Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 vs RTX 3050, Specs, Benchmarks, and What the Data Says

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 and the RTX 3050 are two of the most commonly searched budget-to-mid-range GPU options in 2025, and for good reason. With the RTX 40 and RTX 50 series now on shelves, prices for these older Ampere cards have dropped to territory where they make real sense for budget builders. The question for most buyers comes down to one thing: how much of a difference does the extra money for the RTX 3060 actually make? The data across multiple benchmark platforms gives a fairly consistent answer.

Key Specs

Before getting into performance numbers, it helps to understand where these two GPUs actually differ on paper. According to technical.city, both the RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 are built on the same 8nm Ampere architecture and share the GA106 chip code name. They both launched with the same boost clock speed of 1,777 MHz. That is where the similarities start to thin out.

Source: technical.city

The RTX 3060 has 40 percent more CUDA cores, 50 percent more VRAM, and a 60.7 percent wider memory bus. Its memory bandwidth of 360 GB/s versus the RTX 3050’s 224 GB/s is a meaningful gap, particularly at higher resolutions where bandwidth becomes a bottleneck. The floating-point performance difference, 12.74 TFLOPS versus 9.098 TFLOPS, translates to about a 40 percent lead in raw compute for the RTX 3060, according to the same source.

The RTX 3050’s higher base clock of 1,552 MHz compared to the RTX 3060’s 1,320 MHz is worth noting, though both cards land at an identical boost clock. The RTX 3060 needs a 1x 12-pin connector while the RTX 3050 runs on a single 8-pin connector, consistent with the 40-watt TDP difference between the two.

Synthetic Benchmark Numbers

According to technical.city, the RTX 3060 scores 40.67 on their combined benchmark scale, compared to 30.16 for the RTX 3050. That works out to a 34.8 percent aggregate advantage for the RTX 3060.

In Passmark, one of the more widely referenced synthetic GPU benchmarks, the RTX 3060 scores 16,974 against the RTX 3050’s 12,612, based on 1,959 and 8,421 samples respectively. That is a 34.6 percent gap, consistent with the aggregate figure. According to technical.city’s popularity rankings, the RTX 3060 sits at position 4 while the RTX 3050 sits at position 11, reflecting how much more widely deployed the 3060 is in real-world systems.

According to UserBenchmark, the RTX 3060 has 3,584 CUDA cores and 112 Tensor cores with a boost clock of 1.78 GHz and 12 GB of memory at a 170W power draw. The RTX 3050 brings 2,560 CUDA cores, a matching 1.78 GHz boost clock, and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. UserBenchmark’s platform, which pulls data from over 886,000 user-submitted benchmark results for these two cards, ranks them both on effective speed and value for money.

What the FPS Data Shows

This is where most buyers will spend the most time looking, and the data from technical.city covers a wide range of titles across multiple resolutions and settings.

1080p Performance

According to technical.city’s averaged FPS data across a broad set of popular games, the RTX 3060 averages around 108 FPS at 1080p while the RTX 3050 sits in the 80–85 FPS range. That is roughly a 35 percent lead for the RTX 3060.

Looking at specific titles at 1080p medium to high settings per technical.city:

• Counter-Strike 2: RTX 3060 averages 220–230 FPS vs 160–170 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 40.6% gap)
• Cyberpunk 2077: RTX 3060 at 78 FPS vs 55–60 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 41.8% gap at medium)
• Fortnite: RTX 3060 at 170–180 FPS vs 130–140 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 35.4% gap)
• Valorant: RTX 3060 at 230–240 FPS vs 170–180 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 38.2% gap)
• The Witcher 3: RTX 3060 at 179 FPS vs 130–140 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 37.7% gap)
• Forza Horizon 4: RTX 3060 at 150–160 FPS vs 110–120 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 43.6% gap)
• Grand Theft Auto V: RTX 3060 at 141 FPS vs 100–105 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 41% gap)

At 1080p ultra settings, the gap holds or widens slightly. Cyberpunk 2077 at ultra shows the RTX 3060 at 64 FPS against 45–50 FPS for the RTX 3050, a 42.2 percent difference per technical.city.

1440p Performance

At 1440p, technical.city reports the RTX 3060 averages around 61 FPS while the RTX 3050 lands in the 45–50 FPS range a 35.6 percent advantage. For competitive titles that are less demanding, both cards remain playable, but the RTX 3050 starts to feel constrained in more graphically intensive games.

Specific 1440p ultra data from technical.city includes:

• Cyberpunk 2077: RTX 3060 at 39 FPS vs 27–30 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 44.4% gap)
• Far Cry 5: RTX 3060 at 94 FPS vs 65–70 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 44.6% gap)
• The Witcher 3: RTX 3060 at 72 FPS vs 50–55 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 44% gap)

4K Performance

Neither card is primarily positioned for 4K gaming, but technical.city does include 4K data. The RTX 3060 averages around 41 FPS at 4K while the RTX 3050 manages 30–35 FPS, a 36.7 percent gap. The RTX 3060’s 12 GB of VRAM gives it a more comfortable buffer at this resolution compared to the RTX 3050’s 8 GB, though 4K is a stretch for both cards. Some specific examples from technical.city at 4K ultra:

• Battlefield 5: RTX 3060 at 65–70 FPS vs 45–50 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 46.7% gap)
• Forza Horizon 4: RTX 3060 at 80–85 FPS vs 55–60 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 45.5% gap)
• PUBG: RTX 3060 at 55–60 FPS vs 40–45 FPS for the RTX 3050 (approximately 45% gap)

Where Things Get Interesting

One area where the RTX 3050 partially closes the gap is cost efficiency. According to technical.city, the cost per frame at 1080p works out to $3.05 for the RTX 3060 and $3.11 for the RTX 3050, a gap of just 2.2 percent. At 1440p, the RTX 3060 comes in at $5.39 per frame versus $5.53 for the RTX 3050. At 4K, it is $8.02 versus $8.30.

The site notes that the two cards have “nearly equal cost per frame” at all three resolutions, meaning the RTX 3060’s higher launch price of $329 versus the RTX 3050’s $249 does not dramatically worsen its value proposition. The RTX 3060 also scores a cost-effectiveness rating of 58.47 versus 55.46 for the RTX 3050 on technical.city’s scale, giving it a 5 percent better value-for-money rating despite costing more outright.

Ray Tracing and Tensor Core Performance

The RTX 3060 has 28 Ray Tracing cores against the RTX 3050’s 20, and 112 Tensor Cores versus 80. According to Nanoreview, the RTX 3060 was compared as a GPU with 28 pipelines and 3,584 shaders, while the RTX 3050 operates with 20 pipelines and 2,560 shaders, differences that directly affect ray tracing workloads.

The RTX 3060’s stronger RT core count shows up in ray tracing benchmarks. According to third-party benchmark data, in the Port Royal ray tracing test, the RTX 3060 delivers around 45 percent higher performance than the RTX 3050, reflecting the gap in RT core count and overall bandwidth.

For AI and compute workloads, which have become increasingly relevant as on-device AI tools become more common, the RTX 3060’s Tensor Core advantage of 112 versus 80 translates to roughly 25–30 percent higher performance in single-precision, half-precision, and quantized workloads according to benchmark data.

Power Consumption and Thermal Considerations

The RTX 3050’s 130W TDP versus the RTX 3060’s 170W is one area where the lower-end card holds a real advantage. That 40-watt difference adds up over time and can matter for systems with smaller power supplies or for users in regions with higher electricity costs.

According to technical.city, the RTX 3050 has a 31 percent lower power draw. In terms of power efficiency scores, technical.city gives the RTX 3060 a rating of 18.42 versus 17.86 for the RTX 3050, meaning the RTX 3060 edges out the RTX 3050 in performance-per-watt despite its higher absolute TDP. Both use GDDR6 memory, and both cards fit in a standard 2-slot, 242mm form factor according to the same source.

API and Feature Support

Both cards share DirectX 12 Ultimate support, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 3.0, Vulkan 1.3, and CUDA 8.6, according to technical.city. Both support DLSS and the same display output configuration: 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a on reference designs. One difference to note is that the RTX 3060 supports Shader Model 6.7 while the RTX 3050 tops out at Shader Model 6.6, though this is unlikely to affect gaming performance in any title currently available.

Both cards also support Resizable BAR, which can improve performance in certain titles when paired with compatible motherboards and CPUs.

Community Ratings

According to technical.city’s community rating system based on user votes, the RTX 3060 holds a rating of 4 out of 5 from 38,038 votes, while the RTX 3050 holds 3.9 out of 5 from 17,381 votes. The RTX 3060 also ranks 115th overall in technical.city’s GPU ranking, while the RTX 3050 sits at position 209.

What the Data Points To

The aggregate benchmark data from technical.city puts the RTX 3060 ahead of the RTX 3050 by approximately 35 percent across synthetic tests. Gaming FPS data shows a consistent 35–45 percent gap across resolutions and titles. The RTX 3060 has more CUDA cores, wider memory bandwidth, more VRAM, stronger RT and Tensor cores, and a better power efficiency score despite drawing more total power.

The RTX 3050’s advantages are specific: it costs less upfront ($249 MSRP versus $329), draws 40 fewer watts, and is a more recent release by about 11 months. Its higher base clock of 1,552 MHz versus the RTX 3060’s 1,320 MHz also suggests slightly better performance in lightly threaded or less bandwidth-intensive scenarios.

For buyers looking primarily at 1080p gaming on a tight budget, the RTX 3050 covers the basics and delivers playable frame rates in most titles. For anyone considering 1440p gaming or wanting more headroom in demanding games and workloads, the RTX 3060’s broader spec sheet and consistently higher benchmark scores across platforms indicate a meaningful step up.

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