NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Slides Down to $279

[Chrispy_]

It's still a turd; Nobody should be spending more than $200 on an 8GB card, period. That was true for most of 2023 and it's become even more obvious at this point.

Buy the RX6600 8GB, it's $190 brand new - or pick up a used 3070 which has plummeted in value simply because 8GB is way too little VRAM for a card of its calibre.

If you must have a brand new Nvidia card for CUDA and DLSS then buy a last-gen 3060 12GB for $20 less. It's barely 10% slower but you don't have to suffer a crippled PCIe lane count or the pathetic 128-bit bus that belongs solely in the sub-$200 sector. In 2025 you may need to use DLSS to get playable frame rates but at least you will be able to load the detailed textures, which are 90% of what matters when it comes to image quality.

 

[Onasi]

It's still a turd; Nobody should be spending more than $200 on an 8GB card, period. That was true for most of 2023 and it's become even more obvious at this point.

Agreed. I am not even that much of a “needs more VRAM” devotee, but the stagnation is just ludicrous at this point. I usually shop in the 400-ish bucks range for my GPU and what NV offers is a 8 gig card. Like, come on, the 1070 with the same 8 gig went for 380… 8 years ago. And the budget range is even worse. It blows my mind that neither vendor managed to get out a no-brainer option in the most populated market segments this gen, which is what 200-400 dollar range is. I guess Intel kinda sorta did okay, but they still have long ways to go.

 

[Chrispy_]

Agreed. I am not even that much of a “needs more VRAM” devotee, but the stagnation is just ludicrous at this point. I usually shop in the 400-ish bucks range for my GPU and what NV offers is a 8 gig card. Like, come on, the 1070 with the same 8 gig went for 380… 8 years ago. And the budget range is even worse. It blows my mind that neither vendor managed to get out a no-brainer option in the most populated market segments this gen, which is what 200-400 dollar range is. I guess Intel kinda sorta did okay, but they still have long ways to go.

Forget $380 - 8 years ago the RX480 launched at $239, and 2 years later in Summer 2018 the market was flooded with $120-150 RX570 8GB cards brand new. I picked up at least a hundred to refurbish every machine I could find with old 4GB or 2GB cards in them. That may have been an anomaly from the external influence of the mining boom and bust, but even before the crypto crash in 2018, the full, un-discounted MSRP of those cards was only $199 at launch in 2017.

So if 6 years ago 8GB GPUs were commodity items from dozens of brands for under $150, why do $399 cards like the 4060Ti still only have 8GB on a cut-down 128-bit bus? Raytracing actually needs more VRAM and bandwidth so the RT part of RTX is actually useless on these cards.

 

[Onasi]

@Chrispy_
I am sure someone might mention “muh inflation” at this point, even though the other segments of the DIY hardware market and tech in general has trended up in price to performance despite said inflation. Well, maybe aside from motherboards, I have no idea WTF happened there (I am somewhat facetious, yes, PCI-E becomes more expensive to implement with every gen, so thats part of the increase). Funny that. But it seems that as long as NV can put out anything and it will sell, AMD deciding it rather not compete and Intel still growing through growing pains we have what we have. But if a hypothetical 5060 comes out with 8 gigs I will absolutely flip the table. I mean, it probably will have at least 12… for like 399 or something and performing equally to a 4060Ti. 4070 non-S in best case. Yeah, I am deliberately going for the pessimistic option so that anything better is a pleasant surprise.

 

[xBruce88x]

Still double the price I paid for an RX6600, but getting better.

Yes the RX6600 has been on my radar and "target locked" for quite a while, whilst occasionally considering the 6600xt/6650XT. Just have some financial things to sort before I pull that trigger!

@Chrispy_
I am sure someone might mention “muh inflation” at this point, even though the other segments of the DIY hardware market and tech in general has trended up in price to performance despite said inflation. Well, maybe aside from motherboards, I have no idea WTF happened there (I am somewhat facetious, yes, PCI-E becomes more expensive to implement with every gen, so thats part of the increase). Funny that. But it seems that as long as NV can put out anything and it will sell, AMD deciding it rather not compete and Intel still growing through growing pains we have what we have. But if a hypothetical 5060 comes out with 8 gigs I will absolutely flip the table. I mean, it probably will have at least 12… for like 399 or something and performing equally to a 4060Ti. 4070 non-S in best case. Yeah, I am deliberately going for the pessimistic option so that anything better is a pleasant surprise.

Let me just point out this little site...

https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2012?amount=200

$200 that everyone has quoted probably based on cards they bought "back in the day, 2012?" is worth about $270 today. So, 280 is pretty "close enough". Unless they mean the card should be $150 from back then being about $200 today.

An easy way to think of inflation is like interest rates on a car loan. Little % number = big difference over time!

 

[Chrispy_]

Yes the RX6600 has been on my radar and "target locked" for quite a while, whilst occasionally considering the 6600xt/6650XT. Just have some financial things to sort before I pull that trigger!


Let me just point out this little site...

https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2012?amount=200

$200 that everyone has quoted probably based on cards they bought "back in the day, 2012?" is worth about $270 today. So, 280 is pretty "close enough". Unless they mean the card should be $150 from back then being about $200 today.

An easy way to think of inflation is like interest rates on a car loan. Little % number = big difference over time!

Yeah, that's definitely true, but the reason I picked sub-$200 has nothing to do with historical pricing and everything to do with the fact that 8GB is firmly entry-level in 2024 and struggles with some games from the last two years now. I ditched my 6GB card way back in 2020 because I couldn't run Doom Eternal without turning down texture quality, and that was even BEFORE raytracing was added! We've had two more generations from Nvidia since then and they went backwards with VRAM capacity for what is arguably their most popular SKU.

If you want to look at entry-level and historic pricing, then a decade ago Maxwell architecture launched at $149 in 2014, which is still only $195 in 2024. Unlike today's RTX 4060, the little GTX 750Ti could run absolutely any game of its day at max settings, thanks to having 2GB of relatively fast VRAM when flagships had 3GB and most games rarely needing more than 1GB. These days, not only does Nvidia cripple their cards by cutting down on VRAM, but they also use slower RAM speeds, aggressive clock and power limiting, all while cutting down on PCIe lanes which is something that didn't really exist a decade ago unless you look at the $25-50 display adapters like the GT705 and GT710 which were just extremely cut-down and using two-generation-old silicon from mobile parts.

 

[xBruce88x]

People weren't running ALL games at the max detail of the day on a 750ti. Or at the least at 1440p which is basically 4k of that time. Many were aiming for 1080p med or even 900p

If you look around though you can get an RX6600 for around that price though. nVidia has always had a bit of a price bump over AMD.

I'll admit it's not an ideal situation, especially with upscale tech being a big crutch now

 

[Fietser]

Prices here in The Netherlands for the 4060 are still the same.

 

[Chrispy_]

Prices here in The Netherlands for the 4060 are still the same.
View attachment 342270

It's a retailer-level discount, so it's going to be regional.
You won't see a global discount unless AMD enacts worldwide official MSRP changes to spur Nvidia to compete.

People weren't running ALL games at the max detail of the day on a 750ti. Or at the least at 1440p which is basically 4k of that time. Many were aiming for 1080p med or even 900p

It was an entry-level card, priced like a 3050 6GB is today. The fact you didn't have several AAA games warning you about a shortage of VRAM is what I'm getting at.

I vaguely remember Doom 2016 running fluidly at 1080p medium, but with the higher quality textures that having enough VRAM afforded you. Being an entry level GPU it simply didn't have the horsepower to push high framerates at high resolution but if you were using a 768p or 900p display (not an unreasonable assumption for someone buying an entry-level GPU in 2014) you could crank the settings up to ultra even in a AAA game two whole years after you bought your GPU.

If you buy an 8GB card today, you're already in trouble with some games on the day of purchase and it's only going to be a total shit-show two years from now....

 

[AleXXX666]

An ok price, but waaay too late. Whoever wanted one, got one already. And who didn't and waited so far, will keep waiting for the next gen.

It used to be that video cards were launched at sane prices and could be had for cheap when close to being replaced. Nowadays video cards launch at ridiculous prices and when close to being replace they hit what should have been the launch MSRP. A good time to be making or selling these, I guess.

there are always two groups:
1. LOL look bro LMFAO look at them prices, I'll wait for the next gen! (laugh-tell-laugh with friend-repeat)
2. WOW another drop price and I got the money/loan (oh fk start laughing your a$$es) for building a PC, great

Prices here in The Netherlands for the 4060 are still the same.
View attachment 342270

that's why MSRP and "local prices" ALWAYS differ... unfortunately

 

[bug]

there are always two groups:
1. LOL look bro LMFAO look at them prices, I'll wait for the next gen! (laugh-tell-laugh with friend-repeat)
2. WOW another drop price and I got the money/loan (oh fk start laughing your a$$es) for building a PC, great

There's only one group: people that want or do not want a card at the asking price.
Expressing opinions about prices in random forums is mostly just venting/bragging.

 

[Fietser]

For the ones who can just manage to buy this card, I'd say it's a good choice!
You could also buy a RX7600 I guess, but between these 2, nVidia has the advantage in my opinion.

 

[bug]

For the ones who can just manage to buy this card, I'd say it's a good choice!
You could also buy a RX7600 I guess, but between these 2, nVidia has the advantage in my opinion.

Yeah, for the asking price the offer is much more reasonable today than it was a year ago. But imho we're still not getting enough bang for the buck. Thus, my 1060 gets to serve me a little longer.

 

[Chrispy_]

$280 is low enough that if you have specific circumstances (must not use more than 150W, will never render above 1080p, aren't worried about highest graphics settings) then the 4060 makes sense. Especially in terms of power draw (so for cramped cases in noise-sensitive environments) the 4060 cannot be beaten.

Neither AMD nor Intel are compelling in the $250-300 space either - Intel has compatibility issues and extremely variable performance, still. AMD also offer 8GB cards which get my downvote for the exact same reason I downvoted the 4060. Realistically you buy a 12GB card from the last generation (doesn't matter whether it's Nvidia or AMD) or you just save almost $100 and get a sub-$200 card where the VRAM and bandwidth shortcomings are priced easier to swallow.