NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
GeForce RTX 5060 Ti wins 6 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 41.4% faster.
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 GeForce RTX 5060 Ti leads by 78% (2.94 vs 5.22 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen2.5-Coder 14B (27% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 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 | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 102.04 | 134.96 | -24% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 65.36 | 84.2 | -22% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 35.52 | 45.06 | -21% |
| 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 | 5.22 | -44% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 1.65 | 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 | 1.97 | 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; GeForce RTX 5060 Ti on 1.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 28.2 min | 22.2 min | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 1.27x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 16GB |
| Transistors | 12,000M | 21,900M |
| Die size | 276 mm² | 181 mm² |
| Transistor density | 43.5 M/mm² | 121 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA106) | Blackwell |
| Memory bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,777 MHz | 2,572 MHz |
| TDP | 170 W | 180 W |
| Launch MSRP | $329 | $329 |
| Release | 2021-02-25 | 2025-04-16 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or GeForce RTX 5060 Ti?
- GeForce RTX 5060 Ti performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 6 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 41.4% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM and a 170W TDP, while GeForce RTX 5060 Ti has 16GB VRAM and a 180W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti?
- For AI, yes, GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 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 GeForce RTX 5060 Ti?
- Stable Diffusion XL: GeForce RTX 5060 Ti leads by roughly 78% (2.94 vs 5.22 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 full review · GeForce RTX 5060 Ti full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings