The upcoming Nvidia RTX 4060 may be hitting the market earlier than anticipated, as against previous estimates of a July launch. Given its less impressive specifications juxtaposed with a very affordable price, could the RTX 4060 potentially be one of the top GPUs of the year?
Twitter leaker, MEGAsizeGPU, disseminated a document that reveals several key dates associated with the Nvidia RTX 4060. The document suggests that Nvidia is accelerating the release process of this budget GPU.
The leaked document specifies that Nvidia began shipping the RTX 4060 on June 12, and it’s set to hit the market on June 29. Review embargoes are expected to lift on June 28 for cards with a $299 retail price, and on June 29 for higher-priced models. The latter refers to versions produced by Nvidia’s board partners that feature slightly enhanced specifications.
In terms of performance, the RTX 4060 might not impress with its diminished core count compared to the RTX 3060, similar to how the RTX 4060 Ti had fewer cores than the RTX 3060 Ti. Allegedly, the card will carry 3,072 CUDA cores (compared to 3,584 in the 3060) and 8GB of memory across a 128-bit bus. Despite the fact that 8GB VRAM might not suffice for gaming in 2023, the RTX 4060 might pull it off, thanks to its significantly lower $299 price tag.
However, the RTX 4060 may have one advantage over its predecessor – its total graphics power (TGP). While the RTX 3060 had a TGP of 170 watts, its Ada Lovelace counterpart is rumored to operate at just 115W. The RTX 4060 is also expected to have a substantially increased cache size, similar to the other RTX 40-series cards. This could compensate for the significant core count reduction.
Essentially, the RTX 4060 is a budget-friendly GPU that requires low power, but it might not offer premium performance in return. It is expected to be most suitable for budget PC builds and primarily for 1080p gaming.
The upcoming challenge is to see how it measures against AMD’s Radeon RX 7600, which is priced $30 lower. However, Nvidia does provide DLSS 3, a major attraction for the rather pricey Ada Lovelace generation. In the meantime, Nvidia is preparing to release an RTX 4060 Ti with 16GB VRAM and a price tag of $500. However, the launch date remains uncertain.