NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
Dead heat, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB split our benchmark suite evenly.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Stable Diffusion XL, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB leads by 56% (2.94 vs 4.58 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (6% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB runs 6 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 4, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 102.04 | 96.29 | +6% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 65.36 | 57.09 | +14% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 35.52 | 31.12 | +14% |
| 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 | 4.58 | -36% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 1.35 | 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 | 1.5 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is faster on 1 of 1; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 28.2 min | 32.1 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 1.14x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 16GB |
| Transistors | 12,000M | 22,900M |
| Die size | 276 mm² | 187.8 mm² |
| Transistor density | 43.5 M/mm² | 121.9 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA106) | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 288 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,777 MHz | 2,535 MHz |
| TDP | 170 W | 165 W |
| Launch MSRP | $329 | $499 |
| Release | 2021-02-25 | 2023-07-18 |
FAQ
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM and a 170W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB has 16GB VRAM and a 165W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB fits 2 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. 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 4060 Ti 16GB?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB leads by roughly 56% (2.94 vs 4.58 images/min) in our testing.
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