What you need to know
- Starting today, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is on sale.
- Newegg offers models from several manufacturers, including GIGABYTE, MSI, and ZOTAC.
- The RTX 4060 has received mixed reviews, with many debating if it can justify its $300 price tag.
NVIDIA just released the GeForce RTX 4060. The graphics card is on sale today, and you're likely to find it in stock. Unlike GPU releases of the past, there appear to be plenty of RTX 4060s available. At the time of publication, Newegg lists several RTX 4060 units in stock.
The RTX 4060 is the successor to the last gen's RTX 3060. The new graphics card is aimed at 1080p gaming, though it can run some of the best PC games at 1440p, depending on your settings. The RTX 4060 starts at $300, though pricing varies on the manufacturer and exact specs.
NVIDIA emphasized DLSS 3 heavily when marketing the RTX 4060. Titles that support the technology should see impressive frame rates, but the list of games that work with DLSS 3 isn't as long as many would like.
Despite having a 128-bit memory bandwidth, which is less than the 192-bit bandwidth of the RTX 3060, the RTX 4060 improves on its predecessor. This is due to a variety of factors, including efficiency. CNET saw about a 20% increase in performance over the RTX 3060, leaving the RTX 4060 about 20% below the RTX 4060 Ti in the category.
We dive further into RTX 4060 reviews below, as they've been mixed.
We expect to see other retailers, such as Best Buy, B&H, and Amazon, stock the card as well. Make sure when you're shopping that you've found an RTX 4060, not an RTX 4060 Ti. Entering "RTX 4060" into the search bar of most retailers will show the RTX 4060 Ti as well.
NVIDIA RTX 4060 reviews are mixed
Reviews for the NVIDIA RTX 4060 dropped yesterday. The general consensus is that while the graphics card is better than its predecessor, the RTX 3060, the RTX 4060 is an overall disappointment. It doesn't jump up far enough to justify the generation jump and its price, at least in the eyes of several reviewers.
Linus Tech Tips called the graphics card a "wet fart of a GPU." That video review starts with a montage of complaints about the RTX 4060. Perhaps more damning, the Linus Tech Tips video calls the RTX 4060 "another nail in the world's most overpriced coffin."
Why the RTX 4060 is so underwhelming is unclear. Linus suggests that NVIDIA has decided to lean toward AI customers rather than focus on gamers.
PC Gamer wasn't as harsh but still called the card disappointing:
"The RTX 3060 Ti retains a notable lead over the RTX 4060 here. When viewed in that context, the RTX 4060 is on the disappointing side. We'd usually expect a card from a new generation to match a card a tier up from the previous generation, in this case, that would be the RTX 3070, but since even the 3060 Ti is out of reach, the 3070 remains completely unchallenged."
Tom's Hardware balanced the performance of the RTX 4060 with its price as part of its review:
"The RTX 4060 isn't a terrible card by any means. Some people will probably say it is, but across our benchmark suite, it was universally faster than the previous generation RTX 3060 at every setting that mattered (meaning, not counting 4K ultra performance, where neither card delivered acceptable performance). There will be edge cases where it falls behind, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales running 1440p ultra, where minimum fps was clearly worse than on the 3060. But overall? Yes, it's faster than the previous generation, and it even cuts the price by $30 — not that the RTX 3060 was available for $329 during most of its shelf life."
Not everyone gave the RTX 4060 a poor score, however. The GPU earned a 4.5/5 from TechRadar, which called the RTX 4060 the "best midrange graphics card for the masses."
Ars Technica called the RTX 4060 a super-efficient $299 workhorse in its review.
Whether you think the RTX 4060 is worth it or not appears to depend largely on how you plan to use it and your budget. Games that support DLSS 3 will see solid performance, and there are other good elements of the graphics card, but against the AMD RX 7600 and last generation's RX 6700 XT place, the RTX 4060 struggles to stand out. The RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 are also options within a similar price range.
