Is the Nvidia RTX 3060 Worth Buying in 2025?

The Nvidia RTX 3060 was originally released in 2021, so it is over four years old now. Is it still worth buying in 2025? Let’s find out here.

Picture of MSI GeForce RTX 3060 front side — MSI GeForce RTX 3060 front side (Image via MSI)

Table of Contents

The Nvidia RTX 3060 was a great budget GPU in 2021. It delivered RTX 2070-level performance and had twice the VRAM compared to its predecessor, the RTX 2060. These are two reasons that made this graphics card so popular among gamers. Even in 2025, we still see users buying the RTX 3060, but is it worth buying in 2025? Or should you buy a more modern GPU? These are the questions we plan to answer in this article with a detailed analysis of the RTX 3060. Read on to learn more.

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Note: Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinions.

Nvidia RTX 3060: How Does It Perform at 1080p?

One of the most highlighted features of the Nvidia RTX 3060 is its 12GB VRAM. This was the last time Nvidia provided this much memory in the 60-class GPUs. For example, Nvidia equipped its successors, RTX 4060 and 5060, with only 8GB VRAM. As you now know, 8GB graphics cards struggle a lot in modern games.

Those who buy the RTX 3060 in 2025 do so because of its 12GB VRAM. Nvidia also released an 8GB variant, but that’s a whole different GPU that we will discuss another day. Let’s check out other specifications of the RTX 3060 12GB GPU here.

Specifications

Picture of MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2x — MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2x (Image via MSI)

Here are the specs of the Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB:

Specifications	Values
Architecture	Ampere
Shader cores	3584
RT cores	28
TMUs	112
ROPs	48
Base core clock speeds	1320 MHz
Boost core clock speeds	1777 MHz
Memory capacity	12GB GDDR6
Memory bus width	192-bit
Memory bandwidth	360 GB/s
Manufacturing node	8nm
Thermal design power (TDPs)	170W

As per the specs table, the number of shader cores, TMUs, ROPs, RT cores, and others seems fine. However, the clock speeds and the memory bandwidth are significantly lower compared to modern GPUs. Let’s find out how this card performs in games.

Performance in Gaming

Here’s how the Nvidia RTX 3060 performs in some popular games released in the last five to seven years:

Games	Values
Alan Wake 2 (Medium Settings)	46 FPS
Apex Legends	197 FPS
Assassin’s Creed Mirage	101 FPS
Assassin’s Creed Shadows (DLSS Quality)	45 FPS
Black Myth Wukong (Medium Settings)	63 FPS
Call of Duty Warzone	88 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	60 FPS
Elden Ring	60 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	111 FPS
Ghost of Tsushima	76 FPS
God of War Ragnarök	103 FPS
Hogwarts Legacy	74 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2	87 FPS
Resident Evil 4 Remake	110 FPS
Silent Hill 2 Remake (Medium and DLSS Quality Settings)	78 FPS

Note: The two GPUs tested here were evaluated at a 1080p resolution with High/Ultra Settings unless otherwise specified. All the FPS numbers were sourced from the Testing Games channel on YouTube. For the tests, the two graphics cards were paired with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU.

In multiplayer games such as Apex Legends and COD Warzone, the Nvidia RTX 3060 does quite well. It also performs well in AAA titles released in 2023 and earlier, achieving 60+ FPS. However, the RTX 3060 struggles heavily in the latest games released this year and last year. It barely achieves 30 FPS natively in newer games such as Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Black Myth Wukong, or Silent Hill 2 Remake.

The Nvidia RTX 3060 can only reach 45+ FPS in those games when you use DLSS or Medium settings or both. For example, this GPU achieves 78 FPS in Silent Hill 2 Remake when you enable both Medium graphics and DLSS Quality settings.

Pricing

Picture of MSI GeForce RTX 3060's box — MSI GeForce RTX 3060’s box (Image via MSI)

The Nvidia RTX 3060 is currently selling for $299.97 on Amazon, which is a bad price considering it’s over four years old now. Its successor and the latest RTX 5060 sells for the same price and delivers significantly better performance, but it has a limited 8GB VRAM.

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Is the Nvidia RTX 3060 Worth Buying in Late 2025?

While the Nvidia RTX 3060 can deliver 60+ FPS in esports and older games, its performance of around 45 FPS in newer games leaves a lot to be desired. Not to mention, things will get much worse in the next few years as upcoming games will demand even more performance out of your GPU. Therefore, even though the Nvidia RTX 3060 can be purchased in 2025, we recommend skipping it.

If you want a GPU with higher VRAM, then there are far better options, such as the Intel Arc B570 or AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB. The Intel card is better than the RTX 3060 in raw performance and has 10GB VRAM, which is not as good as 12GB but not as bad as 8GB. Besides, it is also significantly cheaper.

On the other hand, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB is much faster than the RTX 3060 and is equipped with 16GB VRAM. It only costs around $60 more. Therefore, we recommend users skip the RTX 3060 and choose a GPU between the Intel Arc B570 and Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, depending on your budget.

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Is the Nvidia RTX 3060 Worth Buying in 2025?