The new Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 8GB was supposed to replace the RTX 3060 Ti and provide an upgrade path for people using older graphics cards. This card comes in at around $400, and according to Nvidia, it is meant for 1080p gamers. This is rather odd since my 3060 Ti runs games fine at 1440p. So, should you buy an Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 8GB? Here is what you need to know.
Is The Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Worth Buying In 2023?
Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Vs 3060 Ti Specifications
| Specifications | RTX 4060 Ti | RTX 3060 Ti |
| CUDA Cores | 4352 | 4864 |
| RT Cores | 34 (3rd Gen) | 38 (2nd Gen) |
| Tensor Cores | 136 (4th gen) | 152 (3rd gen) |
| Base Clock Speed | 2310 MHz | 1410 MHz |
| Boost Clock Speed | 2535 MHz | 1665 MHz |
| Memory Speed | 9000 MHz | 7000 MHz |
| VRAM | 8GB | 8GB |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit | 256-bit |
| L2 Cache Size | 32.7 MB | 4 MB |
| Recommended PSU | 550W | 600W |
| TGP | 160W | 200W |
With the release of a new graphics card, you would expect it to have better features than its predecessor, but that is not the case with the RTX 4060 Ti. It actually has fewer CUDA Cores, RT Cores, and Tensor Cores than the RTX 3060 Ti. To make matters worse, Nvidia has stuck with 8GB of VRAM and has decreased the memory interface from 256-bit to 128-bit, which is the main reason why this graphics card performs so poorly. While Nvidia claims that the additional L2 cache should counter the effects of the limited memory interface, it does not make much of a difference in most titles.
Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Performance
While Nvidia has heavily marketed the RTX 4060 Ti as a 1080p graphics card, it is capable of 1440p gaming. Whether or not you should buy one for that purpose is a different story. On average, the RTX 4060 Ti barely provides a boost in performance when compared to the 3060 Ti at 1080p. You get a performance boost of roughly 8% at most, which you can get by simply overclocking the 3060 Ti. This is mainly due to the limited memory interface compared to the previous generation.
Increasing the resolution to 1440p gives the RTX 4060 Ti a tiny 5% lead over the RTX 3060 Ti in Rainbow Six Siege. In Cyberpunk 2077, we see a performance boost of 4 FPS, which is rather lackluster, keeping in mind that these two graphics cards are a generation apart from one another and that the RTX 3060 Ti was released in February 2022.
Increase the resolution to 4K, and the results get worse. The 3060 Ti is able to beat the newer RTX 4060 Ti in games such as Total War: War Hammer 3. While these cards are not meant for 4K gaming, it just goes to show the kind of “generational increase in performance” the RTX 4060 Ti has to offer. Furthermore, the 3060 Ti matches the performance of the 4060 Ti in Rainbow Six Siege at 4K.
Conclusion
The RTX 4060 Ti is one of the worst graphics cards that Nvidia has released, and the complete lack of interest from consumers and reviews from enthusiasts show that it is dead on arrival. No wonder Nvidia is looking to release a 16GB variant. The performance improvement compared to the previous generation RTX 3060 Ti is minimal, and if you have one, then you can simply overclock it to get similar performance rather than buying an RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. Nvidia is heavily marketing DLSS 3.0 since the RTX 4060 Ti really needs those lower pixel counts to perform better.