You no longer have to spend more than $500 to get a video card using NVIDIA’s current Ada Lovelace architecture. The company is launching the GeForce RTX 4060 series, which will start at $299. The flagship RTX 4060 Ti will start at $399 with 8GB of RAM when it arrives on May 24th — a full $200 less than the base 4070. It’s pitched as a direct successor to the similarly-priced RTX 3060 Ti and 2060 Super, and aimed at gamers who are more interested in high frame rates at 1080p than a high resolution.
The RTX 4060 Ti is a noticeable step down from the 4070 with 4,352 CUDA cores (versus 5,888) and a 128-bit memory interface (versus 192-bit). It’s a mixed bag versus its predecessor. While the 3060 Ti has more cores and a much wider 256-bit interface, Ada, DLSS 3 upscaling and a clock speed boost (2.3GHz base compared to the old card’s 1.4GHz) theoretically help the 4060 Ti deliver more actual computing power, particularly for ray tracing and tensor-based tasks. It uses less power, too, with an “average gaming power” of 140W instead of the 3060 Ti’s 197W.
NVIDIA claims a roughly 15 percent average performance increase at 1080p over the 3060 Ti in games that don’t use DLSS 3’s frame generation, and 70 percent for those that do. You’ll unsurprisingly get high 1080p frame rates in competitive titles like Counter-Strike 2 (330FPS) and Overwatch 2 (260FPS).
The starter RTX 4060 runs at a 1.8GHz base clock with 3,072 CUDA cores, 8GB of RAM and a 128-bit bus. NVIDIA boasts a 20 percent average performance increase over the 3060 without DLSS 3 frame generation, and 70 percent when the feature kicks in.
You may want to wait a couple of months depending on your needs and budget. The standard $299 RTX 4060 won’t arrive until July, while a $499 16GB RTX 4060 Ti will also land then for those who run into memory limits for some games and creative apps.
If you ask NVIDIA, the RTX 4060 line is the best option for most people. All but one of the most popular GPUs on Steam are NVIDIA xx60-series boards, and 77 percent of players are using 1080p or less. The 128-bit bus may make this less practical for 1440p or 4K gaming, though. There’s also the question of competition. AMD is rumored to be introducing Radeon RX 7600, 7700 and 7800 desktop GPUs in June. They may be more enticing if AMD can deliver more value for your money.
Author: Engadget
Source: Engadget
