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At a time when our lives are all-too-interesting, the MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB has come. Let’s start with the unpleasant part. The GPU market is still suffering as a result of the worldwide semiconductor scarcity and the unrelenting mining demand. For a while, the Nvidia RTX 3060 will be priced far above RRP, and even then, it will be hard to locate in stock. 

Sort of, the MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB introduces a new performance level to the mass market. The RTX 3060 officially debuts today, with pricing as low as $329. Realistically? It’s not completely impossible, but extremely improbable, to get one at that price, just as it’s unlikely to find an RTX 3060 Ti for $399, RTX 3070 for $499, or RTX 3080 for $699.

Many of the top graphics cards are now powered on Nvidia’s Ampere architecture, which is in extremely high demand from both gamers and bitcoin miners. When people are prepared to pay high scalper prices on eBay, even for cards like the GTX 1660 Super and RTX 2060, everything in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy is now sold out.

Nvidia has introduced firmware and driver code to detect Ethereum mining, which might help a little. Even now, Nvidia is collaborating with partners to reintroduce Pascal and Turing cards from earlier generations.

All of these doesn’t make the RTX 3060 a poor GPU, but we anticipate that it will be just as hard to find as any other contemporary GPU. The present Ethereum mining frenzy will eventually cease, but it may be another year or longer until chip shortages are resolved. That shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point, but it’s disappointing if you were expecting for a cheap gaming PC update. 

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB Packaging

The only changes to MSI’s packaging are the box art and GPU name. The business uses the same package quality and provides enough cushioning for the inner graphics card. I also value that the box is not excessively large or thick.

I enjoy the new Gaming X Trio’s appearance, style, and aesthetics. In my opinion, it looks much better than the previous Gaming X Trio on the RTX 20 series. At the center, there is a tiny bit of RGB lights. Additionally, the “angular design” on the shroud complements the three Torx Fan 4.0’s symmetry and good looks.

On the front-side area, the RGB bar seems to have been added after the fact. It’s alright, but the RGB light bar on MSI’s RTX SUPRIM series looks better overall. It appears as though it was only included for the sake of having RGB. But that’s simply what I think.

I have said that I did not like the graphene backplate. Since it is lightweight and has a nice matte surface, at first I thought it was neat. But it is readily scratched, producing scuffs that make the graphics card look ugly.

I enjoy the style and appearance of the MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB version overall. However, I believe it’s a little excessive for an RTX 3060. The triple-fan Gaming X Trio, in my opinion, is most appropriate for RTX 3070, 3080, or 3090 GPUs. The TGP of such GPUs is greater than the RTX 3060’s.

There are three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1 output port on the MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB. The display output area has ventilation holes, but hot air does not escape via them. The heatsink’s heated air is blasted in a sideways motion.

The card is large, measuring 323mm in length, 140mm in width, 56mm in thickness, and weighing close to 1.47Kg in addition to having a substantial cooler. This particular “airflow control” on the aluminum heatsink fins enhances airflow dynamics. The “deflectors” are visible at the back. Additionally, each aluminum fin has “wave-curved 2.0 fin edges” that assist cut down on noise.

The MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB consumes 170W of electricity and needs at least a 550W power supply. Two 8-pin PCIe power connections are used to supply power to it. The capacitors in the rear were also the subject of a close-up photograph. MSI wants to highlight the capacitors used in this graphics card, and I understand why. But for safety, I’d prefer to have the backplate cover them.

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB Specifications

The MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, which is the first card featuring the GA106 GPU and the most reasonably priced Ampere GPU launched to date, is available for review. 

The twin fan card is ideally matched to the GA106 chip’s thermal and power consumption characteristics. 3,584 active shader units, or CUDA cores, make up the RTX 3060. Compared to the 4,864 of the GA104-based Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, there is a significant decrease.

In addition, the Ti has a 256-bit bus as opposed to the RTX 3060’s 192-bit bus. These variations account for the large performance differential between the two cards. The RTX 3060’s 12GB of RAM is next on the list of most impressive features. It gives the speedier Ampere cards a slightly under-specified appearance.

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB General Information

Architecture	Ampere
GPU chip	GA106
Shader units	3584
ROPs	48
TMUs	112
Transistors	12000M
Base Clock (MHz)	1320
Boost clock (MHz)	1837
Memory clock (MHz)	1875
Memory size (MB)	12288
Memory type	GDDR6
Memory bus width (bit)	192
Default board power limit	170W
Max board power limit	180W
Power Connectors	8-pin + 6-pin
Recommended PSU	550W

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB Conclusion

The MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is a 1080p graphics card with excellent performance. Additionally, it can deliver acceptable frame rates at 1440p. However, to attain an average frame rate of 60 fps or more at 1440p resolution, you might need to tweak the graphics settings.

It is typically an excellent graphics card for 1080p gaming in terms of performance. While GTX 1060 users will undoubtedly benefit greatly, RTX 2060 (Super) users won’t see much of an advantage. However, it’s unclear whether he is still available at this moment.

If you can’t decide between the RTX 3060 Ti and the MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, I recommend the RTX 3060 Ti. The performance difference is simply significant and may be compensated for by the additional cost. According on how much that “extra” is, that is. It is OK if we base it on MSRP. The cards are selling for twice or treble their MSRPs, nevertheless, because of the present circumstances.