PC Gamer - MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X 12G
86/100
+ A well-balanced design for this class of GPU
+ Strong Ampere feature set
+ 12GB offers that little bit of future proofing
- Not enough of an upgrade over its RTX 2060 predecessor
- The 3060 Ti is a better option – if you can find one
IGN - EVGA RTX 3060 XC Black
7/10
" The EVGA RTX 3060 XC Black is a very good graphics card for the price. It performs closest to an RTX 2070, which should be a decent upgrade for gamers who have been on the fence. Even more than the rest, however, it’s not worth paying extra for, so wait for it to come back in stock."
"If you’ve specifically been waiting for a $300-ish card to replace an aging GPU, you’ll be satisfied with lower settings over the next couple of years, and you can actually find an RTX 3060 at its retail price, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. But I’d set aside $500 for an RTX 3070, and though I settled for a $400 RTX 3060 Ti, I can’t imagine settling for a 3060 instead."
"While there's a lot to like here, the RTX 3060 is undoubtedly not as strong a value as the RTX 3060 Ti. That card costs around 20 per cent more ($400 vs $330), yet provides a significant boost to frame-rates - especially at 1440p and 2160p, where the Ti is often 26 to 36 per cent faster. For 1080p gaming, the RTX 3060 is sufficient, but in a world where graphics cards are freely available at their recommended retail price, I'd suggest that people with a bit of flexibility in their budget consider the Ti instead, even if it means accepting a smaller hard drive or less RAM to start out."
TechPowerUp:
+ 20% faster than RTX 2060
+ Faster than RTX 2070
+ Good temperatures
+ Overclocked out of the box
+ Efficient
+ 12 GB VRAM
+ Idle fan stop
+ Good overclocking potential
+ Metal backplate
+ Compact dual-slot design
+ Hardware-accelerated raytracing
+ Support for HDMI 2.1, AV1 decode
+ DLSS
+ New GeForce features: 8K, Reflex, Broadcast, G-SYNC 360, and RTX-IO
+ PCI-Express 4.0
+ 8 nanometer production process
- Pricing unlikely to hold for more than a few hours
- Probably not enough stock to satisfy demand
- Cooler too loud
- Gains over last generation smaller than for other Ampere cards
- Power limit not increased
