Nvidia’s RTX 4060 series is official & it’s good news for budget gamers
NvidiaNvidia has officially revealed the RTX 4060 series of graphics cards, which start from just $299, which could be a breath of fresh air for gamers on a budget.
Nvidia has revealed its GeForce RTX 4060 series, powered by the Ada Lovelace architecture and featuring DLSS 3 neural rendering and third-gen ray-tracing technologies. Starting at just $299, the RTX 4060 series, consisting of the RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060, promises PC gamers good performance in 1080p gaming. Nvidia claims the GPUs will outpace current consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
The RTX 3060 is one of the most popular GPUs around, with its variants dominating the Steam Hardware survey.
Nvidia claims the RTX 4060 Ti will outperform the RTX 2060 SUPER by 2.6x and the RTX 3060 Ti by 1.7x when using DLSS 3. The RTX 4060 Ti comes with a choice of 8GB or 16GB ultra-high-speed GDDR6 memory, and the RTX 4060 lands with 8GB GDDR6 memory. Both GPUs feature significant advancements in ray tracing performance in titles like Cyberpunk 2077.
When are they being released?
- RTX 4060: $299 (July)
- RTX 4060 Ti 8GB: $399 (May 24)
- RTX 4060 Ti 16GB: $499 (July)
The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB will be available from May 24 at $399. Its 16GB counterpart, along with the RTX 4060, is set for a July release, priced at $499 and $299 respectively. Nvidia is also releasing a Founders Edition design of the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. Custom boards for the entire RTX 4060 family will be available from leading add-in card providers and gaming system builders worldwide.
Is this finally good news for budget gamers?
In 2020, the PC GPU market spiraled out of control due to factors like demand, global availability, and cryptocurrency mining. This caused otherwise affordable GPUs like the RTX 3060 to have their prices artificially inflated.
While this did ease at the beginning of 2022, many gamers chose to hold off from upgrading their GPUs until this new generation of graphics cards. While we do not have our own validated performance data yet, you can almost be certain that the new generation will outpace the older one. Though, early RTX 4060 Ti benchmarks showcase a lesser generational jump than some may anticipate.
In addition to this, the 8GB VRAM on the RTX 4060 and base RTX 4060 Ti might not scale well with resolutions above 1080p. It’s something that AMD has criticized before. However, it’s likely that if you’re on a budget, you won’t be pushing for 4K in any titles soon. For those gaming at above 1080p, you may want to wait around until July for the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB.