This week NVIDIA is launching the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB, which was announced just last week, as part of the GeForce 4060 family. Besides the $400 RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB, there will be a 16 GB version ($500) and the RTX 4060 non-Ti 8 GB ($300), which both launch in July.

For the RTX 4060 Ti, NVIDIA is using the same review mechanics as during the RTX 4070 launch. Reviews of the Founders Edition and other cards at MSRP were allowed yesterday, reviews for cards costing more than $400 only today. While for RTX 4070 there was plenty of review action around the MSRP price point, this time we only had one card, but today we have three more reviews, bringing the total to five.

GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is based on the NVIDIA AD106 graphics processor, which also powers several laptop GPU models—for desktop it's the first release. RTX 4070 non-Ti and RTX 4070 Ti are both based on AD104. As expected, RTX 4060 uses the NVIDIA Ada architecture, which not only brings improvements to efficiency and ray tracing, it also comes with the DLSS 3 Frame Generation feature, which is a game changer, especially in the lower-end segments, where reaching decent FPS matters more than anything else.

MSI's GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X Trio is a factory overclocked custom-design variant with a large triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution. The factory OC is rated for 2670 MHz, or +135 MHz (+5.3%). This turns into a meager 1% performance improvement at 1080p—other custom designs aren't doing much better either. Actually, the Gaming X Trio achieved the largest OC performance gains out of these cards—that's just how OC SKUs work these days. Averaged over the 25 games in our test suite, at 1080p resolution, the RTX 4060 Ti is able to match last-generation's RTX 3070 and the older RTX 2080 Ti. The gen-over-gen performance improvement of the MSI RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X is only 14%, which is much less than what we've seen on the higher-end GeForce 40 cards. Compared to AMD's offerings, the RTX 4060 Ti can beat the RX 6700 XT by 10%, even though that card has 12 GB VRAM. The Radeon RX 6600 XT, Red Team's "x60" offering, is even 38% behind. With these performance numbers, the RTX 4060 Ti can easily reach over 60 FPS in all but the most demanding games at 1080p with maximized settings. Actually, the RTX 4060 Ti will capably run many games at 1440p, too, especially if you're willing to lower a few settings here and there.

As expected, ray tracing performance of RTX 4060 Ti is clearly better than its AMD counterparts. With RT enabled, the RTX 4060 Ti matches the Radeon RX 6800 XT, which is roughly two tiers above it. AMD's Radeon RX 6700 XT is a whopping 30% slower. Still, I'm not sure if ray tracing really matters in this segment. The technology comes with a big performance hit that I find difficult to justify, especially when you're already fighting to stay above 60 FPS in heated battles.

Probably the most important selling point for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation. The algorithm takes two frames, measures how things have moved in those two frames and calculates an intermediate frame in which these things moved only half the distance. While this approach is definitely not problem-free, especially when pixel-peeping at stills or slowed down video, in real-time it's nearly impossible to notice any difference. As you run at higher FPS and resolution it becomes even more difficult, because the deltas between each frame are getting smaller and smaller. Being able to double your FPS is a huge capability, because it means you can enable ray tracing for free, or game at higher resolutions. Of course you are limited to games with DLSS 3 support, of which there are currently around 40, mostly AAA titles, but not every title will support it. AMD doesn't have anything similar—they announced that FSR 3 exists last year and since then we haven't seen a single demo—maybe at Computex next week.

GeForce RTX 4060 Ti comes with a 8 GB VRAM buffer—same as last generation's RTX 3060 Ti. There have been heated discussions claiming that 8 GB is already "obsolete," I've even seen people say that about 12 GB. While it would be nice of course to have more VRAM on the RTX 4060 Ti, for the vast majority of games, especially at resolutions like 1080p, having more VRAM will make exactly zero difference. In our test suite not a single game shows any performance penalty for RTX 4060 Ti vs cards with more VRAM (at 1080p). New games like Resident Evil, Hogwarts Legacy, The Last of Us and Jedi Survivor do allocate a lot of VRAM, which doesn't mean all that data actually gets used. No doubt, you can find edge cases where 8 GB will not be enough, but for thousands of games it will be a complete non-issue, and I think it's not unreasonable for buyers in this price-sensitive segment to to set textures to High instead of Ultra, for two or three titles. If you still want more memory, then NVIDIA has you covered. The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB launches in July and gives people a chance to put their money where their mouth is. I'm definitely looking forward to testing the 16 GB version, but I doubt the performance differences can justify spending an extra $100.

The cooler on the Gaming X Trio is a serious chunk of meat and that shows in our thermal testing results. With just 56°C under full load, the card runs considerably cooler than the other RTX 4060 Ti cards that we've tested. Noise levels are next-level quiet, almost unbelievable. Just 23 dBA is so quiet that you must turn off everything in your room, stand next to the card on an open bench, focus on the card and you'll be able to make out the noise it is emitting—remember, this is at full gaming load. As soon as you move and your clothes rub against each other, their noise will overpower what little sound comes from the graphics card—very impressive! Just like all other recent graphics card releases, the RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X Trio will stop its fans in idle, desktop work, internet browsing and light gaming.

NVIDIA made big improvements to energy efficiency with their previous GeForce 40 cards, and the RTX 4060 Ti is no exception. With just 160 W, the power supply requirements are minimal, any beige OEM PSU will be able to drive the RTX 4060 Ti just fine, so upgraders can just plop in a new graphics card and they're good to go. Performance per Watt is among the best we've ever seen, similar to RTX 4070, slightly better than RTX 4070 Ti and Radeon RX 7900 XTX; only the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 are even more energy-efficient. While MSI runs at the same 160 W default power limit as other cards, the manual adjustment range is quite generous, up to 195 W, which is more than on all the other cards tested today.

MSI's RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X Trio is currently listed for $460, which is a pretty hefty $60 increase on top of the already extremely high MSRP of the RTX 4060 Ti. At that price point I find it impossible to recommend the card, considering that RTX 3080 is just another $40 away. $470 will buy you a Radeon RX 6800 non-XT with 16 GB. NVIDIA's 16 GB version of the RTX 4060 Ti is expected to go on sale for $500, dangerously close to this $470 price point, too. No doubt, you're getting a fantastic cooler with the Gaming X Trio, paired with amazing fan settings, but I wouldn't be willing to spend more than $30 for that—the other cards are quiet, too, and run cool enough. This high GPU pricing will drive more gamers away from the PC platform, to the various game consoles that are similarly priced and will give you a perfectly crafted first-class experience that works on your 4K TV, without any issues like shader compilation and other QA troubles. For GeForce 40 series cards, NVIDIA's force multiplier is DLSS 3, which offers a tremendous performance benefit in supported games. Features like AV1 video encode/decode and (lack of) DisplayPort 2.0 seem irrelevant in this segment, at least in my opinion. Strong competition comes from the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, which sells for $320, with only slightly less performance. That card has a 12 GB framebuffer, but lacks DLSS 3 and has weaker ray tracing performance. I don't think I'd buy a $400 RTX 3070, or a $320 RTX 3060 Ti—I'd rather have DLSS 3. If you can find a great deal on a used card, maybe consider that.