NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 wins 16 of 27 benchmarks, averaging 68.5% faster.
Both cards' numbers are anchored estimates calibrated against our measured cards, pending first-party measurement. Treat small gaps as ties.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Playground v2.5, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 leads by 128% (1.76 vs 4.01 images/min); the closest fight is SDXL Turbo (32% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 runs 34 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 20, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| MiniCPM5 2B tok/s | 167.64 | 244.68 | -31% |
| LFM2.5 2.6B tok/s | 154.94 | 230.17 | -33% |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 4B tok/s | 100.43 | 145.5 | -31% |
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 102.04 | 149.68 | -32% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 65.36 | 93.16 | -30% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 63.84 | 90.94 | -30% |
| Ornith 1.5 9B tok/s | 56.51 | 80.73 | -30% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 41.02 | 58.51 | -30% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 35.52 | 50.74 | -30% |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 36.45 | 51.46 | -29% |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Gemma 4 31B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion 1.5 images/min | 15.9 | 35.36 | -55% |
| SDXL Turbo images/min | 216.61 | 286.04 | -24% |
| Sana 1.6B images/min | 7.4 | 16.6 | -55% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 2.94 | 6.6 | -55% |
| DreamShaper XL Turbo images/min | 10.14 | 22.67 | -55% |
| Playground v2.5 images/min | 1.76 | 4.01 | -56% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 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 |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is faster on 0 of 1; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 on 1.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 28.2 min | 19.7 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 1.43x faster | $0.026 vs $0.045 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 finishes 1 of 1 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | $0.056 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | $0.136 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is 2.43x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 12GB |
| Transistors | 12,000M | 35,800M |
| Die size | 276 mm² | 294.5 mm² |
| Process node | 8 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 43.5 M/mm² | 121.6 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA106) | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 504 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,777 MHz | 2,475 MHz |
| TDP | 170 W | 200 W |
| Launch MSRP | $329 | $599 |
| Release | 2021-02-25 | 2023-04-13 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 16 of 27 benchmarks in our suite with an average 68.5% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM and a 170W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has 12GB VRAM and a 200W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 fits 4 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 4070?
- Playground v2.5: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 leads by roughly 128% (1.76 vs 4.01 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 full review · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings