NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce RTX 3060 | GeForce RTX 4060 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 272 GB/s |
| Shaders | 3584 | 3072 |
| Boost Clock | 1777 MHz | 2460 MHz |
| TDP | 170W | 115W |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ada Lovelace |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 1,965 | 2,309 |
| Best Price | $250 | $299 |
| Value Score | 54/100 | 61/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is faster but costs more. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 offers better value for money. Your choice depends on budget vs. performance priority.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060: Which Should You Buy?
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is 13% faster at 1440p ultra (61.2 fps against 54 fps). That is roughly one settings notch — enough to matter if you are chasing a specific refresh rate, not enough to rescue a bad price.
You pay a 20% premium for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ($299 against $250) to get 13% more frames. The extra frames do not keep up with the extra cost — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is the better value here.
Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 carries 12GB against 8GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 8GB cards age badly; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 draws 55W less (115W versus 170W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is 2 years newer (2023 versus 2021), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.