As we just lately reported, Nvidia’s funds desktop GPUs are anticipated to land within the subsequent couple of months, with the RTX 4060 rumored to be launching in Could – and the RTX 4060 Ti and 4050 supposedly dropping across the similar Could-June window.
What we didn’t know on the time was that freshly leaked specs for the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti had additionally surfaced, with VideoCardz reporting on that – in addition to additional corroborating the instructed Could launch date.
These leaked specs have me fairly nervous, although. My colleague John Loeffler already raised issues in regards to the RTX 4060 again in February, and I’m right here to double down on these claims: the newest rumors have all however confirmed that each the 4060 and its massive brother the 4060 Ti will solely have 8GB of GDDR6 (not the GDDR6X discovered within the at present out there RTX 4000 playing cards) with a 128-bit bus. That’s… not good.
In comparison with the RTX 3060 Ti, that’s the identical quantity of video reminiscence with actually half the bus width, and each of those playing cards have fewer shader cores too. Positive, it’s constructed on newer, sooner structure, so the baseline efficiency might be higher, however the VRAM state of affairs is regarding.
Evaluation: 8GB is quickly turning into inadequate for triple-A PC video games
See, whereas 8GB of on-card video reminiscence is okay in most cases, we’re seeing increasingly video games begin to actually guzzle that VRAM. As our good mates over at PCGamer identified, the current PC port of The Final of Us: Half 1 glugs down greater than 8GB of reminiscence – and that’s simply at 1080p Excessive. Crank up the decision or graphical high quality and also you’re going to be a lot worse.
Positive, TLOU’s PC port has been notoriously poorly optimized, however the actuality right here is that it’s a phenomenally standard recreation that you just’d battle to run properly at 1080p with out 12GB of VRAM. Loads of current video games can chew up greater than 8GB, particularly at 1440p and 4K.
Though we don’t have pricing for Nvidia’s next-gen funds GPUs but, I’d anticipate the RTX 4060 Ti to land someplace within the $300-500 vary – a worth akin to AMD’s RX 6700 XT, which notably does have 12GB of VRAM. I’m basing that price ticket assumption on the RTX 3060 Ti’s checklist worth, and the newly-leaked pricing for the RTX 4070, by the way.
This may very well be a make-or-break second for Nvidia
The RTX 4060 (and, to a lesser extent, the 4060 Ti) are the GPUs I’ve personally been ready for. Sure, I do know the RTX 4090’s efficiency is earth-shatteringly quick, however it’s the RTX 4070 Ti that sits on the high of our greatest graphics playing cards checklist – and that’s as a result of it’s higher worth for cash.
The very fact is that the majority players (and loads of skilled content material creators) merely can’t afford to drop over $1,000 on a brand new GPU. I’m extra within the greatest low-cost graphics playing cards – I used a trusty previous Nvidia GTX 1060 for years, and it served me properly. If we check out the Steam Hardware Survey, we will see that Nvidia’s xx60 playing cards account for 4 of the highest 5 most-used GPUs amongst PC players.
It’s clear that these extra reasonably priced graphics playing cards are those players truly need (or not less than, can moderately afford to purchase), so there’s quite a bit driving on the RTX 4060. I’m significantly nervous that it’ll underperform – and Nvidia actually wants not less than one in all its funds RTX 4000 lineup to supply wonderful bang to your buck.
I hope this newest spherical of rumors is inaccurate; or not less than that Nvidia could make that 8GB of GDDR6 stretch farther than anticipated. The RTX 4060 must comply with the 3060 and 2060 because the most-used desktop card of this new technology. Show the naysayers incorrect, Nvidia!