Digital Trends
Nvidia’sRTX 3060is a certified fable . It ’s the most populargraphics cardin gaming PCs , according to the Steam ironware survey , and that makes sense . For gamers playing at 1080p , you ca n’t demand for more than what the RTX 3060 offer between its low Leontyne Price , 12 GB of VRAM , and features likeNvidia ’s Deep Learning Super Sampling ( DLSS ) .
But where do you go from there ? If you picked up an RTX 3060 over the last twosome of class and you ’re count to take your microcomputer gaming to the next level , I rounded up the good GPUs to promote to from the RTX 3060 .
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I ’m not looking specifically at budget , 1080p graphics notice here . The RTX 3060 is still a gravid GPU , and you should n’t take to raise if you ’re well-chosen at 1080p . I ’m look at artwork cards that can truly upgrade your gambling experience , allow you to push up to higher resolutions and necessitate configurations like track trace — put on you ’re comfortable vest a bit of money in your gaming fishing rig .
Nvidia RTX 4070
TheRTX 4070is a massive upgrade over the RTX 3060 . It ’s a mass more expensive , but the late release of theRTX 4070 Superhas pushed down prices of the base fashion model , and if you grass sales agreement and the secondhand market , you could usually find the GPU for between $ 450 and $ 500 . For overall performance , you ’re looking at extend from 1080p at 60 frame per second ( fps ) to 1440p with skeleton pace ordinarily pushing toward 100 fps .
It ’s a monumental upgrade in in the raw performance , but the RTX 4070 really beam due to its features . It maintains greatray tracingperformance like the RTX 3060 , but with more power on tap , it can advertize demanding beam tracing configurations likepath tracinginAlan Wake 2.More significantly , the GPU unlocksNvidia ’s DLSS 3.5 , give you frame generation in demanding titles likeCyberpunk 2077andWarhammer 40 K : Darktide .
The RTX 4070 is a born next step from the RTX 3060 if you require to take your gaming getup to the next level . It not only give you memory access to 1440p with a playable frame rate , but also unlocks new features like path trace and DLSS 3.5 . The downside is that it ’s expensive . The RTX 4070 is in a different course of instruction of GPU than the RTX 3060 . It ’s a big upgrade over the RTX 3060 , but it also carry the biggest Leontyne Price exchange premium .
AMD RX 7700 XT
For something a little near in price to the RTX 3060 , you could go with theAMD RX 7700 XT . It retails for $ 450 , but you ’ll commonly find it for around $ 400 on sale or if you betray secondhand , do it only a slight upcharge over the RTX 3060 . For that , you ’ll commonly get twice the performance at 1440p , allowing you to easy hit over 60 fps in the most demanding games and commonly arrive at 100 Federal Protective Service in less demanding titles .
Raw performance is definitely the independent haulage for the RX 7700 XT , assuming you could encounter a full deal on one at around $ 400 . Its list price at $ 450 is too high , and I ’d strongly recommend going for the RX 7800 XT at $ 500 if you you ’re deal the RX 7700 XT at list toll . Thankfully , it seems most personal computer gamers have recognise that the RX 7700 XT is too expensive at $ 450 , so you ’ll find unremarkably sales .
Outside of raw execution , the RX 7700 XT offers a thin raise over the ray tracing execution of the RTX 3060 , but it ’s not as tumid as its raw performance reward . AMD is still behind in overall shaft trace performance , so path tracing is n’t realistic on this GPU despite what its raw carrying out would suggest . You also do n’t have entree to DLSS with the RX 7700 XT , but the GPU supports bothFSR 3and AMD ’s singular number one wood - based chassis - coevals feature , which is something you wo n’t ascertain on an Nvidia GPU .
Nvidia RTX 4060
Nvidia’sRTX 4060takes the last dapple on this list , and for practiced reason . It ’s not always faster than the RTX 3060 . Overall , it ’s about 19 % quicker , but that same advantage does n’t show up in every plot . Due to the limited computer memory useable on the RTX 4060 , there are some titles where the two GPUs show identical performance .
So , why commend it ? The RTX 4060 has access to DLSS 3.5 . It ’s only a marginal performance betterment over the RTX 3060 , and you ’re still locked to 1080p for most games . However , DLSS 3can take those demand game and take into account you to run them with material body rates in the three-fold digits . add up that on top of the generational advance — even in plot where the vantage is small — and the RTX 4060 can feel much smoother than the RTX 3060 .
The primary cause to recommend it , though , is that the RTX 4060 is n’t that expensive . At the metre of writing , you may betray a used RTX 3060 for about $ 230 and pluck up a used RTX 4060 for about $ 280 . The RTX 4060 may not be a vast upgrade over the RTX 3060 , but you could also find fault one up without spending much more money .
Is the RTX 3060 enough in 2024?
Although the RTX 3060 is only a multiplication behind , the GPU is now three twelvemonth old . It can deal most titles without issues , but there are a handful of game , such asAlan Wake 2,where it feels underpowered . There are more potent options in 2024 for around the same price as the RTX 3060 .
That does n’t mean you need an raise . As always , if the RTX 3060 is providing the play experience you need , there ’s no reason to spend money on a newfangled GPU . It ’s still a capable art card in 2024 , fit with DLSS and ray trace funding , as well as 12 GB of VRAM . There are a fistful of game where the GPU conflict , but for the vast majority of titles , it ’s just fine .
The main reason to advance from an RTX 3060 the right way now is to move to a higher resolution . spend a small more on something like an RX 7700 XT or RTX 4070 allows you to rise to 1440p and unlock new features — all while bear a mellow frame rate .
