NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition wins 3 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 46% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Llama 3.1 8B, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition leads by 50% (98.34 vs 65.36 tok/s); the closest fight is Stable Diffusion XL (42% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 runs 4 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 3, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 148.46 | 102.04 | +45% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 98.34 | 65.36 | +50% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 0 | 35.52 | n/a |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 4.18 | 2.94 | +42% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 11GB | 12GB |
| Transistors | 18,600M | 12,000M |
| Die size | 754 mm² | 276 mm² |
| Transistor density | 24.7 M/mm² | 43.5 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Turing (TU102) | Ampere (GA106) |
| Memory bandwidth | 616 GB/s | 360 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,545 MHz | 1,777 MHz |
| TDP | 250 W | 170 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,199 | $329 |
| Release | 2018-09-20 | 2021-02-25 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 3 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 46% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition has 11GB VRAM and a 250W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM and a 170W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 fits 1 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition. A model that exceeds VRAM doesn't run slower, it doesn't run at all, so the card that fits the model wins that workload outright.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060?
- Llama 3.1 8B: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition leads by roughly 50% (98.34 vs 65.36 tok/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition full review · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings