NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Review – MSI Ventus 2X OC Edition

Suggested Article: Best PC Cases to Buy for the RTX 4060

Architecture

Designed using the now somewhat mature Ada Lovelace architecture, the RTX 4060 follows on in similar fashion to its RTX 4000 predecessors. Featuring the new 3rd generation RT cores, 4th generation Tensor cores and DLSS 3.0 capabilities, on the face of it at least the RTX 4060 isn’t too dissimilar from its bigger brothers in the architecture department.

Additional upgrades include the new AV1 encoder, and new streaming multiprocessor, on paper the architecture stacks up very well indeed.

DLSS 3.0 is perhaps the only part however that most readers are interested in, but for good reason. Built to enhance performance of GPUs through the use of AI tech, the results speak for themselves. RT cores and Ray-Tracing become all the less interesting on a card built to be used at 1080p but DLSS and increased FPS, all the more please!

Frame Generation is the key and has been a standout feature with the latest NVIDIA GPUs. By artificially rendering frames without the game having to do any of the work itself, GPUs are able to focus on what they do best and push out the maximum amount of frames possible. As the name suggests, whole frames are now able to be generated rather than pixels, as was previously possible. With these whole frames being generated and ahead of time too, both the GPU and CPU are freed up to focus on rendering the game and thus significantly improving performance output.

The Ada Lovelace architecture has proved to be very strong, helping to further push the industry boundaries. DLSS 3.0 and in particular, Frame Generation are the standout features and for good reason, they perform and perform strongly. On budgets oriented cards, these features help to bolster performance like never before and offer significant boosts to gameplay performance when enabled.

Specifications

On paper, the readings could go either way. The RTX 4060 doesn’t set the world alight when stacked up against its NVIDIA counterparts. Healthy upgrades to both base and boost clocks are a nice addition but reductions to both VRAM and CUDA cores will likely cancel out these upgrades.

Design

We had MSI’s Ventus 2X OC SKU in house in particular, a simple yet effective looking GPU. First impressions however were the size of the card, absolutely tiny! MSI’s Ventus model will be right at home in even the tiniest of cases. The card size is reminiscent of last generations baby RTX card the 3050, with the two near identical in size.

Aside from the size, the Ventus 2X OC model sports a fairly basic design (as expected with a budget GPU), a black colourway with silvery-grey accenting. The design by MSI does everything you’d expect it to do for the price point, flashier visuals risk increasing the price for no gain to performance.

The Ventus 2X OC comes with a dual-fan configuration, which given the overall size of the card should be more than capable of keeping thermals to a minimum. For those looking to super-shrink their build, the Ventus model stacks up well. Even in Micro-ATX cases the Ventus 2X OC Models fan design should provide enough horsepower to keep enough airflow circulating to reduce overall temperatures.

On the whole, I’m a fan of the design of the Ventus 2X OC model. In what is a performance first design, MSI have done a great job of maximising visuals, without needing to raise costs purely for visual-only gains. MSI’s Ventus 2X OC RTX 4060 will fit right at home in all builds and is a universal design. Whilst by no means the flashiest, or most visually pleasing, the Ventus 2X OC does what it sets out to.

Performance

The RTX 4060 comes into the market as NVIDIA’s cheapest RTX 4000 series card to date but just how well does it perform? Does is stack up well against both its counterparts and rivals or does it fall short of the mark?

We’ve put together a GeekaWhat gauntlet of games to put the RTX 4060 through its paces. From single player titans, to all action First Person Shooters, we’ve got you covered.

Fortnite

First up, Fortnite. The epitome of competitive shooters and perfect title to test at 1080p.

We cranked the settings right down to competitive settings for this one to see just how far the RTX 4060 will push the frames. The result? A story of two halves. On the one hand the RTX 4060 comfortably beats out last generations RTX 3060. In fact the RTX 4060 beats out RTX 3000 series card up to the RTX 3070Ti (just) and only loses out the the RTX 3080 and RTX 3080Ti by 1 FPS and 4 FPS respectively.

On the other hand however, there is a fairly large performance disparity between the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060Ti with the RTX 4060Ti pulling in almost 20 FPS more on average. Even worse and the recently released and cheaper RX 7600 also beats out the RTX 4060 too, coming in $30 dollars cheaper and beating out the RTX 4060 it’s not a great start for team green.

Hogwarts Legacy

One of the toughest titles to run in our benchmarking suite is next up, Hogwarts Legacy. We set the game to run at 1080p High Settings and dove straight in.

It was a similar story in Hogwarts Legacy to that of Fortnite. Once again the RTX 4060 beat out both the RTX 3060 and 3060Ti of last generation whilst beating the RX 6650 XT for good measure.

Again, however, that’s the end of the positives for the RTX 4060. Once again the RX 7600 steals the spotlight for the best budget GPU available right now, beating out both the RTX 4060 and 4060Ti variants, whilst even besting the RX 6750 XT too! Whilst we expect the RTX 4060 to be beat out by its bigger brother the RTX 4060Ti but for both to be beaten out by the RX 7600, a card significantly cheaper, trouble could be brewing for NVIDIA.

Apex Legends

Apex Legends made for even more grim readings. At 1080p High settings, the RTX 4060 struggled big time. During our testing we saw a generational increase of just 2 FPS over last generations RTX 3060. To further compound the misery of the RTX 4060, the RTX 3060Ti comfortably beat out the RTX 4060 by a solid 13 FPS.

The Trio of AMD cards all beat out the RTX 4060 very comfortably too. Even the worse performing of the AMD trio in Apex Legends, the RX 6650 XT bests the RTX 4060 by 18 FPS. Look at the RX 7600 and the poor result for the RTX 4060 is only compounded further.

1440p offered similarly poor results. Coming in almost dead last in terms of performance at 1440p High settings , its another weak showing for the RTX 4060. Admittedly, yes, the RTX 4060 is a card designed for 1080p so we didn’t expect it to set the world on fire, but the cards it loses out to are also 1080p oriented cards and it loses out comfortably.

Cards such as the RX 6750 XT absolutely walk away with it and crush the cheaper GPU competition, for a price not too dissimilar to the RTX 4060 given its recent price drop. Averaging nearly 50 FPS more for just an extra $20 makes the RX 6750 XT a much better value proposition than the RTX 4060 currently.

Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 makes for an interesting reading yet again. The RTX 4060 sits right in the middle of the pack at 1080p ultra settings. Given the recent success of the RTX 4060Ti in this title we expected much of the same but were left scratching our heads again.

The RTX 4060 didn’t come close to competing with the top budget GPUs and sat some way behind its bigger brother, a whole 69 FPS behind to be exact. NVIDIA’s RTX 4060 did beat out both of last generations 3060 series offerings and by a fairly healthy amount too but fell considerably short of a number of AMD GPUs from last generation.

Its worth noting that we do tend to find the AMD GPUs to be the stronger performing GPUs in Overwatch 2. Yet, even given this, we didn’t expect the RTX 4060 to be losing out to the now discontinued RX 6600 XT in any sense.

If we found the performance of the RX 7600 to be miserable on Overwatch 2 at 1440p in our recent review, the RTX 4060’s 1440p capabilities in this title are downright sad.

Sitting firmly at the bottom of the pack is a far cry from where we’d expect the 4060 to sit, but by this point in our testing, is it? The RTX 4060 had many a chance to turn things around by this point in our testing, yet time and time again it failed, most times worse than the last time.

169 FPS does hit the 1440p 144Hz sweet spot for gamers as a saving grace. There are however, a number of cheaper GPUs on this list capable of doing the same.

F1 2022

F1 2022 recovered some dignity for the RTX 4060 however. Sitting just behind the podium positions and averaging a respectable 172 FPS. The RTX 4060 does somewhat sit in no mans land in F1 2022 and acts as more of a bridge between GPU generations rather than race leader.

As expected the RTX 4060Ti and RX 6750 XT pulled ahead from the rest of the pack. We didn’t quite foresee just how far ahead they would pull however. AMD’s RX 6750 XT pulled in more than 100FPS more than the RTX 4060 and once again makes me question the value of the RTX 4060 as a whole.

Warzone 2.0

Rounding off our battle Royale titles is Warzone 2.0, again testing at both 1080p and 1440p. A tough title to fun and a great way to cap off our shooter titles for this review.

Tuning the settings to 1080p High settings with DLSS set to the quality pre-set, we expected the RTX 4060 to shine. Once more though, it all fell slightly flat. Pulling in 115 FPS on average is by no means awful for a more budgeted card, yet it doesn’t stack up all that well against its direct competitors.

The discontinued RX 6600 XT, back from the grave yet again beats out the RTX 4060 in this title and by nearly 10 FPS too. Elsewhere the RTX 3060Ti also beats out the RTX 4060 by over 15 FPS but the RTX 4060 does manage to withstand being beaten out by the cards its replacing, the RTX 3060.

Warzone 2 at 1440p actually made for more positive reading. Whilst the RTX 4060 does sit towards the bottom of the pack, the majority of cards ahead of the RTX 4060 are more expensive and better suited to higher resolutions.

The RTX 4060 pulls in excess of 100 FPS and beats out not only the RTX 3060Ti from last generations, but the RTX 3070 too, not bad going. The RTX 4060Ti and RX 6750 XT do separate themselves from the RTX 4060 quite considerably again however, both however have more horsepower to run at 1440p.

The RX 7600, arguably now the most direct competitor to the RTX 4060 does take the win again however. In what seems to be a running theme the RX 7600 puts considerable FPS difference between itself and the RTX 4060 and is seemingly the better budget option.

GTA V

GTA V is our final benchmarking test today, as always. A true old but gold title and still as relevant as ever. The RTX 4060 puts in a respectable performance coming in within touching distance of some of the bigger boys, whilst beating out its NVIDIA predecessors.

Ultra smooth gameplay is still very possible at 1080p High settings with the RTX 4060, with it easily clearing the 144FPS 144Hz sweet spot. For a final time, however, the RTX 4060 does lose out to the cheaper RX 7600 by a fair margin in what seems to be a fairly one sided battle.

Conclusion