Conclusion
In today’s review, we have put the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB video card to the test. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB is being released at a $399 MSRP and there will be a Founders Edition of it. In today’s review, we tested at 1080p, 1440p, Ray Tracing, DLSS, and DLSS 3. There will also be a 16GB version of this card, but that will be at $499 and comes out in July.
The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is based on NVIDIA’s Ada Lovelace architecture and continues the RTX 40 series. This next-generation video card will have 4,352 CUDA Cores, 136 4th Generation Tensor Cores, 34 3rd Generation RT Cores, 136 Texture Units, 48 ROPs, 32MB of L2 Cache, and a GPU Boost Clock of 2535MHz and will come with 8GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus at 18GHz providing 288GB/s of memory bandwdith. This video card is geared to offer a great 1080p gameplay experience, and even with Ray Tracing, also with DLSS and DLSS 3 support.
Performance Summary
In our GeForce RTX 4060 Ti review, we focused on many aspects of gameplay performance. We looked at 1080p gameplay, 1080p with Ray Tracing, 1440p, DLSS, and DLSS 3 performance as well. In our review today, we used two different video cards for comparison, for specific reasons in this launch review.
We chose a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition because it is important to see how the new, next-generation video card performs directly to the replacement for the last generation’s GPU. Plus, both video cards were launched at the same MSRP of $399, and thus directly comparable to see how performance has progressed gen-to-gen. Second, we included the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT because of the fact that this video card, in AMD’s last generation, was launched at a $399 MSRP, which is comparable to the RTX 3060 Ti and 4060 Ti price points, at launch.
It is true that you can get AMD Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs at lower street prices today, but it is important to find out how the new RTX 4060 Ti performs at the same launch price point the AMD equivalent launched at in the RX 6000 series. In this way, if you were shopping at a specific price point last-gen, you may also be shopping at this current price point this generation. Therefore we need to find out what you could get last-gen and how that compares to this generation, at the same price point.
We understand the commentary on lower street pricing today for last-generation GPUs. If you are shopping for a new GPU in 2023, you are most likely wanting to buy a new generation, and not the previous generation. As of right now, AMD does not have an RDNA 3 equivalent to compare with the RTX 4060 Ti. We also believe the Intel Arc A770 16GB should be in the conversation. That is why we will have upcoming “versus” articles, where we compare other video cards versus the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti that are relevant. Those reviews will come, following this launch, so stay tuned.
For this launch, we want to look at the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti as it compares to the last generation’s video cards, at the same price segment, and how it looks as a GPU upgrade from older video cards if you are shopping at that same price point.
1080p
Starting at 1080p testing, in Returnal we found the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti offered a playable experience at the highest settings at nearly 100FPS. This is compared to the previous generation GeForce RTX 3060 Ti by providing 8% faster performance. It was also 25% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT. In Forspoken we also found a playable experience at 1080p with the highest game settings at 85FPS. This was 9% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 52% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT. In The Callisto Protocol, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti allowed a playable experience at 1080p with maximum settings at over 90FPS. It was 7% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti and 39% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT.
In Call of Duty Modern Warfare II the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was playable at over 100FPS with maximum settings and was very smooth. It turned out to be 21% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which was a big performance update in this game from the previous generation. This was the largest advantage we saw versus the previous generation, in this game it made a big difference. In Chernobylite Enhanced Edition the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti allowed a playable experience at a very high 150FPS at 1080p. It was 18% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 68% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT.
In Dying Light 2 the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was playable at well over 100FPS with maximum settings and was very smooth. It ended up being only 4% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, however, which was on the lower side. It was 30% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT. In Cyberpunk 2077 the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was very playable at 100FPS at 1080p on “Ultra” settings. It was 9% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 35% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT.
1440p
We pushed the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB video card to 1440p to see if it would allow a playable gameplay experience, and how it would compare. We found, that overall, the performance differences versus the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti narrowed as the resolution increased from 1080p to 1440p. As we hit 1440p, it was much closer in performance to the previous generation GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.
In Returnal the gameplay experience was very playable on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti at 1440p at EPIC game settings. However, that was equally so on the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti as well. The RTX 4060 Ti was only 4% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti when at 1440p. It was though, 28% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT. In Forspoken the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was playable at 1440p, but just barely. There were some scenes that would not be considered playable without DLSS. The performance difference compared to the RTX 3060 Ti was also very close again at 4%. It was, however, very fast compared to Radeon RX 6650 XT at 67% faster.
In The Callisto Protocol, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was playable at the highest settings at over 60FPS at 1440p. The performance compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti was 6% faster, and compared to the Radeon RX 6650 XT it was 42% faster. Call of Duty Modern Warfare II was very playable at 1440p at 80FPS, but there were some instances we noticed the benchmark dropped into the 30s briefly. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti the RTX 4060 Ti was 21% faster, which mirrored previous testing in this game.
In Chernobylite Enhanced Edition the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was very playable at the highest settings at 100FPS at 1440p. It was 10% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 57% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT. Dying Light 2 was playable at 1440p with maximum game settings. The RTX 4060 Ti was very close to RTX 3060 Ti performance once again in this game, only 2% apart. It was 34% faster than Radeon RX 6650 XT. In Cyberpunk 2077 the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was playable at 60FPS at 1440p, but it did dip down in some places to undesirable framerates without DLSS. It was 8% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti.
Ray Tracing
We also wanted to push Ray Tracing in our testing, especially at 1080p to see if the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti could allow a playable experience. We wanted to find out if we needed to enable upscaling to make it playable, or if it could be playable without. Starting in Returnal we tested at 1080p with EPIC Ray Tracing on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and found performance to be very playable at 80FPS. We did not need to enable upscaling to make it playable, though that did increase smoothness even more. We found the RTX 4060 Ti to be 14% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 91% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT.
Forspoken was also playable at 1080p with Ray Tracing options on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, but only just. We found it to be 8% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 150% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT. The Callisto Protocol was also playable at 1080p with the Ray Tracing options enabled. It was 14% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 45% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT. Chernobylite Enhanced Edition was just at the playable level without upscaling, with Ultra Ray Tracing at 1080p. This game is very intense with Ray Tracing due to the use of Global Illumination. Therefore we saw a larger increase in performance over the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at a 27% performance advantage. The better Ray Tracing performance on RTX 4060 Ti is really demonstrated here with the use of Global Illumination Ray Tracing.
In Dying Light 2 the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti was playable at over 60FPS at the highest Ray Tracing option. We found the RTX 4060 Ti to be 11% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti and 85% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT. Cyberpunk 2077 was the only game that was not playable with Ray Tracing at 1080p. This game did require DLSS to make it playable, and with DLSS it was very playable. The RTX 4060 Ti was 17% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti.
DLSS and DLSS 3
DLSS is a major advantage the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti have. We’ve often found DLSS to offer better image quality compared to FSR when used at lower resolutions like 1080p and 1440p. DLSS handles lower resolutions better than FSR in terms of image quality. Therefore, being able to use DLSS at 1440p versus FSR, can look better. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti also has a major advantage over the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti previous generation by being able to utilize DLSS 3 Frame Generation, which can further boost performance in really challenging scenarios, such as 1440p with Ray Tracing on the RTX 4060 Ti.
In all of our evaluation today, DLSS improved performance at 1080p, 1080p with Ray Tracing, 1440p, and 1440p with Ray Tracing. Further, DLSS 3 pushed framerates even farther at both resolutions and with Ray Tracing. It moved games into more playable territory where there were performance scenarios that didn’t seem as smooth or playable. For example, Forspoken had some areas that were slow with Ray Tracing, or slower at 1440p that were not desirable. However, by just enabling DLSS these areas are smoother and run better, into playable territories.
Then there are games like Cyberpunk 2077, which are nasty in terms of performance, especially with Ray Tracing, but DLSS 3 Frame Generation can make it very playable with all these features turned on. There are other games as well, like Returnal which responded well to DLSS 3. Even DLSS on its own, without Frame Generation, is a huge bonus to performance and image quality at the resolutions the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti will be used at.
The Pros and Cons
The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB video card is an interesting video card. It is a video card that has a mixed summary of pros and cons. On the pro side, it is priced no more than the previous generation GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at $399. This means that if you shop at this price point previously, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB is the direct replacement at that same price point. You can upgrade to new features that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti does not have with the new GeForce RTX 4060 Ti.
The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti offers new features such as AV1 encode support and the brand new DLSS 3 Frame Generation support that is coming to a lot of games now. DLSS 3 adoption has been very fast. You do also get a performance upgrade over the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, and definitely a Ray Tracing performance improvement as we saw with Global Illumination. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is also incredibly power efficient, and right now holds the crown for power efficiency. If power is a concern, then the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is a major advantage in that department.
While the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is technically offering a price and performance upgrade versus the previous generation, it is what many will consider not a big enough performance upgrade. We have seen one big performance difference in one game, but most games have been south of a 15% performance advantage. There were even some games, that were well below 10% advantage. Many might consider these upgrades in performance too small to matter. It must be stated, this is game dependent, and this is not unexpected behavior as different games do stress different parts of the GPU.
We must also bring up the fact that we tested a narrowing of performance as the resolution was increased to 1440p. This reinforces concerns about the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti being bandwidth constrained with the 8GB framebuffer size, 128-bit memory bus constraint, and x8 PCIe lane decision. We might suggest that a strategy for a $399 video card might have been a 192-bit memory bus with 12GB of VRAM. At $399, we feel that would have been a more desirable configuration at this price point and we think better received by gamers.
We did also find that utilizing DLSS relieved some of these constraints at 1440p, or with Ray Tracing. DLSS can make the difference in providing a smoother experience, with less frame stuttering when these problems occur in games. We also found DLSS simply looks better than FSR when running at lower resolutions like 1440p or 1080p.
Final Points
If you are coming from an older GPU, such as a GTX-level video card, or a GeForce RTX 2060-level video card from 2019, the new GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is a good upgrade path for you. At $399 you are still shopping in the same price point you might have paid way back then, and will be getting a substantial upgrade in performance and features. If, however, you want to upgrade from a previous generation video card at this same price point, such as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, the new GeForce RTX 4060 Ti does not have enough meat on the bone at this price point.
However, if you are coming from an equivalent video card from AMD in the last generation, such as the Radeon RX 6650 XT, then the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti offers a substantial upgrade. It will provide huge performance gains over the Radeon RX 6650 XT in pretty much everything. It will also provide playable and usable Ray Tracing image quality in games, something the Radeon RX 6650 XT could never deliver. It will also give you DLSS and DLSS 3 support, something that will be a big upgrade from any older GPU.
Therefore, if you are rocking a GPU from AMD’s last generation, or several generations past on the NVIDIA side, then the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti could potentially be a good upgrade path for you. It just depends on what you have, where you want to go, and the price point you want to stay at.