GeForce RTX 4060: what can it run, how many cores, DLSS 3

Nvidia recently offered a fairly budget-friendly variant of its latest generation of graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 4060. Here we look at its strengths and also discuss why you might want to consider its alternatives.

The latest video games are becoming more spectacular, faster and more realistic, which requires more performance and sufistication from your graphics card.  If you want to play games like Dying Light 2 or Halo Infinite and enjoy ray tracing and other features of the latest games, you need a sophisticated new generation graphics card. But at the same time, we also take into account the price aspect and are not always able to pay a substantial amount for a new card. Nvidia has created the GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, a decent entry-level card that delivers 1080p gaming and even goes up to 1440p in some games thanks to its DLSS 3 technology. Let's take a closer look at its characteristics and competitors.

What's good about Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060?

• At first glance, it may seem bewildering that the older RTX 3060 has 3584 cores, while the RTX 4060 has only 3072, but this difference is more than overcome by the card's more powerful and intelligent architecture of the RTX 4060. This GPU is based on the Nvidia Ada Lovelace architecture built on a 4nm process node, which is more powerful than the 8nm Ampere node in the RTX 3060. Nvidia's benchmark showed that for gamers who switched from the GeForce RTX 3060, performance increased by an average of 1.7 times in a set of two dozen popular games.

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 features third-generation DLSS technology, which provides AI-based image enhancement by creating new frames. It renders games at higher frame rates and therefore runs smoother and looks better than with a GeForce RTX 3060 card running the previous version, DLSS 2.

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 has much larger L2 cache (24MB versus 3MB).
• The RTX 4060 has three DisplayPort 1.4a and HDMI 2.1a inputs for 4K 240Hz resolution. The card uses a standard 8-pin connector to optimize its installation in your gaming PC.
• GeForce RTX 4060 consumes significantly less power than its predecessor (115W versus 170W). The card also heats up less.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060Specs:

What games can GeForce RTX 4060 run?

With this card, you won't have problems with ray tracing and 1440p, but don't expect to get the same in Starfield (lol) - with the games that don't comply with DLSS, your performance will drop to 1080p. 8 GB memory may also be too small for some large new games such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk 2077, or and Red Dead Redemption 2. 

What is the price of GeForce RTX 4060?

Since June 2023, the GeForce RTX 4060 has been on sale for $299. The upgraded version, the RTX 4060 Ti ($400), comes with the same 8 GB VRAM and 4352 CUDA cores and has extremely low power consumption. The current price of the RTX 3060 is around $250.

What cards compete with GeForce RTX 4060?

The weak point of the card is its memory. It only has 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 128-bit bus, while the RTX 3060 boasted 12GB on a 192-bit bus. The new DLSS 3 system largely compensates for this lag in the card, but if you want a card with more volume and are not as interested in lay tracing , then it may be worth looking at alternatives. In the same price range, there are cards from Nvidia's main competitors, such as the Intel Arc A770 with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a 256-bit memory interface ($330), or the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT with 12GB of VRAM ($400).

Premium option from Nvidia: GeForce RTX 4090

However, there is no limit to perfection, and we also have got the GeForce RTX 4090 ($1599) on the market. It comes with 16384 cores, has 24 GB GDDR6X of VRAM and impresses with its performance... and also with its its price, $1599.