Would a 3060 12GB be good for my use case?
Posted by UnderstandingAny5589@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 21 comments
Hello so here's my specs
Ryzen 5 3600
B550 ASUS TUF GAMING MOTHERBOARD
32GB Ram
1st Player SteamPunk Gold +80 650W
I'm currently looking for a gpu that can hold up to just 1080p gaming because I will never see myself playing 1440p or 4k because of only having a 1080p monitor
Would a 3060 12gb suffice and will it hold out for let's say 2-3 years?
Abstract_Void@reddit
Check the price on the 5060. The 3060, 4060 and 5060 usually cost around the same depending where you live.
Also the 3060 will struggle with newer games, since games are getting more and more unoptimized. So you will have to drop settings and use up scalers to hit 60fps.
mig_f1@reddit
What's your budget?
A brand new RX 9060 XT 16Gb with MSRP $350 in the US would be much better.
That said, if you only care for 1080p gaming, recent 8Gb VRAM GPUs can definitely hold for 2-3 more years as you say, especially when you dont expect to play every (or even any at some point) AAA game at Ultra settings.
If you go that route, RX 9060 XT 8Gb has US MSRP $250, RTX 5060 has MSRP $300 and RTX 5060 TI 8Gb has MSRP $350.
In any case, I would also upgrade the CPU to at least a R5 5600X (they go under $100 on ebay or AliExpress, elsewhere they are way overpriced for 2025).
PS1. Avoid Intel Arc B580 12Gb with MSRP $250, since they have issues with weaker CPUs.
PS2. RTX 3060 12Gb may or may not hold up for the next 2-3 years. It is 2 generations old and much weaker than it's latest Gen GPUs listed above.
PS3. Personally for a $350 budget and your specific needs, I would go for a RX 9060 XT 8Gb + R5 5600X, or most likely for a RX 9060 XT 16Gb right now and at least a R5 5600X a little later (when Ive saved 100 bucks or so).
UnderstandingAny5589@reddit (OP)
I'm really just planning to buy a gpu rn and currently it's a choice between 3060 and 6600xt cause all the other cards in my country is heavily overpriced
UnderstandingAny5589@reddit (OP)
My budget is 250$
mig_f1@reddit
For me, between those 2 at a similar price the 3060 12Gb is a no-brainer, but your mileage may vary.
TheReconditioner@reddit
I'm only just getting back into PC gaming (I built my last PC in 2014 with a GTX 760), but my general advice would be to:
1) get one with at least 2 fans 2) if you can find a 3060ti 12GB, do it 3) double check that your PSU has enough power output...
I put my 3060ti 8GB through the NVidia App auto-overclock program and it was too much power draw for my 600w PSU, and black screened. A restart fixed that, and it worked fine after setting the power limit to 90%. The undervolting is really what got the extra performance out of it without overloading the power supply. Same (or better) clock speeds, less power.
Sorry that was a mouthfull.
UnderstandingAny5589@reddit (OP)
I'll prolly check out a tutorial on how to do that cause going in without any knowledge is risky- but for now I'll try to get a good deal on a 3060 12gb, but if so are there any other options you can recommend?
pantsyman@reddit
Yeah it's fine still using one and it still does pretty well in almost everything with DLSS, the 12gb vram helps quite a lot and it also has the full 16x lanes but that would not be a problem on your board anyway.
Dennygreen@reddit
that's pretty much exactly what I have and I use 1440p
KalashnikittyApprove@reddit
I had a 3060 12gb until recently and it was a good card for 1080p, particularly with DLSS, although in newer titles high/ultra settings are not always on the table.
Depending on prices where you are, it's worth looking into a 9060 XT 16GB. The 3060 sells for minimum £250 here in the UK and you can get the 9060 for £319, which is overall a more powerful card, has more memory and should get you your high/ultra settings at 1080p more consistently.
TheReconditioner@reddit
If you still use the 3060, undervolting is the way to go. Less heat = more headroom, to an extent.
Or if you have a badass PSU, then undervolt and overclock it.
UnderstandingAny5589@reddit (OP)
The PSU I currently have is the 1stplayer steampunk which is a b-tier PSU, would that somehow suffice?
TheReconditioner@reddit
I think that would be fine if it's the 650 watt version. Worst case if it overloads the PSU and gives you a black screen, you set the power limit a little lower in the NVidia App.
If you want to squeeze the full performance out, get a basic understanding of undervolting. I only learned it 2 days ago and my 3060ti is a beast and hasn't gotten over 68°C.
UnderstandingAny5589@reddit (OP)
For my case a 3060 12GB is at 210$ while a 9060xt is 460$
Biene1111@reddit
Yes a 3060 12gb would be a good option for your use case
UnderstandingAny5589@reddit (OP)
Will it crank out somewhat good numbers at high/ultra for 1080p gaming?
TheReconditioner@reddit
I have a 3060ti 8gb and it does great on Battlefield 2042. On 1080p I can play high settings at 72fps (my monitor's max), OR I can turn everything to ultra (no ray tracing) with DLSS set to quality mode and still get the same FPS.
The 12GB variant is more futureproof, and even the regular 3060 can be a beast if you overclock/undervolt. Basically the undervolt let's it draw less power at the same performance, which makes less heat, which means it can automatically turbo-boost the clock speed even higher... More headroom.
Anyway, yeah. The 3060 in general is a solid GPU, and can be made even better with a YouTube video, a Google search, and 15 minutes on MSI Afterburner.
UnderstandingAny5589@reddit (OP)
There's a lot of 3060 12gb models out there, what do you think are the ones I should avoid?
9okm@reddit
What are you using now?
UnderstandingAny5589@reddit (OP)
A gt730
9okm@reddit
$210 for a 3060 is both a decent deal and a huge upgrade. Go for it.