The Nvidia RTX 4060 could be the GPU to save PC gaming unless this leak is true

Date:
Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:12:12 +0000

Description:
VRAM limitations suggest that Nvidias more affordable RTX 4000 cards could underwhelm, and thats a serious problem.

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As we recently reported, Nvidias budget desktop GPUs are expected to land in the next couple of months , with the RTX 4060 rumored to be launching in May and the RTX 4060 Ti and 4050 supposedly dropping around the same May-June window.

What we didnt know at the time was that freshly leaked specs for the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti had also surfaced, with VideoCardz reporting on that as well as further corroborating the suggested May release date.

Those leaked specs have me pretty worried, though. My colleague John Loeffler already raised concerns about the RTX 4060 back in February, and Im here to double down on those claims: the most recent rumors have all but confirmed that both the 4060 and its big brother the 4060 Ti will only have 8GB of
GDDR6 (not the GDDR6X found in the currently available RTX 4000 cards) with a 128-bit bus. Thats not good.

Compared to the RTX 3060 Ti , thats the same amount of video memory with literally half the bus width, and both of these cards have fewer shader cores too. Sure, its built on newer, faster architecture, so the baseline performance will be better, but the VRAM situation is concerning. Analysis: 8GB is rapidly becoming insufficient for triple-A PC games

See, while 8GB of on-card video memory is fine in most instances, were seeing more and more games start to really guzzle that VRAM. As our good friends
over at PCGamer pointed out, the recent PC port of The Last of Us: Part 1 glugs down more than 8GB of memory and thats just at 1080p High. Crank up
the resolution or graphical quality and youre going to be looking at much worse.

Sure, TLOUs PC port has been notoriously poorly optimized, but the reality here is that its a phenomenally popular game that youd struggle to run well
at 1080p without 12GB of VRAM. Plenty of recent games can chew up more than 8GB, especially at 1440p and 4K.

Although we dont have pricing for Nvidias next-gen budget GPUs yet, Id expect the RTX 4060 Ti to land somewhere in the $300-500 range a price comparable
to AMDs RX 6700 XT , which notably does have 12GB of VRAM. Im basing that price tag assumption on the RTX 3060 Ti s list price, and the newly-leaked pricing for the RTX 4070 , incidentally. (Image credit: The Last of Us) This could be a make-or-break moment for Nvidia

The RTX 4060 (and, to a lesser extent, the 4060 Ti) are the GPUs Ive personally been waiting for. Yes, I know the RTX 4090 s performance is earth-shatteringly fast, but its the RTX 4070 Ti that sits at the top of our best graphics cards list and thats because its better value for money.

The fact is that most gamers (and plenty of professional content creators) simply cant afford to drop over $1,000 on a new GPU. Im more interested in
the best cheap graphics cards - I used a trusty old Nvidia GTX 1060 for
years, and it served me well. If we take a look at the Steam Hardware Survey
, we can see that Nvidias xx60 cards account for four of the top five most-used GPUs among PC gamers.

Its clear that these more affordable graphics cards are the ones gamers actually want (or at least, can reasonably afford to buy), so theres a lot riding on the RTX 4060. Im seriously worried that itll underperform and Nvidia really needs at least one of its budget RTX 4000 lineup to offer excellent bang for your buck.

I hope this latest round of rumors is incorrect; or at least that Nvidia can make that 8GB of GDDR6 stretch farther than expected. The RTX 4060 needs to follow the 3060 and 2060 as the most-used desktop card of this new
generation. Prove the naysayers wrong, Nvidia!



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/the-nvidia-rtx-4060-could-be-the-gpu-to-save-pc -gaming-unless-this-leak-is-true


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