NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce RTX 3060 | Radeon RX 5600 XT |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 288 GB/s |
| Shaders | 3584 | 2304 |
| Boost Clock | 1777 MHz | 1750 MHz |
| TDP | 170W | 150W |
| Architecture | Ampere | RDNA 1.0 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 1,965 | 1,664 |
| Best Price | $250 | $279 |
| Value Score | 54/100 | 38/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is the clear winner — it offers both better performance and better value.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT: Which Should You Buy?
This is not a close race. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 delivers 54 fps at 1440p ultra to the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT's 42 fps, a 29% gap. Only pick the slower card if it is dramatically cheaper or you need it for a lower resolution.
Pricing settles it: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is both faster and 12% cheaper at $250 versus $279. There is no scenario in this pairing where the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT is the better buy at these prices.
Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 carries 12GB against 6GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 6GB cards age badly.