Today brings you a review of an RTX 3060 Ti graphics card released at the end of the previous year. Although the time has been a long time, this time it is Mingxuan's own flagship product - Mingxuan GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC. Don't look at just two more letters of "GM", there is a lot of mystery here.
At present, the price of domestic graphics cards has dropped, of which the high-end model has the most price reductions, but like the 60 series of graphics cards with cheaper prices themselves, the market demand is still very large, and it is still at a high premium level.
The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC is generally similar to iCraft in appearance, with better overall workmanship and materials, and a unique energy stone design is the biggest highlight of this card.
The RTX 3060 Ti chip uses GA104, which is the same chip as the RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti, so it is much stronger in performance than the RTX 3060 using GA106, which is definitely a dessert card in desserts for players. Before the review begins, the author summarizes some of the features of the graphics card for everyone, and it is also convenient for everyone to read:
The 1.1800MHz is a big improvement compared to the public version of 1670MHz
2. G-Stone Energy Stone Design
3. The backlight is better than the iCraft
iCraft GM is Mingxuan's flagship series, the workmanship materials and product design have reached a perfect level, "G-Stone Energy Stone" is the highlight of this graphics card, the start and pause of the streamer effect depends on it, more playable. In terms of performance, compared with the public version, it can be said that the series is Anglican's products that get rid of the inherent image and make people impressed.
01 GA106 of NVIDIA Ampere architecture
Mingxuan GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC uses the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, how is it different from the previous generation of NVIDIA Turing architecture?
RTX 2060 SUPER under the first-generation RTX architecture Turing
RTX 3060 Ti under ampere, a second-generation RTX architecture
Compared with the original Turing RTX architecture, the NVIDIA Ampere architecture has doubled in computing power, which is still reflected in the RTX 3060 Ti, which performs 2 shader operations per clock, while Turing is 1, and the shader performance of the RTX 3060 Ti reaches 16.2 TFLOPS single precision performance, while Turing has 7.2 TFLOPS.
The NVIDIA Ampere architecture doubled the throughput of light-triangle intersection, with RT Core reaching 31.6 RT TFLOPS and Turing 21.7 RT TFLOPS. And the most important thing about the second generation of ray tracing is not only the performance improvement, but also the acceleration of ray tracing calculations for the motion blur part of the game.
The new Tensor Core automatically recognizes and eliminates less important DNN weights, processing sparse networks twice as fast as Turing, with up to 129.6 Tensor TFLOPS and Turing 57.4 Tensor TFLOPS.
Schematic of the RTX 3060 Ti core
RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti all use GA104 cores, but NVIDIA officially did not release the architecture diagram, we can only use the complete GA102 as a reference.
The RTX 3060 Ti has a total of 4864 CUDA, so it can be calculated that the RTX 3060 Ti has a total of 38 SM units and 19 TPC, which is the range circled in the figure above. But we only refer to the number, and the real core design cannot be just a simple and rough crop.
02 Overview of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC
Mingxuan GM series can be said to be a flagship series that has greatly improved everyone's impression, the excellent design gives Mingxuan its own unique style, and this RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC is lighter and thinner than the 3080 Ti we tested before, and the visual experience is better.
铭瑄GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC
At the same time, in order to highlight the noble status of the GM version, the logo sticker in the middle of the graphics card fan has also been changed from silver to gold. The graphics card is textured, whether it is the front deflector or the graphics card backplane, compared to the iCraft series.
铭瑄GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC
The deflector on the front is roughly the same as the iCraft, but with a stronger texture and a bit stiffer. In addition, the RGB flow color light strip around the deflector cover adopts a metal patch that fits the mold, and the lower layer of the light emitting band also makes a raised outline. Compared to the previous design, the overall appearance is more refined, and the light overflow is less.
In the RTX 30 series of graphics cards, Mingxuan added fan intelligent start-stop technology, which stops rotating when the standby state or the video card temperature is low, which can play a role in muting and prolonging life.
Back panel display
Mingxuan GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC graphics card backplane adopts iCraft RGB composite backplane, which increases the RGB pattern lighting effect, the metal part adopts an anode sandblasting process, and the high-strength composite metal material effectively reinforces the PCB and prevents the PCB from being damaged or deformed by external forces.
"G-Stone Energy Stone"
The iconic "G-Stone" of the GM series features a magnetic plug-in design and is hot-swappable. When inserted into the groove of the back panel, the overall light of the graphics card will have the effect of circulating flow; after unplugging, the light flow stops.
In addition, in the GM series of the RTX 30 graphics card, the ARGB light synchronization function is added, and the user can use the light synchronization line in the package to link the corresponding interface of the graphics card and the ARGB light synchronization interface of the motherboard 5V3PIN to open the ARGB light synchronization function. It should also be noted that the G-Stone module only controls the lights without enabling the ARGB light synchronization function.
8+8pin power supply
The RGB strip on the side of the iCraft GM graphics card is longer than that of the regular iCraft, covering almost the entire side of the graphics card. This RTX 3060 Ti graphics card consumes about 240W of power, operates from 8+8pin, and has a recommended power supply of 650W.
DP1.4a*3+HDMI 2.1*1
The video output interface adopts the four-interface design of DP1.4a*3+HDMI 2.1*1, and thanks to the new HDMI 2.1 protocol, it can support up to single-line 8K video output.
03 3DMARK Theoretical Performance Test
First of all, to introduce the test platform, in order to ensure that this review can play the best performance of the Mingxuan GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC graphics card, the motherboard and CPU use the current desktop flagship configuration, as follows.
In terms of test results, the benchmark uses 3DMARK, the game performance test uses the game's own Benchmark, and in order to reduce the error, each test score is averaged 3 times.
GPU-Z
First look at the parameters of GPU-Z, RTX 3060 Ti uses GA104 core, but the difference is that this time GÜZU recognizes (LHR) that is, the lock computing chip, the chip uses Samsung 8nm process, the chip area is 392 square millimeters, with 4864 CUDA, Mingxuan GeForce RTX RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC's Boost frequency reached 1800MHz, while the public version is 1665MHz. It uses 8GB GDDR6 memory, with a bit width of 256bit, a memory bandwidth of 448GB/s, and 80 and 152 raster units and texture units.
The following is the 3DMARK FS set used to measure the theoretical performance of the graphics card DX11: FS, FSE, FSU correspond to the theoretical performance of the graphics card at 1080P, 2K, and 4K respectively, and the actual test results of the graphics card score are as follows:
3D MARK FS kit test
In the 3DMARK FS package test for the performance of the graphics card DX11, the overall performance of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC graphics card is slightly ahead of the RTX 2080 SUPER, and compared with the RTX 3060, it can be clearly seen that the performance is closer to the RTX 3070, which may also be the reason why both use GA104 chips, while the RTX 3060 uses GA106 chips.
3D MARK TS kit test
In the Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme tests for the DX12 environment, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC basically maintained the same score distribution, and overall led the RTX 2080 SUPER in the DX12.
3D MARK light tracking test
PortRoyal is a test item in 3DMARK specifically for light tracking performance, and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC has improved its performance by 3% compared to the RTX 2080 SUPER. In theoretical tests, the RTX 3060 Ti can be said to be the OC version of the RTX 2080 SUPER, and the overall score is similar.
04 Game performance testing
In the game performance test, we chose the benchmark running software of "Ghost Line: Tokyo", "Horizon: Dawn of Zero", "Horizon 5", "Assassin's Creed: Hall of Heroes", "Borderlands 3", and the domestic games "Frontier" and "Bright Memory: Infinity".
In addition, in the game test, due to the graphics card-driven version update and game update very much affect the number of game frames, all benchmark running scores are based on this score.
Due to the insufficient comparative data of these games, we only tested the running score of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC.
Among them, "Horizon: Dawn of Zero" and "Ghost Line: Tokyo" both support NVIDIA DLSS, so the test results turn on DLSS quality mode by default.
Assassin's Creed: Temple of Valor game test
"Assassin's Creed: Temple of Heroes" in the actual test we use the highest image quality, RTX 3060 Ti level can basically achieve smooth operation effect at 2K resolution.
Borderlands 3 game test
Borderlands 3 is a cartoon-style game with a low lower limit and a high upper bound for performance requirements.
Bright Memory: Infinity game test
"Bright Memory: Infinity" is a new series of "Bright Memory" developed by Feiyan Islands Studio, and the official version has been released on Steam for only 48 yuan, which is a big production in a small-grade game.
In addition, due to the inability to turn off the light tracking option during the test, all test results are carried out in the "RTX Highest/DLSS Quality" mode. This demo demo covers a large number of light-chasing elements, and even the flagship RTX 3080 Ti can't reach a very high frame rate. However, in the game, you can turn off the ray tracing option, which can make the frame rate skyrocket.
Frontier game test
In another domestic game "Border" running score software, the situation is basically the same as "Bright Memory: Infinite", and the test conditions are carried out under "RTX highest/DLSS quality".
05 Temperature and power consumption test
In the power consumption test, we chose The FurMark software for copy machine testing, and used GPU-Z to detect the temperature, and the power consumption was only calculated for the graphics card itself.
Power consumption test (click to view larger image)
In the power test, we chose FurMark software for copy testing, and the power consumption was only calculated by the graphics card itself. As a dessert grade graphics card, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC consumes much less power, averaging around 240W at peak times and basically approaching 100% TDP.
Temperature testing
In terms of temperature, the Mingxuan GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC after about 10 minutes of copying, the temperature is stable at about 67 °C, and the peak temperature can reach 68 °C.
06 Ingenious Energy Stone
The iconic "G-Stone Energy Stone" of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCraft GM OC is the highlight of this graphics card, and the idea of starting and pausing the streamer effect is very creative and makes the energy stone more worthy of its name.
The RTX 3060 Ti is a dessert card in terms of graphics card model, but the performance of the GA104 chip is much higher than that of the RTX 3060 with the GA106 chip. In most AAA games, it can meet the smooth operation of 2K resolution, and even some games can ensure smooth operation of 60 frames at 4K resolution.
The TDP of the RTX 3060 Ti only needs 240W, and the recommended power supply is 650W, which is relatively close to the people compared to the power supply that often requires 750W or even 850W.
In terms of performance and price, the RTX 3060 Ti is equivalent to the OC version of the RTX 2080 SUPER, which was priced at about 5500 yuan at the time, and the current RTX 3060 Ti, although it has a high premium, is still more affordable than the RTX 2080 SUPER.
However, the benefit does not mean that players will buy it, who let NVIDIA initially price it at 2999 yuan.
In addition, although the performance is the same as that of the RTX 2080 SUPER, the new NVIDIA Ampere architecture uses the second generation RT Core and the third generation Tensor Core, which are differently enhanced in ray tracing and AI learning, and have a higher energy consumption ratio.
07 Appendix 1 - Comparison of Ray Tracing Effects by Game
Above we tested the light chase and DLSS performance of some games, these effects are specifically in the game of what performance, the following author chose two games to show you.
Ghost Line: Tokyo RTX ON (Click to enlarge)
Ghost Line Tokyo RTX OFF (Click for larger image)
In this set of comparisons, the difference in ray tracing is more obvious. It renders more realistically how the light should have been. However, in this game, it does not appear during the day! A large number of ambient lights in the game are actually to provide lighting for the player, turn on ray tracing, although the picture is more realistic, but in some dim scenes, it will be more unclear.
At this time, it is not clear whether it is a problem with the game itself or ray tracing, or that the game screen is not as real as possible.
Ghost Line: Tokyo RTX ON (Click to enlarge)
Ghost Line Tokyo RTX OFF (Click for larger image)
In the second set of comparisons, the situation improved, and the reflection on the surface of the water was clearer. But again, you can see that the light on the building is darker, which does add a lot of depressing elements to the game.
Bright Memories: Infinity RTX ON (Click for larger image)
Bright Memories: Infinity RTX OFF (Click for a larger view)
The light chasing effect in the hot spring scene of "Bright Memory: Infinity" is the most expensive graphics card performance. It is not difficult to find that the biggest change comes from the reflection in the water, and the calculation of this group of reflections is very difficult, because it is not a calm water surface, so it is necessary to first consider the change of light on the surface of the water, followed by the refraction effect of the light refraction with the pebbles on the shore, and finally the synthesis of the first two effects, the light shines at the bottom of the pool.
Cyberpunk 2077 RTX ON (click for larger image)
Cyberpunk 2077 RTX OFF (click for a larger image)
In Cyberpunk 2077, light chase effects can be seen everywhere, and different light chase effects are also used in the game, including the most common light chase reflections, shadows, and more advanced effects such as ambient occlusion, diffuse lighting, and global illumination.
"Against the Cold Water" RTX ON (Click on the image for a larger image)
"Against the Cold Water" RTX OFF (Click on the image for a larger image)
In the online game "Against the Cold Water", because the light chase effect is in the experimental stage, there is no reflection of the water surface like a promotional film. But the overall shadow of the picture is more realistic, such as the shadow of the trees overhead, and the effect of the lotus leaf on the water. And because there are fewer light tracking effects, the frame rate does not drop significantly after turning on the function.
Fortnite RTX ON (click for larger image)
Fortnite RTX OFF (click for a larger image)
Fortnite's light tracking effect is still relatively obvious, which adds effects such as reflection, global illumination and path tracing. The reflection on the truck body is more obvious, the ambient light on the character is more realistic after turning on the light chase, and if you look closely, the glass of the distant building also has the reflection of light, and the overall picture quality improvement is very obvious.
World of Warcraft 9.0 RTX ON (click for a larger image)
World of Warcraft 9.0 RTX OFF (click for a larger image)
"World of Warcraft 9.0" is also a cartoon rendering online game, the age of Warcraft is even older, and the addition of light chase effect is not as obvious as Fortnite in the overall visual. However, shadows of trees in the distance and shadows under the nearby stone platforms are more obvious.
Control RTX ON (click for a larger image)
Control RTX OFF (Click to enlarge)
The engine physics used in Control is excellent, and the contrast between the light chase switches is obvious to the naked eye. Including the reflection of the figures on the glass, the reflection of the plants on the ground in the distance is relatively clear, and the chiaroscuro contrast at the roof after the open light is also more obvious.
08 Appendix 2 - Comparison of DLSS effects by game
Ghost Line: Tokyo DLSS Comparison (Click for a larger image)
In the DLSS comparison of "Ghost Line: Tokyo", we enlarged the local details of the reflection on the water surface at 4K resolution, and since the reflection itself is formed by ray-traced reflections, the gradient process from clear to blurry can be clearly seen under the DLSS calculation, but in the DLSS quality and DLSS balance mode, there is good clarity.
At the same time, the neon lights at the top of the picture can be seen that there is a more serious escape situation in the DLSS super performance mode, which is also the performance of DLSS for light boundaries, which is more difficult to locate in AI calculations.
However, for the original textures of the game screen, such as the "HSHS" letter graffiti on the farthest wall, even the DLSS super performance has a very accurate restoration ability.
In terms of frame rate improvement, the five modes are 34/59/72/85/99, and the DLSS is 74%/112%/150%/191% compared with the original image quality, which is very violent.
Ghost Line: Tokyo DLSS Comparison (Click for a larger image)
In this set of comparisons, the DLSS super performance mode still has the problem of blurring boundaries, but the overall effect is surprising. Including the words on the distant light signs, they are still clearly visible.
In terms of frame rate improvement, the five modes are 32/57/68/88/93, and the DLSS is 78%/113%/175%/191% compared with the native image quality, which is almost the same as the previous comparison scene.
Ghost Line: Tokyo DLSS Comparison (Click for a larger image)
Finally, let's compare the text on the drink in the convenience store, in this group of comparisons, up to the DLSS performance mode, there is a very good picture performance, the font outline and the boundary of the object is clear.
In terms of frame rate improvement, the five modes are 40/73/83/90/97, and the DLSS is 83%/108%/125%/143% compared with the native image quality.
In all DLSS super performance modes, it feels like the picture lacks sharpness, which is also due to the ultra-high resolution scaling, not too suitable for 4K resolution, if you change to 8K resolution, in the case of richer basic information, DLSS super performance will have a good performance.
Let's take a look at the quality of Rainbow Six: Xenomorphs in each DLSS mode. In the super resolution technology, the most difficult to control is the details of this fence, but according to the actual measurements, even in the super performance mode, the details are still clear. The only thing that can be seen is the font on the signage, and in the Super Performance mode, the color edges will be blurred.
In terms of frame rate improvement, compared with the original image quality increased by 55%/73%/88%/131% respectively, for gamers, this is simply a miracle!
Next, the difficulty is increased, the fence of the first comparison diagram is independently modeled, and the checkerboard in this picture is the pattern detail in the building, and it can be seen that the detail control above the super performance mode is relatively in place. The carpets scattered across the map are not distorted or blurred in the DLSS effect.
In terms of frame count, compared with the native image quality, it has increased by 49%/85%/111%/162% respectively. Indeed, as NVIDIA said, with AI, there is a future, and DLSS is worth every player in terms of image quality performance and frame rate improvement.
In this set of comparisons, in terms of the picture gap, there is still no change in the performance from DLSS off to DLSS, but in the super performance mode, the clarity and outline of the walls have decreased.
Of course, in general, although DLSS has contributed a lot of credit, it can be seen that "Bright Memory: Infinity" has put a lot of effort into optimization, which is invaluable for a one-man-led game.
Cyberpunk 2077 DLSS model comparison
In cyberpunk 2077, 2K/RTX ON/DLSS is turned off as a standard in native quality, and after opening the DLSS quality mode, you can see that the overall picture has hardly changed, and the edges of the billboard are still very clear. There is still a good state in the DLSS balance and DLSS performance modes, and the overall quality is no different from the native image quality.
"Against the Cold Water" DLSS model comparison
Image quality description
In the DLSS test of "Against the Cold Water", we set the picture to 4K resolution and the picture quality was the highest preset. With off, fast, super performance, 3 different modes to compare frame counts and pictures.
First, in turning off DLSS, the game frame count is 26 frames of native quality, 41 frames after turning on DLSS Quick Mode, and 57 frames after turning on DLSS Super Performance Mode. By enlarging the picture, it is not difficult to find that the difference between the native image quality and the DLSS fast mode is very small, and the decoration behind the character in the DLSS super performance mode will become blurred, and the texture boundary of the wooden bin will change more obviously. But the frame rate increase is very noticeable.
Comparison of DLSS modes in "Forever Destroyed"
In the DLSS comparison of "Forever Gone", the original picture quality can pay attention to the texture of the character's headband, the edges of each hair are relatively clear, and the clothing pattern on the shoulders also has a more obvious sense of bump. After DLSS is turned on, because its working principle is to zoom, and then enlarge by the AI algorithm for edge reconstruction, so in the quality mode, the hair will lose some of the details, but it is difficult to find if you do not look closely, and the details of the headband are also quite well preserved.
In the DLSS performance mode, the texture of the hair is worse, and the knit of the headband is significantly reduced, and the edges of the waist configuration are blurred. Finally, in the DLSS Super Performance mode, the overall character will be mushy, whether it is hair or clothing, so if you are not a player who is very pursuing a high frame rate, it is not recommended to turn on the DLSS Super Performance mode.
10 Appendix 3 - New Ampere Features
Good hardware without the blessing of software, equivalent to empty long handle without a gun head, if you want to exert ten percent of the power must be soft and hard, and vice versa. The following items jointly launched with the press conference are also worthy of everyone's attention.
NVIDIA Reflex
In the past, we paid attention to the delay mostly from the monitor to learn a few milliseconds of extremely fast response, but that is only as the final end of the display output effect, have you ever thought about how much delay from the inside of the system to the actual picture seen?
NVIDIA Reflex
In the 20 series graphics cards, NVIDIA repeatedly mentioned the "frame can win", in the 30 series graphics cards have also made further breakthroughs, in addition to NVIDIA will launch its own gaming display NVIDIA 360Hz G-SYNC ESPORTS, as well as NVIDIA Reflex technology.
In the past, if you wanted to measure system latency, you needed a high-speed camera and a customized LED mouse circuit. Displays with NVIDIA Reflex technology will have built-in accurate latency analysis tools that optimize the rendering pipeline in the CPU and GPU, greatly reducing latency and reducing overall system latency to less than 30ms. However, as shown in the figure, for this you need a mouse that supports reflection delay analysis.
NVIDIA Broadcast
NVIDIA Broadcast is an easy-to-use and professional live streaming software, and its power lies in the fact that the host no longer needs any background arrangement, only a normal camera and a GeForce RTX series graphics card.
Pet party live
The app instantly turns your cluttered room into a live streaming room with built-in audio noise cancellation, bokeh, virtual background, head tracking, and more. NVIDIA Broadcast works by using AI algorithms to learn deeply from the DGX supercomputer.
NVENC encoding
At the same time, the RTX 30 series graphics card has the best hardware decoder at present, most of the user's computer will directly soar to about 50% after opening the OBS stream during live broadcasting, and gpu-based NVENC decoding can greatly reduce the CPU burden.
NVIDIA Studio
For content creators, most of the mention of software may only think of software related to content creation, but NVIDIA's NVIDIA Studio driver for content creators is the key to connecting the creation software and graphics card functions.
NVIDIA Studio
The NVIDIA Studio driver has been updated and optimized to provide more stable support for the latest versions of the Adobe family of software, along with more brilliant creative features. Leveraging NVIDIA CUDA technology, GPU-accelerated effects enable faster real-time video editing and accelerated rendering output, making it easy for hardware-supported video that would otherwise only be software-encoded for output. In addition, the advantages of AI computing, including functions such as automatic tagging of clips, special effects tracking and face recognition, have significant speed improvements.
Renders in GPU for 14.98 seconds and CPU for 11 minutes
Of course, the accelerated creation of NVIDIA Studio is not only Adobe, DaVinci, Keyshot, Blender, D5 and other professional software have a very bright performance. It can not only provide a strong and stable operating environment, but also accelerate with GPU, effectively improving creative efficiency.