NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The head-to-head data paints a lopsided picture: the RTX 3060 Ti wins 9 of the 10 recorded benchmarks, while the GTX 1070 Ti claims a single victory. That one win, however, is significant. In Geekbench Vulkan, the older card posts a score of 61,006 against the RTX 3060 Ti's 47,784, a 21.7% advantage. This suggests that in Vulkan-based workloads, the Pascal architecture's driver maturity or scheduling behavior gives it a distinct edge, one that Ampere does not overcome in this particular test.

Everywhere else, the RTX 3060 Ti dominates. The largest margin comes in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where the RTX 3060 Ti scores 2,626 versus 1,471, a 78.5% lead. That is a massive gap for a single benchmark, indicating that the newer card's hardware-accelerated ray tracing and DX12 Ultimate feature set translate directly into raw performance in modern API workloads. The PassMark suite also shows consistent wins: DirectX 10 (132 vs 90, up 46.7%), DirectX 11 (163 vs 107, up 52.3%), and DirectX 12 (78 vs 51, up 52.9%) all favor the RTX 3060 Ti by roughly half or more.

Compute-oriented tests reinforce the same story. Geekbench OpenCL gives the RTX 3060 Ti a 60.4% lead (78,927 vs 49,219), while PassMark GPU Compute shows a 39.7% advantage (10,006 vs 7,165). The PassMark G3D score, often used as a general gaming proxy, puts the RTX 3060 Ti at 20,349 versus 14,674, a 38.7% gap. Even legacy DirectX 9 and 2D tests favor the newer card, though by smaller margins: 13% (234 vs 207) and 12.9% (989 vs 876) respectively.

The pattern is clear. The GTX 1070 Ti's sole win is in a low-level GPU API that may favor its simpler architecture, but in every other scenario, the RTX 3060 Ti's generational leap in shader count, memory bandwidth, and feature support produces substantial, often overwhelming, performance advantages.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the recorded data, the RTX 3060 Ti is the superior card for nearly all workloads. Its average benchmark score across the database is 16,129, compared to 14,277 for the GTX 1070 Ti, a difference that places them in different performance tiers. The RTX 3060 Ti sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, while the GTX 1070 Ti sits at the 56th, so both are mid-pack, but the newer card is clearly ahead.

Who should pick the GTX 1070 Ti? Only those whose workloads are dominated by Vulkan API calls, where it outperforms the RTX 3060 Ti by 21.7%. That is a narrow use case, but it is the one scenario where the older architecture demonstrates a measurable advantage. For everything else, the RTX 3060 Ti wins by margins ranging from 12.9% to 78.5%.

Who should pick the RTX 3060 Ti? Anyone running DX12 titles, compute tasks, or general 3D rendering. The 78.5% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 is particularly telling, as that benchmark stresses modern rendering features. The 60.4% lead in OpenCL and 39.7% lead in GPU compute also make it the obvious choice for non-gaming acceleration. The RTX 3060 Ti also carries a launch MSRP of 399 USD, identical to the GTX 1070 Ti's launch MSRP, so early adopters paid the same price for substantially more performance. The data does not support choosing the GTX 1070 Ti unless Vulkan is your primary API.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking result is the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. The RTX 3060 Ti scores 2,626, while the GTX 1070 Ti manages only 1,471. That 78.5% delta is the largest in the entire comparison and reflects the RTX 3060 Ti's ability to leverage DX12 Ultimate features, including hardware ray tracing cores and mesh shaders, which the Pascal-based GTX 1070 Ti simply does not have.

The Geekbench results are split. In OpenCL, the RTX 3060 Ti wins decisively with 78,927 points versus 49,219, a 60.4% advantage. This aligns with the FP32 compute throughput figures in the database: the RTX 3060 Ti delivers 16.20 TFLOPS, while the GTX 1070 Ti delivers 8.186 TFLOPS, almost exactly half. The Vulkan test flips the script, however. The GTX 1070 Ti scores 61,006, beating the RTX 3060 Ti's 47,784 by 21.7%. This is the only benchmark where the older card wins, and the margin is not trivial.

PassMark results show consistent but varied leads. The DirectX 10 test gives the RTX 3060 Ti a 46.7% edge (132 vs 90). DirectX 11 shows a 52.3% lead (163 vs 107). DirectX 12 is similar at 52.9% (78 vs 51). The DirectX 9 gap narrows to 13% (234 vs 207), suggesting that legacy APIs do not fully utilize the newer card's architecture. The G2D test, which measures 2D performance, gives a 12.9% lead (989 vs 876), indicating that even basic display output operations benefit from the newer hardware.

The G3D and compute tests round out the picture. PassMark G3D shows the RTX 3060 Ti at 20,349 versus 14,674, a 38.7% lead. PassMark GPU Compute shows 10,006 versus 7,165, a 39.7% lead. Both are substantial and consistent with the card's higher shader count (4,864 vs 2,432) and faster memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s vs 256.3 GB/s). The GTX 1070 Ti does have more texture mapping units per shader, but that does not translate into a win in any recorded test.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins the majority of benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti wins 9 out of 10 head-to-head tests. The only exception is Geekbench Vulkan, where the GTX 1070 Ti leads by 21.7%.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the most demanding test?

A: In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RTX 3060 Ti scores 2,626 versus 1,471 for the GTX 1070 Ti, a 78.5% advantage. This is the largest delta recorded between the two cards.

Q: Is the GTX 1070 Ti better for any specific API?

A: Yes, for Vulkan. The GTX 1070 Ti scores 61,006 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the RTX 3060 Ti scores 47,784. That is a 21.7% lead for the older card.

Q: How do the cards compare in compute workloads?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti leads Geekbench OpenCL by 60.4% (78,927 vs 49,219) and PassMark GPU Compute by 39.7% (10,006 vs 7,165). The FP32 performance figures support this: 16.20 TFLOPS for the RTX 3060 Ti versus 8.186 TFLOPS for the GTX 1070 Ti.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores for each card?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 16,129. The GTX 1070 Ti has an average of 14,277. The RTX 3060 Ti also ranks higher in the overall GPU percentile at 59, versus 56 for the GTX 1070 Ti.

Q: Do both cards have the same memory capacity?

A: Yes, both have 8 GB, but the type and bandwidth differ. The RTX 3060 Ti uses GDDR6 with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the GTX 1070 Ti uses GDDR5 with 256.3 GB/s.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from entirely different architectural generations. The RTX 3060 Ti is built on Ampere, NVIDIA's 30-series architecture, using the GA104 chip fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. The GTX 1070 Ti is based on Pascal, the 10-series architecture, using the GP104 chip on a 16 nm process at TSMC. This process shrink allows the RTX 3060 Ti to pack 17,400 million transistors onto a 392 mm² die, while the GTX 1070 Ti fits 7,200 million transistors onto a 314 mm² die. The transistor density tells the story: 44.4M per mm² for Ampere versus 22.9M per mm² for Pascal.

The feature set differs dramatically. The RTX 3060 Ti includes 38 dedicated ray tracing cores and 152 tensor cores, neither of which exist on the GTX 1070 Ti, which has null values for both in the database. This is the fundamental reason for the DX12 Ultimate support on the RTX 3060 Ti (version 12_2) versus the GTX 1070 Ti's more limited DirectX 12 (version 12_1). The RTX 3060 Ti also supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32 (16.20 TFLOPS each), while the GTX 1070 Ti runs FP16 at a 1:64 ratio (127.9 GFLOPS), making the newer card far more capable for mixed-precision compute.

The memory subsystem also reflects the generational leap. Both cards use a 256-bit bus, but the RTX 3060 Ti's GDDR6 memory runs at 14 Gbps effective, delivering 448.0 GB/s, while the GTX 1070 Ti's GDDR5 runs at 8 Gbps effective, delivering 256.3 GB/s. The RTX 3060 Ti also has more shading units (4,864 vs 2,432), more ROPs (80 vs 64), and identical TMU counts (152 each). The pixel rate is 133.2 GPixel/s for the RTX 3060 Ti versus 107.7 GPixel/s for the GTX 1070 Ti, and the texture rates are nearly identical at 253.1 GTexel/s versus 255.8 GTexel/s.

Power and connectivity also differ. The RTX 3060 Ti has a 200 W TDP and requires a 550 W suggested PSU, while the GTX 1070 Ti has a 180 W TDP and a 450 W suggested PSU. The RTX 3060 Ti uses a 1x 12-pin power connector, while the GTX 1070 Ti uses a 1x 8-pin. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RTX 3060 Ti versus PCIe 3.0 x16 on the GTX 1070 Ti. Display outputs also differ: the RTX 3060 Ti offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the GTX 1070 Ti offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge on nearly every measurable specification. The process node is 8 nm for the RTX 3060 Ti versus 16 nm for the GTX 1070 Ti. The RTX 3060 Ti uses the GA104 chip, the GTX 1070 Ti uses GP104. The RTX 3060 Ti has 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die; the GTX 1070 Ti has 7,200 million on a 314 mm² die. Base clocks are 1410 MHz for the RTX 3060 Ti and 1607 MHz for the GTX 1070 Ti, but boost clocks are closer: 1665 MHz versus 1683 MHz, with the older card actually boosting slightly higher.

Memory type, speed, and bandwidth all favor the RTX 3060 Ti: GDDR6 at 14 Gbps effective with 448.0 GB/s, versus GDDR5 at 8 Gbps with 256.3 GB/s. Both have 8 GB and a 256-bit bus. Shading units are 4,864 versus 2,432, ROPs are 80 versus 64, and TMUs are equal at 152. The RTX 3060 Ti has 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores; the GTX 1070 Ti has none. Pixel rate is 133.2 GPixel/s versus 107.7 GPixel/s. FP32 is 16.20 TFLOPS versus 8.186 TFLOPS. FP16 is 16.20 TFLOPS versus 127.9 GFLOPS.

TDP is 200 W for the RTX 3060 Ti and 180 W for the GTX 1070 Ti. The RTX 3060 Ti uses a 1x 12-pin connector and suggests a 550 W PSU; the GTX 1070 Ti uses a 1x 8-pin and suggests 450 W. The RTX 3060 Ti is 242 mm long, the GTX 1070 Ti is 267 mm long, and both are 112 mm tall. The GTX 1070 Ti is 40 mm wide, while the RTX 3060 Ti's width is not recorded. The RTX 3060 Ti supports PCIe 4.0 x16 and HDMI 2.1; the GTX 1070 Ti is PCIe 3.0 x16 with DVI and HDMI 2.0. The RTX 3060 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the GTX 1070 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.