It took some time, but finally, NVIDIA unveiled a GPU laser-focused on the mid-range market, the Nvidia Geforce Rtx 4060 Ti 8 GB Founders EditionGPU. This latest addition to the Ada-based GPU lineup provides a tantalizing high-performance, mid-range graphics card option based on the new Ada architecture. As the successor to the beloved Ampere-based RTX 3060 Ti, the RTX 4060 Ti promises improved gaming performance and enhanced features. With a $399 MSRP, this new GPU has the potential to be a popular choice among gamers seeking a powerful yet affordable upgrade, although it’s not without issues.

Unboxing the NVIDIA Geforce Rtx 4060 Ti 8GB Founders Edition GPU, it appears very familiar if you’ve followed coverage of past releases from the 40-series range of cards. The metal and black design give the RTX 4060 Ti the modern and premium look we’ve come to expect from Founders Edition cards this generation. It features a dual blower design, a 12VHPWR power connection, and a clean, minimalist look overall.

Looking past aesthetics, the Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060 Ti uses the AD106 GPU, also in the RTX 4070 mobile GPU. There are differences between these two silicon pieces; the RTX 4060 Ti has a reduced core count, with 4352 CUDA cores and 34 streaming multiprocessors (SMs), compared to the mobile RTX 4070’s 4608 CUDA cores and 36 SMs. This is a significant divergence from the often higher-spec desktop card variants. But, given NVIDIA’s efficiency with this offering, it delivers fantastic mid-range performance even while using significantly less power than its predecessor (more on this later).

In terms of memory, the RTX 4060 Ti boasts 8GB GDDR6 RAM paired with a 128-bit memory bus. This is a narrower memory bus compared to the RTX 3060 Ti’s 192-bit bus. Despite the reduced memory bandwidth, the RTX 4060 Ti enjoys a substantial L2 cache increase, boasting 32MB compared to the RTX 3060 Ti’s 4MB. The larger cache decreases traffic between the GPU and VRAM by 50%, enhancing gaming performance by keeping game data closer to the GPU.

“The RTX 4060 Ti showcases the efficiency of the Ada GPU architecture, thanks to the TSMC 4N process.”

To round things out, the RTX 4060 Ti has fewer render output units (ROPs), texture units, and ray tracing units compared to the RTX 3060 Ti. Thanks to the TSMC 4N process, the AD106 GPU is smaller and more efficient, resulting in lower power consumption and increased performance per watt.

Boasting 22 FP32 shader TFLOPS, 136 tensor cores, and 34 RT cores, the RTX 4060 supports NVIDIA DLSS 3 technology and includes all features we’ve come to expect from the Ada generation. To put this into perspective, the Xbox Series X sports an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU, 12 teraflops RDNA 2 GPU, and 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, while the PlayStation 5 has an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU, 10.3 teraflops RDNA 2 GPU, 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, and a custom 825GB SSD.

On paper, the RTX 4060 offers gamers much more raw horsepower than the PS5 or Xbox Series X. However, this won’t always be the case when diving into the latest games, especially with the recent batch of unoptimized PC ports that frustrate gamers.

When looking at the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Founders Edition, things do get a little muddy, as pound-for-pound, there is not a major leap in terms of performance when compared to its predecessor, the RTX 3060. While it is a generational leap, and the Ada platform manages to bring new features to the table, like improved AI and DLSS 3 support, the benchmarks we will get into shortly only show a minor jump.

Cyberpunk 2077, without DLSS 3 with ray tracing turned, saw the RTX 4060 Ti beating out the RTX 3060 44.5 to 37.8. While it may be an improvement, it is not as major as I would have liked, with some games showing only around a 3-5 percent improvement from generation to generation. 

With the stage set, it is time to dive into some numbers. We slotted the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Founders Edition into our state-of-the-art testing rig for testing. As seen in other benchmarking, our test bench features a quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 case armed with a 13th gen Intel i9-13900K, an MSI 850W PSU, a whopping 64GB of SK Hynix DDR5 RAM, and a blazing fast PCIe Gen 4 2TB Kingston Fury M.2 SSD, this setup was tailor-made to give any GPU the room to breathe and show off what they are capable of, and it should be ideal to see what the RTX 4060 Ti is capable of. 

Jumping in at 1080p, the RTX 4060 Ti delivers solid scores across the board, outperforming the previous generation RTX 3060 Ti by a slight margin, even showing strong marks against the originally higher-priced RTX 3070 in many of our tests. This is a card built to deliver excellent marks with modern 1080P gaming, and it shows. The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB not only delivers but does so incredibly using less power.

The RTX 4060 Ti showcases the efficiency of the Ada GPU architecture, thanks to the TSMC 4N process. This results in a significantly lower power draw compared to the RTX 3060 Ti. On average, the RTX 4060 Ti consumes 157W, while the RTX 3060 Ti requires 200W. Despite the lower power consumption, the Ada GPU operates at nearly 1GHz faster than the Ampere chip, highlighting the impressive performance per watt.

The story gets even more exciting when you look at the card’s support for DLSS 3, and Frame Generation, which further enhances its performance, providing a smoother and more stable gaming experience. In games like Cyberpunk 2077, we see the RTX 4060 Ti go from a respectable 42.4 FPS with ray tracing turned on to a fantastic 116 FPS with DLSS 3 enabled. This does come with the caveat that it can reduce latency, although NVIDIA’s Reflex does mitigate this problem to some extent, making things very usable, with most people unable to see a significant difference. 

While the RTX 4060 Ti is a great performer at 1080P, it managed to tackle many 1440P games while still delivering fantastic scores. Games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Metro Exodus, and even Cyberpunk 2077 all manage to be incredibly playable at 1440P, with most firmly above the 60 FPS benchmark most gamers strive for. Even Cyberpunk 2077, with ray tracing turned on, managed to score a solid 77.1 FPS with the help of DLSS 3. Compare this to the 59.2 FPS seen on an RTX 3070, and you have yourself a winning formula for gamers looking for a mid-range upgrade. 

 As we saw with the other cards in the Ada family, the RTX 4060 Ti brings a fair amount to the creative space, especially for video and streaming. Its Ada Lovelace architecture, next-generation CUDA cores, and Tensor cores make it a reliable and powerful tool for content creators across various disciplines.

In multi-threaded rendering applications such as Blender, 3ds Max, and Cinema 4D, the RTX 4060 Ti notably accelerates rendering times, leading to quicker project completion and more efficient workflows. Rendering detailed 3D models and complex scenes in real-time becomes a game changer for artists, allowing faster iteration and more polished results.

We have talked about the power of AV1 encoding in the past. While it is a much more affordable option, the same is true for the RTX 4060 Ti. Like all members of the 40-series GPU family, the RTX 4060 Ti offers AV1 encoding, further expanding the toolkit for creators who want to get the most out of their GPU.

Video editing and visual effects professionals can rely on the RTX 4060 Ti to handle demanding workloads in software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and DaVinci Resolve. The RTX 4060 Ti uses GPU acceleration to speed up timeline previews, real-time playback, and effects rendering, giving editors more time to fine-tune their projects and perfect their craft.

Photographers and graphic designers will benefit from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GPU’s impressive performance. With support for CUDA-accelerated features in programs like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, artists will experience more responsive brush strokes, faster filter applications, and near-instant file exports.

Priced at $399, the RTX 4060 Ti matches the MSRP of the previous generation RTX 3060 Ti. When examining the performance improvements offered by the new GPU, it is evident that the RTX 4060 Ti is a better option for those considering an RTX 3060 Ti or an RX 6700 XT. Despite its advantages in the mid-range, the RTX 4060 Ti is not significantly ahead of the RTX 3060 Ti in raster performance and is typically showing similar scores to what we saw with the RTX 3070. With the graphics card market still finding its footing after the massive spikes during the pandemic, it can still be hard to assess a card’s actual value.

Another wrench in the gears is Intel and its ARC platform. While ARC still has a ways to go and feels more aimed at the lower end of the market, in some games, it does manage to deliver good performance, especially considering the ARC A750 at $224.99, almost $200 less than the $399 RTX 4060 TI. Still, NVIDIA, especially with DLSS 3, has a major leg up on both AMD and Intel, even if the gap is getting narrower. With the support for not only games but creative apps, there is still a solid reason to go Team Green, even if competition is starting to heat up. 

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB GPU manages to be a solid mid-range GPU, offering improved gaming performance and advanced features like DLSS 3 and Frame Generation compared to its predecessor. However, people that were hoping for night and day differences in performance may be disappointed. 

While the RTX 4060 Ti excels at 1080p gaming and can handle 1440p, it’s hardware specifications and market conditions make it challenging unconditionally recommend the GPU at its $399 price point. With the market starting to heat up, especially with new entries from both AMD and Intel, NVIDIA will have to stay on top of things to remain competitive, especially in the mid-range space. 

Despite its limitations, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Founders Edition remains a solid choice for gamers who did not invest in the RTX 30 or RX 6000-series cards. With new features like DLSS 3 and all the improvements in efficiency, the RTX 4060 Ti is a solid performer and one that will make any mid-range enthusiast gamer very happy. While I hope the card sees a slight price drop as more offerings enter the market, for people looking to get the best from 1080P and 1440P gaming and are in need of an upgrade, few cards can beat out what the RTX 4060 TI brings to the table.