The purpose of this article will be to discuss the RTX 3060 and the top 12 games reviewed. The games are reviewed for performance with the RTX 3060 so you will be able to know if and how well it will perform for each game.
Topics and games reviewed include:
- Far Cry 6
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Elden Ring
- Fortnite
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Halo: Infinite
- CS:GO
- PUBG
- Minecraft
- Starfield
About the RTX 3060
NVIDIA launched the RTX 3060 on February 25th, 2021 with an MSRP value of $329. It has been one of the most popular selling graphics cards in NVIDIA’s 30x product line due to its performance and price. Street prices (EVGA) has ranged anywhere from $331 to $1299 over the past 24 months according to Pangoly.com.
There are many OEM manufacturers that produce the RTX 3060 including MSI, EVGA, ZOTAC, Gigabyte, and ASUS among others. These manufacturers produce the RTX 3060 with slight differences and variations, but the underlying technology is the same. Deciding which manufacturer product to choose comes down to the price, differences, and support.
The RTX 3060 family includes the RTX 3060 and the 3060 Ti. The major difference in performance is provided by the increase in CUDA cores. The RTX 3060 Ti has 4,864 CUDA cores whereas the RTX 3060 only has 3,584. In short, it will be able to perform better at things like producing shadows, showing grass, and light reflections.
EVGA RTX 3060
EVGA is known for their awesome technical support. Problems don’t happen often, but when they do it is nice to have a strong support line. EVGA is known for having a great returns process that can quickly get you a new card if needed and resolve any issues you have. EVGA is a U.S. based company with a strong presence and reputation in the gaming community.
EVGA’s GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming (12G-P5-3655-KR) graphics card has two large fans and a larger heatsink to dissipate heat. The EVGA RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming graphics card also has one HDMI port and three DisplayPorts. It does have a higher price point, but also does come with some peace of mind due to their support and cooling features.
MSI RTX 3060
MSI is based out of Taiwan and like EVGA also produces motherboards and graphics cards. They also produce complete systems and have a strong presence in the gaming community. No further review will be provided for MSI due to their refusal to join the international community and withdraw from the Russian market. If they reverse that decision, a review may be provided in the future.
ASUS RTX 3060
ASUS, like MSI is based out of Taiwan and produces motherboards and graphics cards. They also produce laptops, and desktops. ASUS also refuses to join the international community and withdraw from the Russian market. If they reverse that decision, a review may be provided in the future.
RTX 3060 Benchmarks – Top Games Reviewed
Several games are discussed at a high level in this article. There are other games which are not discussed because benchmarks have already been provided:
Far Cry 6 Performance with RTX 3060
The RTX 3060 graphics card will handle Far Cry 6 for 2K configurations with raytracing off. That means you technically can play well at 1440P resolution without raytracing. You would not want to play at 4K resolution with raytracing on. The benchmark provided by Games Choices shows us that at 2160P with Ultra Settings shows us an average of 38 FPS. It’s not until we drop down to 1440P with raytracing off that we get to 60 FPS, the minimum ideal FPS for a smooth gaming experience.
The RTX 3060 will exceed the recommended requirements for Far Cry 6. Far Cry 6 requires a GTX 1080 with 8GB VRAM. The GTX 1080 is on the Pascal architecture, which has been succeeded twice now. First by the Turing Architecture and now the Ampere Architecture.
Red Dead Redemption 2 – RTX 3060
The RTX 3060 exceeds the recommended requirements for Red Dead Redemption 2. The GTX 1060 (6GB) graphics card is two architectures behind the RTX 3060. A benchmark provided by Jansn Benchmarks shows Red Dead Redemption 2 getting 60-80 FPS on 1440P resolution with optimized settings.
Elden Ring – RTX 3060
The system requirements for Elden Ring show us that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card is recommended. The RTX 3060 is a superior graphics card as the architecture has been upgraded twice since the 10x product series. Elden Ring is capped at 60 FPS due to its rich graphical immersive experience. It has known stuttering problems that even the best graphics card has issues with. RTX 3060 benchmarks for Elden Ring show us that it really only performs well on 1080P resolution but can also support 1440P with graphics settings turned down.
Fortnite – RTX 3060
Fortnite’s system requirements show us that the Epic Quality Presets Specifications list an NVIDIA GTX 1080 graphics card. The RTX 3060 is superior to the GTX 1080. The GTX 1080 has 2,560 CUDA cores, a base clock of 1.6Ghz, and 8GB of GDDR5X VRAM. The RTX 3060 has 3,584 CUDA cores, a base clock of 1.32Ghz and 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The GTX 1080 Pascal architecture has been superseded twice with the current architecture being Ampere. Benchmarks for Fortnite on the RTX 3060 show 1440P with max settings at over 80 FPS and 140 FPS on 1080P resolution.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Warzone 2.0)
The system requirements for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) have not been published yet. That being said, we can try to speculate if the RTX 3060 will work. To do this, we looked at Call of Duty: Vanguard’s system requirements. This game listed a GTX 1060 for recommended graphics card. For that reason, it may be that COD MW2 2022 will list a GTX 1070 or 1080 graphics card for its system requirements. Either way, the RTX 3060 would be superior and allow you to play the game just fine.
Call of Duty: Warzone
The RTX 3060 would fit most scenarios or configurations for Call of Duty: Warzone. It would not however be ideal to play at 4K resolution with raytracing. The RTX 3060 has performance advantages over the 2070 SUPER and GTX 1080 but the 2080 SUPER has similar technology and superior performance. You will be able to have good performance at 1080P and 1440P resolution with maximum graphics settings turned on.
Source: Minimum and Recommended System Requirements for Call of Duty Warzone on PC (activision.com)
Call of Duty: Vanguard
Based on the system requirements provided for Call of Duty: Vanguard below, the RTX 3060 is going to be superior to the recommended requirements. It will not deliver high enough FPS to bring you into the competitive bucket, but it will allow you to play the game well without stuttering problems. You should be able to turn up your graphics settings to high or ultra and expect good performance on 1080P and 1440P.
Halo: Infinite
According to the system requirements below, the RTX 3060 will exceed the recommended system requirements for Halo: Infinite. It is superior to the RTX 2070 because it has 3,584 CUDA cores (vs 2,304), a boost clock speed of 1.71Ghz (vs 1.71Ghz), and 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM (vs 8GB GDDR6). With the RTX 3060 you will have no problem having good performance with Halo: Infinite on 1080P resolution with maximum graphics settings turned on. You don’t get as good of performance on 1440P resolution with maximum settings turned on, but the game is still playable with minimal stuttering.
CS:GO
The system requirements for CS:GO are pretty minimal (displayed below). For that reason, you will have no problem getting excellent performance even at 4K resolution with graphics settings turned all the way up. CS:GO is an older game that was released in 2012, and even back then it didn’t require a dedicated graphics card like most PC games require today.
PUBG
PUBG’s system requirements show us below that you only need an NVIDIA GTX 1060 (3GB) graphics card for recommended requirements. The RTX 3060 is the latest generation of that model and outperforms it by leaps and bounds in every category that matters. It has double the VRAM, almost 3X the CUDA cores, and faster clock speeds. You should have no problem with the performance on PUBG at 4K resolution and maximum graphics settings turned all the way up. And the performance just gets better when you go down to 1440P or 1080P resolution.
Minecraft
Minecraft has super low system requirements (pictured below) so the RTX 3060 will provide very good performance. People like to test raytracing and turning their graphics settings all the way up to see how good graphics and performance are on Minecraft. The visuals are pretty stunning and fun to see. The game is still playable but does not provide the absolute best performance when you do this.
Starfield
The system requirements for Starfield have not been published yet. Based on the other games released by Starfield’s developer, Bethesda, it is difficult to say how well the 3060 will handle Starfield. Ghostwire: Tokyo recommends a NVIDIA GTX 1080 OR AMD RX 5600 XT (VRAM 6 GB OR HIGHER) for recommended system requirements. If the requirements are close to that then the RTX 3060 should have no problem playing Starfield.