GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB got a new 128-bit memory bus

Without waiting for an official announcement, partners of the NVIDIA company began to highlight their variants of GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB video cards. A mention of this modification appeared on the Manli website – Manli GeForce RTX 3060 8GB (M2500+N630). The description of the adapter allows you to evaluate changes in the technical characteristics of similar models.

We remind you that the basic versions of GeForce RTX 3060 are equipped with 12 GB of memory and have a 192-bit bus. At the same time, the GDDR6 chips operate at an effective 15,000 MHz, allowing for a total bandwidth of 360 GB/s.

To reduce the memory capacity from 12 GB to 8 GB, the developers also had to reduce the bus bit rate from 192 bits to 128 bits. Taking into account that the frequency of GDDR6 chips remained at the same level, the bandwidth decreased to 240 GB/s. Fortunately, the configuration of the GPU functional blocks and its operating frequencies in the GeForce RTX 3060 8GB versions remained at the same level as in the 12GB models. However, such a noticeable decrease in ROM will naturally affect the performance results of video cards.

In addition to Manli, descriptions of the GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB versions have also appeared on the ASUS website, which offers two modifications: Dual-RTX3080-8G with the recommended GPU frequency formula (1320/1777 MHz), and Daul-RTX3060-O8G with a small factory overclocking of the chip – 1320/1837 MHz.

It is interesting that against the background of the appearance of similar modifications from partners, there is still no mention of GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB versions on NVIDIA’s website. Also, there is no information yet regarding the recommended prices for such light options.

GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB
CUDA calculators 3584 3584 2560
GPU clock rates 1320/1777 MHz 1320/1777 MHz 1552/1777 MHz
Memory size 12 GB GDDR6 8 GB GDDR6 8 GB GDDR6
Memory bus 192 bits 128 bit 128 bit
Effective memory frequency 15,000 MHz 15,000 MHz 14,000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 360 GB/s 240 GB/s 228 GB/s
Power consumption of video card (GCP) 170 W 170 W 130 W
Recommended price $329 N/A $249

In general, the situation with the GeForce RTX 3060 8/12 GB although only partially resembles the one with the GeForce RTX 4080 12/16 GB, but there is some confusion here. Versions with reduced memory capacity will be significantly slower. How much less will the performance be? This is already a question for practical tests. The comparison with GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB, Radeon RX 6600 8 GB and Intel ARC A750 8 GB will also be very interesting.