Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING OC 12GB Graphics Card

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING OC Graphics Card featured with 1837 MHz (Reference Card: 1777 MHz), NVIDIA Ampere Streaming Multiprocessors, 2nd Generation RT Cores, 3rd Generation Tensor Cores, Powered by GeForce RTX 3060, Integrated with 12GB GDDR6 192-bit memory interface, WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System with alternate spinning fans, RGB Fusion 2.0 and Protection metal backplate. The RTX 3060 graphics card uses the better power phase design, that allows the MOSFET to operate at a lower temperature, and over-temperature protection design and load balancing for each MOSFET, plus the Ultra Durable certified chokes and capacitors, to provide excellent performance and longer system life. And also here, a Fully automated production process ensures top quality of the circuit boards and eliminates sharp protrusions of the solder connectors seen on the conventional PCB surface. This friendly design prevents your hands from getting cut or inadvertently damaging components when making your build.

NVIDIA Ampere Architecture:

RTX 3060 GAMING OC all latest NVIDIA Ampere architecture delivers the ultimate play, and also featuring advanced 2nd generation Ray Tracing Cores and 3rd generation Tensor Cores with greater throughput. It will give you the biggest blockbusters like never before with the visual fidelity of real-time ray tracing and the ultimate performance of AI-powered DLSS.

DLSS AI Acceleration:

In this graphics card, the NVIDIA DLSS is groundbreaking AI rendering that boosts frame rates with uncompromised image quality using the dedicated AI processing Tensor Cores on GeForce RTX and also provides you the performance headroom to crank up settings and resolutions for an incredible visual experience. The AI revolution has come to gaming.

DX12 Ultimate:

RTX 3060 GAMING OC new Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING OC Graphics card deliver advanced DX12 features like ray tracing and variable rate shading, bringing games to life with ultra-realistic visual effects and faster frame rates. Now, they also add even more amazing graphics effects to Microsoft Windows-based PC games.

WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System

In this graphics card, the WINDFORCE 3X cooling system featured with 3x 80mm unique blade fans, alternate spinning, 3 composite copper heat pipes direct touch GPU, 3D active fan and Screen cooling, which together provide high efficiency heat dissipation. Here, The 3D Active Fan provides semi-passive cooling, and the fans will remain off when the GPU is in a low load or low power game. The airflow is spilt by the triangular fan edge, and guided smoothly through the 3D stripe curve on the fan surface. Here, Graphene nano lubricant can extend the life of fan (2.1 times), close to the life of double ball bearing, and is quieter.

Screen Cooling and Heat Pipe

In this graphics card, the Extended heatsink design allows airflow to pass through providing better heat dissipation. The shape of the pure copper heat pipe maximizes the direct contact area with the GPU. The heat pipe also covers the VRAM through a large metal plate contact to ensure proper cooling.

RGB Fusion 2.0 and Power Indicator:

This RTX 3060 GAMING OC comes with 16.7M customizable color options and numerous lighting effects, so that you can choose lighting effects or synchronize with other AORUS devices and also here, the indicator will alert gamers by flashing light.

Protection Metal Back Plate:

In this graphics card, the metal backplate not only provides an aesthetical shape but also enhances the structure of the graphics card to provide complete protection.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING OC 12GB Review

This model from GIGABYTE sits towards the middle tier of their RTX 3060 GAMING OC series product stack, with only the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 AORUS ELITE 12G with a 1867MHz boost and GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 VISION OC 12G with a 1837MHz boost sitting above the subject of today’s review. Moving past that we have the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING OC 12G with a 1807MHz boost clock, and its non-OC edition sibling the GIGABYTE RTX 3060 GAMING OC EAGLE 12G rounding out the bottom of the pack with a reference boost clock of 1777MHz.

Specifications-wise, on this specific model, GIGABYTE not to stray too far from what the NVIDIA reference design calls for, with a slightly higher boost clock speed of 1837MHz versus the 1777MHz default specification. Memory specifications are the exact same as what is called for within the reference design set out by NVIDIA, meaning most of the other changes from the reference design lie within the custom PCB and cooling implemented by GIGABYTE. All of this is backed by a 3-Year limited local warranty according to GIGABYTE.

In this instance we see GIGABYTE utilizing a triple-fan cooling system called the WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System with alternate spinning fans and a unique blade fan design with stripes and curves. The three unique 80mm fans utilize alternate spinning directions for reduced turbulence and increased air pressure. Atop of that, GIGABYTE has implemented what they are calling Screen Cooling, this is simply a pass-through for air in the rear of the card to allow for better heat dissipation. The heatsink extends well past the PCB to allow air to pass through both sides. This extends the length of the video card by quite a bit, the PCB itself is rather small.

Interestingly GIGABYTE claims to use a Graphene nano lubricant to extend the lifespan of the fans by 2.1x. This puts these fans close to the lifespan of double ball bearing fans albeit with a lower noise profile. We also see 3D Active Fan technology which allows the fans to turn off during low load or a low power game. Finally, GIGABYTE utilizes an automated production process to ensure high quality on the PCB and eliminates sharp protrusions of the solder connectors. All of this is powered by a single 8-Pin PCIe cable, GIGABYTE recommends pairing this card with a PSU capable of at least 550 Watts.

GIGABYTE couples those fans with 3 composite copper heat pipe cooling system using what GIGABYTE calls Heat Pipes Direct Touch, in other words, the heat pipes make direct contact with the silicon die. This direct cooling implementation also manages to make direct contact with the VRAM via a large metal contact plate. Included with this model is a full metal backplate for increased rigidity. GIGABYTE has seen fit to increase the quality of the power phase design which in turn allows the MOSFET to operate at lower temperatures. Each MOSFET is designed with load balancing and an over-temperature protection design.

Compared to the actual size of the PCB, this particular GIGABYTE card is fairly large due to the added heatsink and shroud length, and triple-fan design. Coming in at a length of 11.1 inches (282mm), a height of 1.6 inches (41mm), and a width of 4.6 inches (117mm) this is a particularly large video card for the GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, it’s a lot of card for the RTX 3060.

GIGABYTE has seen fit to include RGB Fusion 2.0 on this card, giving the user 16.7M custom color options and many different lighting effects. RGB Fusion gives the user the option to synchronize their lighting with other AORUS devices. Keeping on with the software features we also have AORUS Engine which allows the user to control overclocking parameters like clock speed, memory speed, and voltage just to name a few. On the connectivity, front GIGABYTE provides you with 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, and 2 DisplayPort 1.4a ports.

Before we overclock the video card, it is important that we observe and record the baseline GPU frequency one can expect from this video card. This information is important to anyone who doesn’t plan to overclock, to know what you are getting out of the video card out-of-the-box. Our process for recording the GPU frequency was to drive around in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with Ultra settings while recording GPU clocks with GPU-Z. During all testing, the ambient room temperature was kept at 72F.

For overclocking we will be utilizing GIGABYTE’s AORUS Engine overclocking software. RTX 3060 GAMING OC software itself is fairly simple, with sliders for core clock, memory clock, voltage, fan speed, power target, and target temperature. AORUS Engine also gives a few more features like the ability to manage RGB LEDs and its 3D Active Fan technology, allowing you to keep the fans spinning 24/7 if you want.

As expected, the voltage slider was locked but once pressing the lock icon unlocks voltage and allowed us to adjust it. We quickly went to work tweaking settings and running stress tests to check for stability, both in a Time Spy stress loop, as well as in real-world gameplay testing, utilizing a selection of game titles from our review suite.