This week, Nvidia is lifting review embargoes on its new RTX 4060 cards. Yesterday the MSRP embargo lifted and today the non-MSRP lifts, which means we can talk about the PNY XLR8 RTX 4060 with RGB, triple fans, and support for overclocking in the PNY VelocityX software. Compared to other cards near it and with a price tag of $340, is this new card the answer for budget gaming?
Design
PNY also carries $299 4060 cards but the XLR8 versions that we’ve looked at in the past are beefed up with RGB and a third fan. The prices are also typically higher than the “MSRP” cards, which, in my opinion, makes them a harder sell – especially since these cards are aimed at budget-minded gamers.
Nvidia firmly targets 1080p gaming in its marketing of the 4060, but it is still capable when the graphics are turned up to 1400p.
Another bummer of the 4060 is the downgrade in some of the spec sheets compared to the last-gen 3060. Nvidia relies on its latest software upgrades like DLSS 3, Reflex, and Studio to do the heavy lifting on this card. And while they help in compatible titles, that’s not always going to be an option. And when it comes to benchmarks like Heaven, the 4060 can only match much cheaper cards.
PNY XLR8 4060 Specs:
- $339.99
- Core clock: 1830 MHz
- Boost clock: 2505 MHz
- CUDA cores 3072
- 8GB GDDR6
- Mem interface 128-bit
- Mem clock: 17000 MHz
- TDP: 115W
- Displayport 1.4a
- 8-pin power connector
- AV1 encoding
Some major takeaways from that spec list are that the 3060 had more and a faster interface. 12GB of GDDR6 with a memory interface at 192-bit to be exact. It’s unfortunate that Nvidia can’t at least match the previous-gen numbers.
PNY XLR8 RTX 4060: Video
In fact, those numbers are right on par with the RX 7600 from AMD, but that card starts at just $270 for true budget gaming. For more on that impressive card, check out Patrick’s review here.
Real-world gaming performance
But it all comes down to real-world performance – so how does the 4060 perform? Much like previous 40-series cards, I mainly tested Battlefield 2042 and Forza Horizon 5 with the Heaven benchmark as well.
Battlefield 2042
Though Nvidia pushes the 4060 as a 1080p gaming card, I was getting around 70fps at 1440 when playing Rush XL – one of the game’s most chaotic modes. When away from the action on Breakthrough, it was closer to 100 FPS. I had the graphics set to ultra with DLSS on balanced with Reflex enabled and boosted.
Turning off DLSS brought the average down to around 50fps in Rush XL so the Nvidia software is a huge improvement on the 4060 when titles support it.
Unsurprisingly, flipping the resolution down to 1080p obviously yielded more frames bringing the average up to around 100fps with graphics set to ultra and DLSS on balanced with Reflex on and boosted. When not in chaotic gameplay, the average was closer to 117 FPS.
Forza Horizon 5
Once again, the 4060 performed well for 1440p gaming in Forza Horizon 5. With Nvidia technologies turned off, the card was able to reach over 80fps with graphics set to extreme. Turning on Nvidia super-resolution and Frame Gen brought that number up to 94 FPS – the same as the 4060 Ti.
Heaven Benchmark
The 4060 starts to show its shortcomings with the Heaven benchmark scoring just 66.1 FPS compared to the 71.1 FPS of the 4060 Ti. In fact, 66.1 is the same score as the $270 RX 7600 that Patrick reviewed.
Power and noise
Another thing to note is the power consumption of this card. I saw a max of 109 when playing Battlefield 2042. For comparison, the max number that Patrick saw in his review of the AMD 7600 was 163W. Additionally, the fans were very quiet – I was playing BF 2042 the entire time I was recording the video without any issues with the audio.
9to5Toys’ Take
The 4060 performs well when Nvidia’s software enhancements are enabled but otherwise, the specs suffer when compared to more affordable competition and even last-gen hardware.
Personally, I’d opt for a $299 MSRP version rather than the PNY XLR8 RTX 4060, which costs an additional $40. If you’re in the market for a budget card, the RGB isn’t necessarily worth it to me.
By now, if you’ve been interested in a new budget-minded card, you’ve probably already seen some reviews of the 4060. At $299, if you are wanting to dive into Nvidia with its software, it can see some solid performance. But if you’re gaming or workflow needs don’t require or utilize any of Nvidia’s software, similar or even more performance can be had for less money.
Buy PNY XLR8 RTX 4060
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