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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB

For running models locally, priced in the US. At 128k context the first runs 4 models fully in memory, the second 5.

In short

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB has more memory for models: 16 GB against 12 GB. At 128k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB runs 5 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 4; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB holds LFM2.5 8B-A1B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB are about as fast as each other (estimated). In the US the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs $360 at Amazon and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB $618 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is $258 cheaper.

Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

$360

Amazon

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB

$618

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
GPUGeForce RTX 3060 12GBGeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
Memory12 GB GDDR616 GB GDDR7
Memory bus192-bit128-bit
Memory bandwidth360 GB/s448 GB/s
FP16 compute25.6 TFLOPS47 TFLOPS
SoftwareCUDACUDA
Board power170 W180 W
PCIe generationGen 4Gen 5
PCIe lanesx16x8

What each runs

Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.

ModelNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
Gemma 4 12B23tok/sQ4_K_M23tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.5 9B22tok/sQ4_K_M20tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B25tok/sQ8_032tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B24tok/sQ5_K_M23tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1Boffload23tok/sUD-Q6_K
Qwen 3.8 27Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.6 27Boffloadoffload
Gemma 4 31Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.5 27Boffloadoffload
Gemma 4 26B-A4Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3Boffloadoffload
GLM 4.7 Flashoffloadoffload
Devstral Small 2 24Boffloadoffload
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
Kimi Linear 48B-A3Boffloadoffload
gpt-oss 20Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
Gemma 3 27Boffloadoffload
Mistral Small 3.2 24Boffloadoffload
Ministral 3 14Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 14Boffloadoffload
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 8Boffloadoffload
Phi-4 14Boffloadoffload
Ministral 3 8Boffloadoffload
Granite 4.2 8Boffloadoffload
Llama 3.1 8Boffloadoffload
DeepSeek V4 Flashwon't runwon't run
GLM 5.3 Flashwon't runwon't run
Qwen 3.8 Flash Nextwon't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.7won't runwon't run
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10Bwon't runwon't run
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12Bwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Coder Nextwon't runwon't run
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run
Mistral Small 4 119Bwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.5 Airwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3Bwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 32Bwon't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32Bwon't runwon't run
Llama 3.3 70Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?
Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?
At 128k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB runs 5 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 4; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB holds LFM2.5 8B-A1B.
Which is faster for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB are about as fast as each other (estimated).
What is the price difference between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?
In the US the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs $360 at Amazon and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB $618 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is $258 cheaper.

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