Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti vs 3070 – cheap yet powerful

Middle range GPUs but which is the better option

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Last Updated: March 4th, 2022

Choosing the best GPU for yourself can be daunting and difficult, to help out we compare the RTX 3060 Ti vs 3070. Both of the Nvidia cards are a good selection for the lower end of their Ampere lineup. Even so, neither of them is to be underestimated with their powerful builds.

What is the difference between the two graphics cards then? With a $100 MSRP difference, there is bound to be something in there. So we compare the specifications of the cards, what the performance difference is, and which does what you need it to.

ASUS ROG Strix NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming

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Pros

Excellent aesthetic design

Great cooling solution

High boost clock speed

Cons

On the higher end of the price spectrum

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ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 TI ROG Strix Gaming OC

Pros

Excellent aesthetic design

Great cooling solution

High boost clock speed

Cons

On the higher end of the price spectrum

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Architecture

To start off our 3060 Ti vs 3070 comparison we take a look at what the cards are made up of. Both of the GPUs are based on the GA104 processor, but where they differ is in the variant. With the 3060 Ti having the 200 versus the 3070s 300 variant. These variants will have different active parts to give that specification difference between the cards.

So the graphics processor in the two is the same Ampere die. It consists of the Samsung 8nm process and is made up of 17.4 billion transistors. All packed into a 392mm² dies size. At this level, there isn’t any difference but there is in the specifications of the cards.

Specifications

	RTX 3060 Ti	RTX 3070
GPU	GA104-200-A1	GA104-300-A1
Shaders	4864	5888
RT Cores	38	46
TMUs	152	184
Memory	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6
Base Clock	1410 MHz	1500 MHz
Boost clock	1665 MHz	1725 MHz
Memory clock	14 Gbps	14 Gbps
Card bus	PCIe 4.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Memory Bandwidth	448.0 GB/s	448.0 GB/s
TDP	200 W	220 W

In most cases, the RTX 3070 does take the edge over the RTX 3060 Ti in the specifications, as to be expected. But how does that translate to performance, and is it worth the extra cost?

TDP

Thermal design power the max heat output the GPU die can produce and how much needs to be dissipated. The 3060 Ti does have a 20W lower TDP over the 3070, giving it an edge in power consumption. This can be an important factor for some people who want to benefit from lower energy usage.

It also affects the amount of heat given out by your card at the max running temperature. So not only does the 3060 Ti consume less power it will act less like an oven. Giving out less heat makes it slightly more tolerable to use in the summer heat.

Clock speeds

Clock speed is the rate at which the silicon cycles in the die. This determines how quickly it can calculate the instructions it has been given. So how fast the GPU itself is at working through the graphics processes.

In the 3060 Ti vs 3070 battle, the RTX 3070 defaults to a 1500MHz base clock, which is 90 more than the 3060 Ti. While also boosting to 1725MHz, 60 more than the Ti card. So not quite the significant advantage, but still faster. Both can also benefit from overclocking to gain even more performance.

Shaders, TMU, and RT Cores

These three are cores found on the die and are responsible for working on specific processes. Shaders are responsible for working out how the scene shading should be done to make it look correct. The TMU is a texture mapping unit, which is responsible for converting and altering 2d images into 3d graphics. And RT cores are purely for working out and applying real-time ray tracing.

The 3070 has 21% more of each unit and is a reason for being more expensive and more powerful. These few options are dialed up for the different SKUs to exist and have a large price gap between them.

3060 Ti vs 3070 Performance

In 3dmark the 3060 Ti achieves a graphics score of 13,450. Compared to the 3070 achieving a graphics score of 14,478. The difference is significant enough to show off some of the advantages but how does it translate to game performance? With plenty of GPU stress tests around, we compare them in terms of performance.

The 3070 achieves an average 7% higher framerate in games over the 3060 Ti. With a difference of 6% in GTAV, peaking at 13% on Overwatch, but reaching only 4% on CSGO. This is unsurprising when the FPS gets so high in the game it is mostly constrained by the CPU. So it’s not a significant difference between the two cards and they both definitely achieve good 1080p performance.

You can also get these cards to work well at 1440p and 4k. Just with a likely need to turn down the settings as they both have a limited 8GB Vram count. A higher one would allow for better performance with larger textures.

Price comparison

MSRP of these cards is set at $399 and $499 for the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070. Set $100 apart, at a lower price bracket it is not an insignificant difference. So for that, you’d expect a much bigger price per performance difference. However, the 25% increased MSRP of the 3070 does not justify the small increase in the framerate.

However, currently, it is hard to find either of the graphics cards at that price point. Checking the current listings you can expect to pay at least double for the cards. There are listings for the RTX 3060 Ti starting from $849 or $999 for a 3070. At that price point neither are really a good option and is expensive. At this rate, it would be better to wait for the next RTX 4000 series to have hope of better prices.

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio

Pros

Stylish, gaming aesthetics

Strong materials and build design

High-end cooling solution

Cons

On the expensive side

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MSI GEFORCE RTX 3060 TI VENTUS 3X OC graphics card

Pros

Stylish, gaming aesthetics

Strong materials and build design

High-end cooling solution

Cons

On the expensive side

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RTX 3060 Ti vs 3070 conclusion

Overall, comparing the 3060 Ti vs 3070 we see the RTX 3070 taking lead in performance but that’s not the whole story. With such a high price for both, it’s hard to justify buying either of them. But more so the 3070 which the performance does not match how much more expensive it is than the 3060 Ti.