The Performance of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Graphics Cards in Various Games

Six Siege has no problems running on the 3060, even at max settings, with average FPS values exceeding 100. This is an impressive performance, especially considering the game's demanding nature. eSports games are generally not a challenge for the 3060, and titles like Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered can run smoothly at high settings with DLSS enabled.

However, some games require more power to run well, even with the best graphics card. Microsoft Flight Simulator is one such title that struggles to reach high frame rates, even at medium settings. The game doesn't need a super high frame rate to play, and lowering the settings by just one level can significantly boost average FPS values.

Forza Horizon 5 was tested using the game's benchmark tool, which provided insight into the performance of the 3060 under various preset levels. The ultra preset resulted in an average frame rate below 60 FPS, while medium settings were able to push the average frame rate above 100 FPS. While max settings may not be necessary for a smooth experience, they can still provide visually stunning graphics.

Far Cry 6 was tested with FSR enabled, and the performance difference between setting presets was minimal. The ultra preset resulted in an average frame rate below 80 FPS, but DLSS was able to boost values by around 47%. However, even without DLSS, medium settings were able to provide a smooth experience.

God of War came to PC from console, so it generally runs fairly well without requiring super powerful hardware. However, ultra settings with DLSS enabled still resulted in an average frame rate below 80 FPS, and lowering the setting levels down by one or two levels can significantly boost values. The game's CPU requirements are significant, but the 3060 is able to handle them with ease.

Watch Dogs Legion is a game that frequently complains about insufficient VRAM at higher setting presets. This suggests that an RTX 3070 or higher would be required for smoother performance. Even with DLSS enabled, ultra settings resulted in an average frame rate below 60 FPS, and lowering the setting levels down can significantly boost values.

Dying Light 2 was tested using the built-in RT presets, which struggled to reach high frame rates even with DLSS enabled. Medium settings without RT were able to provide a smooth experience, but lowering the DLSS level down further can result in significant boosts to average FPS values. Assassin's Creed Valhalla does not have DLSS or FSR, but it still doesn't require a super high frame rate to play.

Warhammer III was tested as a CPU-heavy title to see how the 3060 would perform under various load conditions. The game struggled with high and ultra settings, resulting in an average frame rate below 60 FPS. Lowering the setting levels down by one or two levels can significantly boost values, making medium settings a viable option for smoother performance.

Cyberpunk 2077 was previously tested using DLSS on high settings, which resulted in an average frame rate above 60 FPS. However, with ray tracing enabled, the performance dropped to below 60 FPS even at low settings. The game requires significant power to run smoothly, especially when combined with features like ray tracing.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was previously compared using different graphics cards, but now it's clear that DLSS on high settings can provide a smooth experience even at this higher resolution. However, max settings may not be necessary for a smooth experience, and lower setting levels can still provide visually stunning graphics.

In general, the 3060 is able to handle games with various performance requirements using its built-in features like DLSS and FSR. However, it's essential to keep expectations in check and not assume that playing at max settings will be possible in all titles. By lowering setting levels down by one or two levels, users can still achieve smooth performance while maintaining visually stunning graphics.

Finally, the question remains as to whether 8 gigs of VRAM is necessary for a smoother gaming experience. Based on previous results, it seems that more VRAM would provide significant benefits in games like Watch Dogs Legion and Cyberpunk 2077. However, the 3060's performance with lower setting levels suggests that users may be able to achieve smooth performance without needing the highest-end graphics card.

To find out whether 8 gigs of VRAM is necessary for a smoother gaming experience, it's essential to watch a comparison video between the RTX 3060 and the next-level-up RTX 3070. This will provide insight into how the increased VRAM affects performance under various games and setting levels.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enLenovo’s Legion Slim 7i has a 2560 by 1600screen.That’s more pixels than 1440p, but morepixels need more GPU power to run, and theRTX 3060 graphics here max out at 100 watts.So how well does it actually run games atthis higher resolution?We’ve tested 15 games to find out!Here at the full specs of the Slim 7i we’retesting, so in addition to RTX 3060 graphicsit’s also got Intel’s core i7-12700H processorand 16 gigs of DDR5 memory.You can customize the specs and check currentprices with the link below the video.Now Nvidia’s mobile RTX 3060 graphics areallowed to run anywhere between 60 and 140watts, so our 100 watts here puts that rightin the middle of this range.More power does mean more performance, somore FPS in games, but also more heat, whichis why a thinner design like the Slim 7i onlygoes up to 100 watts.RTX 3060 laptops also have 6 gigs of VRAM,and higher resolutions like we’ve got heregenerally benefit from more VRAM.The Slim 7i has a MUX switch and advancedoptimus, so games were tested without beinglimited by optimus for best performance.We’ve also tested with the Vantage softwareset to the highest performance mode for bestresults, and with the built in GPU overclocksetting enabled.I also need to note that although this Slim7i has a 2560 by 1600 screen, which is higherthan 1440p, there’s also one that’s closerto 1080p too at 1920 by 1200.So games would be much easier to run at thatlower resolution compared to what we’regoing to look at here.Alright let’s find out what this thing iscapable of.We’ll start out by comparing 3 games at1080p and 1440p resolutions to get an ideaof where this laptop fits in compared to others.Then after that we’ll see how well it runsin 15 games at its native screen resolution,and that’s what’s really going to showyou whether or not a 100 watt 3060 is capableof powering such a high resolution in moderngames.Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on alllaptops, and I’ve got this year’s LegionSlim 7i shown by the red highlight.It’s still above 60 FPS at high settings,at least at the lower 1080p resolution.It’s doing better compared to the RTX 3070in last year’s TUF Dash F15 from ASUS, whichis also a thinner laptop design, though thatone only had a quad core CPU.The Slim 7i is ahead of other lower powered3060 laptops like Acer’s Nitro 5, and thisyear’s Legion 5 with higher GPU power limitwas around 10% faster.We’ve got a different selection of laptopsat the higher 1440p resolution, as this levelof hardware is on the border of what we’dactually test here.It’s at least beating last year’s ASUSZephyrus G14 which had an even lower powered3060, granted that is a smaller 14 inch model.Honestly at under 40 FPS, you’d probablywant to make use of features like DLSS orFSR here to boost performance, and we'll checkthose soon.Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with thegames benchmark tool.The lower wattage 3060 in the Slim 7i is closeto the full powered RTX 2070 from a coupleof years ago, not bad.The Legion 5 was reaching a 10% higher framerate here too, though its 3060 does also havea 30% higher GPU power limit.It’s not far off 60 FPS at 1440p high settings,and don’t forget, we’re not using featureslike FSR or DLSS in the comparison tests toboost performance.We’ll look at what sort of a boost thesefeatures give us in a moment.Control is a GPU heavy game, and the 100 watt3060 was 10% ahead of the last gen 2070 thistime, granted at 1080p some of that differencemay also be due to the jump from Intel 9thgen to 12th gen CPU.This year’s Legion 5 with higher powered3060 was 16% ahead in average frame rate now,and a number of lower powered 3060s weren’tfar behind.This game seems to favor Nvidia hardware,which is why the Slim 7i is now ahead of theRadeon 6800S at 1440p for the first time now,and this year’s Legion 5 was 18% fasternow, but don’t forget it’s also a thickermachine to accommodate its higher powered3060.Alright now that we’ve got an idea of wherethe Slim 7i fits in compared to other laptops,let��s see how well it performs in 15 differentgames.As the native screen resolution is quite high,we’ve tested all setting presets availablein these games.So you can get a good idea of what settingsare needed in order to hit a certain FPS target.We’ve also tested with features like DLSSor FSR enabled where possible, as these arejust objectively great features that you shouldbe using to get the most out of your gaminglaptop.So let’s get into those results!Fortnite has DLSS support, and with this onquality the highest epic setting preset wasstill above 60 FPS, while high settings wascloser to 100 FPS.We’ve got a 165Hz screen, and low settingscould be used to give us a higher averageframe rate than this for a smoother experience.Apex Legends doesn’t have built in settingpresets, so we’ve tested with either allsettings maxed out or at minimum.It’s running nicely at minimum settings,with a frame rate close to the screen’srefresh rate, and although max settings isstill close to 60 FPS, in a competitive gamelike this you’re probably not going to wantto run at max settings.Call of Duty Warzone was tested this way toofor the same reason - no default setting presets.This one has DLSS support though, and withthat on even max settings was running smoothlyabove 100 FPS.There’s only a 14% FPS boost at minimumsettings, so you don’t have to have thegame looking like a potato to get it performingwell.Speaking of potatoes, that’s something evenRainbow Six Siege has no problems runningon.Even max settings is well above 100 FPS, solet’s move on from the eSports games totitles that will be more of a challenge forour 3060.Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered was stillrunning well enough at high settings withDLSS enabled, but there’s a big dip goingto the highest very high level.Simply lowering one setting level was enoughto boost average FPS by 65%, so definitelynot worth trying max settings.Max settings really aren’t needed to havea fun time in games, which is lucky becauseMicrosoft Flight Simulator was having a toughertime.Medium settings weren’t quite able to getus above 60 FPS, but that said this game doesn’treally need a super high frame rate to play.Forza Horizon 5 was tested with the game’sbenchmark if you want to compare our resultswith your own laptop.The second highest ultra preset was closeto 60 FPS, while medium settings was enoughto push us above 100 FPS.Again probably not worth trying to max outthe settings in this one as 43 FPS is lowerthan I’d like for this.Far Cry 6 was also tested with the game’sbenchmark tool, but with FSR enabled.There’s not that much of a performance differencebetween the different setting presets, andultra was still above 80 FPS in this test.God of War came to PC from console, so itgenerally runs fairly well without needingsuper powerful hardware.That said, ultra settings still weren't greateven with DLSS enabled.We can easily boost average FPS by 47% simplyby lowering to high settings, which in myopinion still look great.Watch Dogs Legion is a game that frequentlycomplains about there not being enough VRAMat higher setting presets.It suggests 8 gigs, which would require anRTX 3070 or higher.This is probably why very high settings wererunning 52% faster than ultra.Even with DLSS on I wouldn’t bother withultra settings here, and forget ray tracing.Speaking of tracing rays, Dying Light 2 wasstruggling with the built in RT presets.Medium settings without RT was above 60 FPS,even with DLSS on.We could of course lower the DLSS level downfrom quality to further boost FPS, but atthe expense of lower visual quality.Assassin’s Creed Valhalla doesn’t haveDLSS or FSR, but it’s one of those gamesthat I don’t think needs a high frame rateto play.I mean I’m 100 hours into my second playthroughon a low powered 3070 Ti at 4K max settings,so I think these results are playable.Warhammer III was tested as more of a CPUheavy title to see if the 12700H would collapse.Honestly we haven’t tested this game atall setting levels before so I don’t knowwhat to expect, but given the big dip at highand ultra settings, it might be worth stickingto medium if you want things to look smoother.We tested Cyberpunk 2077 earlier in the comparisonsection, but now we’ve also got ray tracingand DLSS results.Even with DLSS, the ray tracing presets weren’tdoing very well at this high resolution.If you really want ray tracing, I’d seriouslysuggest at least RTX 3070 graphics, if nothigher.Even without RT, only low settings gets usabove 60 FPS.Red Dead Redemption 2 was also compared earlier,but now DLSS on high settings was able toget us above 60 FPS.Again like many of the other resource heaviertitles, I wouldn't bother with max settingson the 3060, even with DLSS.The RTX 3060 graphics are doing fairly wellwhen combined with features like DLSS andFSR, especially at this higher resolution.And even in many games that didn’t haveDLSS or FSR, we still saw playable frame ratesat around high settings.Just keep your expectations in check and don’tassume that you’ll be playing at max settingsoutside of eSports titles.6 gigs of VRAM was a bit of a limit in somegames, but if we turn the setting levels downone to two levels, generally speaking theaverage frame rates were still fine in allgames.So then, is it worth spending more money toget 8 gigs of VRAM?Find out in this video over here next, whereI’ve compared the RTX 3060 against the nextlevel up, the RTX 3070 which has 8 gigs ofVRAM.You’ll definitely want to watch that onenext before buying your next gaming laptopwith a high resolution screen.Alright, I’ll see you over in that one next.\n"