According to a Twitter leaker, Nvidia’s RTX 4060 could be a disappointment compared to higher-end Lovelace graphics cards.
Kopite7kimi has tweeted a “typical” Time Spy Extreme result for AD106, the RTX 4060’s GPU. The GPU’s predicted score is little under 7,000, which if accurate has disappointed several on Twitter.
AD106 and AD107 (the latter being the chip for the card under the 4060, likely the RTX 4050) will use 8 PCIe lanes, rather than 16 as with higher-end cards. The RTX 4060 (and lower-end cards) will have less bandwidth.
Evaluating the situation
We’re not sure if this leak or performance projection is disappointing. This Time Spy Extreme test puts the RTX 4060 on par with the RTX 3070, which isn’t terrible. It’s a generational leap similar to the RTX 3060, which became the RTX 2070.
Yes, it’s frustrating if you expected more than the current generation of Nvidia graphics cards. Some leaks have predicted big advances for the RTX 4070, and we’ve heard about doubling performance with the flagship RTX 4090, so gamers may have had higher expectations for the RTX 4060.
Leaked performance isn’t surprising. The GPU will certainly lose some performance on older PCs (without a PCIe 4.0 motherboard) if the cut to 8 PCIe lanes is real. The RTX 3060 supported 16. Even on PCIe 3.0 devices, frame rate drops owing to bandwidth constraints will be minor (albeit still annoying to those users, no doubt).
- Nvidia’s high-end RTX 3000 GPUs are at historical low prices
- Fake Minecraft updates are infecting PCs
Another uncertainty is the price. Could the drop in PCIe lanes be a hint that Nvidia would price the RTX 4060 lower than the RTX 3060? We wouldn’t count on that, but it’s an interesting notion and a reminder that GPUs aren’t all about raw performance — price/performance is key.