RTX 3060 vs RTX 4000 Ada: Specs, VRAM & Price
Short answer: choose the RTX 4000 Ada when 20 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX 3060 when 12 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
The RTX 3060 has 12 GB of VRAM; the RTX 4000 Ada has 20 GB.
You can rent both by the hour, no purchase required. RTX 3060 from $0.110/GPU/hr; RTX 4000 Ada from $0.220/GPU/hr. The RTX 3060 is 50% cheaper at the entry rate.
RTX 3060
Good for inference and small-scale training workloads
RTX 4000 Ada
Good for inference and light fine-tuning workloads
Last updated: 2026-10-10 22:02:15 UTCRefreshes hourly
Specs side by side
| Spec | RTX 3060 | RTX 4000 Ada |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12 GB | 20 GB |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ada Lovelace |
| Compute capability | 8.6 | 8.9 |
| Precisions in hardware | FP32, FP16, BF16, INT4 | FP32, FP16, BF16, FP8, INT4 |
| Form factor | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe |
| Regions | 2 | 2 |
On-demand price
| Rate | RTX 3060 | RTX 4000 Ada |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest per GPU/hr | $0.231/GPU/hr | $0.308/GPU/hr |
Which is better for AI: RTX 3060 or RTX 4000 Ada?
Choose the RTX 4000 Ada when 20 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX 3060 when 12 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
RTX 3060 vs RTX 4000 Ada: common questions
Is the RTX 3060 or the RTX 4000 Ada better for AI?
Short answer: choose the RTX 4000 Ada when 20 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX 3060 when 12 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
Is the RTX 3060 or the RTX 4000 Ada cheaper to rent?
On Aquanode's live marketplace the RTX 3060 starts at $0.110/GPU/hr (median $0.231/GPU/hr) and the RTX 4000 Ada starts at $0.220/GPU/hr (median $0.308/GPU/hr). The RTX 3060 is the cheaper of the two at the entry rate, by 50%.
What is the difference between the RTX 3060 and the RTX 4000 Ada?
The RTX 3060 has 12 GB of VRAM against the RTX 4000 Ada's 20 GB; the RTX 3060 is an Ampere part and the RTX 4000 Ada is Ada Lovelace (compute capability 8.6 vs 8.9); only the RTX 4000 Ada supports FP8 compute. On price, the RTX 3060 lists from $0.110/GPU/hr and the RTX 4000 Ada from $0.220/GPU/hr.
How widely available are the RTX 3060 and the RTX 4000 Ada?
The RTX 3060 is listed in 2 regions and the RTX 4000 Ada in 2 regions right now.
How much does 1,000 GPU-hours cost on the RTX 3060 vs the RTX 4000 Ada?
At the lowest rates listed today, 1,000 GPU-hours costs $110 on the RTX 3060 and $220 on the RTX 4000 Ada, a difference of $110 for the same runtime. Rates are per GPU per hour and update hourly.
How much VRAM does the RTX 3060 have compared to the RTX 4000 Ada?
The RTX 3060 has 12 GB of VRAM; the RTX 4000 Ada has 20 GB.
How this comparison is calculated
Every price is normalized to a per-GPU hourly rate using the same pipeline as every other pricing surface on Aquanode, and only the cheapest qualifying offer per provider is shown. A dash means that provider does not currently list that GPU.
Architecture, compute capability and supported precisions come from each vendor's published datasheet for that generation, not from the marketplace feed. This page regenerates at most once per hour.
Memory bandwidth, tensor TFLOPS, NVLink/interconnect and max board power are the same verified-from-datasheet figures shown on each model's own RTX 3060 page and RTX 4000 Ada page, which link the primary vendor source for that model. A dash here means Aquanode hasn't verified that figure from a primary source yet, never a guess.
Go further
Check what fits in each card's memory with the RTX 3060 VRAM calculator and the RTX 4000 Ada VRAM calculator, or browse every model by generation in the GPU index.
More RTX 3060 comparisons
More RTX 4000 Ada comparisons
Related reading: H100 pricing and specs, H100 vs H200, A100 vs H100, H100 and H200: SXM vs NVL vs PCIe, and The best GPUs for AI, ranked.
