Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060: the best midrange graphics card for the masses

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Editor’s Notice

• Unique overview date: June 2023
• Launch worth: MSRP at $299 / £289 / AU$479
• Lowest worth now: $445.60 / £279 / AU$543

Replace – April 2025: With the current launch of Nvidia‘s 50 collection graphics playing cards—and the combined evaluations they’ve obtained from each reviewers and prospects alike—the Nvidia RTX 4060 would seem like the best graphics card to purchase for upgrading your 1080p GPU underneath regular circumstances, however sadly this card is turning into more and more arduous to seek out on retailer cabinets.

Worse nonetheless, these locations that do nonetheless have the cardboard in inventory are promoting it for far more than the cardboard’s MSRP within the US, making it a a lot much less engaging choice when the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 will launch on the identical MSRP in just a few weeks (the UK and Australia have a better time discovering it at or close to RRP). Even with the present US market’s worth inflation, the RTX 5060 will possible promote for a similar quantity because the inflated RTX 4060 costs I am seeing on-line right this moment.

If you could find this card for its MSRP or much less and also you solely need one thing low-cost for 1080p gaming, positively take into account it, because it’s one of many best cheap graphics cards you are going to discover. In any other case, I might advocate you wait and see what the RTX 5060 appears like, to not point out the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT and RX 9060, that are additionally due out within the subsequent month or two and needs to be priced equally.

Unique unedited overview follows…

John Loeffler

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060: Two-minute overview

Nvidia actually needs you to know that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is a card for individuals who are nonetheless working a GTX 1060 or RTX 2060, and it is actually Group Inexperienced’s finest advertising technique for this card.

To be clear, the Nvidia RTX 4060 is respectably higher than the Nvidia RTX 3060 it replaces, and is available in at a decrease launch MSRP of $299 (about £240/AU$450) than its predecessor. Its 1080p gaming efficiency is the perfect you are going to discover underneath $300, and its 1440p efficiency is fairly stable, particularly once you activate DLSS. In the event you’re taking part in a recreation with DLSS 3 and body era, even higher.

Sadly, the cardboard’s 4K efficiency suffers as a result of restricted video reminiscence it is working with, which is a 50% lower from the preliminary RTX 3060 run’s 12GB VRAM pool (although at the very least it does not go beneath the 8GB of the later RTX 3060s).

You additionally get extra refined ray tracing and tensor cores than these discovered within the Ampere era, and this maturity exhibits up within the card’s much-improved ray tracing and DLSS efficiency.

There are additionally some added bonuses for streamers as effectively like AV1 assist, however that is going to be a lower-midrange gamer’s card, not a streamer’s, and for what you are getting for the worth, it is a fantastic card.

The true downside for this card although is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. For greater than a yr after the RTX 3060 Ti hit the scene, it topped our best graphics card record for its spectacular stability of worth and efficiency, punching effectively above its weight and even outshining the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070.

Ever because the crypto bubble popped and Nvidia Lovelace playing cards began hitting the cabinets, the last-gen Nvidia Ampere playing cards have completely plummeted in worth, together with the RTX 3060 Ti. Now you can get the RTX 3060 Ti for effectively beneath MSRP, and though the RTX 4060 outperforms the RTX 3060 by roughly 20%, it nonetheless falls in need of the RTX 3060 Ti, so if you’ll be able to get an RTX 3060 Ti for close to or on the identical worth because the RTX 4060, it is perhaps a greater guess. I have not seen the RTX 3060 Ti drop that low but, nevertheless it’s positively attainable.

The explanation why the RTX 3060 Ti is aggressive right here is very as a result of most of the finest options of the RTX 4060 rely upon different individuals implementing Nvidia’s DLSS 3 expertise of their merchandise. DLSS 3 with Body Technology is unbelievable for many video games (although there are some latency points to work out), however the variety of video games that implement it’s moderately small in the intervening time.

Many more recent video games can have it, however as we have seen with the recent controversy over Starfield partnering with AMD, one of many greatest PC video games of the yr won’t have DLSS applied in any respect at launch. It is a arduous factor to carry towards the RTX 4060 as a stable damaging, since when the expertise is applied, it really works extremely effectively. But it surely’s additionally unavoidable that Nvidia’s greatest promoting level of this era of graphics playing cards is explicitly tied to the cooperation of third-party recreation builders.

With one thing just like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, DLSS 3 is a pleasant characteristic to have, nevertheless it does not make or break the cardboard. With the RTX 4060, its attraction is deeply tied as to if or not you have got this tech obtainable in your video games, and it critically undercuts the cardboard when it is not. Its non-DLSS efficiency is barely higher than the RTX 3060 by an ordinary gen-on-gen uplift at 1080p, and with out DLSS, 1440p gaming is feasible, however might be severely hampered by the restricted VRAM. 4K gaming, in the meantime, could be out of the query solely.

All that mentioned, the Nvidia RTX 4060 continues to be going to be one hell of an improve for anybody coming from a GTX 1060 or RTX 2060, which is absolutely the place this card is looking for its market. RTX 3060 avid gamers will truthfully be higher off simply saving up some extra money for the RTX 4070 than worrying concerning the RTX 4060 (and you may in all probability skip the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti, truthfully).

In the event you’re on the lookout for the best cheap graphics card from Nvidia, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 might be nearly as good as it should get for some time, since there have been few – if any – rumblings about an Nvidia RTX 4050 or Nvidia RTX 4050 Ti coming to the finances phase any time quickly. Whether or not it is price upgrading from an RTX 3060 is debatable, but when cash is tight and on the lookout for an improve from the Pascal- or Turing-era 60-series playing cards, you will completely love this card.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060: Value & availability

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on a table with its retail packaging

(Picture credit score: Future / John Loeffler)

How a lot is it? MSRP is $299 / £289 / AU$479
When is it out? June 29, 2023
The place are you able to get it? Out there globally

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is on the market on June 29, 2023, for an MSRP of $299 / £289 / AU$479, which is about 10% lower than the RTX 3060 was when it launched in 2021.

There’s a caveat to this pricing in that there isn’t any Nvidia Founders Version of the RTX 4060, so it’s only obtainable from third-party companions like Asus, PNY, and others. These producers can cost no matter they need for the cardboard, so you may anticipate to see most of the playing cards priced increased than Nvidia’s MSRP, however there might be these just like the Asus RTX 4060 Twin that I examined for this overview that can promote at MSRP.

Whereas this card is cheaper than most, it is not the most affordable of the present era. That may be the AMD Radeon RX 7600, which has an MSRP of $269.99 (about £215/AU$405), which nonetheless affords the perfect performance-to-price worth of any of the current-gen playing cards. Nonetheless, given the precise degree of efficiency you get from the RTX 4060, it positively affords a compelling worth over its rival playing cards, even when they’re cheaper ultimately.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060: Options and chipset

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on a table with its retail packaging

(Picture credit score: Future / John Loeffler)

Third-gen ray tracing and 4th-gen tensor cores
Solely 8GB VRAM
DLSS 3 with Body Technology underneath $300

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Header Cell – Column 0	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Reference Specs	Asus Twin GeForce RTX 4060 OC Version Specs
Course of Node	TSMC 5nm	TSMC 5nm
Transistor Depend	18.9 billion	18.9 billion
Enhance Clock	2,460MHz	2,505MHz (default) / 2,535MHz (efficiency mode)
VRAM	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6
Reminiscence Bus	128-bit	128-bit
L2 Cache	24MB	24MB
Reminiscence Pace	17 Gbps	17 Gbps
Reminiscence Bandwidth	272 GB/s	272 GB/s
CUDA Cores	3,072	3,072
Ray Tracing Cores	24	24
Tensor Cores	96	96
TGP	115	115
Connector	8-pin	8-pin
Outputs	3 x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1 x HDMI 2.1a	3 x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1 x HDMI 2.1a

By way of specs, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is a marked enchancment over the Nvidia RTX 3060 due to a smaller TSMC 5nm course of node in comparison with the RTX 3060’s 8nm Samsung node. It additionally options a lot sooner clock speeds, with a roughly 39% sooner base and enhance clock pace.

You even have a sooner reminiscence pace, however a smaller VRAM pool and smaller reminiscence bus, so you find yourself with a roughly 25% smaller reminiscence bandwidth, which actually places a ceiling on increased decision efficiency.

Nonetheless, with sooner clock speeds, extra mature ray tracing and tensor cores, and a decrease TGP than its predecessor, this is among the strongest and energy-efficient graphics playing cards in its class.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060: design

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on a table with its retail packaging

(Picture credit score: Future / John Loeffler)

There isn’t any reference design for the Nvidia RTX 4060, since there isn’t any Founders Version, so the design of the cardboard goes to rely solely on which model you get from which producer.

In my case, I obtained the Asus GeForce RTX 4060 Twin OC version, which incorporates a twin fan design and a a lot smaller footprint befitting a midrange card. Fortunately, the cardboard makes use of an 8-pin energy connector, so there is not any must fuss with any 12VHPWR adapter cables.

Picture 1 of 2

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on a table with its retail packaging — (Picture credit score: Future / John Loeffler)

It comes with the now-standard three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.1 video outputs on this era of Nvidia playing cards, so these with one of many best USB-C monitors will as soon as once more be out of luck right here.

The cardboard is a dual-slot width, so you should have no points getting it right into a case, and it is mild sufficient that you simply actually ought to be capable of get away with out having to make use of a assist bracket.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060: Efficiency

An Nvidia RTX 4060 slotted into a test bench

(Picture credit score: Future / John Loeffler)

Greatest-in-class 1080p gaming efficiency
Large enchancment if coming from RTX 2060 or older

Check system specs

That is the system we used to check the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060:

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K
CPU Cooler: Cougar Poseidon GT 360 AIO
RAM: 64GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-6600MHz
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk Wifi
SSD: Samsung 990 Professional 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD
Energy Provide: Corsair AX1000
Case: Praxis Wetbench

Relating to 1080p, the Nvidia RTX 4060 affords the perfect gaming efficiency underneath $300.

The AMD RX 7600 offers it a run for its cash in pure rasterization efficiency, and even manages to beat out the RTX 4060 from time to time, however when you begin cranking up ray tracing the RTX 4060 completely pulls away from its rivals.

That is very true once you flip the change on DLSS, which makes 1440p gaming a really possible choice with this card. Whereas this positively is not going to be one of many best 1440p graphics cards, on sure titles with sure settings, you will be stunned what you will get away with.

Artificial Benchmarks

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Header Cell – Column 0	Nvidia RTX 4060	AMD RX 7600	Nvidia RTX 3060
Firestrike	28,120	31,837	22,732
Nightraid	130,102	125,313	108,208
Speedway	2,534	1,963	2,182
Port Royal	6,033	5,509	5,156
Time Spy	10,563	10,819	8,777
Firestrike Excessive	13,142	14,780	10,609
Time Spy Excessive	4,949	5,147	4,100
Firestrike Extremely	5,709	7,251	5,094
Wildlife Excessive	20,474	18,928	17,410
Wildlife Excessive Limitless	20,340	19,119	17,330
PassMark 3D	23,956	22,008	20,786
Common 1080p Efficiency	79,111	78,575	65,470
Common 1440p Efficiency	8,068	8,268	6,681
Common 4K efficiency	12,868	12,611	10,983
Common Efficiency	24,174	23,879	20,216

Relating to artificial benchmarks, you get the standard blow-for-blow between Nvidia and AMD playing cards that we have seen previously, with AMD outperforming on pure rasterization checks like 3DMark Time Spy and Firestrike, whereas Nvidia pulls forward on ray tracing workloads like Port Royal and Speedway.

The RTX 4060 and RX 7600 are shut sufficient when it comes to uncooked efficiency that it’d as effectively be a wash on common, nevertheless it’s price noting that the RTX 4060 is about 20% higher on common than the RTX 3060. I level that out principally to distinction it with the RTX 4060 Ti, which was solely about 10-12% higher than the RTX 3060 Ti on common.

A 20% enchancment gen-on-gen, however, is far more respectable and justifies contemplating the RTX 4060 as an improve even with an RTX 3060 in your rig. You won’t really make that leap for an additional 20% efficiency with this class of GPU, nevertheless it’s at the very least price contemplating, in contrast to with the RTX 4060 Ti.

Gaming Benchmarks

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Max 1080p
Header Cell – Column 0	Nvidia RTX 4060	AMD RX 7600	Nvidia RTX 3060
Metro: Exodus	45	43	37
F1 2022	190	168	147
Whole Warfare: Warhammer III	84	82	72
Cyberpunk 2077	79	87	70
Returnal	85	81	70

The place the RTX 4060 actually takes off although is in gaming efficiency. In comparison with the RX 7600, it is roughly even when simply taking part in at 1080p with max settings with out ray tracing or upscaling. Notably, the RTX 4060 really underperforms the RX 7600 by about 9% in Cyberpunk 2077 once you’re not utilizing ray tracing or upscaling.

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Max 1080p, Max Ray Tracing
Header Cell – Column 0	Nvidia RTX 4060	AMD RX 7600	Nvidia RTX 3060
Metro: Exodus	33	27	27
F1 2022	76	71	65
Cyberpunk 2077	32	8	30
Returnal	68	53	55

Crank ray tracing as much as Psycho in Cyberpunk 2077 although, and the worth of the RTX 4060 actually begins to point out by means of. The RX 7600 completely tanks when RT is maxed, however that is not common throughout the board. In different video games, the RX 7600 is aggressive, however Cyberpunk 2077 actually is AMD’s Achilles’ Heel. In the meantime, the RTX 3060 holds up pretty effectively on some titles, whereas the RTX 4060 pulls forward by a considerable quantity on others.

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Max 1080p, Max Ray Tracing, Upscaling
Header Cell – Column 0	Nvidia RTX 4060	Nvidia RTX 4060 (DLSS 3 with Body Technology)	AMD Radeon RX 7600	Nvidia RTX 3060
Cyberpunk 2077 (High quality)	59	92	19	48
Cyberpunk 2077 (Extremely Efficiency)	113	161	49	90
Returnal (High quality)	64	83	76	73
Returnal (Extremely Efficiency)	83	126	98	95

With upscaling turned on, the RTX 4060 manages to considerably outperform each the RTX 3060 and the RX 7600. In the event you depart the bottom DLSS settings and do not mess with body era, the RTX 4060 pulls off a clear win on Cyberpunk 2077, whereas it has a barely decrease common framerate than the RTX 3060, however a better minimal framerate, it is a way more secure expertise throughout the board.

When you activate body era although, issues swing dramatically within the RTX 4060’s favor. You’ll be able to even improve the decision in Cyberpunk 2077 to 1440p with Body Technology on and you will get extra fps on common and at a minimal than you’ll with the RTX 3060 at 1080p, whereas the RX 7600 merely cannot sustain at this degree.

Sadly, a whole lot of that is depending on builders implementing Nvidia’s new expertise. With out DLSS 3 with Body Technology, you continue to get respectably higher efficiency than the RTX 3060, however nothing that completely blows you away.

In the meantime, the RX 7600 affords a compelling different when you’re wanting to avoid wasting cash and do not care about 1440p or ray tracing.

Nonetheless, when you can toggle a setting and provides your self an additional 50 fps on a demanding recreation, there actually isn’t any comparability, and on this alone, the RTX 4060 wins out by default.

Must you purchase the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060?

A man's hand holding up the Nvidia RTX 4060

(Picture credit score: Future / John Loeffler)

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Worth	For a sub-$300 graphics card, the RTX 4060 affords an unbelievable worth.	4.5 / 5
Options & chipset	The 8GB VRAM on this card is disappointing, however DLSS 3 at this worth and the dramatically decrease TGP saves it in an enormous means.	4.5 / 5
Design	The RTX 4060 will get docked a half level for not having a reference card, however the low TGP means nobody wants to make use of Nvidia’s silly 12VHPWR cable.	4.5 / 5
Efficiency	By way of 1080p gaming efficiency, this card is the perfect it will get at this worth level.	5 / 5
Whole	The RTX 4060 goes toe-to-toe with the AMD RX 7600, however at a better worth level, the promoting level on this card is its best-in-class 1080p efficiency. In order for you the perfect 1080p card, that is it.	4.625 / 5

Purchase it if…

Do not buy it if…

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060: Additionally take into account

How I examined the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060

I spent a few week testing the cardboard
I seemed on the playing cards gaming efficiency and uncooked artificial efficiency
I used our normal battery of graphics card checks and several other present PC video games to push the GPU to its limits.

I spent intensive time testing the RTX 4060 over various days, utilizing artificial checks like 3DMark and Passmark, whereas additionally working a number of video games on the cardboard at completely different settings and resolutions.

I additionally examined its closest rival card in addition to the cardboard it’s changing in Nvidia’s product stack and in contrast the efficiency scores throughout the playing cards to evaluate the cardboard’s general efficiency.

I did this utilizing the newest Nvidia and AMD drivers on a take a look at bench utilizing the entire identical {hardware} for every card examined in order that I might isolate the graphics card’s contribution to the general efficiency I discovered in-game or in artificial benchmarks.

We pleasure ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing course of, providing up long-term consideration to the merchandise we overview and ensuring our evaluations are up to date and maintained – no matter when a tool was launched, when you can nonetheless purchase it, it is on our radar.

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