NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA T4, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 wins 4 of 10 benchmarks, averaging 60.4% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Llama 3.1 8B, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 leads by 87% (65.36 vs 35.01 tok/s); the closest fight is Stable Diffusion XL (25% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 runs 111 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 T4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 102.04 | 67.71 | +51% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 65.36 | 35.01 | +87% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 35.52 | 19.76 | +80% |
| 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 | 2.36 | +25% |
| 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 |
| 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 T4 on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA T4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 28.2 min | 50.7 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 1.80x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA T4 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 16GB |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA106) | Turing |
| Memory bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 320 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,777 MHz | 1,590 MHz |
| TDP | 170 W | 70 W |
| Launch MSRP | $329 | $2,299 |
| Release | 2021-02-25 | 2018-09-13 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or NVIDIA T4?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 4 of 10 benchmarks in our suite with an average 60.4% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA T4?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM and a 170W TDP, while NVIDIA T4 has 16GB VRAM and a 70W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA T4?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 fits 36 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA T4. 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 T4?
- Llama 3.1 8B: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 leads by roughly 87% (65.36 vs 35.01 tok/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 full review · NVIDIA T4 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings