Nvidia RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070 comparison – value or power?

We’ve got a comparison of the RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070 in a next-gen showdown that will help you decide which one is for you.

The RTX 4060 has launched, bringing an affordable new way to get access to the groundbreaking Ada Lovelace architecture. In fact, it will be the cheapest card in the whole RTX 40-series, until the RTX 4050’s release date that is. The RTX 4060 is also aimed specifically at the 1080p gaming market which is pretty substantial in size. This is sure to make the card a popular one if fans can forgive Nvidia for the 4060’s low VRAM.

The same can be said for the RTX 4070 which was released just a few months ago. It too sought to be an affordable way to access Lovelace, though does also have some pretty powerful gaming chops. If you’re looking for a graphics card update and don’t want or need to shell out thousands for the top end, these are two cards that are very much worth considering.

To help you figure out which makes more sense for you, we’ve broken down our comparison into several sections. This should give you an overview of these two GPUs. Let’s get into it.

RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070 – specs comparison

	RTX 4060 specs	RTX 4070 specs
Architecture	Ada Lovelace	Ada Lovelace
CUDA Cores	3,072	5,888
Base Clock (MHz)	1,830	1,920
Boost Clock (MHz)	2,460	2,475
Memory	8GB GDDR6	12GB GDDR6X
Memory Bus	128-bit	192-bit
Memory Speed	14 Gbp/s	19 Gbp/s
Total graphics power	115W	200W

As you can see from the table above, in every area that affects performance apart from architecture, the RTX 4070 has the edge. This edge is often not huge though. For example, both its base and boost clock is just a fraction faster, which shouldn’t actually affect performance very much.

What will affect performance is the larger core count and memory size. The CUDA cores are what execute the majority of calculations necessary to render graphics and the RTX 4070 has a whole 5,888 of them, to the 4060’s 3,072. This, along with the 4GB of extra memory will give the RTX 4070 the edge in performance. The card doesn’t just have more memory either, it is more advanced too, using the higher bandwidth GDDR6X technology.

RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070 – architecture

Architecture is a spec that has a knock-on impact on every component and aspect of a GPU. It is, therefore, arguably the most important. It is also essentially irrelevant in our comparison as both the RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 are identical in this regard, with both cards using Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture.

You’re in safe hands here too, as Lovelace is one of the most advanced GPU architectures we have ever seen. In general, this is a powerful a capable system that facilitates outstanding performance, but it focuses especially on raytracing and AI, where Nvidia has made several breakthroughs.

This is thanks to the architecture’s 3rd generation ray tracing cores and 4th generation tensor cores. The tensor cores are designed to excel in the kind of calculation needed for AI. It’s these that power DLSS 3. In compatible games, DLSS 3 can boost performance a significant chunk, with frame generation and upscaling.

RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070 – performance

Now we’re into the really juicy section – performance. This is what truly makes or breaks a GPU. You can have all the CUDA cores under the sun, if you can’t generate the frames, you can’t generate the frames. Well, fortunately, both these cards look set to provide the goods.

We already know that the RTX 4070 is among the best GPUs for 1440p, and with DLSS 3 enabled it is even capable at 4K. This means frame rates are fast enough for competitive online play in lower resolutions such as 1080p.

Speaking of 1080p, while we do not have official benchmarks for the RTX 4060 yet, we are pretty confident it’ll rank among the best graphics cards for 1080p, especially with DLSS 3 enabled. This is the area of performance the card is geared towards too. Playing at resolutions above 1080p not only requires an expensive GPU, but a powerful CPU to go with it as well as a more expensive monitor. For this reason, a significant majority of budget conscious gamers choose 1080p as their resolution and we’re confident the RTX 4060 can deliver here. That said, the RTX 4060 specs will mean it is unlikely to perform well at 4K.

RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070 – price

Price will also have a huge impact on your choice and, if you have an exact budget, can even make the decision for you. Here again, the cards are fairly similar to one another but not identical.

The RTX 4070 has an MSRP of $599, while at the time this made it the most affordable Lovelace GPU, it has since been significantly undercut but the RTX 4060 cards. What’s more, it can take a bit of effort to actually find the card for that price with many of the best RTX 4070 GPUs being around $630-$680.

Meanwhile, the RTX 4060 price is $299, and you can find out where to buy it here. The RTX 4060 is obviously the more budget-friendly choice. We’ll need to wait till we get our hands on the RTX 4060 to know for sure, but it looks likely this means that both cards will offer a similar return on investment, with the increased power the 4070 brings justifying its larger price tag.

Final word

Overall, this showdown will come down to personal preference. Both of these are up-to-date cards with cutting-edge architecture being offered in a budget-friendly price range. If your finances permit you to go for the RTX 4070 you will be rewarded with marginally better performance. If instead, you want to save every penny possible, the RTX 4060 will still give you great 1080p performance while also being one of the best GPUs under $500. If this is enough to convince you, check out where you can buy the RTX 4060.

Frequently asked questions

There are plenty of questions to ask when comparing two recently released graphics cards. We’ve done our best to answer some of them below.

Is the RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 compatible with my older motherboard?

The compatibility of the 4060 and 4070 will depend on the PCIe slot and power delivery capabilities. You can check the specifications of your motherboard before making a purchase to make sure your new GPU is be supported.

Is the RTX 4070 better than the 4060?

Though we’re still waiting on official benchmarks, it looks like the 4070 will be significantly better than the RTX 4060. On average, the 4070 is around 28% faster than the 4060 Ti at 1080p. Combined with a larger VRAM, the 4070 potentially offers the best value for money.