RTX 2080 vs RTX 4060
The complete head-to-head: full specs, real per-game FPS with 1% lows, ray tracing, a live CPU-bottleneck check, thermals, power and value, with a straight verdict.
GeForce RTX 2080
GeForce RTX 4060
avg, 1080p
The short answer
This is the surprising one: the RTX 2080, a $699 near-flagship from 2018, is still about 3% faster in raw raster than the brand-new-generation RTX 4060, five years and two architectures later. The 4060 answers with barely half the power draw, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, and full AV1 decode and encode, real advantages the 2080 simply doesn't have. If raw frame rate at native resolution is all you care about, the old flagship still wins. For nearly everything else, the 4060's newer feature set makes it the smarter buy for most people.
On paper this shouldn't be close. The RTX 2080 launched at $699 as one of Turing's flagship-adjacent cards; the RTX 4060 arrived five years later as Ada's entry into mainstream 1080p at $299. In practice, the 2080's larger die and wider memory bus let it edge out the 4060 in raw raster, a genuinely surprising result that says as much about how conservative the RTX 40-series' lower tiers were as it does about the 2080's staying power.
What follows is the full spec table, ten-game benchmarks anchored by a Starfield frametime chart, ray tracing results, a CPU-pairing checker built for both, thermal and power readings, and the price history behind an unusually close verdict.
At a glance
Seven dimensions, two cards. Bigger area is not automatically better, each card owns different corners.
Strengths radar
Each axis scored 0-100 relative to the pair
Performance vs price
Up and to the left is better value
Grey dots are neighbouring cards for context.
Which should you buy?
Pick your use case, the winner changes with what you actually do.
A small raw raster edge and a much lower price used make the 2080 the better pick if you don't need Frame Gen.
The wider 256-bit bus and higher bandwidth give the 2080 a real edge at 1440p that the 4060's narrower bus can't fully answer.
4th-gen Tensor cores and current software support make the 4060 meaningfully quicker for local AI despite fewer raw cores.
AV1 decode and encode plus a newer NVENC generation put this firmly in the 4060's favor.
115 W against 215 W, the 4060 fits small cases and modest PSUs the 2080 simply can't.
448 GB/s over a 256-bit bus beats the 4060's 272 GB/s over 128-bit, even with the 4060's larger cache factored in.
Already own an RTX 2080? Don't 'upgrade' to a stock RTX 4060.
Short answer: probably not
You would be paying more for a 3% drop in raw raster performance. The only reasons to make this move are DLSS 3 Frame Generation, AV1 support, or wanting a much cooler, quieter, lower-power card, all real, but none of them are a frame-rate upgrade.
If you want an actual performance jump from a 2080, look at an RTX 4060 Ti, RTX 3060 Ti, or RTX 4070, each a genuine step up rather than a sidegrade. Keep the 2080 if raw fps at the lowest price is what you're optimizing for.
Full specification comparison
Every spec side by side. The highlighted figure wins each row.
| Specification | RTX 2080 | RTX 4060 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| GPU / architecture | TU104 · Turing | AD107 · Ada |
| Process node | TSMC 12 nm | TSMC 4N (5 nm) ▲ |
| Release date | Sep 20, 2018 | Jun 29, 2023 |
| Launch MSRP | $699 | $299 ▲ |
| Compute | ||
| CUDA cores | 2,944 | 3,072 ▲ |
| RT cores | 46 · 1st gen | 24 · 3rd gen |
| Tensor cores | 368 · 1st gen | 96 · 4th gen ▲ |
| Base / boost clock | 1515 / 1800 MHz | 1830 / 2460 MHz ▲ |
| L2 cache | 4 MB | 24 MB ▲ |
| Memory | ||
| VRAM | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory bus | 256-bit ▲ | 128-bit |
| Bandwidth | 448 GB/s ▲ | 272 GB/s |
| Power & form factor | ||
| TDP | 215 W | 115 W ▲ |
| Power connector | 1× 8-pin + 1× 6-pin | 1× 8-pin ▲ |
| Suggested PSU | 650 W | 450 W ▲ |
| PCIe interface | 3.0 ×16 | 4.0 ×8 |
| Features | ||
| Upscaling | DLSS 2 / Super Res | DLSS 3 + Frame Gen ▲ |
| AV1 decode / encode | No / No | Yes / Yes ▲ |
| Display outputs | 3×DP1.4 · HDMI 2.0b | 3×DP1.4a · HDMI 2.1 |
Average FPS by game
Switch resolution, metric, ray tracing and upscaling, the bars update live. Hover a bar for the avg / 1% / 0.1% breakdown.
Average FPS · 1080p · Rasterization. Representative data, hover a bar for avg / 1% / 0.1%. Note the RTX 4060's 1% lows fall off at 1440p and up from its 8 GB VRAM.
Smoothness & frametimes
Average FPS hides stutter. This is one run plotted as frametime, a flat line is smooth, spikes are hitches. Watch what the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM does in a texture-heavy game.
Frametime: Starfield, 1440p Ultra
Lower and flatter is better · 16.7 ms = 60 fps
Counterintuitive but real: the slower RTX 2080 delivers a smoother line here because 12 GB holds the texture pool the 8 GB RTX 4060 keeps evicting, those spikes are VRAM stutter, not raw speed.
Lab scores
Clean apples-to-apples tests, useful, but weaker at predicting real games than the FPS above.
Ray tracing & upscaling
Ray tracing tanks both cards at native resolution. What makes it playable is upscaling, and here the RTX 4060 has a real edge.
Is frame generation "real" performance?
The RTX 4060 supports DLSS 3 Frame Generation, which fabricates an extra frame for every real one it renders, so the on-screen counter can climb well past what the raw AD107 core delivers alone. It costs a little responsiveness since the inserted frame doesn't react to your input, NVIDIA Reflex offsets most of that. The RTX 2080's Turing silicon shipped years before this feature existed and has no way to add it.
Use Frame Generation on the 4060 for single-player and cinematic games, and skip it for competitive shooters or when your base frame rate sits under about 50 fps, where the added latency starts to feel off. It's the single biggest practical advantage the 4060 has over the otherwise-faster 2080 in supported titles.
Will your CPU bottleneck these cards?
A faster GPU only helps if your CPU keeps up. Pick your CPU and resolution to see expected FPS and bottleneck for each card.
CPU + GPU pairing check
The willitbottleneck engine, built right into the comparison.
Estimated from a 43-CPU model across 1440p. A weak CPU mostly bites at 1080p; at higher resolutions the GPU becomes the limiter and the bottleneck shrinks.
Thermals & noise
The efficiency gap shows up here: the newer card runs cooler and quieter, day in and day out.
Real draw, efficiency & PSU
TDP is the rated figure; what matters is real gaming draw and how many frames you get per watt.
Both use a single 8-pin connector. If your PSU already ran the RTX 2080, it will run the RTX 4060 easily. Leave about 30% headroom for spikes.
Will it fit, and what to pair it with?
Size to scale
Card length matters for small cases
What monitor to pair
RTX 2080: strong at 1440p 90-120 Hz, and it can even handle occasional lighter 4K titles with DLSS 2. RTX 4060: best at 1080p 100-165 Hz, and 1440p 60-90 Hz with DLSS, its narrower bus and lower raw raster make it the weaker of the two at native higher resolution despite being the newer card.
Running an older PCIe 3.0 board?
The RTX 2080 runs a full PCIe 3.0 ×16 link, unaffected on the older motherboards it typically pairs with. The RTX 4060 uses only PCIe 4.0 ×8, and on a PCIe 3.0 board that drops to 3.0 ×8, a real, if usually modest, 2-5% hit in most games.
Price history & dollars-per-frame
Raw price is only half the story. Cost per frame is the number that decides it, and it keeps moving as prices fall.
New price over time
Street price of new cards (USD)
The 8 GB vs 8 GB question
RTX 2080 · 8 GB
- The 256-bit bus and 448 GB/s of bandwidth actually beat the newer RTX 4060's 272 GB/s outright, a genuine surprise for a five-year-old card.
- 1st-generation RT and Tensor cores make ray tracing and light AI or Blender work usable, even if not class-leading.
- DLSS 2 only, no Frame Generation, so it can't stretch frame rate the way the 4060 does in supported titles.
- No AV1 support in either direction, a real gap for anyone streaming or archiving footage.
RTX 4060 · 8 GB
- A 24 MB L2 cache meaningfully offsets the narrow 128-bit bus, and DLSS 3 Frame Generation adds real extra frames in supported games.
- AV1 decode and encode both, useful for watching and creating AV1 content, a full generation ahead of the 2080 here.
- Still an narrower bus and lower raw bandwidth than the RTX 2080, despite launching five years later.
- Same 8 GB capacity as the 2080, the process and architecture leap didn't move the VRAM ceiling at all.
Emulation & memory bandwidth
The narrower bus is a real downgrade for emulation
The RTX 2080's 448 GB/s over a 256-bit bus clearly beats the RTX 4060's 272 GB/s over 128-bit, even accounting for the 4060's larger 24 MB cache. For high-resolution Switch and RPCS3 emulation, the older card's wider memory subsystem keeps it the stronger pick.
Creator, AI & streaming
The newer card is quicker per task, but the older card's extra VRAM unlocks larger jobs it can't fit at all.
Streaming: the AV1 encoder is the differentiator
The RTX 4060 supports AV1 both ways, decode and encode, the RTX 2080 has neither. AV1 delivers visibly cleaner quality at the same bitrate on YouTube and Discord, plus faster exports in AV1-aware editors. For anyone who streams, records, or edits video regularly, this alone can decide it in the 4060's favor.
Overclocking & undervolting
The 215 W RTX 2080 has real undervolting headroom given its age and power draw, worth doing even without chasing extra clock speed. The RTX 4060 has a bit more overclocking room on the core but is already tuned close to its efficiency sweet spot at 115 W.
Pros & cons
RTX 2080
- Actually faster in raw raster, a small but real 3% margin despite launching five years earlier
- Wider 256-bit bus and higher 448 GB/s bandwidth beat the newer 4060's memory subsystem outright
- Far cheaper new-old-stock and used, the best value on this page by a wide margin
- 215 W draw on an old reference blower design that runs hot and loud
- No AV1 support at all and no DLSS 3 Frame Generation
RTX 4060
- Dramatically more efficient at 115 W, barely half the RTX 2080's power draw
- DLSS 3 Frame Generation plus full AV1 decode and encode
- Smaller, quieter, and still a new, currently sold card with a warranty
- Actually slightly slower in raw raster than a card five years older, an unusual result for a new release
- Narrower 128-bit bus and lower raw bandwidth than the RTX 2080
Buying pitfalls
Buying a used RTX 2080? Budget for a repaste
Reference-blower RTX 2080 cards are now several years old, and thermal paste and pads on cards this age commonly degrade, showing up as higher-than-spec temperatures. A $10-15 repaste kit and an hour of work often recovers several degrees on a used card.
The RTX 4060 is not the RTX 4060 Ti
NVIDIA also sells an RTX 4060 Ti with more cores, higher clocks, and an optional 16 GB VRAM configuration, a meaningfully different, faster card at a higher price. Confirm the listing says plain 'RTX 4060' if this page's numbers are what you're shopping for.
RTX 2080 vs RTX 4060: your questions answered
Not in raw speed, surprisingly, the RTX 2080 is about 3% faster in native raster despite being five years older. The RTX 4060 answers with DLSS 3 Frame Generation, AV1 support, and barely half the power draw, real advantages that matter for some buyers more than raw fps.
If you're chasing the lowest price for the fps and can find a good used RTX 2080, that's the better raw deal. If DLSS 3 Frame Generation, AV1 streaming support, or low power draw and a small, quiet card matter to you, the RTX 4060 is worth the premium.
It does, and better than you'd expect, in raw raster the 2080 holds its own against or ahead of a current-generation RTX 4060. Its real weaknesses are power draw and the lack of DLSS 3 or AV1, not raw speed.
Not for performance, you'd actually lose a small amount of raw frame rate. Upgrade only if you specifically want Frame Generation, AV1, or a cooler, quieter, lower-power card. For an actual speed increase, look at an RTX 4060 Ti or RTX 4070 instead.
The RTX 4060, on balance, its 4th-gen Tensor cores and current software support are meaningfully quicker for Stable Diffusion despite having fewer raw cores than the 2080. For Blender rendering the two are close, the 2080's larger die holds its own there.
The RTX 4060, clearly. It supports AV1 both for decode and encode, the RTX 2080 has neither. That alone makes the 4060 the better choice for anyone streaming, recording, or editing AV1 footage regularly.
Closer than the spec sheet suggests. In native ray tracing without upscaling they land essentially tied despite the 2080 having nearly double the RT core count. With DLSS enabled the two stay close, and only the 4060 can add Frame Generation on top.
The RTX 4060 supports DLSS 4's upscaling and DLSS 3 single Frame Generation, though not the multi-frame generation exclusive to the RTX 50 series. The RTX 2080 supports DLSS 2 upscaling only, with no frame generation of any kind.
Both are fast enough at 1080p and 1440p that a weak CPU can hold either back. Use the pairing checker on this page, a Ryzen 5 5600 or Core i5-12400F and up keeps both cards comfortably fed.
It wins clearly, 115 W against the RTX 2080's 215 W, nearly half the draw for slightly less raw performance. That translates to far lower temperatures and noticeably less noise under load.
A quality 650 W unit for the RTX 2080 with its 8-pin plus 6-pin connector, and 450 W for the RTX 4060 on a single 8-pin. Either way, a 650 W unit covers both cards with room to spare.
Size, yes: RTX 2080 cards run around 267 mm and RTX 4060 cards around 200 mm, check your case's maximum GPU length either way. PCIe, barely: the 2080's full 3.0 ×16 link loses nothing on an older board, while the 4060's 4.0 ×8 link can lose 2-5% on a PCIe 3.0 motherboard.
No, for either. Mobile RTX 2080 and RTX 4060 GPUs are separate, lower-power chips than their desktop namesakes, and their relative standing can differ from this page. Use the mobile comparison if you're shopping laptops.
The RTX 2080's wider bus and higher raw raster make it the marginally better native 4K option in lighter titles, though neither is a comfortable choice for modern AAA settings at 4K. The RTX 4060 is better treated as a 1080p-to-1440p card.
A used RTX 2080 around $125 is the standout value on this page for raw speed. The RTX 4060 is still sold new with a warranty, worth the extra cost if Frame Generation or AV1 support are things you'll actually use.
Eventually, yes. The RTX 4060's Ada architecture has years of full Game Ready support ahead of it, while the RTX 2080's Turing architecture is older and increasingly receiving maintenance-level updates rather than new feature support, worth factoring in if long-term software support matters to you.