INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Roughly a month ago AMD released their latest Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card which as sole goal had to “combat” the GeForce RTX 3060 by NVIDIA by offering the same performance for less. Well, the end results you all know, it did just that and quite successfully as well, at least in under 4k (2160p) resolutions. Unfortunately, since then pricing has increased quite considerably (largely thanks to Ethereum mining) and so in some cases these cards are quite similarly priced (depends on the model and manufacturer of course) which is why today i decided to test yet another one of those two, the ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB model by ASUS.

   For years since its establishment, ASUS aimed to put an ever-greater emphasis on PC gaming. This process resulted in the 2006 founding of the Republic of Gamers brand (ROG), formed for the sole purpose of delivering the most innovative hardcore hardware for truly dedicated gamers. Since then, the efforts of the ROG team have led to a constant flow of PC gaming technology that has become legendary among enthusiasts for its performance. ROG is more than just hardware, though – we take an active part in the global gaming community, helping develop the industry by sponsoring events such as PAX and Dreamhack. Worldwide media have recognized ROG as a leader in PC gaming and overclocking performance, with many of our products winning awards and gaining very positive feedback from hardware pros. With this great response from gamers and the industry, ROG has all the resources it needs to keep working on enabling even better experiences – technology never sleeps, nor should the action!

   Just like every other model in NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30x0 family the GeForce RTX 3060 is also based on their 2nd generation RTX technology that sports CUDA cores with FP32+INT32 instructions (for simultaneous floating point and integer math), 2nd gen RT cores, 3rd gen Tensor cores and ray trace motion-blur effects. The RTX 3060 however is based on the brand new GA106 chip (8nm) which packs 3584 shader units, 112 texture mapping units, 112 Tensor cores, 48 raster operators and 28 ray tracing cores. In terms of TDP the RTX 3060 12GB is rated for 170W and comes packed with 12GB of Samsung GDDR6 RAM based on a 192-bit memory bus with an effective clock speed of 15Gbps. The ROG STRIX GAMING OC is as expected a factory overclocked sample and so it comes ready with a boost clock of 1882MHz and features a custom cooling solution (triple axial-tech fan design with three heatsinks, five 8mm thick heatpipes, copper base and support for zero RPM mode when in idle), reinforced metal frame, dual BIOS switch, metal rear backplate and RGB LEDs for both the top and rear. Finally, in terms of available outputs the ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 3060 12GB comes ready with 3 DP v1.4a ports and a single HDMI v2.1 port (these support a total of 2 displays simultaneously with resolutions of up to 8K/7680x4320p).

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASUS has placed a large product picture at the front of the box right over its main features and beneath the company logo.

 

 

5 pictures located at the rear of the box are used to showcase the features of this specific model.

 

 

The card is wrapped inside a static-free bag and placed between two pieces of black foam.

 

 

Along with the card inside the box you’ll also find 2 velcro straps, thank you note, warranty card, ROG STRIX collection card and the setup manual.

 

 

THE ROG STRIX GAMING OC GEFORCE RTX 3060

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 3060 is a 300mm long, 2.7 slot design card.

 

 

ASUS used a triple-axial fan design (center fan rotates clockwise while the side fans rotate counter clockwise).

 

 

Underneath the fans we find a total of 3 heatsinks connected via five 8mm nickel plated copper heatpipes.

 

 

The top of the card features several RGB LEDs (1^st RGB zone).

 

 

A single 8-pin PCIe power plug is required by this card and as you can see right next to that port ASUS has placed the dual-BIOS switch.

 

 

The rear of the card is almost entirely covered by a metal plate (the ROG logo is the 2^nd RGB zone).

 

 

At the front of the card, we find the Turbo button (switches between default and OC clocks), 3 DP v1.4a ports and a single HDMI v2.1 port.

 

 

Here you can see how the card looks while connected (unfortunately I forgot to grab a shot of the rear).

 

 

ASUS GPU TWEAK II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The GPU Tweak II software allows you to control the clocks of the card and monitor its current state.

From the simple mode tab, you can switch between OC, Gaming and Silent profiles.

 

 

 

The OC scanner pushes the card to its limits to see what the maximum attainable/stable clocks are.

 

 

Via the gaming booster tab, you can tweak various windows settings to squeeze a bit more system resources for gaming.

 

 

ASUS has a few more apps available which you can download from the tools tab.

 

 

Finally, from advanced mode you have complete control over the cards clocks, fan speeds and voltages.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Since we'll be using our latest test rig with our graphics cards tests, we also moved to another screen (Philips BDM4037UW) in order to also offer 4k Ultra HD tests. Of course, 2160p (3840x2160p) is not the only resolution we'll be testing cards with, we are also going to be testing them at 1080p Full HD (1920x1080p) and 1440p (2560x1440p). Also, because far too many gamers own Ultra-Wide screens at first i wanted to use our AOC AGON AG352UCG monitor in order to also have its resolution of 3440x1440p in our charts but since it's plugged into our other test rig several meters away from this one i really had to choose (and 4k seemed like the better choice). This time over we also updated the list of benchmarks/games to include the Time Spy benchmark by UL, Assassin's Creed Odyssey by Ubisoft, Devil May Cry 5 by Capcom, Dreadnought by Yager, GEARS 5 by The Coalition, Metro Exodus by 4A Games, Star Citizen by Cloud Imperium Games, The Outer Worlds by Obsidian Entertainment, Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Project* and DCS World by Eagle Dynamics**.

   As with the past options like power saving, sharpness and overlays are all disabled in the cards we’re testing (to achieve maximum performance) and all tests are repeated a total of 3 times in a fresh Windows 10 Pro installation with all updates installed until the day of our review (same as all the games used). Room temperature is as usual controlled and steady at 23 degrees Celsius for all tests and to record the temperatures of the cards we used AIDA64 and GPU-Z. Recording noise levels is done with an ExTech HD600 dBA meter from a distance of no more than half a meter away (exterior of case) while power consumption is measured again using GPU-Z.

* Since February 2021
** Since August 2021

 

 

TEST RESULTS - 3DMARK TIMESPY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Spy was added in 3DMark back in 2016 with only 1 simple goal, to test the graphics of systems with Windows 10 and DirectX 12. Time Spy was used at default settings.

 

TEST RESULTS - ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an action role-playing video game set in the year 431 BC and the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and is based on the AnvilNext engine. For our tests we use the built-in benchmark of the game with FPS limit off, V-Sync off and the graphics set at high quality (because Assassins Creed Odyssey auto-detects your graphics card and sets settings accordingly the same graphics quality needs to be set manually every time).

 

TEST RESULTS - BORDERLANDS 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Borderlands 3 is an action role-playing first-person shooter video game released back in late 2019 and is powered by Unreal Engine 4. Borderlands 3 has a very basic built-in benchmark which we set at DirectX 12 with unlimited frame rate and overall quality set to High.

 

TEST RESULTS - DEVIL MAY CRY 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devil May Cry 5 is an action-adventure hack and slash video game released in March 2019 and is based on the RE Engine like other titles by Capcom. Devil May Cry 5 doesn't feature his very own built-in benchmark so for that purpose we're using the latest version of Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync Off, variable frame rate and all graphics settings set at High.

 

TEST RESULTS - DREADNOUGHT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreadnought is a space combat simulation game released for the PC in late 2018 and is the 3rd game in our tests based on the Unreal Engine 4. Dreadnought used to come with its own built-in benchmark but since that was removed, we decided to use Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync off and graphics set to High (this game is capped after all so I removed that and did all tests again – unfortunately I no longer have all the cards here).

 

TEST RESULTS - GEARS 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gears 5 is a third-person shooter video game released back in mid-2019 and is powered by Unreal Engine 4 just like Borderlands 3. Gears 5 features a very convenient (not to mention fast) built-in benchmark which we use with V-Sync off, unlimited frame rate (none for minimum) and Ultra graphics quality.

 

TEST RESULTS - METRO EXODUS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game released in 2019 and is based on the 4A Engine. The latest game in the Metro series also features its very own benchmark utility which we set at DirectX 12 and Ultra graphics quality (we're also running RTX tests with that setting set at Ultra).

 

TEST RESULTS - STAR CITIZEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Citizen is an upcoming multiplayer space trading and combat game the main development of which started back in 2012 and is currently based on the Lumberyard game engine. Not only does Star Citizen come without any built-in benchmark (or utility) but it’s still in Alpha status meaning that this is not the most stable game title to use for our benchmarks (numerous graphics optimisations are expected between now and launch day). Still, we wanted to have it in our charts for anyone interested and so we did by using Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync turned off and the graphics set at High.

 

TEST RESULTS - THE OUTER WORLDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outer Worlds is an action role-playing game released back in late 2019 and is also based on the Unreal Engine 4. The Outer Worlds is yet another title we had to use Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync off, unlimited frame rate and graphics set at Very High.

 

TEST RESULTS – CYBERPUNK 2077

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cyberpunk 2077 is the latest game by CD Project and is based on their REDEngine 4. Benchmarks were run on game version 1.12 with all settings set at High and with the help of Rivatuner Statistics Server.

 

TEST RESULTS – DCS WORLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DCS World by Eagle Dynamics is currently the leading combat flight simulator for the PC running on their very own in-house EDGE graphics engine. Benchmarks are run with graphics set on high with V-Sync off and once again with the help of Rivatuner Statistics Server.

 

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCKING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving from the 1882MHz of the stock OC to 2066MHz was possible as was moving from the stock speed of 1875MHz to 2052MHz for the RAM (as expected from 16Gbps certified modules - all the other cards in these charts are also overclocked).

 

TEST RESULTS - POWER CONSUMPTION / TEMPERATURES / NOISE LEVELS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Since some of you asked and also because I have something of my own in the works (time to use YouTube) I decided to also include DCS World in my benchmarks. Now I know it may not be as popular as some of the other titles but if you happen to enjoy combat flight simulators (Jane’s ATF was my first “serious” encounter with one) this one is pretty much it right now. Going back to the ASUS ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB well there’s not much to add that you don’t see in the charts. It exchanges blows with the Radeon RX 3060 XT in low resolutions and as in 4k it does take the lead in most titles. What i was genuinely surprised to see was that the Colorful model slightly outperformed the ASUS one even though it came with lower factory clocks. Granted there’s not a great gap between these two models but overall, the Colorful one does come up on top. Other than that, however no surprises really.

   At USD893.50 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at 768.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 3060 by ASUS is certainly not the lowest cost RTX 3060 model in the market. On top of that the Colorful model is clearly in the lead and at the time of this review you can find it (at least in the EU) for roughly 20% less. Overall, however the ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB model by ASUS delivers on everything, performance, build quality, power consumption and even noise levels (alas higher than the Colorful model) which is why it deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Backplate / Reinforced Metal Frame)
- Factory Overclock (Dual BIOS Switch)
- Good Overclocking Headroom
- Noise Levels / Power Consumption / Temperatures
- Looks (Dual Zone RGB System)
- Supported Technologies (2nd Generation Real Time Ray Tracing & Deep Learning Super Sampling)

CONS

- Support Bracket Not Included
- Size (3 Slot Card)