RTX 5060 Ti vs RTX 3080: Specs, Price, Performance, and More Compared

This article compares two GPUs, one mid-range and the other high-end, RTX 5060 Ti vs the RTX 3080 in terms of specs and more.

The 5060 Ti and RTX 3080 are directed at different tiers of gamers, as the 5060 Ti is a mid-range gaming card, whereas the RTX 3080 was 2020’s high-end offering. Considering today’s used prices, this comparison becomes valid, as within the cost of a 5060 Ti brand new, gamers can easily pick up a used 3080 10 or 12 GB iteration. But Blackwell’s architecture isn’t all talk. It’s impressive, especially considering its efficiency and the 16GB VRAM it offers. Today’s AAA titles with UE5 have significant issues, including excessive VRAM usage, microstuttering, and other problems.

However, the Framegen within the Blackwell can help with the stuttering and gameplay issues. Note that framegen can be enabled in the 3080 with Lossless scaling, but native FG support includes access to motion vectors and optical flow data, thus producing better image quality. Also, 10 or 12GB VRAM will be a limiting factor. This article compares the two and highlights their differences, enabling you to choose the one that best suits your needs.

Note – This article reflects an in-depth analysis of real-world scenarios and does not source any third-party benchmarks or other data.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti vs RTX 3080

The RTX 3080 from 2020 remains a high-performance GPU even today, with 10GB of VRAM and a 320-bit wide memory bus, which provides sufficient memory bandwidth to tackle 1440p and 4K resolutions. In 2020, 10GB of VRAM wasn’t an issue at 1440p or even 4 K. However, today, specific titles, such as Indiana Jones, can allocate more than 10GB of VRAM even at 1080p at max settings.

Fortunately, in 2025, RTX 5060 Ti addresses those VRAM limitations, with the 16GB model. While it may lag significantly behind the raw compute power of the 3080, the difference is not as pronounced, around 10-15% at 1080p. This difference substantially decreases at 1440p for modern titles due to the 3080 running out of VRAM and struggling to maintain performance. At times, in specific titles, the 5060 Ti can be faster than the 3080 due to its VRAM.

Considering synthetic benchmarks, a tuned 3080 with an undervolt can score around 18,990 points in the Time Spy benchmark, whereas at stock settings, the value is approximately 17,300 points. At Port Royal, the score is around 12,600 points.  The 5060 Ti scores around 15,389 points in Timespy and 10K points in Port Royal—indicating that the Blackwell 60-class Ti card performs at a level comparable to the 3070 Ti and 4070.

Official Specifications & Theoretical Performance

Category / Specification	RTX 5060 Ti	RTX 3080 (10GB)
GPU Architecture	Blackwell (GB206)	Ampere (GA102)
GPU Name / Variant	GB206	GA102
Process / Foundry	4nm (TSMC 4N)	8nm (Samsung)
Transistor Count	21.9 billion	28.3 billion
Die Size	180 mm²	628 mm²
Launch Date	April 2025	September 2020
Launch Price (USD)	$379 (8GB) / $429 (16GB)	$699
Bus Interface	PCIe 5.0 x8	PCIe 4.0 x16
Base / Boost Clock	2407 MHz / 2572 MHz	1440 MHz / 1710 MHz
Memory Size	8GB / 16GB	10GB GDDR6X
Memory Type	GDDR7	GDDR6X
Memory Bus Width	128-bit	320-bit
Memory Speed (Effective)	28 Gbps	19 Gbps
Memory Bandwidth	448 GB/s	760 GB/s
CUDA / Shading Units	4,608	8,704
TMUs / ROPs	144 / 48	272 / 96
SM Count	36	68
Tensor Cores / RT Cores	144 / 36 (5th/4th Gen)	272 / 68 (2nd/3rd Gen)
L1 Cache (per SM)	128 KB	128 KB
L2 Cache	32 MB	6 MB
TDP	180W	320W
Suggested PSU	550W	750W
Outputs	3x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x HDMI 2.1b	3x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x HDMI 2.1
DirectX / OpenGL / Vulkan	12 Ultimate / 4.6 / 1.3	12 Ultimate / 4.6 / 1.3
Shader Model	6.8	6.8

Theoretical Performance (Specification-Based)

Theoretical Metric	RTX 5060 Ti	RTX 3080 (10GB)
FP32 Compute	23.7 TFLOPS	29.8 TFLOPS
FP16 Compute	23.7 TFLOPS	29.8 TFLOPS
FP64 Compute	0.37 TFLOPS	0.47 TFLOPS
Pixel Rate	123.5 GPixel/s	164.2 GPixel/s
Texture Rate	370.4 GTexel/s	761.8 GTexel/s

Pros and Cons of RTX 5060 Ti and 3080

Card	Pros	Cons
5060 Ti	Up to 16GB VRAM New Blackwell architecture DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation Low 180W power draw PCIe 5.0 support Compact, cooler-friendly design DisplayPort 2.1 ready	Weaker raw performance 128-bit memory bus Not ideal for 4K gaming PCIe 5.0 x8 may bottleneck on PCIe 4.0
3080	Strong raw compute power 320-bit memory bus Excellent 1440p and 4K performance High benchmark scores Great second-hand value Partially Supports DLSS 4 Lossless Scaling mod enables Frame Gen	10GB VRAM (most models) High 320W power draw Older Ampere architecture No Native Frame Gen or DisplayPort 2.1

Conclusion

The RTX 3080 outperforms the 5060 Ti in both ray tracing and rasterization, but the primary issue here is the power draw, which requires tuning to be reduced, and then the VRAM limitation. Get the 5060 Ti if power draw is a concern, as Blackwell GPUs are more efficient and have even greater tuning potential. If you find an incredible used deal on a 3080, such as a 10- or 12GB model, go for it.

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