Some NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Cards Based on Heavily Cut-Down GA104, Found in China

[btarunr]

With the need for SLI compatibility out of the way, NVIDIA has been harvesting its larger GPUs to create lower-end SKUs to good effect, since the GeForce 10-series. Its latest such creation is select batches of GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards sold through its AIC partners, which are based on the larger "GA104" silicon, over the "GA106" that it's natively based on. Nearly half of the 6,144 CUDA cores physically present on the chip are disabled to arrive at the 3,584-core count of the RTX 3060, besides a narrowing of the memory bus down to 192-bit. Since it is based on a different silicon, these RTX 3060 cards come with a different device-ID of "2487." The TechPowerUp GPU Database, which interoperates with the TechPowerUp GPU-Z Validation Database, localizes these oddball RTX 3060 cards to China.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Bones]

Can you say "GTX 560-448"?
I knew you could.

Same thing with the cutdown cores to make yet another card model.
However with that, I do have one of the 560-448's and it's not a bad card for what it is. Maybe this will work out to be the same, maybe not but there it is and if any find their way over here you'd at least want hope for that.

 

[qubit]

I wonder if they have exactly the same performance.

 

[Hardcore Games]

most likely binned parts that maybe should have had a different model RTX 3060B or somethings

 

[wolf]

I wonder if there is any performance variance between the two GA106 and GA104 variants at the same core counts/clocks etc.

EDIT @qubit beat me to it.

 

[watzupken]

I wonder if there is any performance variance between the two GA106 and GA104 variants at the same core counts/clocks etc.

EDIT @qubit beat me to it.

I actually doubt there will be any performance difference. Specs wise, it is the same. Architecture wise, it is the same Ampere on the same Samsung 8nm node. Ampere seems to clock between 1.9 to 2+ Ghz at the power limit set by Nvidia, and some level of OC will allow it to hit 2.1Ghz as long as its got the power headroom.

 

[Sabotaged_Enigma]

I wonder if they have exactly the same performance.

I bet they're the same. Just like GTX 1060 using GP106 and later GP104.

 

[GoldenX]

"I have an idea, what if we release a 3050 that is cheaper, easier to produce in bigger amounts, and helps us regain the trust of gamers angry that we sell all of our stock to miners?"
"That's completely ridiculous and you're fired. You, the other one, sell those cards as renamed 3060s to China."

 

[N3utro]

"I have an idea, what if we release a 3050 that is cheaper, easier to produce in bigger amounts, and helps us regain the trust of gamers angry that we sell all of our stock to miners?"
"That's completely ridiculous and you're fired. You, the other one, sell those cards as renamed 3060s to China."

Well that is indeed completely ridiculous because even producing bigger amounts of cards wont help gamers get em. As long as these cards are easy money making machines miners will fight to get them and the shortage will go on.

In other words, the more cards are produced the more money miners will get right now.

The only thing that will change this situation is when crypto bubble will burst, causing the GPU to not make money anymore and then miners will flood the market with their cards, making prices go down the floor.

 

[Metroid]

lol, I guess aliexpress users and other vendors have a reason to offer cheaper 3060 without saying is a cut down product and then when the product gets in your home, they will say, is a 3060 hehe and will not get penalized ehhe

Well that is indeed completely ridiculous because even producing bigger amounts of cards wont help gamers get em. As long as these cards are easy money making machines miners will fight to get them and the shortage will go on.

In other words, the more cards are produced the more money miners will get right now.

The only thing that will change this situation is when crypto bubble will burst, causing the GPU to not make money anymore and then miners will flood the market with their cards, making prices go down the floor.

and yes, the crypto market will crash so hard then only the second hand market will thrive because gpus will be so abundant and cheap hehe, I have been telling trolls to not buy gpus at these current prices, all bs and nonsense, "good things come for those who wait".

 

[Aretak]

I actually doubt there will be any performance difference. Specs wise, it is the same. Architecture wise, it is the same Ampere on the same Samsung 8nm node. Ampere seems to clock between 1.9 to 2+ Ghz at the power limit set by Nvidia, and some level of OC will allow it to hit 2.1Ghz as long as its got the power headroom.

The same was true of the TU104-based RTX 2060 KO, but that had majorly improved performance in some productivity workloads. I doubt that Nvidia will make the same mistake again, but it's not impossible.

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

Didn't the same happen with RTX 2060? Some TU104 chips were repurposed as such. Similar performance in gaming while improved performance in some productivity suites. Conversely for some reason mining hashrate took a hit according to some discussion I saw.