Tomorrow we’ll review the Gigabyte RTX4060 Windforce OC 8G graphics card available at the MSRP price of 329 euros, today we’re going to take a closer look at the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition.
Before starting this test, you should know that this ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition is priced at 489.99 euros. This is indeed expensive, very expensive compared with the MSRP price of 329 euros for the Asus Dual RTX 4060 version. So let’s take a closer look at what this “ROG Strix OC Edition” version has to offer.
Thanks to Asus for making this copy of the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition available.
[nextpage title=”ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition:”]
Architecture:
As a reminder, the cards in the “Founders Edition” series are unique models offered by NVIDIA. For the RTX 4060 version, NVIDIA will not be offering any, leaving the entire offer to its partners. NVIDIA’s partners will also be offering their own models, either at NVIDIA’s MSRP of 329 euros, or at a higher price. So today we’re reviewing a model priced above MSRP.
This ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition features an AD107-400 GPU with 3072 CUDA cores, i.e. 1280 cores less than the RTX 4060 Ti. It features TSMC’s 4nm manufacturing process, rather than Samsung’s 8nm, bringing the TGP down to just 115 watts.
Memory: 8 GB of 128-bit GDDR6 memory, which translates into a bandwidth of 272 GB/s. The RTX 3060 Ti had 12 GB of memory and a 256-bit bus (448 GB/s), while the RTX 2060 Super had 8 GB with a 192-bit bus (448 GB/s). So we end up with a virtual RTX 4060 offering lower bandwidth. But NVIDIA assures us that bandwidth actually reaches 453 GB/s, thanks to the increase in L2 cache to 24 MB.
NVIDIA also emphasized the low power consumption of this RTX 4060 model, talking about the savings that can be made over 4 years for a person playing between 10 and 20 hours a week. The RTX 4060 is expected to consume around 2.2 kWh per week, less than an RTX 3060 170W at 3.5 kWh.
The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition bundle:
So what’s in the box? First of all, the box retains the Asus color code, and more specifically that of the ROG series. We find a range of colors with mainly a red/pink gradient, green and black.
The bundle includes items such as quick installation instructions, a ROG Strix collector’s card, a cardboard souvenir for assembly and a ROG strip. The absence of a 12 4-pin adapter seems to confirm that Asus has chosen to retain a “traditional” power connector.
Cooling:
Given the dimensions of the box (427 x 227 x 88 mm), needless to say, our ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition is likely to be quite imposing. Indeed, the size of our sample of the day is 311 x 133 x 62 mm, and will therefore occupy a width of more than 3 slots. We can see straight away that Asus has gone to great lengths to offer a card with imposing cooling.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had a graphics card from the ROG Strix series in our hands, so the design isn’t totally unfamiliar. We’re dealing here with a custom card, i.e. with a cooling system specific to the brand. The board is equipped with three 90 mm Axial-tech fans. These fans have a smaller central hub to optimize the flow of air through the radiator.
Asus uses a different direction of rotation for this board, depending on fan location. The two side fans rotate anti-clockwise. The aim is to minimize turbulence and maximize air dispersion through the radiator. Each fan has 11 blades.
The fans stop when the GPU temperature drops below 50°C, and restart at 55°C with a balanced speed curve to produce as little noise as possible.
The black plastic casing encloses the shorter PCB, and ends with an RGB backlight area at its tip. The board also features a dual BIOS: Pmode (performance) and Qmode (quiet). Asus claims a difference of 2°C between the two BIOSes, with noise levels dropping from 34 dB in Qmode to 40 dB in Pmode.
Last but not least, the rear panel features an imposing stainless steel backplate to ensure the PCB’s rigidity and prevent it from twisting when the board is straddled horizontally. As you can see, the end of the backplate is perforated to allow air blowing over the heat sink to be evacuated.
Asus has provided two 4-pin connectors for connecting two fans to your graphics card. These will act like your graphics card’s, and if the GPU’s temperature rises, they’ll kick in to optimize cooling.
The cooling system :
Let’s move on to disassembling the card’s cooling system. This is secured by six clamping points. The usual four around the graphics chip, but also two more around the power supply stages. This ensures optimum retention of the cooling system.
The aluminum radiator in charge of keeping the various PCB components cool is traversed by four 6 mm heatpipes, which we feel is sufficiently sturdy for our RTX 4060. It’s a cooling system we’ve already come across at Asus, and one that has already proved its worth. Memory chips, the power supply stage and certain PCB chips are covered with heat pads to ensure heat dissipation.
Connectors :
The traditional 8-pin connector is used to power the board. Finally, the board’s video outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1a port.
Now that the owner’s tour is over, let’s move on to the technical specifications before beginning the full test of this ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition.
[nextpage title=”Specifications and PCB:”]
Technical specifications :
In terms of frequency, the base frequency is announced at 1830 MHz, while the Boost peaks at 2670 MHz. The 8 GB of G-DDR6 memory run at 2125 MHz (272… 453 GB/s) on a 128-bit bus. Since this is an “OC”-labeled board, we should be able to take advantage of the factory overclocking offered by Asus. In fact, since the boost frequency announced by NVIDIA is 2460 MHz, we’re entitled here to a substantial overclocking representing 210 MHz. We’ll see what impact this has on performance.
Let’s go to GPU-Z to check that the information read is correct. The GPU frequency is indeed 1830 MHz, and the Boost frequency 2670 MHz. Don’t forget that the latter will be higher in benchmarks, depending on the quality of your chip and determined by GPU Boost 4.0. Memory has a frequency of 2125 MHz.
We remind you how GPU Boost works here.
Let’s take the PCB apart:
On the previous page, you’ll already have seen the rather ” light ” cooling system responsible for keeping the AD107-400 chip cool. The PCB contains 4 Hynix 2 GB memory chips, for a total of 8 GB.
The power controller for the GPU is a uP9512S chip, which will manage the various phases. The role of the VRMs is to convert direct current, because in the case of our GPU, it doesn’t operate on 12 V or 5 V, but on a lower voltage such as 1 V. The chips that enable this are VRMs. VRMs can be divided into three areas. Firstly, the voltage controller (PWM), which supplies the GPU with the right voltage and current, the mosfets and the coils.
As far as the power supply stage is concerned, we believe it consists of a total of 5 1 phases. The number of phases is often determined by the current requirement of the graphics chip. The more current it needs, the more phases there are. Mosfets are the elements that need to be kept cool, and are often topped by a heat sink. This is Asus’ own “in-house” PCB, as there are no reference boards available from NVIDIA. We have yet to verify this, but it seems to be the same PCB used for the RTX 4060 Ti Strix, but slightly castrated here.
[nextpage title=”New technological innovations: “]
A new generation automatically means a lot of technological innovations and this RTX 4070, like its big sisters, the RTX 4090, 4080 and 4070 Ti, is no exception to the rule. We will try to mention the most important ones in this page a little more theoretical.
New Ada Lovelace architecture:
On September 21 at 5pm, NVIDIA unveiled part of its future range of graphics cards architected around “ADA Lovelace”. Technically, this chip is out of the ordinary with its 76 billion transistors, its N4 engraving by TSMC, the Shader Execution Reordering, its 90 TFLOPS, its 200 RT TFLOPS, its 1400 Tensor TFLOPS and a maximum of 18432 CUDA Cores in a single GPU. This is quite impressive compared to the previous generation Ampere.
The chip is organized into 12 Graphics Processing Clusters (GPC) each containing 72 Texture Processing Clusters (TPC) with 144 Streaming Multiprocessors (SM). The Streaming Multiprocessors benefit from a new technology called Shader Execution Reordering (SER) which allows to multiply by two the Ray Tracing operations. We can also notice that the chip of the RTX 4090 is amputated allowing perhaps to see a future RTX 4090 Ti land.
These new RTX also come with 4th generation Tensor Cores, which will be very useful for DLSS and DLSS 3 AI as well as 3rd generation RT Cores which will allow to double the performance of Ray Tracing. In addition to the evolution of generation, their number also increases compared to the previous generation depending on the model.
By the way, here is a comparison table to judge the differences between these cards.
DLSS 3 is now available and operational:
One of the announcements of NVIDIA during its conference is the arrival of DLSS 3. Be careful though, this one is only compatible with the RTX 4000. Owners of a previous generation card will be happy with the DLSS 2 that NVIDIA will continue to develop in the coming months.
As a reminder, until now, the principle of DLSS (Deep learning super sampling) was to allow a gain in terms of FPS by replacing the antialiasing TAA. The idea is to calculate the rendering in a lower definition than that chosen in the parameters and then to replay it in the definition said using an AI applied via the Tensor Core while maintaining an image quality as perfect as possible.
Today, with the arrival of DLSS 3, things are changing even if the fundamental principle of increasing the number of FPS is still the main reason. The novelty comes from the fact that DLSS 3 allows you to add whole intermediate images and no longer pixels. This increases the number of frames per second and consequently the fluidity. To achieve this, DLSS3 uses an optical flow gas pedal integrated into the new RTX 4000 architecture. This is why previous generations that do not have this will not be able to benefit from DLSS 3. We will have to be careful during our tests and compare what is comparable because yes, of course DLSS 3 will be more powerful but it is difficult to judge it on the Ampere generation which does not support it.
Even if the main function is to increase the number of FPS, NVIDIA also reminds the importance of latency. We had already dealt with this subject by talking about Nvidia Reflex. To summarize simply, the principle is to reduce the latency in games as much as possible, that is to say the time that elapses between the moment you click on the button of your mouse and its manifestation on the screen. In order to be able to perform all the readings, a compatible mouse will be necessary.
The latest advances from NVIDIA could turn the world of e-sports upside down, as we could see 1440p 27″ displays replacing the current 1080p 25″ displays. Finally, NVIDIA has already announced over 35 games that are compatible and ready to use DLSS 3. We will of course add games that support DLSS 3 to our tests. Of course DLSS 3 games are backwards compatible with DLSS 2 technology.
AV1 hardware compression:
NVIDIA is now integrating its 8th generation NVENC encoder with AV1 which is 40% more efficient than H.264. The arrival of AV1 will be very useful especially for streaming.
[nextpage title=”Test configuration: “]
As we said in the introduction, we’re (once again) busy updating all our graphics with the latest drivers from NVIDIA, AMD and now, of course, INTEL. We’ve also taken the opportunity to slightly modify our test configuration. So here we go again, with a new series of tests and graphics on this slightly modified configuration:
- Motherboard: ROG Maximus Z690 APEX
- Processor: Intel Alder Lake i9-12900K
- Memory : 32 GB Corsair Vengeance 5200 CL38 DDR5
- Graphics card: ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition
- Cooling system : ROG Ryujin II 360 from Asus
- SSD: Western Digital Black SN750 2 TB EKWB radiator
- Power supply: Corsair AX1600i adapter 12VHPWR 600W
- Operating system: Windows 11 64-bit
For this test, we used a high-end configuration featuring an i9-12900K processor and DDR5. The use of a 144 Hz 4K display is also a sine qua non. For our tests, we’re using the ROG PG27UQ.
As we said in the introduction to this article, all our tests have been redone over the last few days with all our cards and with the latest drivers available!
The drivers used are the latest for each manufacturer, with NVIDIA 536.20, AMD Adrenalin-Edition-23.10.01.16 and Intel ARC 31.0.101.4369.
Our test protocol :
All cards are tested at stock frequencies and without any optimization. For the various benchmarks, whether synthetics or games, we’ll opt for 1080p, 1440p and 2160p resolutions, depending on the card’s performance. Here, with this model, we’ll be using 1080p and 1440p for Rasterization and 1080p for Ray Tracing.
As you can see, we’re now running Windows 11, and we’ve activated the ” ReSize BAR ” in the BIOS, which can be seen in GPU-Z. Now that you know everything about our test configuration, it’s time to get started!
[nextpage title=”Synthetic benchmarks: “]
Our first series of tests will be dedicated to synthetic benchmarks. These are often used for overclocking competitions, but are also very interesting for comparing different GPUs. We’ll be focusing on benchmarks from the 3DMark series.
We’ll be testing the following benchmarks:
- Fire Strike (1080p)
- Fire Strike Ultra (2160p)
- Time Spy (1440p)
- Time Spy Extreme (2160p)
- 3DMark Speed Way
- DirectX Raytracing
- Intel XeSS
- Mesh Shader
- 3DMark DLSS Feature Test (2160p)
3DMark Fire Strike and Fire Strike Ultra:
Let’s start with 3DMark Fire Strike, one of today’s most widely used benchmarks. It consists of two graphics tests, a CPU test and a fourth test that combines GPU and CPU. Don’t forget to deactivate the demo, which makes no contribution to the final score and prolongs the benchmark’s duration (unnecessarily). The version used for these tests is, of course, the latest.
This is our first benchmark with this ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition, and the least we can say is that we expected to see it a little higher up our ranking, even though we know that Fire Strike is more to the advantage of AMD cards.
Under Fire Strike Ultra, as was the case with the RTX 4060 Ti, the card struggles and even falls behind the RX 6600 XT.
3DMark Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme:
The second test is 3DMark Time Spy. Although this one is performed in 1440p, its main feature is that it uses DirectX 12. It consists of two graphics tests and a CPU test. As with Fire Strike, don’t forget to disable the demo. The first two benchmarks are provided by UL Benchmark.
The performance obtained in Time Spy is often representative of what we’ll get in games. Here, our sample of the day outperforms the RX 7600, which should lead us to expect gaming performance close to that of the AMD model. We can see the Intel A750 ARC performing much better, but will it do the same in games?
Under 3DMark Time Spy Extreme, the RTX 4060 and the RX 7600 perform identically, and are both within striking distance of each other.
3DMark Speed Way
Ulbenchmark’s latest benchmark, and it’s nice to be able to say that we’re going to have a go at this Speed Way. It uses DirectX 12 and defaults to 1440p. We haven’t modified anything, so we’re using the original benchmark.
Here too, our ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition scores 2591 points. We took the opportunity to run the old cards through the benchmark again, to make it more complete.
3DMark DirectX Raytracing:
UL Benchmarks has added a new test to its series of benchmarks for measuring Ray Tracing performance. The idea is to use the 3DMark DirectX Ray Tracing test to compare the performance of Ray Tracing hardware dedicated to graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA, and now also from Intel!
The 3DMark DirectX Ray Tracing test is designed to make Ray Tracing the limiting factor. Instead of relying on traditional rendering, the entire scene is traced and drawn in a single pass. The test result will depend entirely on Ray Tracing performance. This makes it easy to measure and compare the performance of different cards.
This benchmark has always been dominated by NVIDIA cards, and today’s sample is no exception, with a score of 27.5 FPS. It’s the addition of CUDA cores and higher frequencies that have a huge impact on the performance gain over the previous generation.
3DMark Intel XeSS
UL Benchmarks, in collaboration with Intel, will be adding this new benchmark to the 3DMark suite. We had early access to this new test for our tests. This Intel XeSS test is designed to evaluate and compare the performance and image quality of XeSS (Xe Super Sampling). There are four XeSS modes to choose from: Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced and Performance. The 3DMark inspection tool helps you compare image quality with a side-by-side view of XeSS rendering and native resolution rendering. You need a graphics card that supports Intel XeSS to run this test.
So we’ll have two scores, a number of FPS with XeSS disabled and then, on the right, with XeSS enabled. The mode chosen is “Ultra Quality”, which is actually the benchmark’s default mode.
In this new benchmark, all graphics cards without exception benefit from XeSS, but it’s Intel that reaps the greatest gain. ARC models see a gain of 50
while NVIDIA and AMD models see gains of between 30% and 35%.
3DMark DLSS Feature Test:
We didn’t keep this benchmark, since it only concerns DLSS-compatible cards and was therefore not useful for our comparative tests. Here, we’ve retested it, since it officially supports DLSS 3 since the end of the NDA on the RTX 4090.
So we’re going to run a 2160p benchmark first with DLSS disabled, then with DLSS 2 performance and finally with DLSS 3 performance.
Our ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition achieves a score of 12.5 FPS without DLSS, then 38.1 FPS (201%) with DLSS 2 enabled. DLSS 3 still delivers a 73% gain over DLSS 2, so we can see just how much the arrival of DLSS 3 has boosted gaming performance.
Well, to conclude this first series of synthetic tests, we’re right on target with our performance expectations. We’re well ahead of the RTX 3060 and very close to the performance of the RX 7600. We should have very good 1080p performance in rasterization.
[nextpage title=”Gaming performance 1080p and 1440p: “]
We’ve decided to select six games that we feel are sufficiently representative. We opted for DirectX12 and Vulkan with the following games:
- The Division 2 (DirectX 12)
- Borderlands 3 (DirectX 12)
- Red Dead Redemption II (Vulkan)
- Far Cry 6 (DirectX 12)
- Watch Dogs: Legion (DirectX 12)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (DirectX12)
We’ve chosen to use the built-in benchmarks for these games.
Why do we do this? Quite simply to enable you to compare your results with ours if you also own a copy of one of these games. It’s a thought-provoking idea that will enable you to compare your results with ours.
As we mentioned on page 4 of this article, we have activated the Resizable Bar in the BIOS, which is now supported by all (recent) GPUs. Last but not least, we’ve opted for 1080p and 1440p resolution only, which is what you’d expect from these cards.
The Division 2:
The Division 2 will be tested under DirectX 12. As far as graphics parameters are concerned, they will be set to ” ultra ” mode, with vertical synchronization deactivated.
First game, and the trend seen in the synthetic benchmarks is confirmed: our ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition is well ahead of the RTX 3060, and even ahead of the RX 7600. Note that this is one of the least power-hungry games in our panel. No difference in 1440p definition, where positions are still identical. It’s worth noting, however, that Intel ARCs are lagging behind.
Borderlands 3:
For the second game, we switch to Borderlands 3. Graphics options are set to ” Brutal “. It’s worth noting that Borderlands 3 is quite greedy and that this choice of settings has a fairly strong impact on FPS. It’s a game that’s often praised in announcements of new graphics cards, and precisely in this Brutal mode.
Performance here lags behind, and even if our ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition performs 15% better than the RTX 3060, AMD’s RX 7600 is far ahead. The ARX A750 rivals and scores almost exactly the same as our sample of the day.
Red Dead Redemption 2:
The third and by no means least important game is Red Dead Redemption II on PC. The advantage of this opus is the possibility of testing the integrated Vulkan benchmark. We opt for the ” ultra ” graphics options.
Third and by no means least, RDR2 offers the possibility of testing the integrated Vulkan benchmark. Our three challengers of the day come within a whisker of each other in 1080p, which leaves some suspense for the other games.
Far Cry 6:
The latest game we’re adding to this section is Far Cry 6, since it supports DXR as well as AMD’s SFR. We’ll also look at it on the next page. For our benchmarks, we opted for ” ultra” graphics quality.
Even though our report on this game showed an advantage for the RX 6000 cards, our sample of the day performs just as well. In 1080p, it’s a number of FPS almost equivalent to the RTX 3060 Ti, and in 1440p, our RTX 4060 places between the two Intel cards and ahead of the RX 7600.
Watch Dogs Legion:
Last but not least, Watch Dogs Legion will also be used for our Ray Tracing tests. For our benchmarks, we have opted for ” very high” graphics quality.
In the Watch Dogs Legion benchmark, we are obliged to set the graphics quality to “very high” rather than “ultra”, as the benchmark then tells us that the 8 GB of memory is not enough. Once again, our RTX 4060 does very well, even if this benchmark is more to the advantage of the reds.
Cyberpunk 2077:
Here’s a game we’ve been wanting to add for a while, and now we’ve done it, with an integrated benchmark. We’ll also be using this game for our Ray Tracing tests. For our benchmarks, we’ve opted for “ultra” graphics quality.
New and final benchmark for this panel of games. The 80 FPS mark is reached at 1080p, and 51 FPS at 1440p with ultra graphics quality. For the rest of the graphics, we’re perfectly consistent with our previous results.
Game average:
For the gaming average, it’s the RTX 3060 that sets the benchmark in 1080p, while it’s the RTX 3070 in 1440p definition. Other cards score either higher or lower, depending on their performance against this model.
In 1080p, our RTX 4060 outperforms the previous-generation RTX 3060 by 23 ace overall. Against its AMD rival, the RX 7600, it lags slightly behind. As we’ve seen, depending on the game, it’s either the NVIDIA or the AMD card that takes the lead. Intel ARC cards lag behind in 1080p, but are more efficient in 1440p.
As far as our two RTX 4060s are concerned, the results are very close, with differences of up to a slight 4 in some benchmarks. How can this be explained, when the Gigabyte Boost frequency is 2475 MHz and the Asus 2670 MHz? Quite simply because, in reality, both reach a maximum Boost frequency of 2825 MHz, which means that their scores are very close. We expect the same results with the Asus Dual RTX 4060 model.
[nextpage title=”Ray tracing and DLSS/FSR performance:”]
Let’s turn now to the seven games we’ve selected that support Ray Tracing as well as DLSS, and in some cases AMD’s FSR, as well as Intel’s new XeSS technology, supported by Shadow Tomb Raider and Hitman 3. As we’ve already reminded you, while DLSS remains the property of NVIDIA, FSR and XeSS can be used with all cards from AMD, Intel and even NVIDIA.
The seven DirectX 12 games we’ll be testing with Ray Tracing and DLSS, FSR or XeSS are :
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DLSS)
- Watch Dogs: Legion (DLSS)
- Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DLSS)
- Far Cry 6 (DLSS – FSR)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (DLSS 3 – FSR)
- Hitman 3 (DLSS 3 – XeSS)
- Forza Horizon 5 (DLSS 3)
No change for this new series of games, as we’re sticking with 1080p definition. Depending on the card, we’ll be using DLSS for NVIDIA and either FSR or XeSS for AMD models. If FSR isn’t available in a game, then we’ll give our AMD card the benefit of XeSS technology.
DLSS 3: watch out for our results!
As you know, NVIDIA unveiled DLSS 3 with the arrival of the RTX 4000 graphics cards, and in particular with the launch of the RTX 4090 version. So why the warning? Because NVIDIA now offers DLSS3 support on many games, but this is only supported by RTX 4000s. To put it simply, if we test a game that benefits from DLSS 3, our RTX 4060 Ti will take advantage of it, but an RTX 30xx will make do with DLSS 2, resulting in even greater discrepancies.
We currently have three games that support DLSS 3, and we’ll be increasing this number over the coming weeks. Updating all our graphics to 1080p and 1440p has taken us a long time. You can find the list of compatible games here.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider:
The first game we’ve added to this comparison supports Ray Tracing and DLSS 2.0. The game features three Ray Tracing levels (medium – high – ultra) and four DLSS levels (performance – quality – balanced – ultra performance).
For our benchmarks, we opted for ” very high ” graphics quality, ” ultra ” Ray Tracing and ” balanced ” DLSS.
With Ray Tracing activated in ultra, an average of 102 FPS is already achieved. The addition of DLSS 2.3 raises our average to 141 FPS, so there’s no difficulty in enjoying 1080p with Ray Tracing activated. In this first game, our ROG RTX 4060 Strix OC Edition leaves all its rivals behind.
As a side note, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider was equipped with XeSS, enabling AMD cards to benefit from this technology. You can still judge the difference in performance between the two technologies.
Watch Dogs Legion:
The second game, Watch Dogs Legion supports Ray Tracing and DLSS 2.0. It proves to be one of the most demanding games of the moment. The game features three Ray Tracing levels (medium – high – ultra) and four DLSS levels (performance – quality – balanced – ultra performance).
For our benchmarks, we opted for very high graphics quality, ” high ” Ray Tracing and ” balanced ” DLSS.
The Ray Tracing in Watch Dogs Legion is starting to take its toll on the cards, but our sample of the day fares rather well, achieving an average of 63 FPS. Activating DLSS 2 will boost FPS to an average of 6 frames per second. Our RTX 4060 takes on the scalp of the RX 6700 XT.
Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition:
Third game to support DLSS 2.0. We’ve devoted a special report to it. The game offers three levels of Ray Tracing and four levels of DLSS (performance – quality – balanced – ultra performance).
For our benchmarks, we opted for ultra graphics quality, ” ultra ” Ray Tracing and DLSS in ” balanced ” mode.
We continue with greedy games and here, our ROG RTX 4060 Strix OC Edition allows itself to do as well as the RTX 3060 Ti.
Far Cry 6:
Far Cry 6 supports DXR as well as AMD’s FSR, but not DLSS.
For our benchmarks, we opted for Ultra graphics quality, activated both DRX options and FSR in ” balanced ” mode.
In Far Cry 6, FSR is the only choice available to boost FPS after enabling Ray Tracing. This means that all our cards can benefit, regardless of manufacturer. Nothing really changes in the hierarchy, with the RTX 4060 still well ahead of the RX 7600.
Cyberpunk 2077:
A new game that we’ve added to our line-up, and which features DLSS and FSR activation in its settings. Note that this is the first game to enable DLSS3 for RTX 40xx graphics cards.
For our benchmarks, we opted for “high” graphics quality, “medium” Ray Tracing and ” balanced ” DLSS/FSR.
This is the most demanding game, where our cards have great difficulty keeping up. Here, an average of 45.4 FPS is achieved. DLSS 3, which we mentioned at the start of this page, offers a very significant gain, as you can see from our graph. From 45.4 FPS to 120.3 FPS!
Hitman 3:
Hitman 3 is now compatible with DLSS, FSR and XeSS technology. Depending on the model of card tested, we opt for one of these three technologies.
For our benchmarks, we opted for “high” graphics quality, ” enabled ” Ray Tracing and ” balanced ” DLSS/Xess.
Although we support DLSS 3, we were unable to judge a greater difference when using our RTX 4060 Ti, since the DLSS3 option remains grayed out, even though our game is perfectly up to date. Let’s find out why.
Forza Horizon 5:
The latest game to be added to our panel, this one now supports DLSS 3 technology. For our benchmarks, we opted for ” extreme ” graphics quality, ” extreme ” Ray Tracing and ” balanced ” DLSS/Xess/FSR.
This new game, which also supports DLSS 3, clearly demonstrates its potential. With Ray Tracing activated, our RTX 4060 is ahead of the RTX 3060 Ti, and with DLSS 3 active, the advantage is even more obvious.
So Ray Tracing with the RTX 4060:
On our seven games tested, our RTX 4060 had no problems whatsoever, and apart from Cyberpunk 2077, the average was always very close to or above 60 FPS. The good news is that when we use Ray Tracing, the RTX 4060 often performs as well as the RTX 3060 Ti. We were also able to judge the undeniable benefits of DLSS3. Once the hardware launches have calmed down a little, we’ll come back to DLSS3 in detail, with comparative videos and photos.
[nextpage title=”Temperature, power consumption and nuisances: “]
Temperature:
To record temperatures, we opted for the Superposition stress test in Extreme mode. We opted for three 5-minute runs with 10-minute intervals between each test. We took advantage of this benchmark to record the graphics card’s power consumption for the table above.
To find out the Idle temperature, after completing the three stress test loops, we let the card rest for 20 minutes before taking the temperature reading. Bear in mind that most boards benefit from “0 dBa” technology, so the fans cut out below a certain temperature, often between 50 and 55°C. It therefore takes longer to dissipate heat after a period of stress testing or gaming. A card that does not benefit from this technology will be noisier than others at rest. A quick reminder: our temperature readings are taken in Open-Air. In a closed case, the cards will inevitably be warmer.
As we expected, the cooling system does the job perfectly. While we were disappointed by the temperatures obtained with the Gigabyte RTX 4060 model (69.6°C), here the difference is obvious, with a temperature of 49.3°C. The other good news is that noise levels are perfectly controlled, with a speed curve perfectly crafted by Asus.
Power consumption (full configuration):
We use a wattmeter to measure power consumption at the output of our PSU. Our modular power supply is a CORSAIR AX1600i. The result is the average total power consumption of our configuration. Only the graphics card changes between each reading. This makes it easy to calculate the difference between each graphics card.
As we suspected, the overall power consumption of our ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition configuration was another excellent surprise, with an average of 209 watts. Please note that the benchmark used only applies to the GPU. For gaming use, the overall power consumption of our configuration will be higher, but this applies to all our graphics cards.
This result confirms the work carried out by NVIDIA on the ADA Lovelace architecture, in conjunction with the new finesse engraving. Our RTX 4060 is now the queen of these graphics, and therefore the graphics card with the lowest power consumption in 2023. As soon as we get our hands on the PCAT tool or the new version of the ElmorLabs PMD Power Measurement Device supporting 12 4 pins, we’ll update this chart, isolating only the graphics card.
[nextpage title=”Overclocking: “]
As far as overclocking is concerned, we were very disappointed with our copy of the Gigabyte RTX 4060 WindForce OC, as it didn’t offer the option of increasing the power limit beyond 100. So what about our ROG RTX 4060 Strix OC Edition? To overclock our sample, we downloaded the latest version of our in-house software: GPU Tweak III. We’ll be back shortly with a full article dedicated to this software.
The overclocking software for your graphics card GPU Tweak III offers four profiles for our ROG RTX 4060 Strix OC Edition. First of all, the default OC mode, which increases the power consumption limit by 10 t and raises the boost frequency from 2670 to 2700 MHz.
The third profile is a silent mode where the Boost frequency is reduced by 30 MHz and the power consumption limit is lowered from 100 to 90. The idea, of course, is to reduce noise pollution.
Finally, the manual mode we’re going to use to try and overclock this ROG RTX 4060 Strix OC Edition. First step: we’ll see what gain we have on the power consumption limit. Our sample allows us to go from 100% to 125%. We’ll be looking for maximum performance, but keeping the fans in AUTO mode, as the cooling system is proving to be ultra-efficient.
Manual overclocking:
To test our overclocking, we’ll first concentrate on the Time Spy benchmark. Let’s get started! We keep the fans in AUTO mode, raise the power limit to the maximum, i.e. 125t, and off we go! Initially, we only push the GPU frequency in 50 MHz increments until the benchmark stops running. Once the GPU frequency is stable, we move on to increasing the memory frequency.
By default, at stock frequencies, our ROG RTX 4060 Strix OC Edition achieves an overall score of 11910 points and 11229 points for the GPU score. The boost frequency reaches a maximum of 2835 MHz MHz, with the GPU temperature rising to 56.7°C.
In the end, I was able to push the Boost frequency to 3015 MHz and the memory to 2300 MHz. This allows us to pick up a few points. The limit is around 3040 MHz, and if the card goes any higher, the benchmark automatically crashes. The overall score rises to 12473 points and the GPU score to 11817 points (5.2%). We tested this overclocking under Cyberpunk 2077 with gains of 2.5 n rasterization and 6.5 n Ray Tracing. The results are far from spectacular.
[nextpage title=”The final word: “]
We’ll conclude by comparing NVIDIA’s current offering with the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition with its direct competitors, the RX 7600 and ARC A750. Indeed, if you think that in 2023, an entry-level card costing around 300 euros is too high, look no further. Our aim is to give you our impressions of the current offer, whether you’re for or against. We’ve already had the opportunity to share our impressions on the current price debate, and like everyone else, we’d like to see hardware prices pulled down.
We’d also like to stress that we don’t see the latest entry-level cards from NVIDIA or AMD as a replacement for the previous generation, but rather as an upgrade for a 4 or 5 year-old system. As we’ve seen, NVIDIA RTX 30xx and AMD RX 6xxx cards still do the job perfectly.
Let’s start this first part of the conclusion by focusing solely on the performance of the RTX 4060 chip. Beware: the start of the sales season may bring some very interesting offers in the next few days.
This RTX 4060 versus AMD’s RX 7600?
With an MSRP of 299 euros, which could fall even further in the coming weeks, the RX 7600 has the edge over the RTX 4060 in 1080p rasterization. Admittedly, the advantage is only a few percent, but the difference is also in terms of price, since the MSRP of the NVIDIA RTX 4060 is 329 euros. Asus also offers its Dual RTX 4060 model at MSRP. This model will undoubtedly be the most successful in the Asus catalog.
But the RTX 4060 has a number of assets not to be overlooked, starting with its first place in our consumption graphs, which makes it the best card we’ve had in our hands for years. The performance provided by the DLSS3 is certainly not to be overlooked either, and our sample of the day performs very well against the RX 7600 in this little game. We don’t think anyone will be deprived of a few extra FPS, especially on an entry-level model that can make your games run more smoothly. So it’s availability and any changes in MSRP prices that will make either model the most attractive.
This RTX 4060 versus Intel’s ARC A750?
Currently priced at 260 euros, the Intel ARC A750 could be just the thing for 1080p gaming. Yes, it’s a very interesting card, but it consumes much more power than the RTX 4060 and RX 7600. In terms of rasterization performance, it’s 14% less efficient than the RTX 4060 and 18% less efficient than the RX 7600. If we apply a rule of three to the price/performance ratio, Intel’s offer holds up well.
ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition:
As for our model of the day, the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition, we’re going to have a hard time justifying its price of 489.99 euros against its little sister, the Asus RTX 4060 Dual priced at 329 euros. Asus is well aware that its entry-level model will account for the bulk of sales. But with the ROG Strix series, Asus couldn’t do without this model. If you’re familiar with ROG graphics cards, you’ll know that the Strix model is always sold at a higher price than the reference model – nothing new under the sun. Now, a Strix model on an entry-level card is harder to justify than on an RTX 4090.
But this model does have one significant advantage, as you’ve already seen: its cooling system. Temperatures are excellent and the speed curve is perfectly adjusted, so you don’t hear it at all, even in gaming sessions. The possibility of connecting two additional fans is also very interesting for us.
Finally, a word about overclocking: despite a 125% power limit, we weren’t able to achieve very high gains. The chip seems to be showing its limits, and most cards should achieve more or less the same results when overclocked.
We liked:
- A card to take full advantage of 1080p and why not 1440p in rasterization
- 20ace higher performance than the RTX 3060
- Quality of design and finish
- Excellent cooling system
- Well-designed fan speed curve
- Very low noise levels
- Two 4-pin FAN connectors at the end of the board
- Power consumption that makes it the number 1 card in our comparison
- DLSS 3 support and the arrival of more and more compatible games
- NVIDIA software suite
- The availability of the 8th generation NVENC encoder with AV1
We would have liked :
- A lower price
- Higher overclocking potential, despite 125% power limit
With this RTX 4060, the most affordable card in the ADA Lovelace architecture, NVIDIA offers us the best power consumption chip in years. In terms of performance, it’s 20 ace more efficient than the previous generation and supports DLSS3, which will help you gain FPS and make your game smoother. The competition is now on the lookout, and this bodes well for future buyers, who will opt for the card that best meets their expectations. Asus is offering either its Dual model at the MSRP price or this top-of-the-range version of the ROG Strix series. As we said, Asus knows full well that the majority of sales will be for the MSRP card. Many thanks to Asus for making this sample available.