Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB review: the disappointment is real

Game benchmarks: Control, Cyberpunk 2077, F1 22, Forza Horizon 5.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on May 25, 2023

So far, the RTX 4060 Ti has been a mixed bag. It's generally around 10 to 15 percent ahead of its predecessor, which isn't exactly amazing, and even frame generation has a hit or miss effect. That situation is based on results predominantly using ray tracing and reconstruction, so how about straight rasterisation? We should expect results up against prior generation Nvidia cards to close up - and we should also expect a much stronger showing from the RX 6700 XT.

Owing to the way users may be jumping around our benchmarking pages, you may be missing out on an explainer of how our benchmarking system presents. Our system offers a number of ways to get to the data you want, the presentation varying according to the device you're using. You'll get a basic overview of our findings on mobile, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is an interactive bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Control

As the 'corridor of doom' is such a demanding area of Remedy's Control, we've relocated our rasterisation benchmark to the same area because it turns out that it's not the RT element that makes this place so demanding - it's inherent to the whole game. First up, an explanation for the weird RTX 4090 result at 1080p resolution. Pretty much from start to finish, the game sits at its 240fps limit, causing massive frame-time fluctuations, delivering those startling lowest one percent and five percent scores - worse then the 4080 and even 4070 Ti.

At 1440p, the 4060 Ti is underwhelming. A seven percentage point lead over the RTX 3060 Ti is going to have anyone rushing to the shops, while RTX 3070 is circa nine points to the better. Even so, the 4060 Ti keeps the wolf from the door in that it manages to inch ahead of the RX 6700 XT by around eight percent, AMD's best challenger in the same pricing ballpark.

You won't be playing this game at 4K resolution - certainly not without DLSS in play at least - but even so, it'd disheartening to see the 4060 Ti reduced to level pegging with its predecessor. Back at 1440p, there are big gains vs the venerable GTX 1070 but a 46 percentage point lead over the 2060 Super isn't amazing bearing in mind the five year gap. Again, the relative performance increases are higher for 4070 up against 2070 and 2070 Super.

Control, High, 4x MSAA

Cyberpunk 2077

From the highs of seeing a $400 GPU running a path-traced Cyberpunk 2077 experience at reconstructed 1440p no less, it's back down to earth with a crunch as we examine the numbers on rasterised ultra settings. Again, 1440p is our focus where the new card can barely eke out a one percentage point lead over its predecessor, with the RTX 3070 around 18 percent faster. Meanwhile, the RX 6700 XT leaves it for dust.

You're getting over twice the performance of a GTX 1070 but that's hardly a great result bearing in mind that we're looking at 2016 technology there, while the gen-on-gen gains up against the 2060 Super clock in at just 30 percent. We'd put good money down on the bandwidth-constrained memory interface being the culprit here and this may explain similarly poor gains from RTX 4070 compared to its predecessors.

Cyberpunk 2077, Ultra, TAA

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 has been something of a champion for showing Ada Lovelace GPUs in a highly compelling light, but it's all business as usual at this point with the RTX 4060 Ti at 1440p around ten percent ahead of its predecessor while delivering 94 percent of the RTX 3070's performance. We're effectively on level performance versus the RX 6700 XT on this one.

You're getting a 2.2x performance multiplier against the classic GTX 1070 here - which still does a good job at 1080p on more reasonable settings, by the way - while the new card is 73 percentage points ahead of the RTX 2060 Super.

At 4K resolution, the RTX 4060 Ti folds like a card table, beaten by the RTX 3060 Ti to the tune of six percent, with the RTX 3070 delivering a 20 point lead. This isn't exactly how the card will be used by most of its audience, but again, it reflects badly on a new product being beaten by immediate predecessor in any scenario.

Forza Horizon 5, Extreme, 4x MSAA

F1 22

It's open season on the RTX 4060 Ti as we tackle F1 22 running at ultra high settings, but shorn of all of its ray tracing features. Admittedly, rainy weather in Singapore is going to tax a GPU that's running a little short of bandwidth but the 4060 Ti at 1440p can barely deliver a four point lead over RTX 3060 Ti, while we're looking at 15 and 17 percentage advantages for the RTX 3070 and RX 6700 XT respectively.

You're getting twice the performance of a GTX 1070 here, but the lead over the RTX 2060 Super drops to a meagre 40 percent, which isn't going to make owners of Turing cards rush out to the shops as fast as their legs will carry them. Relative performance gains on 70-class are so much higher.

There's further woe at 4K too with the new card barely beating its predecessor, with the 3070 and RX 6700 XT delivering more performance. A textbook example of how underwhelming the 4060 Ti can be.