Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 16GB vs. RTX 4060 Ti 8GB: How big is the difference in video games? 

The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB hits shelves today. The GPU is Nvidia's $500 offering for this generation. On paper, the cards are identical apart from the memory size and a slight bump in power draw. Additionally, this is a silent launch. Nvidia isn't sending samples to reviewers, that generally helps market the GPU and sell more units.

The graphics card, however, isn't what we expected from a quick look at the specs charts. Although the underlying hardware is the same, the extra VRAM helps with the performance in certain scenarios.

Let's examine how the two RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards compare at various resolutions and video games.

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The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB and 16 GB share a ton in common

Specs

On paper, the RTX 4060 Ti variants are identical. They are based on the same AD106 GPU and come with 4,352 CUDA cores each. Both GPUs feature 34 RT cores and 32 MB L2 cache.

The biggest change is the VRAM size. 8 GB is already falling out of fashion as video games get increasingly demanding. Thus, 16 GB video memory will help future-proof the 4060 Ti.

The specs of the two variants of the 4060 Ti are listed below:

	Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB	Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB
Graphics processor	AD106	AD106
CUDA cores	4,352	4,352
TMUs	136	136
ROPs	136	136
Memory size	16 GB	8 GB
Memory type	18 Gbps 128-bit GDDR6	18 Gbps 128-bit GDDR6
RT cores	34	34
Boost clock	2535 MHz	2535 MHz
TDP	165W	160W
Price	$499	$399

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The performance difference is not what we expected

In the launch event, Nvidia claimed that the 8 GB and the 16 GB cards will be identical. For $100 more, gamers can get slightly more VRAM. However, that was mainly marketed as a feature.

Performance of the two versions of the RTX 4060 Ti in some of the most graphically demanding titles in the market today are as follows (values are in FPS):

	RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB	RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB
Cyberpunk 2077 1440p	55	56
Cyberpunk 2077 4K	34	44
Hogwarts Legacy 1440p	72	73
Hogwarts Legacy 4K	31	43
Horizon Zero Dawn 1440p	93	94
Horizon Zero Dawn 4K	32	54
Microsoft Flight Simulator 1440p	82	83
Microsoft Flight Simulator 4K	41	52
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 1440p	55	56
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 4K	34	45

Nvidia's claims stand true if you solely plan to play video games at 1080p and 1440p. The extra VRAM doesn't come in handy since the game is bottlenecked by the CPU anyways. However, the story is completely different at 4K.

It is pretty evident that the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB only makes sense for those who want to play games at 4K today. We can make an educated guess that in the upcoming few years, 1440p and 1080p performance will be the same as 4K because games are getting more demanding.

The card is built to last for five to six years without performance and VRAM issues. In more ways than not, this GPU shares the DNA of the GTX 1060 6 GB, which continues to be one of the most popular graphics cards ever, even seven years after launch.

Thus, if you don't plan to upgrade for the next four to five years, the 16 GB card makes more sense. However, if you mainly play at 1080p and a bit of 1440p and don't mind upgrading GPUs every two years, the 8 GB card will suffice.