GPU — NVIDIA
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB
The ultimate budget entry card. 12GB of VRAM provides the vital headroom needed for Llama 3 and Stable Diffusion at minimum cost.
- VRAM
- 12GB
- TDP
- 170W
- Bandwidth
- 360GB/s
- AI Throughput
- 102TOPS
Est. Price$249.99
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
Architect's technical teardown: VRAM capacity, memory bandwidth, TDP, and AI throughput — compared head-to-head for local LLM workloads.
★ Recommended for Local AI
GPU — NVIDIA
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
The Blackwell prosumer sweet spot. GDDR7 bandwidth delivers exceptional tokens-per-second for 30B+ parameter models in a single-GPU configuration.
- VRAM
- 16GB
- TDP
- 360W
- Bandwidth
- 960GB/s
- AI Throughput
- 1801TOPS
Est. Price$1,349.99
Full Specification Matrix
| Metric | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 16GB |
| Memory Bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 960 GB/s |
| AI Throughput (TOPS) | 102 | 1801 |
| TDP (Power Draw) | 170W | 360W |
| Est. Price | $249.99 | $1,349.99 |