NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition

[EarthDog]

I don't trust AMD marketing, i don't want info from them, because they are most likely lying.

Wh.........wow. Ok.

Just go try to buy one and tell us if you can find them in stock. Be it scalpers or miners or the average Joe, these, like NV GPUs, are very difficult to get a hold of. Come on now... use a bit of common sense.

 

[Valantar]

I don't trust AMD marketing, i don't want info from them, because they are most likely lying.

The RX 6800 series being sold out isn't info from AMD, you can look at literally any online store...

 

[RandallFlagg]

Wh.........wow. Ok.

Just go try to buy one and tell us if you can find them in stock. Be it scalpers or miners or the average Joe, these, like NV GPUs, are very difficult to get a hold of. Come on now... use a bit of common sense.

I don't think he's asking the question you think he is.

Here's something that doesn't seem to fit AMDs narrative, and noting that none of the large OEMs (Dell, HP etc) carry the new AMD GPUs (or CPUs) :

• "Other vendors said the supply of Radeon RX 6800XT cards is so low, they’re not even bothering with them until the inventory improves.
• 'Radeon 6000-series looks like a paper launch to me,' one vendor said. “I hate to say it, but it is because there’s just no product.”

On Nvidia, and noting that in fact you can buy a Dell or HP anytime you want with a new RTX card :

• "One theory for the shortage for smaller system builders is that the big OEMs are getting preferential supply access. "
• "One promising sign: Several vendors disclosed they were receiving 30-series cards on an almost-regular schedule. "

Ryzen 5000, RTX 30-series and Radeon 6000 shortages hit system builders too

The outsize demand for Ryzen 5000, RTX-series GPUS, and AMD Raseon 6000 has hit system vendors as hard as it's hit DIY builders. We look into why.

www.pcworld.com

 

[Valantar]

I don't think he's asking the question you think he is.

Here's something that doesn't seem to fit AMDs narrative, and noting that none of the large OEMs (Dell, HP etc) carry the new AMD GPUs (or CPUs) :

• "Other vendors said the supply of Radeon RX 6800XT cards is so low, they’re not even bothering with them until the inventory improves.
• 'Radeon 6000-series looks like a paper launch to me,' one vendor said. “I hate to say it, but it is because there’s just no product.”

On Nvidia, and noting that in fact you can buy a Dell or HP anytime you want with a new RTX card :

• "One theory for the shortage for smaller system builders is that the big OEMs are getting preferential supply access. "
• "One promising sign: Several vendors disclosed they were receiving 30-series cards on an almost-regular schedule. "

Ryzen 5000, RTX 30-series and Radeon 6000 shortages hit system builders too

The outsize demand for Ryzen 5000, RTX-series GPUS, and AMD Raseon 6000 has hit system vendors as hard as it's hit DIY builders. We look into why.

www.pcworld.com

That Nvidia has better OEM availability doesn't really tell us much, given the well established fact that Nvidia has much stronger OEM ties than AMD does. AMD is likely channelling as much inventory as they have to DIY markets, as that's where they have a hope of gaining mindshare, which is where they're the furthest behind. This obviously does nothing to change the fact that there's no GPUs on the market, but at least there's a reasonable explanation for this specific difference.

 

[EarthDog]

Here's something that doesn't seem to fit AMDs narrative, and noting that none of the large OEMs (Dell, HP etc) carry the new AMD GPUs (or CPUs) :

These cards have been out for 2 weeks(ish)? I don't recall how quickly we saw OEM's with NV cards inside pre-builts....

Looks like they (NV/AMD) are simply going in different directions on OEM support..

 

[Fluffmeister]

I don't trust AMD marketing, i don't want info from them, because they are most likely lying.

Yeah fact is despite many saying the 3000 series was a paper launch, AMD have managed to do even worse, hell some of the bigger online retailers here in the UK have removed the 6800 series cards completely from their stores. It's like they haven't even launched yet (which is kinda true frankly).

 

[RandallFlagg]

These cards have been out for 2 weeks(ish)? I don't recall how quickly we saw OEM's with NV cards inside pre-builts....

Looks like they (NV/AMD) are simply going in different directions on OEM support..

Yeah, AMD tried to just supply DIY which is like 1-2% of the market. They failed.

Nvidia supplied major OEMs who comprise about 95% of the market, and thus far have been successful in doing that. I can still buy any of several dozen systems with RTX 3XXX cards not only off Amazon from 3rd tier SI's, but straight from players like HP and Dell.

The fact of the matter is, AMD only had 20% of its wafer allocation from TSMC for their GPU + Zen 3 launches. Now they are falling back on 'unprecedented demand' excuses for cover.

Their situation is clearly a result of being fabless. That's fine. I wouldn't blame them for that.

They should probably just say that, "hey we wanted you to know we have these great CPUs and GPUs so we're doing a limited qty release, but we can't make many right now because we're contractually obligated to Microsoft and Sony."

You know that would be like, honest.

Instead we get legions of mindless AMD fans regurgitating Lisa Su's lies. Their use of social media to enlist a million free marketing agents is also disturbing. Genius? Perhaps that too, in a sort of corporate Darth Vader way.

So this is going to continue to unravel. PS 5/ Xbox are still selling out. They'll need massive allocation in Q1 again. AMD is just going to make as much bank as possible with the few PC chips they can make and charge as much as possible. But in the end, this is going to backfire.

 

[RainingTacco]

I mean there are people who defend the Azor claim with straight face, like Moore's Law. Worse part that there are gullible people defending Moore's Law and Azor xD. AMD fans are high on copium. That's why i want a credible source, a data from actual shop, with real sale numbers, with real provide/stock numbers and not marketing babble.

 

[Super XP]

Source?

They are sold out everywhere. As soon as stock comes in, they are gone. So yes RDNA2 is being sold out like hot cakes.
But so is Nvidia's Ampere.

I don't think he's asking the question you think he is.

Here's something that doesn't seem to fit AMDs narrative, and noting that none of the large OEMs (Dell, HP etc) carry the new AMD GPUs (or CPUs) :

• "Other vendors said the supply of Radeon RX 6800XT cards is so low, they’re not even bothering with them until the inventory improves.
• 'Radeon 6000-series looks like a paper launch to me,' one vendor said. “I hate to say it, but it is because there’s just no product.”

On Nvidia, and noting that in fact you can buy a Dell or HP anytime you want with a new RTX card :

• "One theory for the shortage for smaller system builders is that the big OEMs are getting preferential supply access. "
• "One promising sign: Several vendors disclosed they were receiving 30-series cards on an almost-regular schedule. "

Ryzen 5000, RTX 30-series and Radeon 6000 shortages hit system builders too

The outsize demand for Ryzen 5000, RTX-series GPUS, and AMD Raseon 6000 has hit system vendors as hard as it's hit DIY builders. We look into why.

www.pcworld.com

Umm, Nvidia had a paper launch when they released Ampere, they had nothing, absolutely nothing. At least when AMD launched there RX 6800XT & 6800 they actually had many which sold out. I believe AMD underestimated the demand for these GPUs. But to claim AMD was a paper launch is absolutely false. Nvidia Ampere started to show up only after about 4-6 weeks later.

I mean there are people who defend the Azor claim with straight face, like Moore's Law. Worse part that there are gullible people defending Moore's Law and Azor xD. AMD fans are high on copium. That's why i want a credible source, a data from actual shop, with real sale numbers, with real provide/stock numbers and not marketing babble.

Moors Law is Dead already proved his credibility.

 

[EarthDog]

Umm, Nvidia had a paper launch when they released Ampere, they had nothing, absolutely nothing.

This statement is patently false. Thousands (tens of?) sold out in seconds. The trickle after was small. There was a dead week where many implemented new methods to get these in human hands and once in place, the slow trickle started. They were there.

Remember AMD had hindsight with them to try and prevent bot sales.

 

[RainingTacco]

AMD had just one job: Provide 20-30% of what nvidia provide[because that's their max customer base for high end gpus] to shops. They didn't, and their job was 70% easier than what nvidia needed.

 

[Valantar]

Yeah, AMD tried to just supply DIY which is like 1-2% of the market. They failed.

Nvidia supplied major OEMs who comprise about 95% of the market, and thus far have been successful in doing that. I can still buy any of several dozen systems with RTX 3XXX cards not only off Amazon from 3rd tier SI's, but straight from players like HP and Dell.

The fact of the matter is, AMD only had 20% of its wafer allocation from TSMC for their GPU + Zen 3 launches. Now they are falling back on 'unprecedented demand' excuses for cover.

Their situation is clearly a result of being fabless. That's fine. I wouldn't blame them for that.

They should probably just say that, "hey we wanted you to know we have these great CPUs and GPUs so we're doing a limited qty release, but we can't make many right now because we're contractually obligated to Microsoft and Sony."

You know that would be like, honest.

Instead we get legions of mindless AMD fans regurgitating Lisa Su's lies. Their use of social media to enlist a million free marketing agents is also disturbing. Genius? Perhaps that too, in a sort of corporate Darth Vader way.

So this is going to continue to unravel. PS 5/ Xbox are still selling out. They'll need massive allocation in Q1 again. AMD is just going to make as much bank as possible with the few PC chips they can make and charge as much as possible. But in the end, this is going to backfire.

While there's little doubt Nvidia is supplying more GPUs than AMD currently, you're misrepresenting things here. OEM desktops might be 95% of the market (though not for gaming; laptops are 95% of the market, with DIY and prebuilt sharing the rest), but it's not like Nvidia is saturating that market. The reason for there being prebuilts with RTX 3000 GPUs available is rather simple: a lot more people in the market for a new GPU at launch are in the market for a new GPU, and not a new system. That you're willing and able to spend $7-800 on a GPU doesn't mean you're willing and able to spend $2-3000 on a pre-built desktop if you can't find your desired GPU for sale.

As for AMD's situations "clearly [being] a result of being fabless" - how does AMD differ from Nvidia there? Last I checked Nvidia doesn't own any fabs either...

There's little doubt that there are far too few GPUs out there to meet demand. That's beyond any doubt. And consoles are likely a part of the reason why, though Zen 3 and everyone else clamoring to get a piece of the TSMC 7nm pie is also probably hurting availability.

 

[RandallFlagg]

While there's little doubt Nvidia is supplying more GPUs than AMD currently, you're misrepresenting things here. OEM desktops might be 95% of the market (though not for gaming; laptops are 95% of the market, with DIY and prebuilt sharing the rest), but it's not like Nvidia is saturating that market. The reason for there being prebuilts with RTX 3000 GPUs available is rather simple: a lot more people in the market for a new GPU at launch are in the market for a new GPU, and not a new system. That you're willing and able to spend $7-800 on a GPU doesn't mean you're willing and able to spend $2-3000 on a pre-built desktop if you can't find your desired GPU for sale.

As for AMD's situations "clearly [being] a result of being fabless" - how does AMD differ from Nvidia there? Last I checked Nvidia doesn't own any fabs either...

There's little doubt that there are far too few GPUs out there to meet demand. That's beyond any doubt. And consoles are likely a part of the reason why, though Zen 3 and everyone else clamoring to get a piece of the TSMC 7nm pie is also probably hurting availability.

As for the first paragraph there, I think I can safely assume that Dell ships more Alienwares and HP more Omens than there are DIY systems in total. Both of these companies based on market share ship *literally millions* of computers each month. It would only take a small fraction of a fraction of that to be shipping tens of thousands per month. And again, the main reason reviewers have asked the question of what OEMs are using your chip / GPU in the past has been this volume. Not having such contracts is a big red sign.

But that's one data point among many. The 20% allocation of wafers, the Steam survey showing 3080s after just 5-6 weeks, the plethora of 3rd tier SI's like CyberPowerPC, iBuyPower, CLC, and so on supplying RTX 3XXX cards. You can explain any one of these away sure, but taken as a whole the picture is clear. There are a ton of RTX cards entering the market.

They're both fabless yes, but AMD chose to stick with the best node they can get and the one that is in the most demand - TSMC. They have no wiggle room there, and that in large part is because they must get the PS5 / XBox chips out.

Nvidia's going with Samsung may have looked like a poor choice early on, but they have Samsung's attention and a big chunk of their production. This is almost certainly why we're seeing so much more RTX in the market and virtually no Zen 3 or 68XX.

Now to be fair, if we were counting XBox's and Playstations, we'd probably see there is a big chunk of new AMD users out there. But that's not really this space.

Since they are entirely dependent on TSMC for all of their chips now, they may be unable to get out of that chip sucking console vortex for another quarter or two. I think that is where this would really backfire on them.

 

[Raendor]

$399 compared to Turing seems like a decent price but puts the card just $100 cheaper than the next gen consoles, which outperform it (not talking about on paper specs, look at an analysis of the settings and performance the PS5 and Xbox are running AC:Valhalla; equivalent to a 3070).

In fact the DE PS5 is the same price as this card, a whole console, next-gen controller, super fast SSD/IO....I'm a PC gamer primarily but I just dont see great value in a best case $400 card around 2080S level.



PS5 outperforms Series X in every next gen multiplatform game. It's probably faster real world because of its customizations. And in games, both Series X and its rival runs games the same as a 3070, not 2080.

1 - Not every
2 - Devs got Xbox kits later and had less time to optimize.
3- PS5 "customization" is just stripping features they didn't want to pay for.
4 - Ubisoft games are a bad benchmark.

 

[QUANTUMPHYSICS]

Microcenter near me still has a few left in stock. Hopefully that means the scalpers aren’t that interested.

The profit margin on 3060Ti is low. I saw a bunch sitting on Ebay for $700. There's not much demand for them.

The 3070 had more hype so it sold easier.

the 3080 was the sweet spot, but I think demand will be very high for the 3080Ti.

 

[Valantar]

The profit margin on 3060Ti is low. I saw a bunch sitting on Ebay for $700. There's not much demand for them.

The 3070 had more hype so it sold easier.

the 3080 was the sweet spot, but I think demand will be very high for the 3080Ti.

Is "availability" on eBay at a 75% markup a sign of there not being much demand? Hardly. More likely the people interested in a $400 GPU are (far) less likely to be able to pay scalper prices than ones interested in a $700 GPU.

 

[RandallFlagg]

The profit margin on 3060Ti is low. I saw a bunch sitting on Ebay for $700. There's not much demand for them.

The 3070 had more hype so it sold easier.

the 3080 was the sweet spot, but I think demand will be very high for the 3080Ti.

Naaah. Plenty of sources have said there was a lot more 3060 Ti supply than they had 3070 / 3080 / 3090.

Also you can get a 3070 for a tad over $700 right now. So whatever you saw on ebay as far as a $700 3060 Ti was overpriced, even for a scalper, so yeah they will sit there until an idiot comes along. 3060 Ti's are going for a bit under $600 right now.

 

[QUANTUMPHYSICS]

Naaah. Plenty of sources have said there was a lot more 3060 Ti supply than they had 3070 / 3080 / 3090.

Also you can get a 3070 for a tad over $700 right now. So whatever you saw on ebay as far as a $700 3060 Ti was overpriced, even for a scalper, so yeah they will sit there until an idiot comes along. 3060 Ti's are going for a bit under $600 right now.

View attachment 179195

Cyberpunk is helping to move cards.

I sold my 3060Ti to a friend of my cousin. I only charged him $600 instead of $700.

My 3070 I sold for around $700

 

[RandallFlagg]

Cyberpunk is helping to move cards.

I sold my 3060Ti to a friend of my cousin. I only charged him $600 instead of $700.

My 3070 I sold for around $700

At least here in the states, a $590 3060 Ti is not truly outrageously above full msrp cost. You don't pay sales tax on these, so -

A $400 MSPR 3060 Ti + 8.25% sales tax = $433. So such a card is right at 36% above store cost. It's not quite as dramatic s some clickbait articles say and their direct comparison to MSRP.

I'm also seeing the market depth of sellers > bidders. This bodes well for prices coming down to normal soon.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Just imagine if Samsung said: 1280x720 is enough for mobile users, we should convince them if they want more resolutions, they should pay more and do not complain about higher prices
Or if Qualcomm said same thing about processors
or if Apple said 4" is enough, people should not convince themselves to use bigger screen, bigger screens are more expensive, their production is costly.
do you see now how your poor your point is?

Have you just completely missed that phoneshave moed up to well north of $1000, sometimes north of $1300 as resolutions have increased, and consoomers continue to lap them up? How about the ever increasing price of qualcomm 800 series chips?

What you sarcastically described is EXACTLY WHATS BEEN HAPPENING for years now.

Yeah, AMD tried to just supply DIY which is like 1-2% of the market. They failed.

Nvidia supplied major OEMs who comprise about 95% of the market, and thus far have been successful in doing that. I can still buy any of several dozen systems with RTX 3XXX cards not only off Amazon from 3rd tier SI's, but straight from players like HP and Dell.

The fact of the matter is, AMD only had 20% of its wafer allocation from TSMC for their GPU + Zen 3 launches. Now they are falling back on 'unprecedented demand' excuses for cover.

Their situation is clearly a result of being fabless. That's fine. I wouldn't blame them for that.

They should probably just say that, "hey we wanted you to know we have these great CPUs and GPUs so we're doing a limited qty release, but we can't make many right now because we're contractually obligated to Microsoft and Sony."

You know that would be like, honest.

Instead we get legions of mindless AMD fans regurgitating Lisa Su's lies. Their use of social media to enlist a million free marketing agents is also disturbing. Genius? Perhaps that too, in a sort of corporate Darth Vader way.

So this is going to continue to unravel. PS 5/ Xbox are still selling out. They'll need massive allocation in Q1 again. AMD is just going to make as much bank as possible with the few PC chips they can make and charge as much as possible. But in the end, this is going to backfire.

The steam stats dont lie. The RTX 3080 has roughly the same number of users as the RX 5600xt or 5700 after a few months on the market. Now unless AMD had massive shortages for the entire Navi run that we all missed, that would indicate that those $700 cards are selling quite well, and people are somehow or another getting their hands on them.

Meanwhile the AMD RX 6000 series doesnt appear at all.

 

[cst1992]

Nice review as always, @W1zzard!
I have one question.
I just got myself one of these, and I noticed the fans are different than any I've seen before. Rather than being just a fan with blades, the actual fan is a disk. Here's what I mean:

As you can see, the blades are joined to one another by a plastic rim.
Why would NVIDIA do that? Does the 20 series also have this design?

So whatever you saw on ebay as far as a $700 3060 Ti was overpriced, even for a scalper, so yeah they will sit there until an idiot comes along. 3060 Ti's are going for a bit under $600 right now.

Even in India, where we have high import duties on all hardware, the MRP as printed on the box is INR 49,990, which by current conversion rates is $684. Not to mention the card actually is sold in the market for INR ~40,000. So $700 is definitely overpriced(to the point of being illegal) in almost every market.

 

[RandallFlagg]

The steam stats dont lie. The RTX 3080 has roughly the same number of users as the RX 5600xt or 5700 after a few months on the market. Now unless AMD had massive shortages for the entire Navi run that we all missed, that would indicate that those $700 cards are selling quite well, and people are somehow or another getting their hands on them.

Meanwhile the AMD RX 6000 series doesnt appear at all.

Just to add, the 3080 appears to have doubled its market share in the past month. There are a lot of them being shipped via HP and Dell, and with Christmas / New Years over they're showing up in the December charts now.

Navi 2 still missing. Zen / AMD also taking a big hit in percentage of users.

AMD had its Q4 allocation at TSMC ~120,000 wafers going to XBox/PS5 and ~30,000 wafers for everything else (Zen 3, RDNA 2, Threadripper, EPYC).

It does not matter how good the product is, if you don't have it you can't sell it. That is showing up in the charts.

 

[cst1992]

There are a lot of them being shipped via HP and Dell

OT, but I don't like the included cards in these PCs. My cousin got one prebuilt PC from Best Buy and he found out the card in it had a downgraded cooler and it was underclocked and undervolted. Still the card hit 80C on load(It's a RX 5700 XT).

 

[Mussels]

Nice review as always, @W1zzard!
I have one question.
I just got myself one of these, and I noticed the fans are different than any I've seen before. Rather than being just a fan with blades, the actual fan is a disk. Here's what I mean:
View attachment 182414
As you can see, the blades are joined to one another by a plastic rim.
Why would NVIDIA do that? Does the 20 series also have this design?


Even in India, where we have high import duties on all hardware, the MRP as printed on the box is INR 49,990, which by current conversion rates is $684. Not to mention the card actually is sold in the market for INR ~40,000. So $700 is definitely overpriced(to the point of being illegal) in almost every market.

to guide the airflow straight up, instead of spreading out in every direction

case fans want the airflow to go everywhere to remove hotspots, this fan has a specific goal of directly up

 

[Valantar]

to guide the airflow straight up, instead of spreading out in every direction

case fans want the airflow to go everywhere to remove hotspots, this fan has a specific goal of directly up

It also helps keep the shape of the fan constant, stopping the tips of the blades from stretching outwards at high speed and touching the surrounding fin stack.