NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti vs RTX 3060 Ti: Which One is Better?

Areej Syed

November 8, 2023

NVIDIA’s entire RTX 40 series lineup is out. Sadly, the lower-end GPUs offer mediocre gen-over-gen gains, making the older RTX 30 cards look better (at times). In this one, we benchmark the RTX 4060 Ti and the RTX 3060 Ti across a dozen games at 1080p and 1440p, including ray tracing titles. A total of 29 tests should be sufficient to tell if the RTX 4060 Ti is worth the extra $74.

GPU	Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti	NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti	AMD Radeon RX 7600	AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT
GPU Die	AD106	GA104	Navi 33	Navi 32
SMs	60	76	46	54
Cores	4,352	4,864	2,048	3,456
RT Cores	34	38	32	54
Tensor Cores	136	152	NA	NA
Base clock	2,310 MHz	1,410 MHz	1,720MHz	2,171MHz (Game)
Boost clock	2,535 MHz	1,665 MHz	2,655MHz	2,544MHz
Bus Width	128-bit	256-bit	128-bit	192-bit
Bandwidth	288GB/s	448GB/s	288GB/s	432GB/s
Memory	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6	12GB GDDR6
Memory Clocks	18Gbps	14Gbps	18Gbps	18Gbps
TBP	160W	200W	165W	245W
LL Cache	32MB L2	4MB L2	32MB L3	48MB L3
MSRP	$399	$326	$269	$449

Table of Contents

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Test Bench

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K.
Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360.
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Hero.
Memory: 16GB x2 6000MT/s CL38.
Power Supply: Corsair HX1000i.

NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti vs RTX 3060 Ti: 1080p Benchmarks

At 1080p, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is 10-15% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti, often maintaining similar lows. A Plague Tale: Requiem sees the former take a 16% lead, slightly higher than the average.

The delta drops to under 10% in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, where the RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 3060 Ti perform nearly the same. However, in terms of smoothness, the Ada GPU has a leg up thanks to its L2 cache buffer. The frametime graph shows that the RTX 4060 Ti enjoys a better overall experience.

The performance delta between the RTX 4060 Ti and the 3060 Ti crosses 15% in Cyberpunk 2077 and reaches 19% in Dying Light 2. The frametime graphs are nearly identical, indicating similar smoothness.

F1 2022 is an outlier, where the RTX 3060 Ti ends up beating the RTX 4060 Ti by an appreciable margin. It also runs smoother than its successor with a cleaner frametime graph.

In Ghostwire Tokyo, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is 10% faster than the 3060 Ti with similar lows. The frametime graphs are similar as well, indicating similar frame pacing.

Hogwarts Legacy loves the Ada Lovelace microarchitecture, conferring the RTX 4060 Ti with a gain of 20% over the RTX 3060 Ti. Unfortunately, its 8GB buffer isn’t enough for the “Ultra” quality textures, so we tested with “High” textures.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti nets similar 0.2% lows, producing a nearly identical graph.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider follows the same trend, granting the RTX 4060 Ti a lead of 15% over the RTX 3060 Ti. The Callisto Protocol barely distinguishes between the two Tis, with a performance difference of under 5%.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands performs the same, leaving the RTX 4060 Ti with a lead of 15% on average. Unlike the rest of the titles, the lows here are substantially higher on the RTX 40 series card.

Continued on the next page…

NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti vs. RTX 3060 Ti: 1080p Ray Tracing Benchmarks

Ray tracing is one of the areas where the RTX 4060 Ti shines. It is up to 80% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti in some scenarios, with an average lead of >20%:

In Plague Tale, the RTX 4060 Ti faces unusual stutters, adversely affecting its lows and frame pacing.

Crysis Remastered is another ray-traced title based on the Crytek engine. It employs a mix of software and hardware ray tracing, favoring the RTX 4060 Ti with a lead of 25% over the RTX 3060 Ti.

Despite that, the frametime graphs are nearly identical, indicating similar frame pacing quality on the two 60-class GPUs.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the RTX 4060 Ti is 22% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti on average, with similar deltas between the lows. F1 2022 runs better on the RTX 4060 Ti with ray tracing enabled, leading the RTX 3060 Ti by 7%.

The frametime graphs (and smoothness) are, once again, almost identical.

In Ghostwire Tokyo, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti maintains its lead of ~20% over the RTX 3060 Ti. In this case, the former produces smoother lows as well.

Hitman 3 is over 50% faster on the RTX 4060 Ti than on the 3060 Ti. However, the 0.1% lows are nearly the same on the two GPUs. Regardless, this makes the former the better-performing GPU.

Metro Exodus is 17% faster on the RTX 4060 Ti than on the 3060 Ti. The former delivers a smoother experience as indicated by the frametimes.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider gets a massive boost with the RTX 4060 Ti. The Ada card is 80% faster than the RTX 3060 Ti, with superior lows and frame pacing.

The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is 14% faster than the 3060 Ti in “The Callisto Protocol” with comparable lows.

The Callisto Protocol produces a strange frametime graph, one where the 4060 Ti offers a smoother experience.

Continued on the next page…

NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti vs. RTX 3060 Ti: 1440p Benchmarks

Dialing the resolution up to 1440p significantly increases the load on the GPUs, yet they continue to average 60 FPS or higher. Of course, there are a few exceptions, notably “A Plague Tale: Requiem,” where neither card can hit 50 FPS on average.

At 1440p, the performance deltas between the RTX 4060 Ti and 3060 Ti shrink to nominal levels. In most cases, the RTX 4060 Ti is less than 10% faster than the 3060 Ti, with some titles seeing nearly identical performance figures.

Overall, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti offers a slim upgrade over the RTX 3060 Ti. If you’re in the market for a midrange GPU, we recommend opting for the RTX 4070 or AMD’s Radeon RX 7800 XT. The latter, in particular, offers a solid bang for your buck.