Comparing NVIDIA’s Two Mid-Range GPUs: RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070

Comparing NVIDIA’s RTX 4070 Against RTX 4060

So, picture this: your PC is getting old and needs an upgrade as new games arrive. There are quite a few options, from older generations like GeForce RTX 30 series or Radeon RX 6000 series, or the latest offerings from both Team Green (RTX 40 series) and Team Red (RX 7000 series). The mid-range market is especially competitive, but which card should you choose?

For that, PNY is here to make a case for mid-range offerings powered by NVIDIA’s silicon, and they’ve provided us with the RTX 4070 VERTO Dual Fan and RTX 4060 VERTO Dual Fan cards for performance comparison. (You can read our official reviews by clicking here and here.)

Specs Comparison

Here’s how these two cards stack up, on paper:

GPU	PNY GeForce RTX 4070 VERTO Dual Fan	PNY GeForce RTX 4060 VERTO Dual Fan
GPU Core & VRAM:
GPU Core Variant	AD104-250-A1	AD107-400-A1
Microarchitecture	Ada Lovelace
Process Node	TSMC N5
Transistors	35.8 billion	18.9 billion
Die size	295mm²	159mm²
Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs)	46	24
CUDA Cores	5888	3072
Tensor Cores	184	96
RT Cores	46	24
Cache	36MB L2	24MB L2
VRAM Configuration	12GB GDDR6X 192-bit	8GB GDDR6 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth	21Gbps 504.2GB/s peak	17Gbps 272GB/s peak
Add-in board:
Base/Boost Clock	1920 / 2475 MHz	1830 / 2460 MHz
TDP	200W	115W
Recommended PSU	Unspecified
Dual BIOS Mode	No
Display Outputs	3x DisplayPort 1.4 1x HDMI 2.1
Power Connector	1x PCIe 8-pin connector
Bus Interface	PCIe 4.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x8
Dimensions	2-slot 247 x 120 x 40.9mm	2-slot 210 x 115 x 39.9 mm

Performance Comparison

Aside from the silicon itself, it’s worth noting the difference in VRAM capacity between the two cards, and whichever card suits your build ultimately depends on the games you play, the resolution it uses, and the graphics settings. Need more eye candy? As we’ll demonstrate, 8GB cards will soon run very close to the limits if not exceeding them – so you can base your buying choice from here.

For the head-to-head comparison, we use three games: Forza Horizon 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Cyberpunk 2077. Performance figures on three resolutions will be shown, along with native vs DLSS-enabled scenarios which we’ll explain in detail in each section.

The game settings are as follows:

• Cyberpunk 2077 – ‘High’ preset (Note: in this preset AMD FSR 2.1 is enabled by default, we disable this to represent true native performance. Ray tracing is disabled by default.)
• Forza Horizon 5 – Maximum graphics settings (MSAA 2x is used for native runs)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider – ‘Highest’ preset + RT Ultra

Cyberpunk 2077 – 4K

Cyberpunk 2077 is the game that can really make any GPU struggle if you crank the setting up high enough, and for this instance, we opted for the ‘High’ preset to see if midrange GPUs like RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 can handle the demands. As expected, given that RTX 4070 wasn’t designed with 4K as the target, the native performance couldn’t achieve 60FPS framerate – just barely smooth enough for 4K30 experience.

Take this as a mere experiment, you’re not expected to run 4K on these GPUs. Although, you technically could – if you’re willing to turn on all the DLSS goodies to double the framerates. We use DLSS ‘Quality’ preset to minimize potential graphics artifacts here, so the boosts are still relatively modest so to speak. There’s more framerate to get should you use Balanced or Performance setting, which comes with the trade-off that is image quality.

Cyberpunk 2077 – QHD

Now, QHD is more of the ballpark that RTX 4070 occupies. In this case, the card runs reasonably well natively, achieving up to 90FPS average (with 60FPS+ 1%/0.1% lows), and the DLSS2+3 combo brings that figure up to 160+FPS, enough to max out a mainstream high refresh rate gaming monitor. In the case of RTX 4060, it goes from almost 60FPS native to almost 90FPS through the upscaling + frame generation boost.

Cyberpunk 2077 – FHD

Under 1080p High preset, both cards are comfortably into high-refresh-rate territory, and the RTX 4070 can almost match the framerates of 240Hz monitors if you turn on DLSS boosts. Again, we’re running on a relatively conservative upscaling setting here to prioritize image quality, so there’s still more performance to be had if you’re willing to go in that direction. This is also where turning on ray tracing may actually make sense, given that the computational cost is very heavy for these cards.

Forza Horizon 5 – 4K

For Forza Horizon 5, the settings we used is the same as one of our standard benchmark setting for GPUs – cranking everything to max. FH5 isn’t particularly challenging for most GPUs to run on more ‘mainstream’ settings, and turning on every eye candy still provides a 4K60 experience on the RTX 4070. However, this is where the RTX 4060’s 8GB VRAM stumbles its first roadblock: exceeding memory usage limits.

In both our 4K runs, we’ve encountered in-game warnings reminding us the VRAM usage has maxed out, and it’s visible if you look at the frametime graph on the images above. The native 4K run on RTX 4060, which is the worst-case scenario, shows large fluctuations of the frametimes, hence resulting in weaker 1%/0.1% low figures.

Forza Horizon 5 – QHD

Oddly, the RTX 4060 can’t seem to stretch its legs even when DLSS is activated, providing only a minuscule performance improvement. We think the VRAM issue could be causing it, but this seemed more like the edge-case scenario if anything. Pay attention to the VRAM usage on the RTX 4070 – and you’ll see the RTX 4060 is already getting hampered in performance in some ways.

Forza Horizon 5 – FHD

Cranking the settings to the max with RTX 4060 will still get you a 60FPS experience on 1080p resolution, but it’s the RTX 4070 that truly gets into high refresh rate territory. Something worth pointing out – notice the trees in DLSS runs have a bit of ghosting on them. This is the result of temporal-based upscaling/interpolation, and it’s mostly an unavoidable side effect. Turning on DLSS also causes the cockpit speedometer to become very fuzzy to read as a result, so keep that in mind.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider – 4K

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a relatively old game at this point, and it only comes with DLSS 2 (upscaling) – no frame generation stuff available here. For this example we’ll be comparing between native runs and DLSS2-assisted runs, recording the framerates through a short course of the map instead of the usual benchmark runs. Turning on ray tracing proved to be a struggle for both cards to keep up, though DLSS 2 somewhat alleviates that.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider – QHD

As the older game, it also uses less VRAM – meaning the RTX 4060 gets one less handicap in the way when comparing the performance of both GPUs. Still, RT on QHD still needs some DLSS help for the smaller card to maintain a mostly 60FPS+ experience. Meanwhile, RTX 4070 generally runs above this framerate target, and well into high-refresh range with DLSS on.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider – FHD

If you play on 1080p monitors, the framerates shown here should give you a good idea of what to expect, if you’re the kind who prioritizes graphics over absolute performance. Once again, it’s worth reminding you that we use ‘Quality’ DLSS preset for all runs, so you can always lower the input resolution for the game to deliver even more frames to the screen.

One more detail worth pointing out: throughout the entirety of gaming tests, we never see the RTX 4070 actually utilizing the entirety of its 200W TGP. It pretty much maxed out at 180 or so watts – meanwhile, the RTX 4060 generally sticks close to the factory figures, which is significantly lower for a 60-class GPU historically.

Summary

So, going back to the hypothetical question at the beginning of this article – as a potential user looking for mid-range GPUs, which of the RTX 40 series is the better option? Let’s look at the pricing first: our examples here, including the PNY RTX 4070 VERTO Dual Fan and the PNY RTX 4060 VERTO Dual Fan, costs RM2,969 and RM1,519 respectively. That’s almost twice the price difference – so value-wise, I believe RTX 4060 wins here.

However, there’s also the subject of future-proofing. Depending on the games you play, 8GB VRAM has already shown its age – as evidenced in our Forza Horizon 5 tests. However, you should be fine if you’re not after the highest of graphical settings on offer, otherwise the RTX 4070 may be a better choice even at its significantly higher pricing (and worse value per frame).

The choice of monitors also may decide which GPU is more suitable for you. If you own a Full HD monitor (1920 x 1080) and have no plans to move upwards, then the RTX 4060 should serve you just fine while leaving you some pocket change for other nice stuff. QHD monitor owners preferably should look at the RTX 4070 instead, as that GPU provides a better experience on this resolution.

As always, you can get both PNY GPUs through the official Shopee Store – which is managed by local distributor Fusion Tech Supply Sdn Bhd (FTSMY), backed by a standard 3-year warranty (pictured above). Here are the links to get started:

• PNY GeForce RTX 4070 12GB VERTO Dual Fan – click here
• PNY GeForce RTX 4060 8GB VERTO Dual Fan – click here