RTX 3060 12Gb VRAM anybody?

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    Hello all! Does anyone have an Nvidia RTX 3060 (12Gb NOT the 6gb card)? Looking for feedback on performance before spec-ing it out. I've seen the memory bus width (and thus the bandwidth) is smaller than other cards and am curious about how well it works, especially with detailed textures. Can't get the 3070 or 3080s anymore through my vendor but can put a big whopper RTX3090 in there for $$$$. Hoping the performance of the 3060 would be good enough for daily use on large/complex projects. 250,000 SF + with site context. It would not be running VR but would be producing stills, standalones, videos, and be used for live walkthroughs in meetings.

  • Rick Marx

    Approved the thread.

    cholden424 , the RTX 3060, in general, is a rather capable card - Especially having as much VRAM available as possible is important for larger projects.


    Unless someone else chimes in with this specific card, I'd say simply go for it if you the vendor has a decent return policy especially, as in, should you run into any serious performance issues because the project is too large (which I don't think it is) then you may instead go for a 3080 for example. But, as said, the 3060 is still a capable card nonetheless compared to their bigger brothers too. You can also always reduce the rendering quality in our Visual Settings when navigating around and such which also usually tremendously helps with performance.


    Hope that helps!

    Rel

    Quote from Demian Gutberlet

    cholden424 , the RTX 3060, in general, is a rather capable card - Especially having as much VRAM available as possible is important for larger projects.

    Related question: I have an RTX 2070 8GB RAM, but when using Sketchup + Enscape the VRAM is at 7+ GB and it is also using about 1-2GB of Shared GPU memory.


    The RTX3060 isn't significantly faster than the RTX2070 (in general), but I wonder (a) if it is significantly better for Enscape, and (b) if those additional 4GB of VRAM could make a significant performance difference in my case.

    I’ve got a RTX2070 with 8gb of ram, I have the Enscape raytracing, DLSS etc off as it causes my machine to crash with it on.

    When I’ve tested with raytracing on I've always exceeded the 8gb of memory but off keeps it below 8.


    I’d feel safe in saying that the 12gb of the 3060 would comfortably render my models with raytracing on. Unless your models are particularly detailed/massive they ‘should’ render too. Additionally, the 3060 should also be as fast or quicker than a 2070.

    It's not going to affect performance until you've used up that memory.

    My laptop workstation has 6GB and I've got some full masterplan sized projects that get close to that - with raytraced shadows enabled I will get messages telling me I'm running out of memory.


    It's going to depend on the complexity of your project and how well you optimise it to work within that memory budget.

    hello, since we are talking about graphics cards I have a question for you. My Nvidia Geforce 3070 8 GB when I move around the project in real time I hear a slight metallic noise coming from the card, which disappears when I stop the mouse. i bought the new pc. It's normal? Does it happen to you too?

    Quote from ciroma

    So could it be a coil whine problem? the PC I bought is a Lenovo T5 - 17 11700 - 32 GB RAM 3200 MHz - 550 Watt power supply.

    Also I apologize to the moderators of the forum I think I have inadvertently pressed the button of the report of the post

    Yes, it's very likely just coil whine which is causing this noise - I hear it coming from my main PC as well as console (Playstation 5) when the load increases, but it's normal and usually harmless. If you do not experience any other problems, I would accept it for now and not worry too much. :)

    Quote from Demian Gutberlet

    Yes, it's very likely just coil whine which is causing this noise - I hear it coming from my main PC as well as console (Playstation 5) when the load increases, but it's normal and usually harmless. If you do not experience any other problems, I would accept it for now and not worry too much. :)

    Thanks Demian, from what I understand the problem is caused by my weak power supply. True? So installing a 750W power supply should I solve?

    Quote from ciroma

    Thanks Demian, from what I understand the problem is caused by my weak power supply. True? So installing a 750W power supply should I solve?

    It could help - From what I gather though it may not always be that easily resolvable. As said, if it's not too much of a bother the sound I would not think too much of it. Getting more power into the system could help, but may also not do the trick at all - At least in my machine using a more powerful power supply did not help with the coil whine noise.

    Quote from Demian Gutberlet

    It could help - From what I gather though it may not always be that easily resolvable. As said, if it's not too much of a bother the sound I would not think too much of it. Getting more power into the system could help, but may also not do the trick at all - At least in my machine using a more powerful power supply did not help with the coil whine noise.

    Quote from Paul Russam

    I’ve got a RTX2070 with 8gb of ram, I have the Enscape raytracing, DLSS etc off as it causes my machine to crash with it on.

    When I’ve tested with raytracing on I've always exceeded the 8gb of memory but off keeps it below 8.


    I’d feel safe in saying that the 12gb of the 3060 would comfortably render my models with raytracing on. Unless your models are particularly detailed/massive they ‘should’ render too. Additionally, the 3060 should also be as fast or quicker than a 2070.

    I use Quadro RTX 5000 with 16 GB VRam. I still have raytracing off because of crashing.

    Quote from L.S

    I use Quadro RTX 5000 with 16 GB VRam. I still have raytracing off because of crashing.

    Same. I have people using RTX 3080s that still have to turn it off. It's basically my first line of troubleshooting with Enscape. I bought some of both the 3090's and the 3060's. So far no one has had any comments so I'm feeling pretty good about the purchases. If I have any issues with either card I'll report back to this thread.

    Quote from cholden424

    Same. I have people using RTX 3080s that still have to turn it off. It's basically my first line of troubleshooting with Enscape. I bought some of both the 3090's and the 3060's. So far no one has had any comments so I'm feeling pretty good about the purchases. If I have any issues with either card I'll report back to this thread.


    Hi cholden424, I want to get into VR archviz for a personal 3 story house project on a descending hill, and I'm wondering if the RTX 3060 with 12GB would be a better value proposition than an RTX 3080 with 12GB. I wanted a 3090, but I think it might be best to buy either of these two cards and later upgrade to a higher VRAM RTX 40XX GPU.


    I know that VRAM is important, but how much better would a 3080 be considering a possible ~$750 against a ~$400 3060 GPU.


    How has your experience been with the different 30XX cards?


    My initial tools would be Sketchup, Enscape and a Quest headset.