GeForce RTX 4060 Review: A Top Budget GPU Buy for 1080p

As Nvidia works its way down through the price ranges with its graphics card announcements, the starting-at-$299 GeForce RTX 4060 sits as the entry-level priced model using the current architecture. The company isn't offering a house-branded Founders Edition version of an RTX 4060, but you're likely to see a slew of them from partners given the popularity of the price class. And the Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060 model we tested is an excellent choice for the money.

Will the company release an even cheaper, desktop version of an RTX 4050? Probably. And if you're on a tight budget and just looking for playable 1080p, it's probably worth waiting a while until that happens or to see what's on sale toward the end of the year. But if you want to buy now, the RTX 4060 is your cheapest bet that's worth the money. 

Asus Dual RTX 4060

Like

• Doesn't require PCIe 5 power adapter
• Should fit in most midsize, entry budget PCs

Don't like

• A bit large for its performance class

The RTX 4060 is targeted at roughly the same gamer as the RTX 4060 Ti, just about 20% less of one. In this case, it means mid-to-high-quality 1080p up to entry-1440p gamers. The 4060 Ti is bigger, takes a bit more power and requires the 8-to-12-pin PCIe 5 power cable adapter, though, which may make it less suitable for a budget-system upgrade, depending upon the size and age of your PC. It's a slightly better fit for upgrades, new builds with low-power -- a power supply of 600w or less -- or compact systems where you can't fit or support a triple-slot, 11-inch long card, making it a solid choice as an upgrade from a 20-series or older card.

But also like the 4060 Ti, it's not quite as attractive for using as a budget GPU for video-editing or some other types of creative tasks for the same reason: Lower bandwidth bottlenecks it for applications that don't benefit from Nvidia's method of relying on cache memory to compensate.

All current-generation Nvidia graphics cards still incorporate DisplayPort 1.4 rather than 2.1, but this card really can't run fast enough to need the higher bandwidth -- you really can't run anything in 4K at demanding frame rates with this card. And if you can, then switch to the HDMI 2.1 connection.

The Asus model we tested is pretty light, mostly because it uses a lot of plastic and has a ton of empty space for airflow along with vents on three sides. The backplate looks pretty easy to remove if you want to add liquid cooling, though the card doesn't run too hot, so you probably don't need it.

Performance

Nvidia's rationale for the RTX 4060's narrower memory path (128-bit vs. 192-bit for the RTX 3060) and overall reduced memory bandwidth is to highlight "effective" memory bandwidth. The higher effective number comes from the increase to 24MB L2 cache, up from 3MB in the last-generation 192-bit GPU, bringing it to 272GB/sec. actual vs. 453GB/sec. effective. 

Cache is a fast-retrieval location for frequently and recently used data, which applies to elements like game textures and ray trace calculations. Graphics editing operations tend to be sensitive to reusing data -- editing implies you're changing things. So performance gains there stem from faster clock speeds and Ada-architecture improvements, such as more efficient processing and a smaller fabrication process. 

That's not to say it doesn't fit exactly in the performance lineup where you'd expect it to be -- averaging roughly 20% below the 4060 Ti and 20% higher than the RTX 3060. 

It's also roughly equivalent to the Radeon RX 7600. Or better. Or worse. The only generalizable performance comparison between the two is for ray tracing, where (as much as it pains me to say it) AMD ray tracing: please, no, don't. Nvidia continues to vastly outstrip AMD in that quarter.

But a lot of people don't care about ray tracing. While I like the improved image quality it delivers, it's still a luxury compared to the more visceral improvements I see by increasing resolution, even by using Nvidia's DLSS optimization technology to compensate for the performance hit, or non-RT quality settings. 

In other words, it's not clear whether the current $30 you save by opting for the RX 7600 over the RTX 4060 is worth it. My gut says that the RTX 4060 Ti offers some better future-proofing, plus it can bump some current borderline playable games across the border for its $100-plus price premium, but if your choice is to spend that money on a better GPU or put it toward more storage, memory or a better headset, mouse or keyboard, I'd lean toward one of the latter.

As for the Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060, though, it's an excellent choice if you opt to go for an RTX 4060.