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Forget the 4090, Nvidia’s RTX 4060 could be the GPU for the rest of us

If the RTX 4090 and the RTX 4080 didn’t catch your eye, a new leak suggests that the RTX 4060 might prove to be an interesting option. It certainly seems like it will be better suited to cater to a wider audience.

According to a post made by a Lenovo representative, the GPU may have competitive performance combined with power efficiency and a decent price.

Wolstame: Lenovo China Gaming Desktop Product Planning Manager pic.twitter.com/cnuHAMYcf4

— 포시포시 (@harukaze5719) November 17, 2022

Nvidia’s RTX 40-series launched this year with just two graphics cards out so far, and both of them are expensive. The RTX 4090 costs at least $1,600, but Nvidia’s partners drive the prices much further up, not to mention the fact that the card is being re-sold by scalpers. The freshly released RTX 4080 is not cheap either, with a list price of $1,200 and above. With that said, both of these GPUs are more than solid, but not everyone needs that kind of power. For the less demanding users, Nvidia is likely to release the RTX 4070 and the RTX 4060 at some point.

Today, Wolstame, the product planning manager for Lenovo China’s gaming desktop department shared some really interesting details about a potential RTX 4060. While the source seems reliable, make sure to approach the news with some skepticism until the information emerges on an official platform. So far, it was posted on Weibo and shared by frequent hardware leaker harukaze5719 on Twitter.

According to Wolstame, the RTX 4060 will provide around 20% better performance than the last-gen 3060. It should be on par with the RTX 3070. At the same time, it’s said to be more conservative in terms of power consumption; if this proves to be true, it’d be a nice change for Nvidia. The leaker predicts a TGP rating of around 150 to 180 watts. This would potentially make it less power-hungry than both the RTX 3060 and the RTX 3060 Ti, which are rated at 170W and 200W, respectively.

Now, for the pricing — it doesn’t sound too bad. The price is supposed to land in the ballpark of the RTX 3060 Ti and will be around 10% higher than the MSRP for the RTX 3060. The RTX 3060 launched with a $329 price tag, so if this turns out to be true, the RTX 4060 might cost around $350, give or take.

An Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card seen from the side.
Kiklas/Shutterstock

Assuming a 20% boost in performance, this pricing is fairly competitive; if the card performs at a level close to the RTX 3070, it will be a better deal, because the RTX 3070 is roughly $150 to $200 more expensive. Of course, much like the RTX 4090 and 4080, the new GPU will likely be more expensive at first, and Nvidia’s add-in board (AIB) partners will drive the prices up for custom models.

The leaker predicts a fairly late release date of June 2023 for the RTX 4060. A 20% performance uplift over the RTX 3060 is not that impressive, but if the card is priced correctly, it could prove to be a better value than the expensive-but-powerful RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 for regular users. It will also unlock DLSS 3 and better ray tracing capabilities over the previous generation, which could push more users to wait for the next-gen card instead of buying a GPU right now.

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Monica J. White
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the "PC building is just like expensive…
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