ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC review: Cool performance meets fancy lighting

A boost for mid-range cards

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is targeted at gamers who are still on the GeForce RTX 1060, one of NVIDIA's most popular mainstream cards to date. There's no Founders Edition model this time however, and NVIDIA has launched the card with a slew of custom offerings right from the outset. With a starting price of US$329, the card sits below the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and is NVIDIA's new go-to card for 1080p gaming.

The GeForce RTX 3060 comes kitted out with a sized down Ampere chip. The GA106 core has 3,584 CUDA cores, 28 RT cores, and 112 Tensor cores for AI acceleration. This is 26 per cent fewer cores than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which means it doesn't quite pull its weight at 1440p, even with the hefty 12GB of GDDR6 memory. It also has a narrower 192-bit memory bus, compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's 256-bit interface.

Here's an overview of its specifications and how it compares to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti:

The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Gaming we have for review today comes with slightly more aggressive clock speeds, to the tune of a 1,912MHz boost clock in OC Mode. The card ships in Gaming Mode by default however, with a 1,882MHz boost clock.

ASUS has also slapped on a beefed-up, triple-slot cooler with three fans for improved cooling. The axial-tech fans now have a smaller fan hub that allows for longer fan blades and a barrier ring to increase downward air pressure. In addition, the two side fans spin counter-clockwise to reduce turbulence, similar to what we've seen before on Gigabyte's WindForce coolers. Semi-passive operation is supported as well, and the fans will stop spinning when GPU temperature falls below 50°C to further reduce noise. 

The cooler design has been upgraded too. The massive heatsink occupies nearly 3 full slots, providing plenty of surface area for heat dissipation. ASUS has also employed its MaxContact technology to polish the surface of the heat spreader to ensure it is super smooth for better thermal transfer. 

The PCB itself is smaller than the cooling shroud, but it comes with upgraded capacitors, chokes and MOSFETs selected for improved power stability. The Super Alloy II components are soldered to the PCB using the company's Auto-Extreme automated manufacturing process as well to eliminate the chance of human error.

Finally, the backplate sports a wide cutout to further enable hot air to escape toward the rear exhaust fans in your chassis instead of being recycled. The backplate helps reinforce the entire structure of the card too and prevents the PCB from flexing. To beef it up even further, ASUS has installed a stainless steel I/O bracket to protect the ports, which comprise two HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors. 

A convenient Dual BIOS switch sits on the edge of the card, allowing you to quickly switch between Performance and Quiet modes.

The ROG Strix card boasts some fancy aesthetics as well. A customisable RGB ROG logo sits on the backplate, alongside some striking RGB elements on the side of the card. If you choose to mount it vertically, the textured grey elements on the shroud should really help it stand out. 

Test setup

Here are the specifications of our test rig:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU
• MSI MEG X570 Godlike
• Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD
• Windows 10 Home 64-bit
• ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ 4K Gaming Monitor

We'll be comparing the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC against the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio and Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 Trinity so you get an idea of how the card fits into NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3000 series line-up.

The following synthetic benchmarks and games were run, with the games chosen from a wide range of genres to give a better indication of performance across different segments:

• 3DMark
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War: Three Kingdoms (Battle)
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Metro: Exodus
• Watch Dogs: Legion
• Control

3DMark

3DMark is a synthetic benchmark that tests graphics and computational performance at different resolutions, starting at 1080p and going all the way up to 4K. A series of two graphics test, one physics test, and then a combined test stresses your hardware in turn to assess its performance.

In the 1080p Fire Strike benchmark, the GeForce RTX 3060 is roughly 28 per cent behind the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. That's quite a hefty performance differential, one that carries over into real-world benchmarks. The fewer CUDA cores on the GeForce RTX 3060 are quite telling here, and the generous 12GB of GDDR6 memory can't make up for it.

1080p Benchmarks (Max Settings)

We only have 1080p benchmarks for the GeForce RTX 3060, so there aren't any other comparison numbers at the moment. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 is more than capable of tackling most modern games at 1080p and max settings. With the exception of Metro: Exodus, it posted over 60FPS in all the games tested. 

1440p Benchmarks (Max Settings)

The GeForce RTX 3060 starts to struggle at 1440p, falling below 60FPS in half the games tested. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, it is roughly 25 per cent slower. 

4K Benchmarks (Max Settings)

The GeForce RTX 3060 isn't built to handle 4K resolutions. It barely manages playable frame rates in almost all the games tested, and even the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti struggles here. 

Temperature and power

The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC posted the lowest temperatures of the lot, although it ended up drawing slightly more power than the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio. Still, the excellent thermal performance is a huge plus point for the card, particularly if cooling is a priority for you.

Conclusion

The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC is currently listed at S$899, a pretty pricey upgrade to something like the GeForce RTX 1060. It may even be a little over-built for a mainstream 1080p card. The triple-fan cooler is simply excellent, and the RGB lighting is highly customisable. However, given the performance and price differential with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which is listed at between S$949 and $999, it seems like it still makes more sense to go for the latter card. 

But this is purely a hypothetical discussion since you'd be hard-pressed to find either of these cards in stock anywhere right now, even at these inflated prices. It's also difficult to make a recommendation given the current stock and price situation right now. But taken alone, there's no doubt that the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC remains a very capable 1080p card, if only we set the price aside for a moment.

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