RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070
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 4060
GeForce RTX 4070
avg, 1080p
The short answer
This is a same-generation, different-tier matchup, both cards are built on Ada Lovelace, so there is no feature gap to argue about, DLSS version, encoder count and display outputs are all identical. The difference is pure scale: the RTX 4070 has almost double the CUDA cores, 50% more VRAM, and nearly double the memory bandwidth, and it is about 55% faster on average as a result. It also costs about 60% more. If your budget stretches to it, the 4070 is a genuinely faster card in every category, not just a marginal step up like most same-price generational comparisons on this site.
Unlike most matchups on this site, these two cards share a generation, an architecture, and even a launch year. The RTX 4070 actually reached shelves a couple of months before the RTX 4060, despite the lower model number implying otherwise, NVIDIA released its higher tiers first in the Ada lineup. What separates them now is simply how much silicon and memory you are willing to pay for.
Everything below turns that decision into numbers: full spec tables, real frame rates with 1% lows, ray tracing and DLSS behaviour, a live CPU-bottleneck check, thermals, power draw, two years of price history, and a verdict on whether the 4070's 55% average lead justifies paying roughly 60% more.
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.
More than enough card for competitive 1080p titles, and the money saved is real if that is genuinely all you play.
The extra 4 GB of VRAM and nearly double the bandwidth are exactly what 1440p ultra settings ask for, the 4060 starts compromising here first.
12 GB fits meaningfully larger local models and batch sizes than the 4060's 8 GB, VRAM capacity is the deciding factor for AI work.
Same single AV1 encoder on both, so this comes down to raw speed and headroom, and the 4070's larger core and VRAM pool win on bigger projects.
115 W against 200 W is a meaningful difference in a compact case or on an older 450-550 W supply.
The wider 192-bit bus and higher bandwidth help most at the high internal resolutions demanding emulation cores push toward.
Already own an RTX 4060? The 4070 is a real upgrade, if you can afford it.
Short answer: probably not
Unlike most same-price, next-generation comparisons, this one is not a lateral move. A 55% average gain plus 50% more VRAM is a genuine tier jump, closer to skipping a whole generation than to a routine refresh. If 1440p or VRAM-hungry games are frustrating you on the 4060, the 4070 solves both at once.
If the price gap is too much right now, an RTX 4060 Ti 16GB is a smaller, cheaper step that still adds VRAM headroom without the full 4070 price tag.
Full specification comparison
Every spec side by side. The highlighted figure wins each row.
| Specification | RTX 4060 | RTX 4070 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| GPU / architecture | AD107 · Ada Lovelace | AD104 · Ada Lovelace |
| Process node | TSMC 4N (5 nm class) | TSMC 4N (5 nm class) |
| Release date | Jun 29, 2023 | Apr 13, 2023 |
| Launch MSRP | $299 ▲ | $599 |
| Compute | ||
| CUDA cores | 3,072 | 5,888 ▲ |
| RT cores | 24 · 3rd gen | 46 · 3rd gen ▲ |
| Tensor cores | 96 · 4th gen | 184 · 4th gen ▲ |
| Base / boost clock | 1830 / 2460 MHz | 1920 / 2475 MHz ▲ |
| L2 cache | 24 MB | 36 MB ▲ |
| Memory | ||
| VRAM | 8 GB GDDR6 | 12 GB GDDR6X ▲ |
| Memory bus | 128-bit | 192-bit ▲ |
| Bandwidth | 272 GB/s | 504 GB/s ▲ |
| Power & form factor | ||
| TDP | 115 W ▲ | 200 W |
| Power connector | 1× 8-pin | 1× 16-pin (12VHPWR) |
| Suggested PSU | 450 W ▲ | 650 W |
| PCIe interface | 4.0 ×8 | 4.0 ×16 ▲ |
| Features | ||
| Upscaling | DLSS 3 + Frame Gen | DLSS 3 + Frame Gen |
| AV1 encode (NVENC) | Yes · 1 encoder | Yes · 1 encoder |
| Display outputs | 3×DP1.4a · HDMI 2.1 | 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 4070'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 4070'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 4060 delivers a smoother line here because 12 GB holds the texture pool the 8 GB RTX 4070 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 4070 has a real edge.
Is frame generation "real" performance?
Both cards run the same DLSS 3 single Frame Generation, unlike most matchups on this site there is no version gap to weigh here. One AI frame gets inserted between two real ones on either card, with a small latency cost that NVIDIA Reflex mostly offsets.
Frame generation matters more on the 4070, where the higher base frame rate gives it more headroom to work with. On the 4060, stick to games where you are already comfortably above 50-60 base fps before turning it on, and skip it in competitive shooters on either card.
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 4060, it will run the RTX 4070 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 4060: best at 1080p 144 Hz, workable at 1440p 60-90 Hz with DLSS. RTX 4070: strong at 1440p 100-165 Hz and capable at 4K 60 Hz with DLSS. If 1440p is your target monitor, the 4070 is the more comfortable long-term fit.
Running an older PCIe 3.0 board?
The 4060 runs a narrower PCIe 4.0 ×8 link against the 4070's full ×16. On a PCIe 3.0 or older motherboard, the 4060's narrower interface costs a real, if modest, few percent that the full-width 4070 does not lose.
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 12 GB question
RTX 4060 · 8 GB
- 8 GB covers the large majority of 1080p high-and-ultra settings in current games without issue.
- Cheaper to buy, so the VRAM-per-dollar gap with the 4070 is smaller than the raw capacity numbers suggest.
- 1440p ultra with texture packs and ray tracing pushes past 8 GB in a growing number of 2026 releases, where the 4060 starts dropping settings.
- 272 GB/s of bandwidth on a 128-bit bus is the narrowest in this comparison and the first thing to limit performance at higher resolutions.
RTX 4070 · 12 GB
- 12 GB on a 192-bit bus handles 1440p ultra textures and most ray tracing scenarios without the compromises the 4060 has to make.
- 504 GB/s of bandwidth, nearly double the 4060's, keeps the larger core fed at higher resolutions and in RT-heavy scenes.
- 12 GB is a meaningfully better starting point for local AI and 3D work than the 4060's 8 GB.
- All that extra capacity and bandwidth costs about 60% more and draws 85 W more power.
Emulation & memory bandwidth
The narrower bus is a real downgrade for emulation
Both cards handle Switch, PS2 and most PS3 emulation comfortably at standard settings. Push toward higher internal resolutions on demanding RPCS3 or Ryujinx-style cores and the RTX 4070's wider 192-bit bus and nearly double the bandwidth give it real headroom the RTX 4060's narrower 128-bit bus does not have.
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
Both cards carry the same single hardware AV1 encoder, so encode quality per bitrate is identical between them. Where the 4070 pulls ahead is on larger, more demanding projects, its bigger VRAM pool and faster core keep big multi-layer timelines and higher-resolution footage smoother during editing and export.
Overclocking & undervolting
Both cards have modest overclocking headroom, roughly 6-7%, typical for Ada Lovelace. Undervolting is the better use of tuning time on either, similar performance at a real drop in temperature and noise, and the 200 W 4070 has more absolute wattage to trim.
Pros & cons
RTX 4060
- About 60% cheaper, new or used
- 115 W is easy on PSU headroom, case airflow, and noise
- More than enough for 1080p esports and most 1080p AAA gaming
- About 55% slower on average
- 8 GB and a narrow 128-bit bus is the first thing to limit it at 1440p and beyond
RTX 4070
- About 55% faster, a genuine tier jump rather than a lateral move
- 12 GB and nearly double the bandwidth make 1440p ultra and light AI work comfortable
- More headroom for frame generation and ray tracing thanks to the higher base frame rate
- Costs about 60% more, new or used
- Draws 85 W more, needs a meaningfully bigger PSU
Buying pitfalls
Which RTX 4070 are you buying?
The plain RTX 4070, the 4070 Super, and the 4070 Ti Super are three distinct cards with different core counts and prices. This page covers the original, non-Super RTX 4070 only, confirm the exact model before you buy, especially shopping used.
Laptop chips share the name, not the performance
Laptop RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 GPUs are cut-down parts that trail their desktop namesakes by a wide margin, and a laptop 4070 can lose to a desktop 4060. Compare laptop to laptop only, never mix the two.
RTX 4060 vs RTX 4070: your questions answered
About 55% faster on average, backed by 50% more VRAM and nearly double the memory bandwidth. Since both share the same DLSS version and encoder count, the whole gap comes down to core count and memory, not missing features.
If your budget covers it and you're gaming at 1440p or want headroom for AI and creator work, yes, this is a genuine tier jump rather than a marginal one. Stick with the 4060 if 1080p is really your target and the roughly 60% price gap outweighs the performance gap for you.
Yes, at 1080p it's still an efficient, capable card. It runs into its ceiling at 1440p and in VRAM-hungry titles sooner than the 4070 does, but within its intended resolution it's aged fine.
If the budget allows it, yes. Unlike most same-price generational comparisons, this is a real 55% performance jump plus 50% more VRAM, one of the more worthwhile upgrades available right now if 1440p or AI workloads are the goal.
The 4070, without question. Its 12 GB of VRAM fits noticeably larger local models and batch sizes than the 4060's 8 GB, and its higher bandwidth pushes data through those workloads faster.
The 4070 on demanding projects. Output quality is identical since both use the same single AV1 encoder, but the 4070's bigger VRAM pool and faster core give it more headroom on big multi-layer timelines.
Both use the same 3rd-generation RT core design, but the 4070 has nearly twice as many, so it stays playable in ray-traced games at settings where the 4060 has to lean much harder on DLSS to keep up.
No, both run DLSS 3 with single Frame Generation, a rare case on this site where there's no feature gap to weigh. The performance difference is purely down to core count, VRAM, and memory bandwidth.
The 4070, since its higher output needs a faster processor to keep it fed, especially at 1080p. Check the pairing tool on this page; a Ryzen 5 5600 is fine for the 4060, while the 4070 wants a Ryzen 7 5700X or Core i5-12600K or better.
The 4060 pulls about 110 W in real gaming loads against the 4070's 195 W, running noticeably cooler and quieter as a result. Both idle silently thanks to fan-stop.
A solid 450 W unit covers the 4060, and 650 W covers the 4070, each on its own single connector. Go with 650 W if you want the flexibility to upgrade to the 4070 down the line.
Most 4060 cards measure around 200 mm and 4070 cards around 244 mm, both usually 2-slot, so check your case's clearance either way. The 4060's narrower PCIe 4.0 x8 link costs a small but real percentage on an older PCIe 3.0 board; the 4070's full x16 link doesn't lose anything.
No. The laptop versions of both are separate, weaker parts, and a laptop 4070 can actually lose to a desktop 4060. Only compare laptop numbers against other laptop numbers, never against the desktop figures on this page.
The 4070 can manage 4K in lighter or older titles with DLSS switched on. The 4060 is better thought of as a 1080p card with occasional 1440p, not a 4K one. Neither is a native 4K-ultra card without upscaling.
A used RTX 4060 around $230 is the cheapest entry point into this generation. A used RTX 4070 around $380, or new around $460, earns its price if 1440p or VRAM headroom matters to you, it's a genuine tier above the 4060, not a marginal step up.
Years, for both. They share the same Ada Lovelace architecture and both get full, current Game Ready driver support, so driver longevity is identical between them and not a concern for a 2026 build.