Nvidia is continuing its steady pace of launching RTX 40 cards with the launch of the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti. These cards expand the 40 series to cover the $300 to $500 price range and represent the lowest-end 40 series cards Nvidia has launched thus far. It's a big improvement to Nvidia's latest generation of graphics cards and makes them much more affordable than before, considering the RTX 4070 at $600 was formerly the cheapest member of the family.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and 4060: Specs
Here's the full list of specifications for the 4060, 4060 Ti 8GB, and 4060 Ti 16B. I've also put the RTX 3060 and 3060 Ti on here for comparison.
|
RTX 4060 |
RTX 3060 |
RTX 4060 Ti 8GB |
RTX 4060 Ti 16GB |
RTX 3060 Ti |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cores |
3,072 |
3,584 |
4,352 |
4,352 |
4,864 |
|
Frequency (Base/Boost) |
1,830/2,460MHz |
1,320/1,777MHz |
2,310/2535MHz |
2,310/2535MHz |
1,410/1,665MHz |
|
VRAM |
8GB |
12GB |
8GB |
16GB |
8GB |
|
Memory Bus |
128-bit |
192-bit |
128-bit |
128-bit |
256-bit |
|
Memory Bandwidth |
272GB/s |
360GB/s |
288GB/s |
288GB/s |
448GB/s |
|
Bus Interface |
PCIe 4.0 x8 |
PCIe 4.0 x16 |
PCIe 4.0 x8 |
PCIe 4.0 x8 |
PCIe 4.0 x16 |
|
MSRP |
$300 |
$320 |
$400 |
$500 |
$400 |
When all the specifications are laid out in a table, it's hard to feel like the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti are bargains. Core counts are down by roughly 500 cores when comparing these cards to their predecessors, and memory bandwidth has also been substantially downgraded. Nvidia is even cutting the PCIe lanes in half from 16 to 8, which is unlikely to impact performance but demonstrates that Nvidia is trying to save every penny it can with these cards. Additionally, the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB carries a $100 premium for having all that extra memory.
It's hard to say how these cards will perform relative to other RTX 40 GPUs and their RTX 30 predecessors, but the 4070 might give us a good idea. It has the exact same core count as the 3070 and it's roughly 30% faster. The 4060 and 4060 Ti have about 85% of the cores of the 3060 and 3060 Ti, so we might see the newer cards outpace the older ones by about 10% to 20%. That's not very impressive when you factor in the MSRPs, but real-world pricing makes things more positive for the 4060 and 4060 Ti 8GB since the 3060 and 3060 Ti tend to retail at $360 and $430 respectively.
The RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti seem to offer more of the same
Nvidia's latest midrange cards are a slight improvement over what you can currently get with the RTX 30 series, which is better than nothing. There used to be a time when we would be treated to at least 30% more performance at a given price point with the launch of a new graphics card, but those days are firmly in the past.
The argument Nvidia makes, just like with every other RTX 40 card, is that DLSS 3 will make up for the lack of raw horsepower we'd expect from a brand-new generation of GPUs. While it's impossible to say how things will shake out in the future, in the here and now there are less than 50 games with DLSS 3. For most gamers, the 4060 and 4060 Ti probably won't be a massive improvement over GPUs you can buy today.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB will be available on May 24th in a Founders Edition and through various board partners. The RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and RTX 4060 will launch in July, only available from third-party partners.