Whereas the mainstream Ada and Ampere choices aren’t going to do a lot when stacked up towards a number of the finest graphics playing cards available on the market, they’ve remained among the many hottest GPUs ever for his or her aggressive pricing and respectable gaming efficiency in 1080p.

We’re evaluating the RTX 4060 vs RTX 3060 to see whether or not one choice is wholly higher than one other; whether or not which means upgrading, or contemplating making a finances construct from scratch.

It is vital to notice that, in the identical means that the RTX 4060 changed the RTX 3060, the RTX 5060 Ti has now arrived on the scene because the Blackwell mainstream champion.

The RTX 5060 is rumored to reach later this 12 months. As such, it is vital to weigh up all of your choices if you’d like an economical construct that is prepared for right now’s video games.

The RTX 3060 is lengthy within the tooth, nonetheless, it has a shocking benefit over the 2 GPU generations that succeeded it, which we’ll contact on additional down the web page.

We’ll be evaluating the RTX 4060 vs RTX 3060 primarily based on their worth, specs, efficiency, and worth to be able to make an knowledgeable buying resolution.

Whereas neither of those playing cards will win reward as the most effective 4K graphics playing cards, we advocate studying up on newer GPUs just like the RTX 4070 Tremendous, RTX 5070, and RTX 5070 Ti if you’d like a higher-end gaming expertise.

Nvidia RTX 4060 vs RTX 3060: Value

Evaluating the RTX 4060 vs RTX 3060 is somewhat trickier in 2025, contemplating the age of the latter card.

Whereas the RTX 4060 launched in June 2023 with an MSRP of $299 / £289 / AU$545, the RTX 3060 hit the scene two years prior, in February 2021, with an MSRP of $329 / £264 / AU$430.

Taking at face worth, the previous was cheaper at launch within the US, with the latter extra inexpensive within the UK and Canada. Nonetheless, now we have to take the passage of time into consideration.

Regardless of its age, the RTX 3060 stays available in territories such because the US, the UK, and Australia from main retailers akin to Finest Purchase, Amazon, Scan, and Mwave.

It is fully attainable to search out two variants of the GPU in 2025 for across the $250 / £250 /AU$400 mark, making the cardboard a contact cheaper than the RTX 4060, which has but to be correctly changed by the upcoming RTX 5060.

• Winner: RTX 3060

Nvidia RTX 4060 vs RTX 3060: Specs

Evaluating the RTX 4060 vs RTX 3060 specs highlights the huge architectural variations that Ada employs in comparison with Ampere, with the latter favoring effectivity whereas scaling again on a number of the {hardware} discovered within the former.

At first look, it seems to be as if the Ampere card ought to be extra highly effective; it options almost 20% extra shaders, Tensor Cores, RT Cores, and double the Render Output Items (ROPs), however that is not fully the case.

It is all to do with how TSMC’s 5nm course of compares to Samsung’s 8nm course of. The additional parts on the PCB imply that the Ampere card has the next energy requirement by almost 50% (170W TDP vs 115W TDP), too.

Outlining how the RTX 4060 and RTX 3060 straight evaluate, although, is extra clear. They’re each entry-level playing cards that includes 8GB GDDR6 VRAM, at the least in a single configuration.

That is as a result of there’s an RTX 3060 12GB variant out there, which has been among the many hottest graphics playing cards on Steam for a few years, with 50% extra reminiscence to make the most of for gaming and creativity duties, regardless that it is dramatically slower.

The RTX 3060 options 15 Gbps efficient reminiscence in comparison with the RTX 4060’s 17 Gbps efficient reminiscence, a distinction of 13.3%. Regardless of this, the RTX 3060 has greater bandwidth by 32%, with 360GB/s in comparison with 272GB/s.

• Winner: RTX 4060

Nvidia RTX 4060 vs RTX 3060: Efficiency

Whereas worth and specs are a great indication for evaluating two graphics playing cards, it is the efficiency that proves the variations between the RTX 4060 vs RTX 3060 in gaming and artificial workloads.

Beginning with the artificial figures, the RTX 4060 impresses with assured scores in Time Spy Excessive, Firestrike Extremely, and Port Royal with 4,949, 5,709, and 6,033, respectively, in comparison with the RTX 3060’s weaker figures of 4,436, 5,222, and 5,038. Whereas the lead could not appear too dramatic, the Ada by round 20%.

1080p gaming additional highlights the efficiency variations between the RTX 4060 and the RTX 3060. We are able to see this with Metro Exodus (Extremely), with common framerates of 45fps within the former by solely 37fps within the latter. Nonetheless fully playable, certain, however removed from best.

Thankfully, issues enhance in less-demanding titles akin to Complete Battle: Warhammer 3 with the Ada card’s common of 84fps in comparison with the Ampere card’s 72fps, a distinction of 16%.

This pattern continues with Returnal, as the previous achieves 85fps in comparison with the latter’s 70fps (a 21% distinction). The hole’s somewhat smaller in Cyberpunk 2077 maxed out, because the RTX 4060 performs it at 79fps in comparison with the RTX 3060’s 70fps (a 13% hole).

You may must make the most of DLSS if you’d like to have the ability to use ray tracing in these demanding video games, even in 1080p. Relying on the setting (akin to High quality, Efficiency, and Extremely Efficiency), which downsamples to 720p earlier than upscaling again as much as 1080p with AI, you may hit playable framerates for essentially the most half.

We see this in Cyberpunk 2077 with maxed-out ray tracing at 59fps from the RTX 4060 however solely 48fps from the RTX 3060. It is a related story with Returnal (High quality) at 64fps from the RTX 4060 however 73fps from the RTX 3060 (displaying how the additional VRAM may be helpful underneath the best circumstances).

For essentially the most half, the RTX 4060 demonstrates anyplace from a 10-25% lead over the RTX 3060 in pure rasterization, which is muddied considerably by the totally different implementation of DLSS’ AI-upscaling. It is the stronger card for players, and advantages from Body Technology, a tech that Ampere customers simply will not have.

If we issue this tech into supported video games, then the hole will develop into even wider in favor of the entry-level Ampere GPU.

Must you purchase the RTX 4060 or RTX 3060?

Deciding between the RTX 4060 and RTX 3060 will rely largely on which one you’ll find cheaper and the form of video games you wish to play.

We advocate the Ada card over the Ampere one for the advantages of DLSS 3’s AI-upscaling, which can be wanted to get some video games as much as 60fps in 1080p and 1440p whereas nonetheless getting to make use of ray tracing the place applicable.

Nonetheless, if you’ll find the RTX 3060 12GB model considerably cheaper (new and even second-hand) then it could be a greater choice in the event you aren’t fussed about ray tracing and solely wish to play video games in 1080p with sufficient VRAM to spare.

• Winner: RTX 4060