Nvidia RTX 3060 review: revisiting the super-performers

Doom Eternal, Borderlands 3, Control, Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Review by Will Judd Deputy Editor, Digital Foundry

Additional contributions by Richard Leadbetter

Updated on 24 Jan 2022

Let's start with the games that we call the super-performers, the ones that we saw the biggest generation on generation improvements when we first started testing RTX 30-series graphics cards. Each of the four games in this section are modern titles using advanced graphics APIs, like DirectX 12 and Vulkan, which are able to make better use of high core count processors - like the Core i9 10900K in our test rig. That should help lessen CPU bottlenecking at lower resolutions.

We've run our benchmarks at the standard three resolutions: 1080p, 1440p and 4K. If you're gaming on an ultra-wide, you can expect 2560x1080 screens to require slightly more graphics horsepower than you'd need for a 16:9 Full HD display, while the more common 3440x1440 resolution is almost exactly between 1440p and 4K.

Our benchmark results are presented a little differently to what you might be used to elsewhere on the web. On mobile, you'll get a basic overview, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Doom Eternal

We start with the go-to game for making any graphics hardware look good: Doom Eternal. For a game released in the 20s, the new Doom requires very little graphics horsepower to achieve outstanding results, and even on mainstream hardware you're able to hit high frame-rates, high resolutions or both.

Even at 4K, which is far from the RTX 3060's expected wheelhouse, the game still renders our test scene at a comfortable 80fps on average. The RTX 3060 Ti is 26 per cent faster than the 3060 here, while the RTX 3070 is 44 per cent faster. Still, compared to last-gen hardware, the 3060 still performs expertly. It's more or less tied with the RTX 2070 Super, a $500 graphics card, so at a retail price of $329 you're getting a pretty impressive value here - if this trend continues, anyway.

That's at 4K, but what about lower resolutions that are more likely to be paired with the 3060? Even dropping to 2560x1440 allows for a healthy average of 159fps, more than enough to take good advantage of a 144Hz monitor. That's a bit higher than even the RTX 2070 Super and almost exactly what the RX 5700 XT scored in the same test. At 1080p, you can expect frame-rates in excess of 220fps, so if you're a competitively-minded person then even the RTX 3060 is enough to take advantage of a 240Hz monitor - as long as you have a strong CPU too. Interestingly, after trailing at higher resolutions, the RTX 2070 Super takes back its lead at 1080p - an interesting trend we'll have to keep an eye on as we progress.

Doom Eternal: Vulkan, Ultra Nightmare, 8x TSSAA

Borderlands 3

From id Tech we move to an Unreal Engine 4 title, Borderlands 3. The game's highest preset, 'Badass', is a tough one - so it's not a surprise to see the 3060 slip to an average of less than 30fps at 4K. Thankfully, the game is much more manageable at lower resolutions without resorting to settings tweakery, with the RTX 3060 managing a playable 51fps at 1440p and a smooth 73fps at 1080p.

These results place the RTX 3060 between the vanilla RTX 2070 and the 2070 Super, with the card performing closer to its non-Super antecedent as the tested resolution drops. At 1080p, where this card is pitched, you get about 75 per cent of the frame-rate of a $400 3060 Ti and 66 per cent of of a $500 3070, so you do give up a pretty significant measure of performance when you move to that $330 price point.

Borderlands 3: Bad Ass, DX12, TAA

Control

Control is next. The game's RT features are probably the most well-known element of this game in DF circles, but even with these graphical effects disabled the game is still a challenge to render on low-end hardware. At 4K, we're looking at a 27fps average, which moves to only 55fps at 1440p and 86fps at 1080p. Granted, enabling DLSS could improve results considerably, as would dropping some graphical settings, but for the sake of comparison we'll stick with these figures for now.

These results place the RTX 3060 almost exactly in line with the last-gen RTX 2070, which debuted at $500, while costing a little less than the outgoing RTX 2060. Note that this game doesn't suit AMD hardware, with the 3060 comfortably beating the ($400 launch price) RX 5700 XT at each resolution we tested.

We'll look at Control's RTX performance later on in this same review, so stay tuned for that!

Control: High, DX12, TAA

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider's intregated benchmark includes three separate scenes, so we can show how the same card can perform very differently compared to its peers based on what's on screen. For example, look at how the RTX 2070 and 3060 respond in the Día de los Muertos scene compared to the jungle scene that comes right afterwards. In the town, with plenty of light sources, there's a noticeable gap between the two cards on the frame-time graph; move into the jungle and the lines are practically touching. It's the same on the final scene, where we look at the hidden city of Paititi, the two cards are extremely close in the sweeping flyby, but there's a bigger gap when we see Lara and the townsfolk at work. All this is to say: seek out a plurality of sources, with different testing methods, games and scenes, to get a more precise sense of how two cards compare!

Averaging all three scenes, the RTX 3060 sits almost halfway between the 2070 and 2070 Super, slipping towards the 2070 as we drop from 4K and 1440p to 1080p. At Full HD, the 3060 is performing at about 80 per cent of the frame-rate of the RTX 3060 Ti, or 77 per cent of the RTX 3070, making it a great value option given that it costs 66 per cent of the price of an RTX 3070 (assuming a magical world where graphics cards are actually available at their recommended retail prices).