If you’re in the market for a new graphics card to beef up your PC gaming setup or upgrade your current one, you might be faced with a tough decision when it comes to selecting between NVIDIA’s new offerings: the RTX 3060, 3060 Ti, and 3070. Each GPU has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it’s crucial to pick the right one for your needs and budget. In this article, we’ll break down the key differences to help you make an informed decision.

NVIDIA RTX 3060

The NVIDIA RTX 3060 is the newest and most affordable of the three GPUs. It’s priced at around $329, making it an attractive option for budget-minded PC builders or gamers. The RTX 3060 has 3584 CUDA cores, 12GB of GDDR6 memory, and a boost clock of 1.78 GHz. It’s capable of handling most modern games at 1080p and 1440p resolutions with decent frame rates.

The RTX 3060, however, isn’t as powerful as its siblings in the same lineup, especially when it comes to ray tracing, a rendering technique that produces realistic lighting and reflections. The RTX 3060 can handle basic ray tracing, but it might struggle a bit with more demanding games in this regard. If you’re willing to sacrifice some graphics quality for significant savings, the RTX 3060 might be the way to go.

NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti

The NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti is a step up from the RTX 3060. It’s priced at around $399, making it a bit more expensive, but it’s worth considering if you need a little more power and future-proofing. The RTX 3060 Ti has 4864 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 memory, and a boost clock of 1.67 GHz. This makes it capable of handling most games at the highest settings at 1080p, 1440p, and even some games at 4K with good frame rates.

The RTX 3060 Ti also performs better when it comes to ray tracing than the RTX 3060. It’s capable of handling more complex lighting and rendering effects, which is a big plus if you’re a fan of games that use ray tracing, such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Control.

NVIDIA RTX 3070

The NVIDIA RTX 3070 is the most powerful and expensive GPU in the new RTX 30 series lineup, with an MSRP of around $499. It has 5888 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 memory, and a boost clock of 1.73 GHz. It’s capable of handling most modern games at 1440p and 4K resolutions with high frame rates.

The RTX 3070 is by far the strongest in the new lineup, and it’s the best choice if you want the best graphics performance possible. It’s also the best option for anyone who wants to do more than just play games, as it’s more than capable of handling professional workloads related to video editing, machine learning, and so on.