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The RTX 4060 is the latest 1080p gaming card from Nvidia. Targeting a $300 price tag, this GPU carries on the affordable high-fidelity gaming trend the GTX 1060 and RTX 2060 were known for back in the day. However, much like the entire RTX 40 series lineup, the 4060 is plagued with price-to-performance issues, especially when compared to the last-gen 30 series lineup.
One such particular example of pricing issues is the RTX 3070. Initially launched for $500, the graphics card is now selling for as low as $300 in leading second-hand marketplaces like eBay. This makes it as expensive as the new 4060. Let's compare the two cards and find out which is the better deal for gaming.
Last-gen RTX 30 series GPUs are beating the RTX 4060
One of the major complaints with the new RTX 40 series graphics cards has been pricing. High-end cards like the RTX 4080 and the 4090 are crazy expensive. Although the prices of other low-end cards haven't gone up as much, they aren't much better than their last-gen counterparts. This is the issue that plagues the 4060.
Specs
It is impossible to make an apples-to-apples specs comparison between the RTX 4060 and the 3070. This is because these GPUs are based on wildly different architectures that don't have much in common. However, the basics are the same: both the cards are from Nvidia, and they share technologies like CUDA, Streaming Multiprocessors, and more.
Following is the detailed specs chart of the two GPUs:
In addition to these specs differences, the RTX 4060 also brings support for DLSS 3, which uses frame generation technology to push much higher framerates than what the underlying graphics hardware can pump out in video games.
Performance differences
The gaming performance delta between the 4060 and the 3070 is not what you would expect. Below is the performance logged in different titles by tech YouTuber Optimum Tech:
Across the vast majority of modern games in the market, the RTX 3070 is anywhere between 20-35 percent faster than the 4060. This makes it seem like a generation ahead of the new 60-class GPU. In reality, it's quite the opposite.
Generally, new graphics cards from Team Green beat their last-gen counterparts by a massive generation. The general rule of thumb is that each current-gen product should catch up with a higher-class offering from the last generation. For instance, the RTX 3070 offered better performance than the RTX 2080 Ti. Similarly, the RTX 3060 was faster than the RTX 2070.
However, mid-range and budget offerings in the current-gen lineup are a massive deviation from this formula. Although some might argue that DLSS 3 will help with performance gains, sacrificing visual fidelity and latency for the sake of frames isn't ideal.
All of this makes the RTX 4060 seem like a bad deal compared to the similarly priced 3070. However, there are some risks involved in buying GPUs from the used market as well. Some of these graphics cards were likely used for mining and might not have been maintained well. Thus, there are a few issues with both offerings in the $300 range.
