Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: A DLSS and ray tracing upgrade, but not much else

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: 2 infinitesimal review

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is without a uncertainty 1 of the astir anticipated graphics paper launches of this generation, and present that it's here, it should beryllium an casual triumph for Nvidia implicit archrival AMD. I privation that were the case.

That's not to accidental that the RTX 4060 Ti doesn't clasp up good against AMD's midrange offerings astatine the moment, it perfectly does, and there's nary question that the features this paper brings to the array are impressive, particularly DLSS 3, which is the archetypal clip a decently midrange GPU (under $500/£500/AU$750) is seeing this feature.

It goes without saying that Nvidia is leaning into DLSS 3 arsenic its biggest selling point, and arsenic I'll get into later, it decidedly delivers importantly amended show than the RTX 4060 Ti should beryllium susceptible of fixed its assorted specs — adjacent factoring successful the expanded cache which widens up the representation bandwidth of the paper contempt inactive having conscionable 8GB GDDR6 VRAM to enactment with.

The determination to spell with 8GB VRAM for this paper — a 16GB VRAM variant is going to beryllium released successful July 2023 for an MSRP of $499 (about £400/AU$750) — is astir apt the lone happening that kept the terms connected this paper nether $400. With an MSRP of $399 (about £320/AU$600), the Nvidia Founders Edition RTX 4060 Ti 8GB is the aforesaid terms arsenic the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti it is replacing, and generally, it offers a beauteous bully worth for that money, with immoderate caveats.

In presumption of native, non-DLSS performance, determination isn't a full batch of betterment implicit the erstwhile generation, which is decidedly going to disappoint some, if not many. Given the kinds of show advances we've seen with higher-end cards, we were hoping to spot that widen down into the bosom of the midrange, but it seems those benefits mostly halt astatine the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070.

Instead, you person a paper that relies precise heavy connected DLSS for transportation its show implicit the line, and wherever it works, it is mostly phenomenal, offering a real, playable 1440p gaming experience, and adjacent brushing up against immoderate decent 4K show with the close settings. 

This is thing AMD has truly struggled to lucifer with its FSR, and truthful Nvidia truly has a accidental to people a large stroke against AMD, but arsenic we'll see, the best AMD graphics card successful the past generation's midrange, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, really outperforms the RTX 4060 Ti successful non-ray tracing workloads, including gaming, truthful this does not bode good for Nvidia erstwhile AMD releases its current-gen midrange cards.

This is somewhat exacerbated by the information that the RTX 4060 Ti's quality to usage its caller features is reasonably limited, and portion features similar DLSS 3 with Frame Generation are disposable connected the best PC games similar Cyberpunk 2077 and Returnal, arsenic of the motorboat of the RTX 4060 Ti, determination are lone 50-ish games that enactment DLSS 3. 

This database volition surely turn implicit time, but you surely won't get this benignant of enactment connected games that whitethorn beryllium conscionable caller capable to propulsion the RTX 4060 Ti successful presumption of its performance, portion being conscionable aged capable that you'll ne'er spot a DLSS 3 spot for it.

I tin accidental that if you're coming from an RTX 2060 Super oregon older, past this paper is perfectly going to stroke your mind. It's efficaciously the RTX 3060 Ti's NG+, truthful if you missed what I see to beryllium the best graphics card of the past generation, you'll get each that and much with the RTX 4060 Ti. If you're coming from an Nvidia Ampere paper though — particularly from greater than the RTX 3060 Ti — chances are you are going to find this is truly a downgrade with immoderate neat features to soften the blow. 

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: Price & availability

• How overmuch is it? MSRP listed astatine $399 (about £240, AU$600)
• When is it out? It is disposable starting May 24, 2023
• Where tin you get it? You tin bargain it in the US, UK, and Australia

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB is disposable starting May 24, 2023, with an MSRP of $399 (about £240, AU$600). This is the aforesaid motorboat terms of the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti that this paper is replacing, truthful we're gladsome to spot that Nvidia didn't summation the terms connected this variant with this generation.

This besides puts it connected par with the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, which initially launched for $549 (about £440/AU$825), but which you tin find nether $400 close now, adjacent without discounts, astatine large retailers. AMD hasn't released an RX 7700 XT yet, which would beryllium this card's much earthy competition, truthful comparing the RX 6750 XT and the RTX 4060 Ti isn't truly fair, but it's each we person for present until AMD launches its RTX 4060 Ti challenger.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: Features and chipset

• Only uses 1 8-pin...but inactive requires a 16-pin converter?
• 3rd-generation ray tracing and 4th-generation tensor cores
• 288.0 GB/s representation bandwidth, but 32MB L2 cache boosts effectual bandwidth to 554.0 GB/s (according to Nvidia)

The Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti is the archetypal decently midrange Nvidia Lovelace graphics card, and truthful it is built connected TSMC's 5nm process, with astir 22.9 cardinal transistors crossed 34 streaming multiprocessors (SM), which travel with 128 shader cores (CUDA), 4 fourth-generation tensor cores, and 1 third-generation ray tracing halfway per SM.

The timepiece velocity is simply a coagulated 2,310MHz basal clock, which is astir a 64% betterment implicit the RTX 3060 Ti's 1,410MHz, with a boost timepiece of 2,535MHz, oregon astir 52% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti's 1,665MHz.

The biggest quality betwixt the 2 cards is the representation bus. The Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti uses a 128-bit autobus for 8GB GDDR6 VRAM, portion the RTX 3060 Ti uses a 256-bit autobus for the aforesaid magnitude of VRAM. The RTX 4060 Ti has a faster representation timepiece (2,250MHz), which combined with the expanded L2 cache (32MB), the RTX 4060 Ti has a somewhat faster effectual representation velocity of 18 Gbps to the RTX 3060 Ti's 15 Gbps, portion having a overmuch faster effectual representation bandwidth.

Still, this truly does smack of over-engineering. The determination to a 128-bit autobus doesn't look necessary, and fixed what we've seen of different Lovelace cards, similar the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, I decidedly deliberation Nvidia could person stuck with a higher autobus width and it wouldn't beryllium catching astir the grief it is getting implicit this. 

What's more, adjacent though the show of the RTX 4060 Ti is amended than the RTX 3060 Ti, I truly deliberation that had this paper had the aforesaid autobus width arsenic the RTX 3060 Ti, this paper would perfectly thing that approached it successful the midrange. As it stands, the RTX 4060 Ti is great, but fails to people the knockout it truly needed.

It is worthy mentioning though that this paper besides uses importantly little powerfulness than the RTX 3060 Ti. That paper had a TGP of 200W, portion the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB comes successful astatine 160W, which is simply a 20% betterment successful efficiency. This is large for keeping your physique nether 600W, and it's a determination successful the close absorption for everyone and deserves to beryllium praised.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: Design

The Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti Founders Edition keeps the aforesaid achromatic heatsink with chrome trim arsenic the different Founders Edition cards this generation, and — unluckily — it besides sticks with the 12VHPWR 16-pin powerfulness connector. Fortunately, you lone request to plug a azygous 8-pin into it, truthful it is astatine slightest somewhat easier to negociate successful a case.

Also easier to negociate is the size of the card. Using the aforesaid dual-fan plan arsenic erstwhile Founders Edition cards, the RTX 4060 Ti beauteous overmuch shrinks these down a bit. While it's inactive a dual-slot card, it comes successful astatine conscionable nether 9.5 inches agelong and 4.5 inches tall, making it the benignant of paper that volition easy acceptable successful your case.

There's not overmuch flash here, but that's a fixed with the Founders Edition, truthful if you're looking for ocular bells-and-whistles similar RGB oregon super-cooling features similar a triple instrumentality design, you're going to privation to look astatine immoderate of the third-party cards that merchandise alongside this 1 for those.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: Performance

• DLSS 3 is the existent gully here
• Improved ray tracing performance
• Baseline show not overmuch improved implicit the RTX 3060 Ti

When it comes to performance, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti truly leans connected DLSS 3 for astir of its large show gains, and portion this tin beryllium substantial, immoderate are going to consciousness somewhat disappointed.

This is mostly due to the fact that adjacent with the instauration of immoderate beauteous precocious tech, determination aren't a batch of games retired close present that tin truly leverage the champion features of this card. While 3 of the games I usage arsenic benchmarks — F1 2022, Cyberpunk 2077, and Returnal — each diagnostic framework generation, these are besides 3 of the latest games retired determination from large studios that person the clip and staffing to instrumentality DLSS 3 with Frame Generation successful their games. 

There is simply a DLSS 3 plug-in coming for Unreal Engine, which should decidedly grow the fig of games that diagnostic the tech, that's inactive going to beryllium a ways disconnected astatine this constituent earlier that starts to trickle down to the gamers who volition really beryllium utilizing this card.

I'll get much into DLSS 3 and Frame Generation successful a bit, but a speedy glimpse implicit the underlying architecture for the RTX 4060 Ti tells thing of a communicative here, arsenic shown by synthetic benchmarks utilizing 3DMark and Passmark 3D.

Synthetic Benchmarks

As you tin see, the RTX 4060 Ti beats retired the RTX 3060 Ti, but lone conscionable barely, getting astir 11% amended show than the paper it's replacing. This is, okay, I guess, but hardly the generational leaps that erstwhile Lovelace cards person been making. 

For example, the RTX 4070 offers a astir 21% leap implicit the RTX 3070 connected these aforesaid synthetic benchmarks. In fact, this puts the RTX 4060 Ti just up of the RX 6750 XT, and yet conscionable down the RTX 3070 successful presumption of earthy performance.

As a gaming card, the show outlook is better, but not by a full batch overall.

Gaming Benchmarks

On games with dense effects-based visuals similar Metro: Exodus and Cyberpunk 2077 wherever the precocious architecture of the RTX 4060 Ti tin beryllium leveraged, it does borderline retired the competition, sometimes. The RX 6750 XT inactive manages a somewhat amended fps connected Returnal astatine 1080p, connected average, erstwhile not utilizing ray tracing oregon upscaling tech, for example. 

The RTX 4060 Ti besides gets crushed successful CS:GO astatine 1080p, comparatively speaking, which I chalk up wholly to pushing textures done the smaller representation autobus of the RTX 4060 Ti. The 192-bit autobus connected the RX 6750 XT's 12GB GDDR6 VRAM and the 256-bit autobus connected the RTX 3060 Ti's 8GB GDDR6 truly amusement up successful cases similar this.

Things bash commencement to crook successful the RTX 4060 Ti's favour erstwhile you commencement fiddling with ray tracing. The third-generation ray tracing cores connected the RTX 4060 Ti are decidedly overmuch much susceptible than the RTX 3060 Ti's and particularly much than the RX 6750 XT's, which are second-generation and first-generation cores, respectively.

The RTX 4060 Ti is the archetypal midrange paper I've tested that is going to springiness you playable autochthonal ray-traced gaming astatine 1080p consistently connected max settings, though it volition conflict to get to 60 fps connected much demanding titles similar Cyberpunk 2077.

But lets beryllium honest, cipher is playing immoderate of these games with autochthonal solution ray tracing, you're going to beryllium utilizing an upscaler (and if you aren't past you truly request to start). 

Here, the show of Nvidia's DLSS truly shines implicit AMD's FSR, adjacent without framework generation. In some Cyberpunk 2077 and Returnal, the RTX 4060 Ti tin get you implicit 120 fps connected mean erstwhile utilizing the DLSS Ultra Performance preset, and if you privation things to look their best, you tin easy get good northbound of 60 fps connected mean with each mounting maxed out, adjacent ray tracing.

Now, 1 of the things that the wider representation autobus connected the RTX 3060 Ti gave that paper was a faster throughput erstwhile gaming astatine 1440p. Now, not each crippled is going to tally large astatine 1440p, but for a batch of them, you're going to beryllium capable to get a precise playable framework rate. 

The RTX 4060 Ti improves implicit the RTX 3060 Ti here, but not astir arsenic overmuch arsenic it should, and connected games similar F1 2022 and CS:GO wherever that representation bandwidth quality is going to show, well, it shows up present astatine 1440p, too.

Of course, erstwhile you crook connected ray tracing, astir games are going to crook into a descent show, but unsurprisingly, the RTX 4060 Ti manages to people a triumph present connected each ray-traced crippled I tested.

That said, you are truly pushing it present connected these settings, and you're amended disconnected utilizing upscaling if you're going to spell for 1440p, particularly with settings turned up.

The biggest triumph for the RTX 4060 Ti present is with Cyberpunk 2077, wherever it manages 67% amended show astatine max prime settings than the RX 6750 XT, but maddeningly, it's lone astir 13% amended than the RTX 3060 Ti connected the prime preset. On ultra performance, the RTX 4060 Ti is astir 52% amended than the RX 6750 XT, but again, lone 13% amended than the RTX 3060 Ti.

When it comes to Returnal, the RX 6750 XT is fundamentally tied with the RTX 4060 Ti connected the prime preset for FSR 2.1 and DLSS, respectively. Bump this up to ultra performance, and the RTX 4060 Ti does better, beating retired the RX 6750 XT by astir 22% and the RTX 3060 Ti by astir 17%.

I ideate the RTX 4060 Ti volition execute much oregon little the aforesaid crossed astir games that inactive trust connected DLSS 2.0, which fig much than 200. For those games that truly leverage DLSS 3 with Frame Generation though, it truly is different communicative entirely.

With Frame Generation, you tin get astir a 40-60% show betterment connected games that enactment it. This isn't nothing, since this tin adjacent get you playing Cyberpunk 2077 astatine a playable framerate astatine 4K connected ultra performance. The RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6750 XT truly don't person immoderate reply to this, and truthful they are going to lag down considerably connected immoderate games that person DLSS 3 with Frame Generation.

Does Frame Generation summation latency connected immoderate titles, on with different issues? Sure. Will it substance to gamers who get to play Cyberpunk 2077, Returnal, and different titles that play similar they were RTX 3080 Ti's? Probably not.

Will immoderate of this substance to anyone who doesn't play those games? Obviously not. And that is yet the contented with this card. For what it does well, it has nary adjacent astatine this price, but if you already person an RTX 3060 Ti, past determination is truly precise small crushed to upgrade to this card. Hell, if you person an RX 6750 XT, you mightiness consciousness similar you're amended disconnected conscionable waiting to spot what AMD has successful store for the RX 7700 XT, and I would not blasted you successful the slightest. 

This isn't a whiff by Team Green by immoderate means, but there's nary getting astir the information that the show of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti perfectly leaves a monolithic opening for AMD to exploit successful the coming months with the RX 7700 XT, oregon adjacent the RX 7650 XT.

Should you bargain the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti?

Buy it if...

Don’t bargain it if…

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How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti

I walk respective days with the RTX 4060 Ti moving benchmarks, playing games, and mostly measuring its show against competing cards.

I paid peculiar attraction to its DLSS 3 Frame Generation technology, since this is 1 of the card's biggest selling points, and played respective games astatine magnitude with the tech turned on.

Having covered and tested galore graphics cards successful my career, I cognize however a graphics paper execute astatine this level. 

Read much astir however we test