High-end video cards are hard to find right now, underproduced and overpriced as the pandemic grinds on. Though NVidia's GeForce RTX 3060 Ti lacks the power of the higher-numbered models, it's about as powerful as the last-gen 2080 (and twice as powerful as the 1070) and a relatively affordable $399. It goes on sale tomorrow and will sell out fast.
Once again, Nvidia continues to deliver impressive performance with its range of RTX 3000 series cards. For $399, I think the RTX 3060 Ti is a bargain given you'd have to shell out $699 or more for this level of performance only a few months ago.
If I was building a budget 1440p gaming PC right now I'd pick the RTX 3060 Ti for sure. It has some solid performance at 1440p, support for ray tracing, Nvidia's DLSS technology, and a range of RTX features that are designed for creators.
Nvidia just gave a nice boost in performance and features to the $400 market. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is a relatively small step down from the RTX 3070, with a larger step down in price. That hits the sweet spot in both price and performance — in fact, out of the current and previous-gen GPUs, it's the best overall card in price to performance ratio (fps per dollar). If you're hoping to upgrade to a new graphics card, the RTX 3060 Ti definitely belongs on your shortlist.
We've yet to be inundated with the budget models of the new-generation graphics cards; that's likely to start in early 2021. But if you need to buy now, you could do a lot worse than the 3060 Ti for under $500.
Remember that GPU reviews are for hardcore hobbyists. You don't need to throw $900 into eBay to play games at 4k; they need it to hit a benchmark at 4k.
