Nvidia is at it again: 3060 8GB released, up to 35% slower than its 12GB counterpart

[tim0901]

You know when Nvidia announced the RTX 4080 12GB - the one that performed far worse than the similarly-named RTX 4080 16GB - and everyone cheered and said "oh thank you Nvidia for blessing us with this well-named GPU".

 

Yeah, me neither.

 

It seems Nvidia hasn't learnt their lesson, as they have quietly released the RTX 3060 8GB, and reviewers are getting their hands on them.

 

The 3060 8GB is the same price as the 3060 12GB, but has 33% less memory than the previous version. It uses the same GA104 GPU as the 12GB variant, with the same number of CUDA cores, so the name might make sense at first glance. But the 8GB model has a 128-bit bus, rather than a 192-bit bus, which results in a hefty performance penalty as one might expect. Overall performance is ~17% lower than the 3060 12GB, but in some scenarios the performance difference is as high as 35%.

 

Hardware Unboxed gave a rather scathing review of the card, which I recommend you give a watch:

 

 

Quote

This is a horribly anti-consumer move by Nvidia, it serves little more than to line their pockets while misleading and ripping off customers.

 

My thoughts:

 

Ffs Nvidia.

 

The price is a big part of the problem here - correcting the price relative to its performance would at least help this product not be complete garbage, but the name would still be an issue. While the name "3060 8GB" may be a correct description of what the card is, it is a poor description of the performance it offers when put side-by-side with its 12GB counterpart. It's far closer to a 3050 Ti in that regard.

 

The only thing I can think of is that this is Nvidia's attempt at beating the RX 6400 to the GPU spot in GN's 2022 Dissapointment PC.

 

Sources

https://www.pcgamer.com/rtx-3060-8gb-way-slower-no-cheaper-avoid-says-first-online-review/

[Middcore]

Nvidia and fucking their customers with VRAM fuckery, name a more iconic duo. 

[AlTech]

Should have been called a 3050Ti or Nvidia could have just made a 3060 6GB and keep the same memory bus.

[NF-A12x25]

and you KNOW these are gonna ALL go into prebuilts as “3060 gaming pc” and fuck over unsuspecting customers who’ve never bought a PC before

[starsmine]

1 hour ago, Middcore said:

Nvidia and fucking their customers with VRAM fuckery, name a more iconic duo. 

The names for the products are different. Dont perpetuate the false idea that the name of the product stops after 4 digits. 

3060 8GB is a different name then 3060. more then half the time, its always been more then just a vram ammount difference.
AMD does this to. its literally different names for different products.

like the original 3060 was never called just a 3060 now was it. It was called a 3060 12GB, it literally always was. 
 

38 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

and you KNOW these are gonna ALL go into prebuilts as “3060 gaming pc” and fuck over unsuspecting customers who’ve never bought a PC before

I mean, its no different then prebuilts that just say i7 or i5 with no model number. 
I can brag about my i7 till the cows come home, the lowest end 12th gen i3 beats my i7 in literally everything.


Honestly, I really think Nvidia should have just made a 3060 6GB with same bus myself. the 12GB thing was so stupid.
And it would have been more clear to call a card like this a 3050ti and take out an SM since its not like it can use it anyways with the bandwith limitations.

[NF-A12x25]

1 minute ago, starsmine said:

I mean, its no different then prebuilts that just say i7 or i5 with no model number. 

and that’s not ok, so why would this be ok either? That’s very, very close to scamming people, giving them a cut-down, shitty product while just saying “3060” or “i7”

 

Nvidia is very clearly marketing to unscrupulous OEMs, I guarantee that their sales of this card who know GPUs will be near-zero.

[Middcore]

1 minute ago, starsmine said:

The names for the products are different. Dont perpetuate the false idea that the name of the product stops after 4 digits. 

3060 8GB is a different name then 3060. more then half the time, its always been more then just a vram ammount difference.
AMD does this to. its literally different names for different products.

like the original 3060 was never called just a 3060 now was it. It was called a 3060 12GB, it literally always was. 

 

Making the only difference in the product name refer to the VRAM amount just reinforces the misleading impression that there will be no performance difference if you don't need more VRAM. 

[starsmine]

Just now, NF-A12x25 said:

and that’s not ok, so why would this be ok either? That’s very, very close to scamming people, giving them a cut-down, shitty product while just saying “3060” or “i7”

 

Nvidia is very clearly marketing to unscrupulous OEMs, I guarantee that their sales of this card who know GPUs will be near-zero.

im not saying it is OK. thats on the sellers though, and I am always strongly against buy beware markets and am pro regulation.

That all said, I have always had zero sympathy for people who fail to do the bare minimum research on something they purchase. Like just pick up a damn copy of consumer reports. No need to be an expert, just go, hey the Model number is different, AND ASK does this mean the product is different?

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, starsmine said:

3060 8GB is a different name then 3060. more then half the time, its always been more then just a vram ammount difference.

And that's the problem. People see "3060" and think the only difference is the VRAM amount (a pretty fair assumption I might add), which it's not. It's grossly misleading and any argument against that is just misinformed. It was scummy when they did it with the 1060, it was scummy when they tried to do it with the 4080, and it's scummy now. 

 

2 minutes ago, starsmine said:

AMD does this to. its literally different names for different products.

Not really. With AMD cards it's always just been different VRAM amounts, not changing the core architecture and performance like Nvidia likes to do. RX 580 4GB and RX 580 8GB were the exact same card as the name implies, they just had different VRAM amounts. 

[xAcid9]

52 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Should have been called a 3050Ti or Nvidia could have just made a 3060 6GB and keep the same memory bus.

Other than memory, everything else is the same as 3060 though and 6GB is too low for card of this tier imo. 

[Dedayog]

10 minutes ago, starsmine said:

im not saying it is OK. thats on the sellers though, and I am always strongly against buy beware markets and am pro regulation.

That all said, I have always had zero sympathy for people who fail to do the bare minimum research on something they purchase. Like just pick up a damn copy of consumer reports. No need to be an expert, just go, hey the Model number is different, AND ASK does this mean the product is different?

They won't stop until people stop buying them, and reading the forums here.... the koolaid is getting drunk and bathed in ever deeply.

 

People don't give two shits about getting fucked.

 

And your line about differences.... If it says 3060 8GB and 3060 12GB, what, YOU GENIUS, is the difference?  The RAM.  You fucking expect that the 3060 aspect is the SAME since they used the SAME FUCKING NUMBERS. 3 - 0 - 6 - 0.  Say it with me.  

 

Jesus Christ, can you blame the consumer any more?  I wager Nvidia employs people exactly like you.  Well fuck em if they don't look at every spec in depth, right boss?!  hehe

 

 

[NF-A12x25]

8 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

They won't stop until people stop buying them, and reading the forums here.... the koolaid is getting drunk and bathed in ever deeply.

 

People don't give too shits about getting fucked.

 

And your line about differences.... If it says 3060 8GB and 3060 12GB, what, YOU GENIUS, is the difference?  The RAM.  You fucking expect that the 3060 aspect is the SAME since they used the SAME FUCKING NUMBERS. 3 - 0 - 6 - 0.  Say it with me.  

 

Jesus Christ, can you blame the consumer any more?  I wager Nvidia employs people exactly like you.  Well fuck em if they don't look at every spec in depth, right boss?!  hehe

 

 

W

[Vishera]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

Should have been called a 3050Ti or Nvidia could have just made a 3060 6GB and keep the same memory bus.

The price/performance of the 1660, 3050, 3060 and 3060 Ti are an insult.

I bought a GTX 1660 in 2019 for $250, and what GPUs you have in this price now days? - The GTX 1660.

And the RTX 3050? - Costs 40% more than the 1660 for a performance increase of 17%.

And the RTX 3060? - Costs 80% more than the GTX 1660 for a performance increase of 61%.

And the RTX 3060 Ti? Costs 100% more than the GTX 1660 for a performance increase of 100%.

 

That's not progress, neither stagnation - It's a regression.

 

In 2019 i bought a GTX 1660 for $250, which had 97% more performance than the R9 380 i bought in 2015 for $220,

In 2015 i bought a R9 380 for $220, which had 241% more performance than the HD 6750 i bought for $150 in 2011.

 

As you can see i upgrade every 4 years and expect at least 100% more performance at a similar or close price point,

But this time the cards in that price point are a mere side-grades that don't make any sense for me to buy.

 

1 hour ago, Middcore said:

Nvidia and fucking their customers with VRAM fuckery, name a more iconic duo. 

NVIDIA is not the only one,AMD did it with the HD 6750 (was a mid ranged card in 2011).

They released a GDDR5 version and a DDR3 version with the same name.

[Jurrunio]

27 minutes ago, starsmine said:

like the original 3060 was never called just a 3060 now was it. It was called a 3060 12GB, it literally always was. 

 

Yeah right, totally what they thought of doing from the start

 

6 minutes ago, Vishera said:

They released a GDDR5 version and a DDR3 version with the same name.

Oh yeah this trick goes way back, a lot of display adapter grade GPUs have this issue

 

Seriously Nvidia just needs to think of more names. Why don't they use SE in the name for example? they used this in the past, they just chose not to use it again.

[xAcid9]

34 minutes ago, Vishera said:

I bought a GTX 1660 in 2019 for $250, and what GPUs you have in this price now days? - The GTX 1660.

You can get a new RX6600 for $250 today though. ~50% more performance. 

 

I know that that's not 100% more performance but GPU mining and COVID became a thing, those definitely hindered the progress quite a bit. 

[tkitch]

1 hour ago, xAcid9 said:

Other than memory, everything else is the same as 3060 though and 6GB is too low for card of this tier imo. 

that doesn't list memory bus bandwidth.  And losing 1/3 of that is REALLY impactful.

 

Losing 4GB RAM?  Matters, but not the end of the world.  Making the RAM dramatically worse?  That's an issue.

[Dabombinable]

Nvidia should bring back LE or XT.

[Lightwreather]

in more ways than one

[Quackers101]

Still sh*t that we have to put up with, they tell us a great improvement and value.

But reduce every performance gain, and increase prices. With the MSRP manipulation, its not a great offer and the feature locks coming.

Also if they have some many names for variants... why not use them? oh yeah, next up add this with TI's and SUPER's.

<Or to the BS of mixing generations with AMD under similar names.

 

Buy tthe wrong one, make you want to buy a newer generation with XXX more % perf.

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

Maybe Jensen wants an apple style model where he makes just expensive, high margin new cards, and the midrange cards are just old cards on older processes?

 

Still, I'd think that the 5000 series will fix some of the pricing. Like the 2000 series (that came after the crypto boom that afflicted the 1000 series), Jensen must re-learn that only ethereum PoW miners were willing to pay outrageous inflated prices at scales, because Ethereum PoW miners were buying money printers, not GPUs.

5 hours ago, starsmine said:

That all said, I have always had zero sympathy for people who fail to do the bare minimum research on something they purchase.

I'd rather live in a society where sellers are forced to offer fair deals, than a society where everyone has to be expert in everything in order to spot bad/fraudolent deals.
I love PC gaming, it's my hobby, I watch all reviews and stay up to date. I don't want to force more casual buyers to do the same to learn the intricacies of how their PC works just so they avoid buying bad products to play games. I think it's "gate keeping" to demand that of casual PC gamers.

[jaslion]

6 hours ago, starsmine said:

The names for the products are different. Dont perpetuate the false idea that the name of the product stops after 4 digits. 

3060 8GB is a different name then 3060. more then half the time, its always been more then just a vram ammount difference.
AMD does this to. its literally different names for different products.

like the original 3060 was never called just a 3060 now was it. It was called a 3060 12GB, it literally always was. 
 

I mean, its no different then prebuilts that just say i7 or i5 with no model number. 
I can brag about my i7 till the cows come home, the lowest end 12th gen i3 beats my i7 in literally everything.


Honestly, I really think Nvidia should have just made a 3060 6GB with same bus myself. the 12GB thing was so stupid.
And it would have been more clear to call a card like this a 3050ti and take out an SM since its not like it can use it anyways with the bandwith limitations.

Thats not ok AND nvidia knows this confused people because they have cards that are called the EXACT SAME EITH THE SAME PERFORMANCE BUT DIFFERENT AMOUNTS OF VRAM.

 

More of those than those that perform different.

 

On that list alone thr 3080's and 2060's perform identical but then suddenly the 3060 8gb is far worse and costs the same.

 

Literally meant to confuse people so they buy a cheaper product to produce.

[porina]

9 hours ago, tim0901 said:

The 3060 8GB is the same price as the 3060 12GB, but has 33% less memory than the previous version. It uses the same GA104 GPU as the 12GB variant, with the same number of CUDA cores, so the name might make sense at first glance. But the 8GB model has a 128-bit bus, rather than a 192-bit bus, which results in a hefty performance penalty as one might expect. Overall performance is ~17% lower than the 3060 12GB, but in some scenarios the performance difference is as high as 35%.

What I'm seeing there is for workloads that scale with VRAM bandwidth, you get the expected performance difference. For workloads that scale less so or not at all, it will be much less difference. Which is really no surprise at all.

 

I do agree that the pricing of 8GB and 12GB models being the same doesn't make sense. You get less, you should pay less. Why pay the same for the two? What I think is happening is that as the 8GB model is new, retail pricing has yet to stabilise. There are limited supplies from limited sources and they're still feeling for the best market position, starting on the higher end and nudging towards a more balanced market position over time. Again, nothing new. This happens all the time with new product introductions. Give it a couple weeks and it'll probably look different. OEMs will certainly see a cost difference between those models. Don't be skewed by a few resellers trying their luck early on. Same with the mining GPUs which were never intended for retail sale, but one retailer managed to get one to sell. All the idiots took that as the real pricing. Not even close.

[mr moose]

I love when Nvidia do anything with price or naming and only one or two people stop to work out why before posting their hate.   I mean they have earnt a name for doing shit things with ram nomenclature before (2 versions of the GT1030 with the same name but different ram type), but to try and pretend that the amount of ram is not important in 2022 when it's literally posted on every GPU from every company in every market to separate those with less ram from those with more ram is stretching the argument.

 

 

Is it not surprising that a card with less ram performs worse.    The only thing that doesn't make much sense is the fact it looks like it might be the same price, in which case you guys should be arguing that there's no problem because consumers always go for the bigger number right (especially when they are the same price)?  Or does that argument for why company marketing is shit not apply to this case? 

[leadeater]

8 hours ago, starsmine said:

The names for the products are different. Dont perpetuate the false idea that the name of the product stops after 4 digits. 

I'd suggest you refer to 4080 situation, no you're in fact not on the right side of this.

 

You know who agrees with you? Nobody, actually I correct myself, Nvidia.

 

Luckily in the eyes of the consumer and market Nvidia does not and will never get to decide what is a "good" and "correct" product name. We are the ones that get to give them that feedback.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

Is it not surprising that a card with less ram performs worse.

Indeed yes actually. If VRAM capacity is the only difference as per the product name indication then performance will be identical up until graphical setting require more vram capacity than the product with less than this.

 

I would and will always expect a xx60 8GB and xx60 16GB to perform the same. I will always expect a xx70 16GB to be faster than a xx60 8GB and xx60 16GB etc.

 

Similarly I also find Ti and Super unnecessary and stupid but at least there is historic understanding that these denote performance.