News Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition Review: Ampere for Only $399

Victor_S

Distinguished
Oct 19, 2015
9
5
18,515
Another paper launch. How many millions of dollars did NVidia sell to miners for this one? Or is it "not powerful enough".....the tech industry is becoming a joke.
 

JarredWaltonGPU

Senior GPU Editor
Editor
Another paper launch. How many millions of dollars did NVidia sell to miners for this one? Or is it "not powerful enough".....the tech industry is becoming a joke.
Technically the card doesn't go on sale until tomorrow, so we have to wait and see how fast it will sell out. Also, selling out doesn't tell you much about how many cards were available. I've heard over 100,000 RTX 3070 cards alone have been shipped and sold, which is pretty good. How many people want to buy those cards, though? Millions, for sure.
 

Zyperspace

Reputable
Oct 25, 2016
58
1
4,545
I've been waiting to snatch a good price/performance card up until now, but now I'm split between investing in the 3060 Ti tomorrow or waiting for the RX 6700 XT... Tough dilemma for me!
 

mrv_co

Distinguished
Jan 18, 2016
141
84
18,660
I don't think 'paper launch' is the right way to describe these launches anymore, but with Nvidia and AMD knowing full well that supply has absolutely no chance of satisfying demand, these 'launches' definitely feel very preemptive and purposeful simply to keep one's brand, technology and/or specific product or products at the top of the headlines. I can't really blame them though, since that is the game now... I can't imagine one or the other holding back and simply refusing to play the game until their warehouses are overflowing with inventory prior to launching.
 

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
This is definitely an interesting card. Yes, I agree, $400 sounds high for mainstream, but the price/performance on this, at least, official price/performance, is quite good.

This is the area where AMD has generally dominated, at least in recent generations, so it'll be interesting to see what their equivalent-tier card comes in as. It'll be interesting indeed to see how the battle at this tier pans out.

On another note, I wondered if the -60 series and -50 series cards would get snapped up by scalpers, and my guess would've been that it isn't likely. However, what I've seen even of the older cards in the past couple of days (2060, RX 5600 XT/5700/5700 XT, and even some GTX 16- cards) made me wonder if the world as decided to start abusing drugs en-masse. What the hell is going on with GPU prices suddenly?
 

bigdragon

Distinguished
Oct 19, 2011
1,106
546
20,160
At $400 it is far to expensive.
Agreed. This kind of performance should be MSRP $350 at most. I think $400 is too steep, especially given the 8 GB of VRAM limitation. The price to performance ratio isn't convincing me.

I'm finding the Nvidia 30-series to be a huge disappointment. Unavailable products, memory limitations, high prices, and excessive marketing for products that only streamers, miners, and scalpers are allowed to have. Average Joe gamer has been getting absolutely screwed. Just look at the 20-series GPU prices and how insane they've gotten. It's more appealing to buy into the console ecosystem given the current PC hardware environment.
 

Giroro

Splendid
I still have absolutely no idea why Nvidia is using the "Ti" branding for this product.
That branding made some sense when they were cutting down a Titan X to make a 1080 Ti... What is it even supposed to mean at this point, when there's no "Titan" card and no base RTX 3060?
 
For 2k set ups, this card is the go to.

Unfortunately, I'm running a 2k set up with a 1070ti, wanting to upgrade to a 4k card and 4k monitor.

Next hope is gonna be january when we see if the speculation about the 3080ti is correct or not. Either way, the longer this gpu drought lasts, the more into the future we will be, and the closer the newer cards will be.
You know, if we can actually freakin' buy them. Not sure why they even bother wasting the material for these when there's more than likely way more demand for the 3080s.
 

Soaptrail

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2015
301
95
19,420
I still have absolutely no idea why Nvidia is using the "Ti" branding for this product.
That branding made some sense when they were cutting down a Titan X to make a 1080 Ti... What is it even supposed to mean at this point, when there's no "Titan" card and no base RTX 3060?

I want to see what the performance of the next step down is. I have an ultrawide 1440p monitor so this card could be overkill.
 
$400 dollars is a good asking price of a card of this performance, but the marketing/naming scheme leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's like Honda introducing the civic as their budget car brand, gaining recognition as a good budget car, then steadily increasing the price and features until it is no longer the budget car they were known for, even if the end product it still a solid mid-range car. Nvidia is doing the same, trying to upsell customers on a new "midrange" card with high end price and high end performance. If it's priced like a high end card and performances like a high end card, then it's a high end card, not "midrange". Great engineering by Nvidia with a good product at the end. The performance/price also seems decent in comparison to the previous gen.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMAN999

spongiemaster

Admirable
Dec 12, 2019
2,273
1,277
7,560
I still have absolutely no idea why Nvidia is using the "Ti" branding for this product.
That branding made some sense when they were cutting down a Titan X to make a 1080 Ti... What is it even supposed to mean at this point, when there's no "Titan" card and no base RTX 3060?
Nvidia has used "Ti" for 20 years. More than a decade before the original Titan. It has never implied any specific performance level within the product stack. There have been many low end cards over the years that have been Ti models.
 
  • Like
Reactions: martinch
The RTX 2060 Super was also far too expensive. The massive price-hikes applied to the entire RTX 20xx series redefined the meaning of "too expensive". Nvidia has gone through a lot of effort to make people forget the 10 series launch pricing.
1060 3GB: $199
1060 6GB: $249
1070 8GB: $379
Why does this keep getting repeated? The 2060 SUPER and 3060 Ti are clearly not intended to be successors to the 1060 cards, but rather the 1070 cards. The 1060 used a 200mm graphics chip, while the 3060 Ti is based on a nearly 400mm graphics chip, almost double the size, despite using a smaller process. Sure, a bit of it is disabled compared to the 3070, but that only amounts to around 17% of the shader cores, whereas the 1070 had 25% of its cores disabled compared to the 1080. And the 1080/1070 chip was only a little over 300mm, while this model's processor is roughly halfway between that and the one that was used for the 1080 Ti and Titan Xp. The card's TDP is also higher than that of a reference GTX 1080. So graphics chip-wise, this card is not at all remotely comparable to a 1060, and obviously costs more to make than those cards.

The only thing we can really fault Nvidia for here is altering the naming scheme with the 20-series to help disguise the mediocre performance gains that generation. AMD also changed their model numbers around with the 5000-series to target totally different price points. This is mainly a case of model numbers changing, not prices significantly increasing.

For 2k set ups, this card is the go to.

Unfortunately, I'm running a 2k set up with a 1070ti, wanting to upgrade to a 4k card and 4k monitor.

Next hope is gonna be january when we see if the speculation about the 3080ti is correct or not. Either way, the longer this gpu drought lasts, the more into the future we will be, and the closer the newer cards will be.
You know, if we can actually freakin' buy them. Not sure why they even bother wasting the material for these when there's more than likely way more demand for the 3080s.
It seems unlikely that a 3080 Ti will outperform a 3090, and that card is only around 10-15% faster than a 3080 in games, so I wouldn't expect much from it, aside from a significantly higher price point than the 3080. My suggestion would be to forget about 4K, since at typical viewing distances, the relatively minor differences in perceived sharpness will likely be difficult to perceive while gaming, and are arguably not worth the significant reduction in frame rates.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shadowclash10

DMAN999

Honorable
Ambassador
I always figure the sale price of my current GPU into the price of a new GPU.
I had a 1060 3 GB which I sold for $120.
Then bought a 1660 Ti for $300 - $120 = $180.
Then sold the 1660 Ti for $220.
Bought a 2060 Super for $420 - $220 = $200.
So when I need an Upgrade the 3060 Ti should be a good option.
And if I sell my 2060 Super for around $300 that would cut my cost down from $400-$450 to $100-$150, which would be an Awesome deal. :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gurg

JarredWaltonGPU

Senior GPU Editor
Editor
I want to see what the performance of the next step down is. I have an ultrawide 1440p monitor so this card could be overkill.
So the next step down, RTX 3060, will likely be the next GPU down as well -- GA106. Nvidia hasn't announced anything officially, but that looks to be the way it's heading. That could mean it only has 6GB, and I'm already a bit concerned about this card having 8GB. If Nvidia follows previous patterns, then RTX 3060 would cost $350 (maybe $300, but that's a stretch) and come with 6GB VRAM and also have about 20% less compute power. If that's correct, it's going to be limiting in quite a few games -- just like the RTX 2060 right now can be limiting. But it could still deliver 2070 Super levels of performance for less money, which would be good.

Anyway, we'll need to wait and see where Nvidia (and AMD) go next, particularly for the true mainstream prices of $200-$300.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Soaptrail

JarredWaltonGPU

Senior GPU Editor
Editor
I always figure the sale price of my current GPU into the price of a new GPU.
I had a 1060 3 GB which I sold for $120.
Then bought a 1660 Ti for $300 - $120 = $180.
Then sold the 1660 Ti for $220.
Bought a 2060 Super for $420 - $220 = $200.
So when I need an Upgrade the 3060 Ti should be a good option.
And if I sell my 2060 Super for around $300 that would cut my cost down from $400-$450 to $100-$150, which would be an Awesome deal. :D
You could try selling on eBay right now! Though you might get stuck without a video card if you do that. Check out this insanity:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=rtx+2060+super&LH_Sold=1

A bunch of 2060 Super cards right now are still selling for $450-$500! Of course you have to factor in the 15% or so that goes to eBay and PayPal if you go that route.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMAN999