Is RTX 4060 a good 1080p gaming graphics card?

Modified Apr 10, 2024 23:24 GMT

Picture of RTX 4060 GPU with its box package — The RTX 4060 GPU with its box package (Hardware Unboxed/YouTube)

Nvidia labels the RTX 4060 as a good 1080p gaming graphics card. The company has given the card all sorts of features, such as DLSS, DLSS ray reconstruction, and DLSS frame generation, to make it more appealing. However, does it have the horsepower needed to run modern games comfortably at 1080p now and in the future? Yes and no, depending on the type of games you play with it.

This article explains in what aspects the RTX 4060 is a good 1080P gaming graphics card and whether you should buy it. It also provides an alternative at a lower price.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions.

What does RTX 4060 bring to the table?

The RTX 4060 GPU with its box package (Image via Hardware Unboxed/YouTube)

The Nvidia RTX 4060 is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture and is the company’s third generation of RTX graphics cards.

Nvidia has made some real headroom in terms of performance and efficiency. In fact, the RTX 4060 consumes just 115W of power to deliver slightly higher performance than the previous RTX 3060, which consumes 170W of power. This should tell you just how good this GPU is in terms of performance per watt.

Here are all the specs you need to know to get a general idea of what this card is capable of:

Specifications	Details
Shader Units	3072
RT cores	24
TMUs	96
ROPs	48
Base clock	1820 MHz
Boost clock	2460 MHz
VRAM size	8GB
VRAM bus width	128-bit
VRAM bandwidth	272 GB/sec
Manufacturing node	TSMC 5nm
Thermal design power	115W
Price	$285

The two things that stick out from the spec sheet are the number of shader cores and memory bus width. The previous RTX 3060 had 3584 shader cores and 192-bit memory bus width. However, the newer RTX 4060 has 3072 shader cores and 128-bit memory bus width. There's a decrease in shader cores and memory bus width.

However, since the card is based on a new architecture, fewer cores can do more work. Hence, the GPU is still faster, but is it fast enough to be a good 1080P gaming graphics card?

Also check out the five best 1080P GPUs in 2024.

Is RTX 4060 a good 1080P gaming graphics card?

Forza Horizon 5 running on the RTX 4060 (Image via Hardware Unboxing/YouTube)

Let's put the RTX 4060 through a series of real-world game tests to see how it performs. All the game data used here are from the Hardware Unboxed team on YouTube.

Performance

Here's how the RTX 4060 performs in various games at 1080p with High/Ultra graphics options:

Games	Performance
Fortnite	108 FPS
Resident Evil 4	106 FPS
Plague Tale: Requiem	66 FPS
F1 22	83 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	82 FPS
Dying Light 2 Stay Human	87 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	101 FPS
Spider-Man Remastered	149 FPS
Hogwarts Legacy	63 FPS
Halo Infinite	93 FPS
The Last of Us Part 1	55 FPS
Hitman 3	109 FPS

Now, the RTX 4060 is a good 1080P gaming graphics card. It has managed to deliver over 60 FPS in almost all games except The Last of Us Part 1. In this title, it not only scored lower FPS, but its 1% lows were also abysmal. This is due to VRAM overflow, which still plagues all 8GB VRAM graphics cards.

The Last of US Part 1 often requires over 9GB VRAM, which this card doesn't have, so its performance suffers a lot. More games have been released recently, such as Talos Principle 2 and Forspoken. They also have issues with this card’s 8GB VRAM of this card. Future titles with even more intensive graphics will also face issues with this card.

So yes, the RTX 4060 can play games at 1080p comfortably in many games. However, the card faces issues in some titles.

Pricing

The RTX 4060 launched at $299 and is currently available at $10 to $15 less, which isn't a great deal. Anything above $250 doesn't sound like great value for money.

Alternative option

The Radeon 7600 with its box (Image via Hardware Unboxed/YouTube)

The best alternative to the RTX 4060 is the Radeon RX 7600, which costs $259.99. The Radeon 7600 costs $35 to $40 less while delivering more or less the same performance. It is also a good 1080p gaming graphics card.