Question Is this upgrade worth the price?

[qwvb1111]

Greetings, I am going to buy a gaming laptop, assuming all other specs are the same (i7-12700H, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB M.2 SSD)

If the price difference between a RTX 3060 140W and RTX 3070 140W is USD$160, is it worthy to buy the 3070 variant?

I am not a heavy gamer, but I need to use Photoshop, 3ds Max, Maya, blender a lot and I want good performance on my new PC.

 

[Aeacus]

Performance diff between GPUs is ~30%,
comparison: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3060-Laptop-vs-Nvidia-RTX-3070-Laptop/m1452971vsm1445007

160 bucks for ~30% better performance is a bit steep IMO.

Now, if you would have desktop PC, with desktop GPUs, performance diff would be ~55%,
comparison: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3060-vs-Nvidia-RTX-3070/4105vs4083

And 160 bucks for ~55% better performance is actually pretty good. But since you don't have desktop, but instead laptop, you can decide.

 

[qwvb1111]

Performance diff between GPUs is ~30%,
comparison: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3060-Laptop-vs-Nvidia-RTX-3070-Laptop/m1452971vsm1445007

160 bucks for ~30% better performance is a bit steep IMO.

Now, if you would have desktop PC, with desktop GPUs, performance diff would be ~55%,
comparison: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3060-vs-Nvidia-RTX-3070/4105vs4083

And 160 bucks for ~55% better performance is actually pretty good. But since you don't have desktop, but instead laptop, you can decide.

thanks for the reply, I guess if the diff is less than 50%, then it can't be called a worthy trade, right?

 

[Aeacus]

thanks for the reply, I guess if the diff is less than 50%, then it can't be called a worthy trade, right?

It really depends on a hardware.

E.g no point to upgrade CPU if the average diff is less that 20%. Since it just would be waste of money.

GPU wise, diff of ~45% can be quite substantial. For example: I had GTX 1060 3GB GPU, which i upgraded to GTX 1660 Ti 6GB,
comparison: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660-Ti/3646vs4037

Average diff between the two is ~45%. In reality, at 1080p, GTX 1060 was able to get 60-80 FPS, while GTX 1660 Ti gets me 120-144 FPS. So, considerable upgrade.

RAM wise, average diff of ~25% can be considered as good upgrade, namely when RAM frequency is considerably increased. E.g 2x 8GB 2133 Mhz vs 2x 8GB 3200 Mhz,
comparison: https://ram.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Corsair-Vengeance-LPX-DDR4-2133-C13-2x8GB-vs-Corsair-Vengeance-LPX-DDR4-3200-C16-2x8GB/3543vsm812521

But if RAM frequency upgrade would be less, e.g from 2400/2666 Mhz to 3200 Mhz, then buying new RAM kit, just for faster frequency, IMO, isn't worth it. But if you'd also upgrade RAM amount as well, e.g 2x 8GB 2666 Mhz to 2x 16GB 3200 Mhz, then it would be worthwhile.

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The most difficult part on all of this is, how much the performance increase is costing. And here, rather than looking at upgrade cost alone, i'd suggest to look at the value of specific part. Value is price to performance ratio.

Here, i'll take desktop RTX 3060 and 3070 as an example (since laptop GPUs aren't sold individually, thus, can't be accurately valued).
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/WRrYcf,pD8bt6/

Cheapest RTX 3060 costs currently ~$360, while cheapest RTX 3070 costs ~$635. The price diff isn't double but it's quite high, ~$275. Now, we know that RTX 3070 is ~55% better than RTX 3060, so is RTX 3070 worth the extra 275 over RTX 3060?

I'd say no, due to one critical fact. Namely, all RTX 3070 GPUs come with 8GB of VRAM. While there are RTX 3060 GPUs with 12GB of VRAM (like the one i included in the pcpp example). So, besides paying more, you'll also loose on the VRAM amount. Thus, IMO, RTX 3060 has higher value than RTX 3070.

 

[qwvb1111]

It really depends on a hardware.

E.g no point to upgrade CPU if the average diff is less that 20%. Since it just would be waste of money.

GPU wise, diff of ~45% can be quite substantial. For example: I had GTX 1060 3GB GPU, which i upgraded to GTX 1660 Ti 6GB,
comparison: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660-Ti/3646vs4037

Average diff between the two is ~45%. In reality, at 1080p, GTX 1060 was able to get 60-80 FPS, while GTX 1660 Ti gets me 120-144 FPS. So, considerable upgrade.

RAM wise, average diff of ~25% can be considered as good upgrade, namely when RAM frequency is considerably increased. E.g 2x 8GB 2133 Mhz vs 2x 8GB 3200 Mhz,
comparison: https://ram.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Corsair-Vengeance-LPX-DDR4-2133-C13-2x8GB-vs-Corsair-Vengeance-LPX-DDR4-3200-C16-2x8GB/3543vsm812521

But if RAM frequency upgrade would be less, e.g from 2400/2666 Mhz to 3200 Mhz, then buying new RAM kit, just for faster frequency, IMO, isn't worth it. But if you'd also upgrade RAM amount as well, e.g 2x 8GB 2666 Mhz to 2x 16GB 3200 Mhz, then it would be worthwhile.

------

The most difficult part on all of this is, how much the performance increase is costing. And here, rather than looking at upgrade cost alone, i'd suggest to look at the value of specific part. Value is price to performance ratio.

Here, i'll take desktop RTX 3060 and 3070 as an example (since laptop GPUs aren't sold individually, thus, can't be accurately valued).
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/WRrYcf,pD8bt6/

Cheapest RTX 3060 costs currently ~$360, while cheapest RTX 3070 costs ~$635. The price diff isn't double but it's quite high, ~$275. Now, we know that RTX 3070 is ~55% better than RTX 3060, so is RTX 3070 worth the extra 275 over RTX 3060?

I'd say no, due to one critical fact. Namely, all RTX 3070 GPUs come with 8GB of VRAM. While there are RTX 3060 GPUs with 12GB of VRAM (like the one i included in the pcpp example). So, besides paying more, you'll also loose on the VRAM amount. Thus, IMO, RTX 3060 has higher value than RTX 3070.

I see. Laptop GPU-wise, the diff between 3060 140W and 3070 140W which is the option of the laptop I wish to buy, is ~30% increase in performance, and 2GB more VRAM.

https://laptopmedia.com/video-card/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-laptop-140w/

https://laptopmedia.com/video-card/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-laptop-140w/

Do you think it still worths 160$USD?

 

[Aeacus]

I see. Laptop GPU-wise, the diff between 3060 140W and 3070 140W which is the option of the laptop I wish to buy, is ~30% increase in performance, and 2GB more VRAM.

https://laptopmedia.com/video-card/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-laptop-140w/
https://laptopmedia.com/video-card/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-laptop-140w/
Do you think it still worths 160$USD?

What's the screen on laptop? Namely resolution and refresh rate?

Gaming wise, the price difference is a bit steep. 3D render wise, it's decent.

For 3D render, better GPU = faster render times, IF you're using GPU for the render. But if you use CPU for the render, then why pay more for better GPU?

Btw, 16GB for a 3D render build is too low amount of RAM. While it does work, for render build, minimum would be 32GB of RAM, while 64GB of RAM is what i'd suggest. Moreover, for proper 3D render build, i'd go with desktop PC. Only advantage for laptop is it's portability, while in all other aspects, desktop PC does better.

Best use for a laptop is office use for business people, who travel around a lot. Perhaps even light gaming. But for serious gaming and 3D render - desktop PC is far better suited.