You'd be making a mistake upgrading to a GPU that is already over 5 years old. Have you considered a 9060 XT 16GB? They are listed for about the same price as 3060, are way faster than a 3060, and are current generation. They are also 160W TDP, exactly the same as 2060.

Nah, you should be fine. The only other real consideration would be power supply requirements. If you're already running a 2060, a 3060 should be fine.

Physical dimensions? Some of these cards are pretty long and/or pretty tall. I've run into space constraints in smaller cases. Different manufacturers have different layouts, so that's a specific card check.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/ has physical dimensions in the details, but not on the main table.

Seconding @theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world, don’t accidentally sleep on AMD GPUs - they offer better performance dollar-vs.-dollar than Nvidia; are much better supported in Linux (if you ever get sick of Windows 11), and you also wouldn’t be rewarding the biggest architect of the current PC component pricing crisis!

In terms of what to check for, compatibility wise:

• GPU dimensions (new card isn’t longer/wider/thicker than your current system can support)
• Power requirements; ensure your existing PSU has enough of the right connectors (6/8 pins), and that it meets the new GPUs recommendation

Either way, happy gaming!

Any tool is just going to blindly read the TDP, add up the TDPs, then add some wiggle room to say if it's ok or not. The 2060 has a 160w tdp, the 3060 has a 170 watt. You'll probably be fine unless you were really skimping before. Neither are particularly high power draw cards.

That said the 30 series has a reputation for really high transient spikes of power. Those spikes can easily exceed 200% of the normal power draw. If you have a high quality power supply it shouldn't be an issue. But if you skimped on the wattage and quality that could be an issue.

But if you're worried if a GPU is compatible with your motherboard then don't. PCIe is backwards and forwards compatible. Unless you're trying to run a 5090 on the first pcie board you shouldn't have any issues. And even if you did PCIe version compatibility probably aint it. It's probably only power.

Maybe I can add but not all GPUs of the same model are built the same. Some are built without fuses and other protection circuits and could fail earlier. Northwestrepair makes videos about these GPUs taking about some of the different manufacturers. Maybe join his discord if you want to get more info?

Worth checking bottleneck calculators whenever doing upgrade of CPU or GPU. Apart from that, nothing huge going on. Maybe confirming your PSU has the required wattage and plugs too if it's a significant GPU upgrade.

Also I tend to skip a Gen or two. Bang for buck, I imagine not seeing much difference in a 20xx to 30xx and would just keep saving to 40xx.

Power Connectors, that's the main bit...bit me in the ass on my last upgrade... I went from an RTX2070 to an AMD RX9070XT....went from a 6 and 8 to 3 8-pin connectors... Power Supply didn't have an option... so new power supply to go with my new video card. :)

Lol guess I gotta upgrade that too, tho that's not too worrisome. I got more than enough physical room to grow

I've got a medium size case so longth I've got a spare 6-8" and depth probably 3". I kinda figured I'd be covered but I should check anyways

While your question has already been answered, i would like to add

Pcie is very compatible, its both backwards and forewards compatible (sure it wont be as fast but it will work)

Pretty sure you should be able to do something like takeing a rtx 5090 and a dremmel and puting it in a gen 1 pcie x1 slot

(Wether you cut the back of the x1 slot or cut the rtx 5090 is up for reader interpritation)

atleast

Not a word. Never been a word.