Unofficial NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060M Performs Within an Inch of the RTX 3060

[Raevenlord]

Remember those unofficial GeForce RTX 3060 cards that sported "hackamajigged" Mobile versions of the NVIDIA RTX 3060 desktop GPU wrapped in a shiny, desktop-like shroud? Well, those cards are now surfacing again just as Ethereum's Merge approaches (for the umpteenth time, it has to be said). Miners have taken to offload their graphics cards in order to recoup their hardware investment costs. Despite the recent positive price action, which saw Ethereum in particular recovering 34% of its value in about a week, there's only so much time left to mine before all those re-purposed GPUs become "nothing more" than gaming graphics cards. And those are usually superfluous beyond one per rig - never mind the numbers used by miners.

As these cards are now surfacing in the secondary markets, some benchmarks are also leaking. According to a Korean YouTuber, It appears that the RTX 3060M is actually a pretty competent RTX 3060. The GeForce RTX 3060M makes use of the same GA106 (Ampere) silicon as the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, sporting 3,840 CUDA cores and 6 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory (256 more CUDA cores than the desktop version, as wider, lesser-clocked GPUs sport better power efficiency profiles). The desktop shroud does allow it to unlock an additional 300 MHz in core frequency, while reducing its TDP from 105 W down to just 80 W.





The 3060M benchmarks shave shown in to be within 2-3% of the desktop version within the 3D Mark Fire Strike and Time Spy test runs. At the same time, it ended up being round 3% faster than the pure Mobile version, despite having less watts at its disposal. The benefits of undervolting and overclocking, uh?

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[mahirzukic2]

Where could these be gotten?

 

[Bomby569]

poor Nvidia, more cards in the market

 

[Chrispy_]

Is anyone really surprised that performance is similar?

It's identical silicon that, once unleashed from the crippling power restrictions of a laptop's tiny cooler, performs as expected.

The laptop silicon has almost negligible configuration differences:

• 14Gbps GDDR6 instead of 15Gbps, presumably to hit closer to the power efficiency sweet spot.
• 30 SMs instead of 28 SMs - but clocked 5% slower resulting in something close to a net-zero change, presumably because wider and slower is more power efficient.
• Half the VRAM, for whatever reason, not that the 3060 ever needed 12GB in the first place.

 

[ratirt]

First NV cripple the same silicon like 3070 and 3070m etc. because of power but the price stays basically the same for mobile counterparts. Then NVidia matches the specs for mobile and desktop counterparts (same silicon and model) and it is somehow an improvement or glorification? These should match performance from the start or simply don't advertise something as a 3060m when it does not run like a 3060 since it is misleading for large number of users.

Something tells me, they sell the cards because they are preparing for new series of graphics cards and since the lucrative means of mining has dropped recently it is a good time for miners to reinvest sale old wait for new because with new graphics cards, there will be new boom on the crypto again and they can maximize profit. Standard business scenario.

 

[RedBear]

Where could these be gotten?

Somehow it wasn't mentioned in this article, but according to the linked article on Tom's Hardware these GPUs are locked to one spefic hacked driver (based on 512.15), so they are not really a good choice for gamers. Just a friendly reminder for anyone who might be tempted to buy one.

 

[JAB Creations]

If video cards were women why would I want a retired hooker?

 

[Bomby569]

If video cards were women why would I want a retired hooker?

more experience

 

[trsttte]

It's identical silicon that, once unleashed from the crippling power restrictions of a laptop's tiny cooler, performs as expected.

I think an even better conclusion is how much diminishing returns there are when pushing power higher.

 

[SirB]

Is anyone really surprised that performance is similar?

It's identical silicon that, once unleashed from the crippling power restrictions of a laptop's tiny cooler, performs as expected.

The laptop silicon has almost negligible configuration differences:

• 14Gbps GDDR6 instead of 15Gbps, presumably to hit closer to the power efficiency sweet spot.
• 30 SMs instead of 28 SMs - but clocked 5% slower resulting in something close to a net-zero change, presumably because wider and slower is more power efficient.
• Half the VRAM, for whatever reason, not that the 3060 ever needed 12GB in the first place.

My 3060 uses all the 12 GB on many games. Warzone, msfs 2020, DCS, Halo infinite, etc.... You would have to be a fool to get anything less than 12 GB.

 

[roberto888]

Someone should put a 140W bios on this, and see how much better it gets with the cooling. I have my laptop flashed with a 140W bios, and I often see the clock go as high as 2167MHz even with the temps being around a quite toasty 85-90C.

 

[ppn]

there is also a 3070M 5120 CuDA but costs as much as a brand new 3070, same goes for 3060M. Why would you help a miner in distress to recoup his costs, and you get something that could blow up in your face, not covered by any warranty.
Now if they offered a 3080 Ti 7424 CUDA 16GB at $300 plus 3 year warranty that would be a deal.

 

[ThomasK]

Great to see ethereum finally collapsing. I wouldn't mind buying those desktop-adapted 3060M GPU's for a fair price.

 

[medi01]

I guess it is "news" when one recalls that laptop 3080 might be slower than laptop 3070.

 

[ixi]

Is anyone really surprised that performance is similar?

It's identical silicon that, once unleashed from the crippling power restrictions of a laptop's tiny cooler, performs as expected.

The laptop silicon has almost negligible configuration differences:

• 14Gbps GDDR6 instead of 15Gbps, presumably to hit closer to the power efficiency sweet spot.
• 30 SMs instead of 28 SMs - but clocked 5% slower resulting in something close to a net-zero change, presumably because wider and slower is more power efficient.
• Half the VRAM, for whatever reason, not that the 3060 ever needed 12GB in the first place.

Wny would Nvidia in their mind put exact copy of desktop variant in laptop... doesnt make sense.

But bad chips or faulty ones who can't pass as 3060 gets 3060m would not surprise m.

 

[BoboOOZ]

Wny would Nvidia in their mind put exact copy of desktop variant in laptop... doesnt make sense.

But bad chips or faulty ones who can't pass as 3060 gets 3060m would not surprise m.

It's precisely what they used to do, that's what they did with the 20x0 generation, same die run at lower clocks. It's cheaper this way, you reuse the same die everywhere, economies of scale.

My 3060 uses all the 12 GB on many games. Warzone, msfs 2020, DCS, Halo infinite, etc.... You would have to be a fool to get anything less than 12 GB.

The extra 6GB of RAM is not doing anything to improve performance, the GPU fills it because it's available. 10GB is enough for most games in 4k, hence the 3080 is doing fine with 10 and the 3070 fine with 8. 12GB on a weak GPU is just marketing

Somehow it wasn't mentioned in this article, but according to the linked article on Tom's Hardware these GPUs are locked to one spefic hacked driver (based on 512.15), so they are not really a good choice for gamers. Just a friendly reminder for anyone who might be tempted to buy one.

That's a bummer, because I don't see what their use could be besides cheap gaming cards.

 

[defaultluser]

My 3060 uses all the 12 GB on many games. Warzone, msfs 2020, DCS, Halo infinite, etc.... You would have to be a fool to get anything less than 12 GB.

Right, the minimum vram for ampere is 8GB for desktops (and that'd a good minimum.) Notebooks cut the ram size in half (for low-end) to hit power targets

The RTX 3060's 12 is overkill, but performance would be castrated by running the same 128-bit bus as 3050)

 

[ixi]

My 3060 uses all the 12 GB on many games. Warzone, msfs 2020, DCS, Halo infinite, etc.... You would have to be a fool to get anything less than 12 GB.

Sorry, but I call bullshit on this Warzone and 12GB of vram, don't make me laugh...

 

[umdterps71]

My 3060 uses all the 12 GB on many games. Warzone, msfs 2020, DCS, Halo infinite, etc.... You would have to be a fool to get anything less than 12 GB.

6GB for 1080p
8GB for 1440p
10GB for 4k

Could technically go lower but as of 2022, this is what is optiminal for these resolutions.

 

[Ravenas]

I’m interested in the inch based reviews for the 3060M.

 

[Vader]

• Half the VRAM, for whatever reason, not that the 3060 ever needed 12GB in the first place.

I agree it doesn't need 12 GB for the performance, but the way the silicon is designed it's either 6 or 12 GB. And it definitely needs more than 6, especially for 1440p, which it can do.

 

[Chrispy_]

I agree it doesn't need 12 GB for the performance, but the way the silicon is designed it's either 6 or 12 GB. And it definitely needs more than 6, especially for 1440p, which it can do.

Yeah, the quirks of a 192-bit bus. 12GB is better than 6GB, but 6GB isn't quite so bad that it's a problem yet. I can can count the number of games that can't run ultra settings at 1440p on 6gb with the fingers on one hand still.

I think an even better conclusion is how much diminishing returns there are when pushing power higher.

Indeed. Underclocking AMD and Nvidia GPUs has been a beneficial and rewarding pastime for me for the last half decade.

I'm always happy to get >90% of the performance for <60% of the power consumption because "maximum silence" is my key metric. I want as much performance as possible without being able to hear the GPU.

 

[Fierce Guppy]

Then the 3060M would outperform the 3070 laptop GPU.

 

[StefanM]

Somehow it wasn't mentioned in this article, but according to the linked article on Tom's Hardware these GPUs are locked to one spefic hacked driver (based on 512.15), so they are not really a good choice for gamers. Just a friendly reminder for anyone who might be tempted to buy one.

Indeed you would have to use "add hardware support" in NVCleanstall everytime you install a driver.

 

[BoboOOZ]

Indeed you would have to use "add hardware support" in NVCleanstall everytime you install a driver.

So you can install new versions of drivers?
I'm asking because these cards are 150 euro on AliExpress, at 100 I would buy one as a backup GPU, good efficiency and solid 1080p performance.