NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition wins 3 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 17% 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 3070 Founders Edition leads by 24% (65.36 vs 80.95 tok/s); the closest fight is Stable Diffusion XL (3% 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 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 102.04 | 126.36 | -19% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 65.36 | 80.95 | -19% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 35.52 | 0 | 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 | 2.94 | 3.04 | -3% |
| 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 |
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | $0.034 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | $0.049 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is 1.44x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 8GB |
| Transistors | 12,000M | 17,400M |
| Die size | 276 mm² | 392.5 mm² |
| Transistor density | 43.5 M/mm² | 44.3 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA106) | Ampere |
| Memory bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,777 MHz | 1,725 MHz |
| TDP | 170 W | 220 W |
| Launch MSRP | $329 | $499 |
| Release | 2021-02-25 | 2020-10-29 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 3 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 17% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM and a 170W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition has 8GB VRAM and a 220W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 fits 1 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 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 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition?
- Llama 3.1 8B: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition leads by roughly 24% (65.36 vs 80.95 tok/s) in our testing.
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