We do not blame you in the event you’ve by no means heard of the GeForce RTX 3060M. It isn’t an official graphics card Nvidia, and you will not discover it within the record of greatest graphics playing cards.
The GeForce RTX 3060M materialized when Nvidia cracked down on cryptocurrency miners. The chipmaker had closely enforced the Lite Hash Price (LHR) Ethereum anti-mining limiter on its GeForce RTX 30-series (Ampere) graphics playing cards to fight miners. Chinese language OEMs would repurpose Ampere silicon from laptops into desktop graphics playing cards as a workaround. Nvidia was arduous on slipping LHR silicon into its desktop merchandise, however the cell counterparts did not get the identical therapy. Nvidia’s blind eye result in the eventual existence of the so-called GeForce RTX 3060M and GeForce RTX 3070M.
By way of silicon, the GeForce RTX 3060M makes use of the identical GA106 (Ampere) silicon because the GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular. Subsequently, the three,840 CUDA cores and 6GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 stay intact. Nonetheless, the GeForce RTX 3060M has a desktop cooling resolution, permitting sport as much as a 300 MHz increased clock pace than the GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular. It additionally has a decrease TDP of 80W, in comparison with the GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular 105W.
The GeForce RTX 3060M is not far behind the desktop GeForce RTX 3060. Based on Korean TechTuber 뻘짓연구소 (opens in new tab)‘s 3DMark exams, the GeForce RTX 3060 was solely quicker than the GeForce RTX 3060M by 2% in Fireplace Strike and 4% in Time Spy, respectively. The 2 fashions have a small hole as a result of the GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular has 256 extra CUDA cores than its desktop counterpart (3,584 CUDA cores). Nonetheless, artificial benchmarks do not at all times inform the entire story, and the GeForce RTX 3060’s extra highly effective reminiscence system might give it a extra important lead in real-world gaming.
GeForce RTX 3060M Benchmarks
| GeForce RTX 3060M (80W) | GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular (105W) | GeForce RTX 3060 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3DMark Fireplace Strike | 21,763 | 21,245 | 22,095 |
| 3DMark Time Spy | 8,363 | 8,075 | 8,695 |
| Forza Horizon 5 | 100 FPS | 97 FPS | N/A |
| PUBG: Battlegrounds | 143 FPS | 122 FPS | N/A |
| Overwatch | 225 FPS | 197 FPS | N/A |
The YouTuber did not share the graphics settings for his sport testing. We might solely see that he carried out the benchmarks on a decision of 1920×1080. Whereas the GeForce RTX 3060M could not beat the GeForce RTX 3060, it was quicker than the vanilla GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular (105W).
The GeForce RTX 3060M delivered 3% increased common body charges in Forza Horizon 5 than the GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular. Nonetheless, in PUBG: Battlegrounds, the previous was as much as 17% quicker. As for Overwatch, the GeForce RTX 3060M led the GeForce RTX 3060 Cellular by a 14% efficiency margin.
Now that we’re nearing Ethereum’s merge, cryptocurrency miners have began to unload their graphics playing cards on the second-hand market. As well as, Chinese language retailers are additionally eliminating their stock on in style e-commerce platforms, resembling JD and Taobao. The GeForce RTX 3060M used to promote for between $545 to $570; now, it goes for as little as $280. The GeForce RTX 3060M might sound attractive, however its largest downside is the shortage of official driver assist. The graphics card solely works with a modified GeForce Recreation Prepared 512.15 driver, so it is already a few variations behind. Shopping for one means you are caught with the aforementioned driver and lose out on future efficiency, function and safety updates. It isn’t a superb deal in the long term.
