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It has been some time since we last looked at a graphics card from PNY, but that changes today. Here we review the RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming, a dual-fan card that ships with a bling-tastic RGB implementation and, interestingly, no factory overclock. Can this card compete with the likes of the MSI Gaming X Trio and Gigabyte Gaming OC?
American-based manufacturer PNY may be better known for its Quadro series of GPUs, but it does also manufacture GeForce consumer cards – the last of which we reviewed being the RTX 2080 Ti XLR8 in 2019. The RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming we are looking at today is more modest, with a plastic construction and dual-fan cooler.
Having already reviewed three very capable RTX 3060 cards from Gigabyte, MSI and Palit, PNY certainly has its work cut out with the XLR8 Gaming – but can it impress?
| GPU | RTX 3090 | RTX 3080 | RTX 3070 | RTX 3060 Ti | RTX 3060 |
| SMs | 82 | 68 | 46 | 38 | 28 |
| CUDA Cores | 10496 | 8704 | 5888 | 4864 | 3584 |
| Tensor Cores | 328 | 272 | 184 | 152 | 112 |
| RT Cores | 82 | 68 | 46 | 38 | 28 |
| Texture Units | 328 | 272 | 184 | 152 | 112 |
| ROPs | 112 | 96 | 96 | 80 | 48 |
| GPU Boost Clock | 1695 MHz | 1710 MHz | 1725 MHz | 1665 MHz | 1777 MHz |
| Memory Data Rate | 19.5 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 15 Gbps |
| Total Video Memory | 24GB GDDR6X | 10GB GDDR6X | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface | 384-bit | 320-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 936 GB/Sec | 760 GB/Sec | 448 GB/Sec | 448 GB/Sec | 360 GB/sec |
| TGP | 350W | 320W | 220W | 200W | 170W |
Despite utilising GA106 silicon, RTX 3060 isn’t actually a full implementation of the GPU, as it has 28 streaming multiprocessors (SMs) instead of 30. Currently only RTX 3060 for laptops uses the full GPU. For the desktop chip, 28 SMs means a total of 3584 CUDA Cores, as thanks to Ampere’s new SM structure with its two FP32 datapaths, each SM houses 128 CUDA cores.
Ampere also places one RT core, and four Tensor cores, in each SM, giving a total of 28 RT cores and 112 Tensor cores. This is accompanied by 112 texture units, and 48 ROPs which are now housed directly within each graphics processing cluster (GPC), with 16 ROPs per GPC, and 3 GPCs in total for RTX 3060.
Interestingly, rated clock speed is the highest it has been for an Ampere GPU, coming in at 1777MHz for the reference spec. This PNY XLR8 Gaming card is not factory overclocked, retaining the 1777MHz boost clock rating.
There’s been a lot of talk about Nvidia’s decision to use 12GB GDDR6 memory for the RTX 3060. This is more than the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and even RTX 3080, but crucially the memory interface is much narrower at 192-bit. With memory clocked at 15Gbps, total memory bandwidth comes in at 360GB/s, about 20% lower than the RTX 3060 Ti.
Lastly, for total graphics power, Nvidia rates the RTX 3060 for 170W, which is 30W less than the RTX 3060 Ti. The XLR8 Gaming also shares this TGP rating.
The PNY RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming ships in a black box, with the XLR8 logo on the front. On the back, PNY highlights the key specifications of the GPU.
The only included accessory is a small quick installation guide.
As for the design of the card, it's a pretty understated overall appearance. The shroud is made of matte black plastic, sporting a brushed effect design. The two fans measure 90mm across, with just a hint of colour coming from the red XLR8 sticker on the fan hubs. There's not a whole lot to say other than that – some might like this, as it's not a flashy or eye-grabbing card, but you could also argue it is a bit on the plain side.
In terms of dimensions, it measures 246.9mm x 119.9mm x 39.9mm, making it a very compact dual-fan card by modern standard. It's obviously not as small as Palit's single-fan StormX OC model, but compared to something like the MSI Gaming X Trio this PNY card is significantly smaller.
Looking now at the back of the card, we can see a plastic backplate, again sporting the same brushed effect design as on the front of the shroud. We can also note several hexagonal cut-outs to allow direct airflow through the heatsink.
Power is delivered by a single 8-pin PCIe connector, which is more than enough for the RTX 3060 – with a TGP of 170W, up to 150W is delivered through the power connector with another 75W through the PCIe slot.
Display connectors, meanwhile, consist of 3x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1x HDMI 2.1.
In terms of the PCB, we can see the design is identical to that of the Palit StormX OC, so both are likely just using Nvidia's reference design without any modifications. That means we find a 5-phase VRM for the GPU, using UPI's UP9512R controller and OnSemi 302045 MOSFETs. The memory VRM is 2-phase, using UPI’s UP1666Q controller alongside Sinopower 7342EK MOSFETs.
As for the cooler, this is comprised of three separate aluminium fin stacks, connected by three 6mm heatpipes. A large baseplate is used to contact both the GPU and the memory, while one smaller plate is used to cool the GPU VRM, via some pink thermal pads.
The backplate is made of plastic and does not contact with the back of the PCB.
The XLR8's RGB lighting is controlled with PNY's Velocity X software. Visually it is very clunky with low-resolution text, and the number of RGB modes are limited. There's the option to have the lighting react to GPU temperature, set a static colour, and then rainbow and breathing modes.
The colours and brightness actually look good, but the lighting is let down by the lack of fine control.
Driver Notes
- All Nvidia GPUs (except RTX 3060) were benchmarked with the 461.40 driver.
- RTX 3060 was benchmarked with the 461.64 driver supplied to press.
- All AMD GPUs (except RX 6700 XT) were benchmarked with the Adrenalin 21.2.2 driver.
- RX 6700 XT was benchmarked with the Adrenalin 20.50 driver supplied to press.
Test System
We test using the a custom built system from PCSpecialist, based on Intel's Comet Lake-S platform. You can read more about it over HERE, and configure your own system from PCSpecialist HERE.
| CPU |
Intel Core i9-10900K
Overclocked to 5.1GHz on all cores |
| Motherboard |
ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero Wi-Fi
|
| Memory |
Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600MHz (4 X 8GB)
CL 18-22-22-42
|
| Graphics Card |
Varies
|
| System Drive |
500GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2
|
| Games Drive | 2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5″ SSD |
| Chassis | Fractal Meshify S2 Blackout Tempered Glass |
| CPU Cooler |
Corsair H115i RGB Platinum Hydro Series
|
| Power Supply |
Corsair 1200W HX Series Modular 80 Plus Platinum
|
| Operating System |
Windows 10 2004
|
Comparison Graphics Cards List
- Nvidia RTX 3070 FE 8GB
- Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti FE 8GB
- Gigabyte RTX 3060 Gaming OC 12GB
- MSI RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio 12GB
- Palit RTX 3060 StormX OC 12GB
- Nvidia RTX 2070 Super FE 8GB
- Nvidia RTX 2060 Super FE 8GB
- Nvidia RTX 2060 FE 6GB
- AMD RX 5700 XT 8GB
- AMD RX 5700 8GB
- Sapphire RX 5600 XT Pulse 6GB
Software and Games List
- 3DMark Fire Strike & Fire Strike Ultra (DX11 Synthetic)
- 3DMark Time Spy (DX12 Synthetic)
- 3DMark Raytracing Feature Test (DXR Synthetic)
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla (DX12)
- Control (DX12)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
- Dirt 5 (DX12)
- The Division 2 (DX12)
- F1 2020 (DX12)
- Gears 5 (DX12)
- Hitman 3 (DX12)
- Metro: Exodus (DX12)
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan)
- Total War Saga: Troy (DX11)
- Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)
We run each benchmark/game three times, and present mean averages in our graphs. We use OCAT to measure average frame rates as well as 1% low values across our three runs.
Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark for modern gaming PCs. Its ambitious real-time graphics are rendered with detail and complexity far beyond other DirectX 11 benchmarks and games. Fire Strike includes two graphics tests, a physics test and a combined test that stresses the CPU and GPU. (UL).
3DMark Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built the right way from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards. (UL).
Kicking off with our 3DMark benchmarks, overall scores for the PNY RTX 3060 XLR8 are a touch below the other RTX 3060s we have reviewed, though not by much – it's just 1% slower than the Palit StormX OC in the Time Spy benchmark.
Real-time ray tracing is incredibly demanding. The latest graphics cards have dedicated hardware that’s optimized for ray-tracing. The 3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test measures the performance of this dedicated hardware. Instead of using traditional rendering techniques, the whole scene is ray-traced and drawn in one pass. The result of the test depends entirely on ray-tracing performance. (UL).
The same goes for the DXR feature test, where the XLR8 comes in 1% slower than the StormX OC, but 4% slower than Gigabyte's highly-clocked RTX 3060 Gaming OC model.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is an action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major installment and the twenty-second release in the Assassin's Creed series, and a successor to the 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The game was released on November 10, 2020, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Stadia, while the PlayStation 5 version was released on November 12. (Wikipedia.)
Engine: AnvilNext 2.0. We test using the Ultra High preset, DX12 API.
Our first game of the day is Assassin's Creed Valhalla, where the PNY XLR8 is an exact match for the Palit StormX OC at both 1080p and 1440p. It's also just 2% slower than the Gigabyte Gaming OC across both resolutions.
Control is an action-adventure video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by 505 Games. Control was released on 27 August 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. (Wikipedia).
Engine: Northlight Engine. We test using the High preset, with 4x MSAA, DX12 API.
Testing with Control, here the XLR8 does come in fractionally behind the other RTX 3060s, but we're only talking a difference of 1FPS at 1080p and 1440p when compared to Palit's StormX OC.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed and published by CD Projekt. The story takes place in Night City, an open world set in the Cyberpunk universe. Players assume the first-person perspective of a customisable mercenary known as V, who can acquire skills in hacking and machinery with options for melee and ranged combat. Cyberpunk 2077 was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One on 10 December 2020. (Wikipedia)
Engine: REDengine 4. We test using the Ultra preset, DX12 API.
Cyberpunk 2077 also sees the XLR8 as an exact match for the Palit StormX OC, as both average 62FPS at 1080p and 39FPS at 1440p. Compared to the Gaming OC however, the XLR8 is 3% slower across the board.
Dirt 5 (stylised as DIRT5) is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters. It is the fourteenth game in the Colin McRae Rally series and the eighth game to carry the Dirt title. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 6 November 2020. (Wikipedia).
Engine: Onrush. We test using the Ultra High preset, DX12 API.
As for Dirt 5, here we can see the XLR8 again slightly behind the other RTX 3060s. At 1080p it's just a single frame off the pace, but at 1440p it fell 2FPS behind the StormX OC and 4FPS behind the Gaming OC.
Tom Clancy's The Division 2 is an online action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. The sequel to Tom Clancy's The Division (2016), it is set in a near-future Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of a smallpox pandemic, and follows an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division as they try to rebuild the city. (Wikipedia).
Engine: Snowdrop. We test using the Ultra preset, but with V-Sync disabled, DX12 API.
The XLR8 is also marginally slower than the StormX OC in The Division 2. Not by much, but it is 1FPS slower at both 1080p and 1440p.F1 2020 is the official video game of the 2020 Formula 1 and Formula 2 Championships developed and published by Codemasters. It is the thirteenth title in the Formula 1 series developed by the studio and was released on 7 July 2020 for pre-orders of the Michael Schumacher Edition and 10 July 2020 for the Seventy Edition on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One. (Wikipedia).
Engine: EGO. We test using the Ultra High preset, DX12 API.
Next is F1 2020, and here we're again seeing the XLR8 come in just a touch behind the StormX OC, as it's 1% slower at both resolutions tested.
Gears 5 is a third-person shooter video game developed by The Coalition and published by Xbox Game Studios for Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X. It is the fifth installment of the Gears of War series and the sequel to Gears of War 4. The ultimate edition was released on September 6, 2019, while the standard edition of the game was released worldwide on September 10, 2019. (Wikipedia).
Engine: Unreal Engine 4. We test using the Ultra preset, with Best Animation Quality (instead of Auto), VRS disabled, DX12 API.
As for Gears 5, at 1080p the XLR8 matches both the StormX OC and MSI's Gaming X Trio, averaging 83FPS. At 1440p however, it slips back, coming in 2% slower than both of those aforementioned cards.
Hitman 3 (stylized as HITMAN III) is a stealth game developed and published by IO Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Stadia (under the title Hitman: World of Assassination), and Nintendo Switch on 20 January 2021. It is the eighth main installment in the Hitman series and the final entry in the World of Assassination trilogy, following Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2 (2018). (Wikipedia).
Engine: Glacier. We test using Ultra settings (or High where Ultra is not available), VRS off, DX12 API.
Hitman 3 sees the XLR8 average 129FPS at 1080p, which is not meaningfully slower than the other RTX 3060s we have tested. At 1440p as well, it averaged 87FPS which is dead level with the StormX OC.
Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver in 2019. It is the third instalment in the Metro video game series based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels, following the events of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. (Wikipedia).
Engine: 4A Engine. We test using the Ultra preset, but with Hairworks and Advanced PhysX turned off, DX12 API.
Metro Exodus is another title where the XLR8 is technically slower than the Palit StormX OC, but the difference is only a single frame at both resolutions tested, so it is hardly significant.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a 2018 action-adventure game developed and published by Rockstar Games. The game is the third entry in the Red Dead series and is a prequel to the 2010 game Red Dead Redemption. Red Dead Redemption 2 was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2018, and for Microsoft Windows and Stadia in November 2019. (Wikipedia).
Engine: Rockstar Advance Game Engine (RAGE). We test by manually selecting Ultra settings (or High where Ultra is not available), TAA, Vulkan API.
Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't overly clock-sensitive, and we can see the StormX OC and PNY XLR8 matching each other exactly – averaging 58FPS and 48FPS at 1080p and 1440p, respectively.
Total War Saga: Troy is a 2020 turn-based strategy video game developed by Creative Assembly Sofia and published by Sega. The game was released for Windows on 13 August 2020 as the second installment in the Total War Saga subseries, succeeding Thrones of Britannia (2018). (Wikipedia).
Engine: TW 3 Engine. We test using the Ultra preset, with unlimited video memory enabled, DX11 API.
Likewise with Total War Saga: Troy, all four RTX 3060s perform within 2FPS of each other at 1080p, so we're not seeing any real differences in performance here.
Watch Dogs: Legion is a 2020 action-adventure game published by Ubisoft and developed by its Toronto studio. It is the third instalment in the Watch Dogs series, and the sequel to 2016's Watch Dogs 2. Legion was released on October 29, 2020 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Stadia. (Wikipedia).
Engine: Disrupt. We test using the Ultra preset, DX12 API.
Finally we come to Watch Dogs: Legion. This is another title where extra clock speed doesn't make much difference at all, with every RTX 3060 tested averaging 64FPS at 1080p. Up at 1440p, the XLR8 is level with the StormX OC, and only 1FPS behind the Gigabyte Gaming OC.
Here we present frame rate figures for each graphics card, averaged across all 12 games on test today. These figures can disguise significant variations in performance from game to game, but provide a useful overview of the sort of performance you can expect at each resolution tested.
Overall, the RTX 3060 XLR8 is no slower than the Palit StormX OC at 1080p, though it is 1% slower on average compared to MSI's Gaming X Trio, and 3% slower than the Gigabyte Gaming OC.
At 1440p, it does drop back a touch, but it's still only 2% slower than the StormX OC, a difference of just 1FPS on average.
Here we present the average clock speed for each graphics card while running Cyberpunk 2077 for 30 minutes. We use GPU-Z to record the GPU core frequency during gameplay. We calculate the average core frequency during the 30 minute run to present here.
Looking at the average operating clock frequency of the XLR8, it becomes clear why we did see this card running a touch slower than the other RTX 3060s during our game benchmarks. It averaged 1816MHz, roughly 25MHz slower than the Palit StormX, but over 100MHz slower than the Gigabyte Gaming OC, which is the fastest RTX 3060 we have tested to-date. The differences aren't massive, and they are to be expected considering the XLR8 isn't factory overclocked, but it does explain why we saw the gaming performance results that we did.
For our temperature testing, we measure the peak GPU core temperature under load. A reading under load comes from running Cyberpunk 2077 for 30 minutes.
In terms of temperatures, the XLR8 is a decent cooler. It kept the GPU temperature to just 68C, while the hot spot peaked at just 80C. It's not much better than the Palit StormX OC, but it's certainly good enough to not be a problem for the card.
We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the noise floor to be 32 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled. A reading under load comes from running Cyberpunk 2077 for 30 minutes.
As for noise levels, the two 90mm fans spun up to 1800rpm, or 49%, during our testing, producing a reading of 38dBa on our sound meter. It's not as whisper-quiet as the Gaming X Trio, but it is still far from loud and is unlikely to be audible over your case fans.
Following on from our stock thermal and acoustic testing, here we re-test the operating temperature of the GPU, but with noise levels normalised to 40dBa. This allows us to measure the efficiency of the overall cooling solution as varying noise levels as a result of more aggressive fan curves are no longer a factor.
For 40dBA noise-normalised thermals, we increased the fan speed to 55%, or 1940rpm. This dropped GPU temperature to 65C, with the hot spot at 78C. The cooler clearly can't compete with the Gigabyte or MSI solutions, which are significantly larger, but compared to the Palit StormX OC, it's still not the most efficient – the StormX OC is barely longer than the x16 PCIe slot, yet its noise-normalised thermals are basically a match for the XLR8.
We measure system-wide power draw from the wall while running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes.
We also use Nvidia PCAT to measure power draw of the graphics card only, with readings from both the PCIe slot and the PCIe power cables combined into a single figure. This provides us with significantly more accurate data to work with as it is measuring only the GPU power, and not total system power which is a fundamentally imprecise measurement.
Power draw is right in line with the other RTX 3060s. All four share a 170W power target, and while there is some variation, the XLR8 averaged 169W during our testing – so that's as expected.
For manual overclocking, we used MSI Afterburner. We maximised the power target (+105%) and temperature slider (90C), before adding 260MHz to the GPU core and 950MHz to the memory.
This saw average clock speed increase from 1816MHz to 2059MHz, a hefty 13% boost to operating frequency.
This extra frequency resulted in performance gains of between 9-12% in the titles we re-tested at 1080p.
Power only increased by 10W, or 6%, so the overclock proved well worth it.
As the fourth RTX 3060 to come through our doors, today we have focused on the PNY RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming, a fairly simple dual-fan card that doesn't come with a factory overclock. That alone makes it fairly unusual, as the other three models we have tested have all shipped with at least a minor factory overclock.
That does mean the XLR8 proved the slowest of all four RTX 3060s we have tested – but honestly I don't think that matters. At worst, it came in just 5FPS slower than the Gigabyte RTX 3060 Gaming OC, when typically the difference was more like 2-3FPS. In other words, I really don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference between the two. The XLR8 is the slowest on paper, but in the real world, the differences are trivial.
We did have good success overclocking the card though. We were able to add another 260MHz to the GPU core, and 950MHz to the memory, giving an extra 9-12% performance in the titles we tested. Of course, not every card will overclock the same, but it's certainly positive to see we were able to extract a decent chunk of extra performance from this GPU.
As for the card's cooling abilities, I'd say it is fine but not anything special. The dual-fan cooler kept temperatures below 70C at all times, while producing just 38dBa of noise, which is certainly decent.
The main thing that stands out to me however, is the fact that Palit's StormX OC ran just 2C hotter when noise-normalised to 40dBa, despite being a significantly smaller – and single-fan – graphics card. That doesn't mean the XLR8 is bad per se, but I don't think the design is overly efficient, as you'd expect a larger dual-fan card to be more than 2C cooler.
Still, as graphics cards go, this is far from the worst I've ever tested, and I'd certainly have no issues using it in my own system. We all know how things are right now in the GPU market, so if you can snap up the PNY RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming for a decent price, it will do a good job.
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Pros
- Simple, no-frills design.
- Bright RGB lighting.
- Decent cooler.
- Performs like an RTX 3060.
Cons
- Relatively plain design won't appeal to everyone.
- No factory overclock means it is fractionally slower than the likes of the Palit StormX OC.
KitGuru says: PNY's RTX 3060 XLR8 Gaming is a decent offering. It doesn't excel in any one area, but it also has no significant weaknesses.
