Why does RTX 3060 have more VRAM than TI?

👤 Diwas Poudel 🕒 18 Mar 2023 📁 TECH

VRAM (Video RAM) is a type of RAM that is used to store textures, framebuffers, meshes, shadow maps, lighting information, and a variety of other data for computer displays. It is especially important in applications such as video games and 3D graphics design software.

Solution: Confusion regarding RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 TI
In short, Why does the RTX 3060 have more VRAM than the RTX 3060 Ti?
Why is it beneficial to have a larger amount of VRAM?
Is it possible to increase the RTX 3060 Ti to have more Video RAM?
With its 12 gigabytes of video memory (VRAM), will the RTX 3060 be able to manage upcoming games?
Is it true that the RTX 3060 is a superior graphics card to the RTX 3060 Ti?

Solution: Confusion regarding RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 TI

There is a lot of confusion among people regarding the RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 TI.

The RTX 3060 specifications include the following: Graphics Engine: NVIDIA® GeForce RTXTM 3060, Video Memory: 12GB GDDR6, CUDA Core:3594, Memory Interface:192 bit, Memory Speed:15 Gbps, Samsung 8nm technology, and the number of transistors:13.25 billion.

Despite the fact that the RTX 3060 TI has a Graphics Engine: NVIDIA® GeForce RTXTM 3060 TI, CUDA Core: 8 GB GDDR6, Video Memory: 8 GB GDDR6, Memory Interface: 256 bits, and Memory Speed: of 17.4 billion transistors.

The RTX 3060 is a slightly newer model than the RTX 3060 TI and has more VRAM, but the RTX TI is more expensive. Why is this the case?
If you're wondering why the RTX 3060 has more VRAM than the RTX 3060 TI, you've come to the right place.

To begin, we must understand that the Graphics market is dominated by two major competitors.

AMD
Nvidia

AMD began providing a larger VRAM buffer than Nvidia. As a result, Nvidia began focusing more on the VRAM buffer and began developing high-end VRAM, such as the 12GB found in the RTX 3060.

The reason why RTX 3060 uses 12GB of VRAM buffer is that this series has 192-bit cards with 6 memory chips over 6 slots(ie 32 * 6 = 192).
Whereas RTX 3060 TI has 256-bit cards with 8 memory chips over 8 lanes(ie 8 * 32 = 256)

Note: Each 32-bit memory bus is connected to a single GDDR package.

At the time of the RTX 3060 TI's release, each chip was 1GB in size, resulting in a total of 8GB (1GB * 8) VRAM for eight lanes.

However, in the era of the RTX 3060, each chip already has a 2GB VRAM capacity, which means that instead of using 1GB * 6, or 6GB, 12GB (2GB * 6) VRAM is used to fully utilize the capacity.

As a result, Nvidia has begun to consider 8GB as the minimum requirement for all future graphics generations. Nvidia does not want 8GB to be a limiting factor. As technology advances, different 4K games and other graphics have been developed, and 8GB may not always be sufficient. As a result, Nvidia has created 12GB.

Thus, Nvidia's GPUs should have a minimum of 12GB of VRAM to ensure future-proofing and to make room for these upcoming demanding video games.

Additionally, if you attempt to load more than 8GB of assets on your RTX 3060 TI, the entire data will not be loaded into your VRAM due to which your graphics card runs out of memory and it attempts to use the system RAM.VRAM appears to be significantly faster than RAM, and you may encounter difficulties displaying graphics on the display because RAM attempts to swap data from/to the Hard Drive/SSD, which is much slower and has a higher latency because those HDD contents are loaded into RAM and the CPU directs them to the GPU for graphics processing, which is a lengthy process and as a result, the display will suffer a significant loss of frames per second(FPS).

Someone has already encountered this issue. Cyberpunk 2077 is run at 4k UHD with the highest graphics settings, then loaded into the VRAM, taking up 8.5 GB but using only 6.4 or 6.5 GB. If this is the case, the RTX 3060 TI will not perform well.

However, from a performance standpoint, having a lot of VRAM is not necessary. There are numerous other variables that influence performance.

RTX 3060 has a lower bandwidth than RTX 3060 TI.

The 3060 has a 360 GB/s bandwidth, or 1875 Mhz * 192 bit.
The total bandwidth of the 3060 TI is 448 GB/s, or 1750Mhz * 256 bit.

Thus, we can see that the 3060 has a faster-clocked memory than the 3060 TI. Thus, despite the fact that the 3060 TI has a smaller memory footprint, it is faster than the 3060, i.e. processing graphics image data is faster with the 3060 TI. Additionally, the RTX 3060 has more GPU cores than the RTX 3060 TI.

Also, we have seen that the rtx3060 has more RAM than the rtx3060ti, which means that the 3060 can handle higher-resolution assets.
So rtx3060 is indeed stronger than rtx3060ti in terms of RAM size-intensive tasks.

In short, Why does the RTX 3060 have more VRAM than the RTX 3060 Ti?

The RTX 3060 has more Video Random Access Memory (VRAM) than the RTX 3060 Ti. This is due to the fact that the RTX 3060 utilizes a different type of memory known as GDDR6 rather than GDDR6X. Because GDDR6 is less expensive than GDDR6X, Nvidia was able to provide more VRAM on the RTX 3060 while keeping the price at a more affordable level by utilizing this form of memory.

Why is it beneficial to have a larger amount of VRAM?

An increase in the amount of VRAM on the graphics device makes it possible to store and retrieve larger amounts of graphical data in a shorter amount of time, which can result in improved performance in games and other applications that rely heavily on graphics. Additionally, it may make it possible to adjust the quality and resolution to a higher level.

Is it possible to increase the RTX 3060 Ti to have more Video RAM?

No, the video memory (VRAM) of a graphics card is an integral component of the card's hardware and cannot be upgraded once the card has been purchased.

With its 12 gigabytes of video memory (VRAM), will the RTX 3060 be able to manage upcoming games?

Although it is challenging to forecast the performance of a graphics card in the future, the RTX 3060 has 12 GB of VRAM, which ought to be sufficient for the majority of games for the foreseeable future. However, because increasingly complex games call for greater amounts of graphical data, a graphics card with a greater capacity for virtual memory (VRAM) may be necessary to achieve the best possible performance.

Is it true that the RTX 3060 is a superior graphics card to the RTX 3060 Ti?

That is dependant on the particular application being considered. The RTX 3060 has more VRAM than the RTX 3060 Ti, but the RTX 3060 Ti also has more CUDA cores and higher clock speeds, which can lead to improved performance in certain

Conclusion

To be future-proof, the RTX 3060 with 12GB of VRAM was developed by sacrificing bandwidth.