NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti vs 3060 Ti – Generational Leap No More? (Updated)

Last week, NVIDIA announced its latest 1080p gaming GPU – the GeForce RTX 4060 series. The 4060 family consists of three GPUs: an RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, and an RTX 4060. The RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and RTX 4060 will be available sometime in July. Meanwhile, the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB will be available starting May 24 for $399. So what does the RX 4060 Ti offer? What can we expect, and most importantly, how fast is the RTX 4060 Ti compared to its predecessor, the RTX 3060 Ti? That’s our subject for today. Let’s compare the RTX 4060 Ti vs RTX 3060 Ti and see if there’s any difference. Please continue reading below.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti vs RTX 3060 Ti

Right off the bat, the RTX 4060 Ti features 4352 CUDA cores, 136 4th gen Tensor cores, and 34 3rd gen RT cores. Meanwhile, the RTX 3060 Ti has 4864 CUDA cores, 152 3rd gen Tensor cores, and 38 2nd gen RT cores. Those numbers are correct! I didn’t get the numbers mixed up. The RTX 3060 Ti does have more CUDA cores than the RTX 4060 Ti.

When it comes to VRAM, both the RTX 4060 Ti and 3060 Ti have the same 8GB of GDDR6 memory, but the RTX 3060 Ti has a memory bandwidth of 448 GBps running on a 256-bit memory interface. Meanwhile, the RTX 4060 Ti seems to have slightly lower memory specs. It only has 288 GB/s of memory bandwidth and runs on a 128-bit memory interface. So how can the new RTX 4060 Ti run faster than its predecessor with a “slower” memory speed?

Well, NVIDIA increased the RTX 4060 Ti’s L2 cache. It has about 32MB of L2 cache, while the RTX 3060 Ti only has 4MB. According to NVIDIA, having a larger L2 cache decreases the chances of getting cache misses, thus requiring less VRAM. You can check out the rest of the specifications between the two GPUs below.

GeForce RTX 4060 Ti vs RTX 3060 Ti Specifications

Check the latest pricing and availability: (#ad)
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here.
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here.

Exclusive Features Offered by RTX 4060 Ti

There are several features that are exclusive to the RTX 4060 Ti. These features are common to the Ada Lovelace architecture, and all RTX 40 series GPUs have these features.

One feature that the RTX 4060 Ti has is DLSS 3 AI Frame generation. The RTX 3060 Ti does not support this feature, which is one advantage of the new RTX 40 series GPUs over its predecessor.

Another feature is the latest NVIDIA encoder with AV1 support. This is very useful to streamers and gamers who stream, upload or record their gameplay. The video quality using AV1 is not only better but is also more efficient than H.264.

GeForce RTX 4060 Ti vs 3060 Ti Performance Benchmarks

Finally, how fast is the RTX 4060 Ti compared to the RTX 3060 Ti? The embargo has lifted, and our RTX 4060 Ti review is up. So here’s how the RTX 3060 Ti compares against the RTX 4060 Ti’s performance.

RTX 3060 Ti vs RTX 4060 Ti – Synthetic Benchmarks

Based on our results, the RTX 4060 Ti is generally faster than the RTX 3060 Ti. However, the difference is small, especially when using a more graphics-intensive or demanding scenario like Speed Way, which uses ray tracing. These are just synthetic benchmarks and are graphics scores. So, let’s find out next how these two GPUs compare in actual games.

RTX 3060 Ti vs RTX 4060 Ti – Game Benchmarks

I’m going to drop all 14 games tested here. These games are mostly traditional rasterization benchmarks. Only Guardians of the Galaxy and Forza Horizon have their ray tracing enabled. You can check our full review of the RTX 4060 Ti to see more ray tracing and DLSS benchmarks. But it doesn’t really change the whole picture that much.

As you can see from the results above, the RTX 4060 Ti is only a few percent faster than the RTX 3060 Ti. I was surprised that the RTX 3060 Ti outperformed its predecessor in Monster Hunter World. I guess having a larger L2 cache helped the RTX 4060 Ti. Unfortunately, because the other aspects or specs of the RTX 4060 Ti are gimped, it didn’t really give us some substantial or even reasonable generational improvement.

Summary results

Here is the average of the 14 games. The RTX 4060 Ti is just around 10% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti in 1080p. And due to its limited memory size and speed, that performance difference dropped even further in 1440p. The RTX 4060 Ti is only around 6% faster at 1440p resolution. And honestly, you won’t be able to tell the difference whether you are running an RTX 3060 Ti or an RTX 4060 Ti in actual gameplay.

There’s really little to say, as the graphs speak for themselves. Without DLSS 3, the RTX 4060 Ti is disappointing performance-wise. I haven’t included DLSS 3 performance in the charts because it’s an exclusive feature on the RTX 40 series. And with DLSS 3 AI frame generation, it’s not about increasing the frame rate. It’s about producing generated or “fake” frames resulting in smoother gameplay. Unlike DLSS 2, where it can actually increase the frame rate, DLSS 3 makes your gameplay experience more playable and “smoother”, especially for graphics-intensive titles.

However, at this point, DLSS 3 is not that mature yet. I can observe visual imperfections, pixelations, and other visual anomalies. Unlike DLSS 2, an upscaling solution, it’s mostly a polished technology and is far better than when it was first introduced. With the latest version of DLSS 2, games look better, and sometimes, depending on the scenario, it can produce a better image than native rendering.

Pricing and Availability

When it comes to pricing, the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB starts at $399; meanwhile, the RTX 3060 Ti 8GB had a launch price of $399 as well. However, we all know that the RTX 30 series didn’t launch at their MSRP—the prices were only on paper. The RTX 30 series cards’ retail prices were 2 to 3x more than the MSRP then. This is due to the crypto boom and the scalpers jacking up the prices. People and companies were buying these cards in bulk for mining.

However, I’m sure it will be different this time since GPU mining is mostly dead. Ethereum has moved to proof of stake, and you really can’t use GPUs to mine Bitcoin. It’s just impractical. So, most of these RTX 4060 Ti cards will be available and start to sell at their respective MSRPs. And if the sales are poor due to lackluster performance, we may see prices dropping earlier than expected. Even some of the best RTX 4080 cards are now selling below MSRP.

Check the latest pricing and availability: (#ad)
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here.
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards are available on Amazon.com here.

RTX 4060 Ti vs RTX 3060 Ti Conclusion

Well, you have seen the results above, and it is not totally bad for the RTX 4060 Ti. But it is disappointing. It feels like NVIDIA is not selling the RTX 4060 Ti in terms of raw performance. But they are selling the additional features, like DLSS 3 and newer NVENC with AV1 support. If you need AV1 support and you like DLSS 3, then maybe yes, the RTX 4060 Ti could work for your needs, especially if you are coming from a really older generation of GPU, like GTX GPUs.

Also, something that wasn’t included in the graphs is the RTX 4060 Ti’s efficiency. This GPU is more efficient than its predecessor, which I think is excellent. It only consumed around 145 watts (average) in our testing. But I doubt that will excite gamers since performance is what really matters at the end of the day.

Had NVIDIA only increased its memory to about 10GB and perhaps not gimped some of its specs, we might have gotten a much better-performing RTX 4060 Ti GPU. Before I got my RTX 4060 Ti cards, I expected it would at least outperform the RTX 3070 or perhaps perform on par with the RTX 3070 Ti. That would bring the RTX 4060 Ti closer to the RTX 4070’s performance. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Instead, we got a “beefed up” RTX 3060 Ti with DLSS 3 and AV1 support.

I think the only way NVIDIA could save this GPU, get a favorable response from the community, and increase demand/sales is by decreasing its starting price. They can’t improve the performance anymore since it is physically impossible at this point. Well, that’s it for me for today. What do you think of the RTX 4060 Ti in general? Are you planning to get one?