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GeForce RTX 3050 vs GTX 1060

GeForce RTX 3050
VS
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
GA106
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
GP106

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB with 20 pipelines and 2560 shaders against the 5 years and 7 months older GTX 1060 6 GB that utilizes 10 pipelines and 1280 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Gaming performance
  4. Benchmarks
  5. AI
  6. Specs
  7. Comments

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score

Value for money (Beta)

We use average GPU prices from all manufacturers by default. Enter the current price of a specific card for better accuracy.
Currency
8 GB GDDR6
VS
6 GB GDDR5
47.6
(Average)
Value Index
9.9
(Bad)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of GTX 1060 over RTX 3050
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3050
  • Performs significantly better (up to 55%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 2.1x higher maximum theoretical performance (9.1 vs 4.4 TFLOPS)
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 8 nm process technology
  • Shows 56% higher average frame rate in modern games at QHD resolution – 42 vs 27 FPS
  • Ray-tracing support with 20 dedicated RT cores

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions
GPU
RTX 3050
vs
GTX 1060

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
92
53
43
26
68
37
29
16
The Witcher 3
90
70
49
24
54
40
26
13
Counter-Strike 2
139
101
72
31
96
63
42
18
Far Cry 6
76
66
49
25
50
45
33
15
Hogwarts Legacy
49
38
30
13
32
22
18
9
CoD: Modern Warfare III
59
49
35
22
38
32
22
13
Ghost of Tsushima
46
35
28
15
29
20
16
9
Cyberpunk 2077
48
45
26
11
30
26
19
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
80
73
49
25
57
49
34
18
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 75 50
1080p Ultra 59 37
1440p Ultra 42 27
4K Ultra 21 13
Margin of Error Low Low

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
RTX 3050 +55%
6348
GTX 1060
4085
Time Spy 6235 4203
Solar Bay 30191 11278
Port Royal 3546 844
Fire Strike 15967 13132
Wild Life Extreme 12795 8510
Night Raid 74854 54686
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 3050 +71%
67028
GTX 1060
39230
Background Blur 110.4 img/sec 100.2 img/sec
Face Detection 64.4 img/sec 48.1 img/sec
Horizon Detection 2.87 Gpixels/sec 1.54 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 3.76 Gpixels/sec 2.25 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 2.89 Gpixels/sec 2.58 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.81 Gpixels/sec 0.25 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 270.9 Gpixels/sec 136.9 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 9339.7 FPS 4220.5 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU
RTX 3050 +83%
4722
GTX 1060
2586

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
RTX 3050 +24%
12471
GTX 1060
10026
G2D Mark 916 737
DirectX 11 90 FPS 72 FPS
DirectX 12 59 FPS 37 FPS
GPU Compute 6415 Ops/s 4246 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 9379 & 48280 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 3050 +289%
1462.18
GTX 1060
375.66
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 1092 & 943 samples
Add your GPU benchmark result

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
GeForce RTX 3050
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitryCinebench 20244722
📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitrySteel Nomad Light6237
Add View all (2)
GeForce GTX 1060
No benchmark results yet
Add

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
RTX 3050 +80%
11848
GTX 1060
6580
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 3050 +221%
21368
GTX 1060
6649
GB6 ML Quantized
RTX 3050 +65%
7905
GTX 1060
4804
Image Classification (SP) 4958 1462
Image Segmentation (HP) 12747 3872
Image Super Resolution (Q) 9816 8136
Face Detection (HP) 22467 6356
Pose Estimation (Q) 41362 33181
Text Classification (SP) 2563 1806
Machine Translation (HP) 3721 3149
Object Detection (SP) 5929 2096
Depth Estimation (Q) 18361 10515
Style Transfer (SP) 84665 67831
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3050 and GTX 1060

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released January 27, 2022 July 19, 2016
Launch price (MSRP) $249 $299
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment Entry-level Mid-range
Architecture Ampere Pascal
GPU Codename GA106 GP106
Successor - - GeForce RTX 5060
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i5 12400 or above - Intel Core i7 7700 or above
Desktop GPU rating (71st and 84th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1552 MHz 1506 MHz
Boost Clock 1777 MHz 1709 MHz
Shading Units 2560 1280
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 80 80
Render Output Units (ROPs) 32 48
Compute Units (Pipelines) 20 10
Tensor Cores 80 No
Ray-tracing Cores 20 No
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster 48KB per cluster
L2 Cache 2MB shared 1536KB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 57 GPixel/s 82 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 142 GTexel/s 137 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 3050 +107%
9.1 TFLOPS
GTX 1060
4.4 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x16
TGP 130 W 120 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Fabrication Process 8 nm 16 nm
Die Size 276 mm² 200 mm²
Transistor Count 12 billion 4 billion
Transistor Density 43.48 MTr/mm² 20 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6 GDDR5
Memory Size 8 GB 6 GB
Memory Clock 1750 MHz 2002 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 14000 Mbps 8000 Mbps
Bus 128-bit 192-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 3050 +17%
224 GB/s
GTX 1060
192.2 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 12
Vulkan 1.3 1.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 3.0 3.0
CUDA 8.6 6.1
Ray Tracing Yes No
DLSS DLSS 2 No
DisplayPort 1.4a 1.4a
Further details
Notes on GTX 1060:
    - There is also 3GB memory version, which is about 10% slower.

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
45 (70.3%)
19 (29.7%)
Total votes: 64

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