Where to buy an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti in the UK and US
Plus its specs, price and release time
Nvidia's new RTX 3060 Ti graphics card might have come out of the blue yesterday, but if you're looking to get hold of one Nvidia's newly announced ray tracing GPUs, you're in the right place. Launching at 6am PT / 2pm GMT today, December 2nd, the RTX 3060 Ti is arguably the next-gen RTX card you've been waiting for all along - and you can find out exactly why in my Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti review. Offering RTX 2080 Super-level performance for a fraction of the cost, the RTX 3060 Ti is likely to be in hot demand when pre-orders open later on, so here's exactly where you can buy one so you don't miss out.
RTX 3060 Ti: What you need to know
What is it? Nvidia's new mid-range graphics card
When is it coming out? December 2nd
How much is it? £369 / $399
Where to buy an RTX 3060 Ti:
The RTX 3060 Ti launched worldwide on December 2nd at 6am PT / 2pm GMT, just over a month after the release of the RTX 3070, and a little over two months since the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 came out. Prices start from £369 in the UK, and $399 in the US, which is more or less the same launch price as the RTX 2060 Super.
Third party versions of the RTX 3060 Ti will likely be more expensive, though, depending on how much they've been factory overclocked, but the Nvidia Founders Editions will stay at a fixed £369 / $399. Here's a list of everywhere that currently has a holding page for the RTX 3060 Ti, so get those refresher buttons at the ready.
Where to buy an RTX 3060 Ti in the UK:
Where to buy an RTX 3060 Ti in the US:
Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti specs:
The RTX 3060 Ti is one of the most impressive RTX-30 series cards yet, and that's all to do with its vastly improved specs over the RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super. Not only has Nvidia doubled its CUDA core count here, but it's also raised its maximum boost clock speed. It still has 8GB of GDDR6 memory like the RTX 2060 Super, but it's significantly faster across the board, offering 60fps speeds on maximum settings at 1440p, and well into the 80s and 90s (if not 100s) at 1080p.
RTX 3060 Ti specs:
CUDA Cores: 4864
Base / Boost Clock: 1.41GHz / 1.67GHz
VRAM: 8GB GDDR6
Memory Interface Width: 256-bit
Power: 200W
Recommended System Power: 600W
I've listed the RTX 3060 Ti's key specs above, although there are still a few things missing such as memory speed and memory bandwidth. I'll add these in once Nvidia have formerly announced them, but these are the headline figures to take away for now.
A key thing to note here is its new power rating. The RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super topped out at 175W when they launched last year, and Nvidia recommended pairing it with a 550W power supply as a result. The RTX 3060 Ti adds another 25W to the mix, raising its graphics card power wattage to 200W. Consequently, Nvidia are now saying you should have a 600W power supply inside your PC if you're going to run the RTX 3060 Ti, so you may also need to buy a new power supply if your current one doesn't meet these new requirements.
The Nvidia Founders Edition of the RTX 3060 Ti also comes with the same 12-pin power connector as the rest of Nvidia's RTX 30 Founders Edition cards, but the good news is that an adapter for this will be included in the box. Third party RTX 3060 Ti cards, on the other hand, will likely use a regular 8-pin power connector.
Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti performance
The RTX 3060 Ti is powerful graphics card for £369 / £399, offering similar speeds to the RTX 2080 Super and double the performance of the GTX 1070. You can get my full sweep of benchmark results over in my RTX 3060 Ti review, but needless to say, this is a great time to upgrade if you're an existing GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 owner. Just take a look at my 1440p benchmarks below, which compares the RTX 3060 Ti to the GTX 1060, RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super:
In short, the RTX 3060 Ti is capable of delivering 60fps speeds on max settings at 2560x1440 in all of today's biggest and most demanding games, and it gets even better at 1920x1080, too. Indeed, my benchmarks came in anywhere between 70-90fps on max settings, with some games even pushing well into 100fps.
It's also the perfect card for maxed out ray tracing at 1920x1080, and you won't even need to turn on Nvidia's performance-boosting DLSS tech to achieve it, either. You will need to switch it on for maxed out ray tracing at 2560x1440, mind, but when most of today's biggest ray tracing games come with DLSS anyway, you may as well turn it on if it's available.
Of course, given the current shortages facing the RTX 3070, RTX 3080, RTX 3090 and even AMD's Radeon RX 6800 XT GPUs at the moment, it's more than likely that the RTX 3060 Ti will soon be joining them in their current 'sold out' status. If you do manage to get one, then lucky you. You're in for a treat.
If fortune doesn't end up favouring you today, then whatever you do, don't pay over the odds for one and get lured in by scalpers. Stock levels will eventually return to normal in the new year, so the best advice is to simply wait until more cards become available. I'll be keeping this page as up to date as I can over the coming weeks with more stock alerts and availability schedules, so make sure to pop it in your bookmarks if you want to keep up to date.