Nvidia announces RTX 3060 Ti with ray tracing and DLSS for $399

Nvidia today announced the RTX 3060 Ti, the first of what is to be a family of RTX 3060 series graphics cards. Priced at $399, the RTX 3060 Ti is now the cheapest member of the 30-series graphics cards based on Nvidia's new Ampere architecture and will be replacing the RTX 2060 Super that launched at the same price last year.

The RTX 3060 Ti is using a cutback version of the GA104 GPU used on the $499 RTX 3070. This has resulted in fewer SM units, fewer CUDA cores, fewer RT cores, fewer Tensor cores, fewer texture units, and fewer ROPs. Aside from that, the RTX 3060 Ti also has a lower GPU Boost clock speed of 1665MHz vs 1730MHz on the RTX 3070.

In terms of similarities, both GPU have the same 14Gbps 8GB of GDDR6 memory with 256-bit wide memory interface and 448 GB/s memory bandwidth. They also have the same basic design for the Founders Edition model that features dual axial fans with a passthrough design for one of them.

According to Nvidia, the RTX 3060 Ti is faster than the RTX 2080 Super, the second fastest GeForce GPU in the company's lineup in the previous generation and one that started at $699.

Raw GPU power is one thing but as with its other graphics cards, Nvidia has also focused a lot on the ecosystem surrounding these GPU. Real-time ray tracing, a feature Nvidia brought to market with the 20-series, is now in its second generation on the 30-series cards, and the RTX 3060 Ti will be able to play any RTX or DirectX Raytracing enabled title.

To help with the performance, the GPU also supports Nvidia's DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling, an AI-enhanced super sampling solution that uses machine learning for image reconstruction at a higher resolution while working with a low base resolution. The company has a growing list of titles supporting both technologies, including the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.

RTX 3060 Ti users can also benefit from other GeForce features such as Nvidia Reflex that reduces system latency, Nvidia Broadcast, which is a suite of features for streamers and users who want to use video calling applications, GeForce Experience for in-game features such as recording gameplay, and also GeForce Now for cloud gaming. Nvidia also has its excellent NVENC encoder for those into streaming or video encoding.

The RTX 3060 Ti will be available starting December 2 from Nvidia as Founders Edition cards and also from other retailers as stock and factory overclocked cards from OEMs such as ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY and Zotac. Those in select countries will get one year of GeForce Now subscription with their purchase.