, 192-bit bus and 8008 MHz memory speed, but publishes no bandwidth figure. Later revisions' first-sale dates are unverified.	15 Gbps GDDR6. Original 12 GB is 192-bit with 360 GB/s bandwidth (Gainward Ghost); later 8 GB is 128-bit with 240 GB/s (Gainward Pegasus).
Connections and power
Board power
Board power	120 W or –	170 W
Interface
Interface	PCIe 3.0	PCIe 4.0
Display outputs
Display outputs	Original Founders Edition has 3 × DisplayPort 1.3/1.4, HDMI 2.0b and dual-link DVI; partner outputs vary	3 × DisplayPort 1.4a, 1 × HDMI 2.1; up to 4 displays; HDCP 2.3; check the chosen partner card
Maximum resolution
Maximum resolution	7680 × 4320 (PNY stock 3 GB specification)	7680 × 4320; HDMI supports 4K 120 Hz HDR or 8K 60 Hz HDR
Power connector
Power connector	1 × PCIe 6-pin on the original Founders Edition and stock PNY 3 GB; MSI GAMING X+ uses 1 × 8-pin, and MSI ARMOR GDDR5X OC uses 1 × 8-pin plus 1 × 6-pin	Varies by partner card; Gainward's 12 GB Ghost and 8 GB Pegasus each specify 1 × PCIe 8-pin
Recommended power supply
Recommended power supply	400 W (PNY stock 3 GB, MSI GAMING X+ and MSI ARMOR GDDR5X OC)	550 W on NVIDIA's reference specification, based on an Intel Core i9-10900K system
Slot width
Slot width	2-slot original Founders Edition; partner cards vary	Varies by partner card; no Founders Edition model
Video encode and decode
Video encode and decode	–	Seventh-generation NVENC, fifth-generation NVDEC; hardware AV1 decode, no AV1 encode