Table of Contents
In every graphics card generation, the best-performing models make the most noise on the market. However, lower series are the most popular due to their significantly lower price and still good enough performance for most gamers. In the last few days, Nvidia presented RTX 4060, the most affordable Ada Lovelace GPU, with other advantages, which we’ll share in this review. The first RTX 4060 which arrived to us is MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G. Since Nvidia didn’t release a Founders Edition, we will focus less on comparisons with the reference edition and more on what the MSI model brings.
MSI is a leading graphics card manufacturer, so expectations for every new product are high. The thermals and acoustics of the RTX 4060 are the most interesting, as it’s rated at 115W TDP. To know what more offers the new MSI graphics card, you have to read our review. As usual, we will start with a bunch of technical details, specifications, and features.
ADA Lovelace Architecture and Technologies
Nvidia Ada Lovelace Core
Nvidia’s new Ada Lovelace architecture is fabricated on TSMC’s 4N manufacturing process. The smaller process allowed Nvidia to dramatically increase the transistor count, which turns into a lot more cores (70% more CUDA cores than GA102). The new GPU consists of a whopping 76.3 billion transistors, which they state makes it one of the most complex chips ever made.
With the new core, the Ada architecture also operates at higher clock frequencies using “… high-speed transistors in critical paths that could otherwise restrict the rest of the chip”. The RTX 4060 and AD107 chip inside comes in with clocks of 1.830 GHz on the core and 2,125 MHz on the 8GB GDDR6 with a 128-bit bus. Power consumption is listed as 115W, but custom models may have it higher.
The AD107 GPU found on the RTX 4060 comes equipped with 3 Graphics Process Clusters (GPCs), 4 Texture Processing Clusters (TPCs), 24 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), along with a 128-bit memory interface (4x 32-bit memory controllers). In total, the GPU is equipped with 3072 CUDA cores and 48 ROPs. The AD107 has an 8MB smaller cache than the AD106 used in RTX4060Ti, so in total, it’s a 32MB L2 cache.
The third generation RT core in these Ada GPUs adds a dedicated unit called the Opacity Micromap Engine and the Displaced Micro-Mesh Engine (DMME). The former evaluates Opacity micromaps that are used to accelerate alpha traversal. The DMME allows the Ada RT core to ray trace complex objects and the environment with significantly less BVH build time and storage costs which, when simplified, makes for a much faster and more efficient pathing. Together, Nvidia claims the Ada 3rd-gen RT core is the most powerful they ever made.
Another significant improvement over the previous generation is the upgrade from DLSS 2.0 to DLSS 3.0. The new sauce inside is a new frame generation technique that combines optical flow estimation with DLSS to improve the gaming experience. In other words, inserting accurately synthesized frames between existing frames improves the frame rate and provides a smoother gaming experience. The most significant performance uptick, you’ll see, is with using DLSS.
The Tensor cores have also been updated. Compared to Ampere, Ada provides more than double the FP16, BF16, TF32, INT8, and INT4 Tensor TFLOPS and runs the Hopper FP8 Transformer Engine, delivering over 1.3 PetaFLOPS of tensor processing on the 4090.
For those who like to stream content, Nvidia’s NVENC encoder and existing optimizations for OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) eliminated the need for a dedicated PC for video capture so you can play and stream at the PC without sacrificing quality or performance. Ada takes that a step further, incorporating support for AV1 video encoding the 9th gen NVENC hardware encoder. Previous generations only decoded but didn’t encode. The AV1 encoder is said to be 40% more efficient than the H.264 encoder found in the 3000 series GPUs. With this update, users can increase from 1080p to 1440p while running at the same bitrate and quality. The 4080 and 4090 use two NVENC encoders for the work.
Details aside, the table below lists the specifications for the new ADA GPUs, including our review sample, MSI RTX4060.
Specifications
MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G vs Nvidia Reference RTX 4060
| Reference GeForce RTX 4060 | MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G | |
| GPU Engine Specs: | ||
| NVIDIA CUDA® Cores | 3072 | 3072 |
| Boost Clock (GHz) | 2.46 | 2.595 (2.61 Extreme Performance – MSI Center) |
| Base Clock (GHz) | 1.83 | 1.83 |
| Memory Specs: | ||
| Standard Memory Config | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface Width | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| Technology Support: | ||
| Ray Tracing Cores | 3rd Generation | 3rd Generation |
| Tensor Cores | 4th Generation | 4th Generation |
| NVIDIA Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ada Lovelace |
| NVIDIA DLSS | 3 | 3 |
| NVIDIA Reflex | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA Broadcast | Yes | Yes |
| PCI Express Gen 4 | Yes | Yes |
| Resizable BAR | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA® GeForce Experience™ | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA Ansel | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA FreeStyle | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA ShadowPlay | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA Highlights | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA G-SYNC® | Yes | Yes |
| Game Ready Drivers | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA Studio Drivers | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA Omniverse | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft DirectX® 12 Ultimate | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA GPU Boost™ | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA NVLink™ (SLI-Ready) | No | No |
| Vulkan RT API, OpenGL 4.6 | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC) | 1x 8th Generation | 1x 8th Generation |
| NVIDIA Decoder (NVDEC) | 5th Generation | 5th Generation |
| AV1 Encode | Yes | Yes |
| AV1 Decode | Yes | Yes |
| CUDA Capability | 8.9 | 8.9 |
| VR Ready | Yes | Yes |
| Display Support: | ||
| Maximum Display Resolution (1) | 4K at 240Hz or 8K at 60Hz with DSC | 4K at 240Hz or 8K at 60Hz with DSC |
| Standard Display Connectors | HDMI, 3x DisplayPort | DisplayPort x 3 (v1.4a) HDMI™ x 1 (Supports 4K@120Hz HDR and 8K@60Hz HDR and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) as specified in HDMI™ 2.1a) |
| Multi Monitor | up to 4 | up to 4 |
| HDCP | 2.3 | 2.3 |
| Card Dimensions: | ||
| Length | 244 mm | 247 mm |
| Width | 98 mm | 130 mm |
| Slots | 2-Slot | 2-Slot (41 mm) |
| Thermal and Power Specs: | ||
| Maximum GPU Temperature (in C) | 90 | 90 |
| Total Graphics Power (W) | 115 | 115 |
| Required System Power (W) (8) | 550 | 550 |
| Supplementary Power Connectors | 1x PCIe 8-pin cables (adapter in box) OR 300 W or greater PCIe Gen 5 cable Certain manufacturer models may use 1x PCIe 8-pin cable. | 1x PCIe 8-pin cable |
Some more details about our graphics card from GPU-Z. Let’s look at the screenshot and results in the default settings.
Features
 TriFrozr 9 | TWIN FROZR 9 Thermal designStay cool and quiet. MSI’s TWIN FROZR 9 thermal design enhances heat dissipation all around the graphics card. |
 Torq Fan 5.0 | TORX FAN 5.0TORX FAN 5.0 is a culmination of fan design improvements to increase the air pressure and flow into the heatsink. Ring arcs link three sets of fan blades that tilt 22 degrees together to maintain high-pressure airflow even at slower rotational speeds. The resulting increased airflow is +23% compared to an axial fan. |
 Copper Baseplate | COPPER BASEPLATEFACING THE HEAT HEAD-ON Heat from the GPU and memory modules is immediately captured by a solid nickel-plated copper baseplate and then rapidly transferred to an array of heat pipes. This widening of the thermal transfer systems with highly efficient mechanisms improves overall efficiency. |
 Core Pipe | CORE PIPEKeeping the core cool Core Pipes are precision-crafted to make maximum use of the available space. A squared section of heat pipes fully touch the GPU baseplate and spread the heat along the full length of the heatsink. |
 Airflow Control | AIRFLOW CONTROLAirflow Control improves airflow dynamics through the Wave Curved 2.0 and updated deflectors for optimizing the balance between cooling and quieter acoustics. |
Retail Packaging and Accessories
MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G arrived in a retail package, which is quite a small box. The package has a typical design for modern MSI graphics cards, with the graphics card picture in front and product features on the back. It’s everything we need to know, especially when most graphics cards nowadays are sold online, then we don’t really need a long description directly on the package.
Besides the graphics card, we won’t find much in the box. There is only a quick user’s guide. Since the RTX 4060 Gaming X uses a standard 8-pin power connector, we don’t need any adapters. There is no driver and software CD/DVD. All manufacturers have already moved software to their websites. Between factory packaging and delivery to us, it often takes weeks, while during this time, we can see multiple driver updates. The package protects the card well, so we can be sure it’s safe for the transport time. Our review sample arrived in perfect condition.
A Closer Look at the MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G
MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G design
The tested RTX 4060 graphics card is a high MSI series, so we can count on unique gaming features like high-end, quiet fans and improved power and cooling design. Considering that lower GPUs are barely ever released in top series like Suprim, there is a high chance that the reviewed Gaming X version will be the highest MSI RTX 4060.
The card is mainly kept in black. The front is made primarily of plastic, and the back has a nicely finished aluminum backplate. There are no thermal pads, so it works as a protection for the card and aesthetics rather than an additional heat spreader that could help to reduce the card’s temperature.
We can see that the PCB of the card is barely longer than the PCIe slot. The heatsink is significantly longer, with a popular cut-off in the backplate to more easily transport the heat to the top of the PC (assuming the graphics card has a typical installation and is not vertical). The total length is 247mm, so short enough for most PC cases on the market. The only issues you may run into with fitment are ITX cases.
I’m sure many readers will be happy to see that the RTX 4060 uses a standard 8-pin power connector. I see it as an advantage considering possible problems and lack of trust in the new power connectors used in all higher series Nvidia graphics cards. The tested card is rated 115W TDP, as the reference RTX 4060. However, our tests show we can count on up to 122W under full load. It’s still far from the maximum power the card’s design can handle – up to 225W. However, the RTX 4060 Gaming X doesn’t have voltage adjustment, so as our tests confirm, even with a fully unlocked power limit, we won’t see more than 127W.
We can’t forget about RGB illumination. It’s not so spectacular as in the higher graphics series, but on top of the card is a light bar with an MSI logo and the dragon, which has a full RGB backlight. It can be managed via MSI Center software.
The I/O includes three DisplayPort 1.4a ports and one HDMI 2.1a port. We can be sure that every display resolution, up to 8K, will be supported. Playing games at 8K can be challenging for the RTX 4060, but maybe we have other plans, like office work on large displays.
The RTX 4060 is designed to use eight PCIe lanes. Regardless if we use a new or older motherboard, it will always use eight lanes or fewer. Considering this fact, the RTX 4060 isn’t the best upgrade for an old computer, for example, with PCIe 2.0 standard, as the limited bandwidth will significantly lower the card’s performance. It’s recommended to use this new GPU for newer configurations, even using cheaper processors to reduce costs, as new games take more advantage of the graphics card performance than a processor.
Below is a PCIe bandwidth test that confirms that our graphics card reaches nearly 13GB/s.
What’s under the hood?
The RTX 4060 Gaming X is probably the smallest card I have seen in a long time. The GPU isn’t very demanding, so the four-power phase design is enough. Next to the GPU, we will find four Hynix memory chips with a total of 8GB. There is one power phase for the memory. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes to see 12GB or 16GB of VRAM here.
The cooler uses three heat pipes called “core pipes” as they’re tighter than regular heat pipes and fill the whole space providing a better heat exchange. The cooler’s base is made of copper and cooling the GPU and memory chips. There are no heatsinks or even thermal pads on the VRMs, but it seems unnecessary for a low TDP design.
Stability at the Default Frequency
We had no problems with the stability of the RTX 4060 Gaming X graphics card. Everything passed without issues, including an extended 3DMark stability test.
Below is a screenshot that was taken after 3DMark Stability Test. Even the best cards are barely ever passing 99%, so our result is fully satisfying.
Test System and Testing Procedure
| Test System Components | |
| Motherboard | MSI Z690 Unify-X |
| CPU | Intel i9-12900K (stock) |
| CPU Cooler | ASUS Ryujin II 360 AIO |
| Memory | V-Color Manta RGB 32GB (16GBx2) DDR5-6600 CL34 |
| SSD | Silicon Power XS70 1TB NVMe (OS + Applications) |
| Power Supply | Corsair AX 1200W 80+ Platinum |
| Video Card | MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G / 526.72 driver |
Our test system is based on the mainstream Intel z690 platform and uses the i9-12900K 8P,8E/24t CPU, and 32GB of DDR5-5600 RAM, which already seems like a standard option for modern gaming computers.
More details can be found in the GPU Testing Procedure article, which we have updated with our latest benchmarks. Below is a quick summary for easy reference.
- UL 3DMark Time Spy – Default settings
- UL 3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) – Default settings
- UL 3DMark Port Royal – Default Settings (Ray Tracing capable cards only)
- Unigine Superposition – 1080p High
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider – DX12, “Highest” preset
- The Division 2 – DX12, Ultra preset, VSync Off
- Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey – Ultra High preset, VSync Off
- Far Cry 6 – Ultra defaults, HD Textures enabled
- F1 2021 – DX12, Very High defaults, Bahrain track
- Metro: Exodus – DX12, Ultra defaults
Synthetic Benchmarks
Our first set of benchmarks hails from Underwriters Laboratories, which acquired Futuremark in 2014. Earlier in 2018, a rebrand occurred, and since that time, Futuremark is now UL. The benchmarks have not changed, just the name. We chose to stick with 3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) and 3DMark Time Spy as these tests give users a good idea of performance on modern titles.
3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) is a DX11-based test that runs at 1080p resolution. UL says the graphics are rendered with detail and complexity far beyond other DX11 benchmarks and games. 3DMark Time Spy is a DX12 benchmark designed for Windows 10 PCs. It supports new API features such as asynchronous computing, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading and runs at 2560 x 1440. 3DMark Port Royal is the first Ray Tracing benchmark designed for Windows PCs and graphics cards with Microsoft DirectX Raytracing capabilities.
In all synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4060 Gaming X performs much better than RTX 3050 or RX 6600XT but also worse than the RTX 3060Ti or RX6700XT. The price per performance seems just right, but I guess that gamers wish for something a bit faster as a next-gen replacement.
Gaming Benchmarks
We have updated our testing suite for gaming benchmarks to bring more modern titles into the mix. Gone are Battlefield V, F1 2021, Far Cry 5, AOTS:e, and World of Tanks, which have been replaced with Metro Exodus, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, F1 2022, and Far Cry 6. We kept The Division 2 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The games should provide a good view of the card’s overall performance with many DX12-based. One thing worth noting with these high-end cards, they aren’t made for 1080p gaming, so the gaps between cards tend to get minimized.
1920 x 1080 (1080p) Results
1080p games are just perfect for the RTX 4060. Even though it’s still on the lower part of the list, it gives us anything between 84 and 168 FPS, so even in the worst case, it provides smooth gameplay. Overclocking helps, but it’s nothing significant and isn’t required. All games run at high graphics details, so the experience should be pretty good. Of course, it is assumed that 1080p is enough for us.
2560 x 1440 and 4K UHD Results
Below are the higher resolution results starting with 2560 x 1440 and the gaining-in-popularity 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD) resolution.
RTX 4060 is clearly not enough for 4K titles but handles 1440p pretty well, especially with the help of DLSS. Some titles ask for more memory at 4K. Far Cry 6 had a hiccup during the tests at 4K, and the game showed warnings about low memory. As you can see, the results were much worse than on the next in line, RTX 3060Ti, which is equipped with 8GB VRAM too. RTX 4060 is clearly not a card for more than 1440p. Even at lower display details, performance drops below 25FPS in all listed games.
Ray Tracing and DLSS Testing
Below, we tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider with ray tracing at 1440p and 4K. We can forget about smooth gaming at even 1440p with enabled ray tracing on the RTX 4060. DLSS helps a lot, but it can’t make miracles. As long as average, we can see 50FPS+; except F1 2022, other games show random FPS drops below 20-25.
A quick conclusion after this set of tests is that RTX 4060 is a card that plays nicely with DLSS, but we shouldn’t count it will handle ray tracing. If we use DLSS-optimized titles, then the RTX 4060 can even be a good option for 1440p gaming.
Overclocking and Power Consumption of the MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G
The MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X is overclocking well, but we can’t count on much more than we could see on most other Nvidia graphics cards in the last months. On the GPU, we can set about +145MHz, which gives us a pretty amazing 3030MHz. It would be much better if we didn’t see a regular boost frequency of 2895MHz. The stock boost is even more impressive in this case, and the overclocking is only a little addition to already great results. What helps us in performance is more likely memory frequency. Our card could run with memory up to even +475MHz, so effective +1900MHz.
As with all MSI graphics cards (and most other brands), the best software for overclocking is MSI Afterburner. This software lets us set higher frequencies, a higher power limit, and a temperature limit. Our card has them at 105% and 88°C, respectively.
In games, the temperature was reported as 68°C regardless of whether the card was overclocked. The main difference was a slightly different fan speed, but it was still hard to hear in tests.
The power draw is amazing, considering it’s a replacement for the RTX 3060, which was rated at 170W TDP and, in many games, is not much slower than the 200W RTX 3060Ti. It’s still not faster, and this is what gamers would like to see as, for most, the power draw isn’t as important as maximum FPS at the lowest possible price.
Overclocking, as usual, gives us a 5-6% performance gain, so it’s hard to notice it in most games. Of course, if we are on the edge of 30FPS, we may see the difference, but it is much easier to lower graphics details or display resolution. After all, it’s not a graphics card designed for 4K gaming. Nvidia DLSS helps a lot, but it still has its limits.
Conclusion
Even though RTX 4060 isn’t the fastest, MSI released an interesting option for less demanding gamers. If you expect good 1080p performance, then the RTX 4060 isn’t a bad option. It also handles games well at 1440p display resolution, but it’s better to stick with titles that support DLSS as it shows significantly better results.
You will certainly be satisfied if you are searching for a low-power gaming graphics card, as the improved MSI version of the RTX 4060 uses not much more than 120W. On the other hand, it’s not a card that would be good as an upgrade for an older PC. The PCIe x8 bus may limit the performance once installed on motherboards with older PCIe generations. This is the main disadvantage the gaming community repeats, and even though it won’t affect most users, it’s still worth mentioning.
Another disadvantage, which for some users can be an advantage, is the card’s price. Even though it’s the cheapest RTX 4000 series card and graphics cards prices went significantly down in the last year, it still seems not the best option for gamers. Recommended would be a higher RTX 4000, like at least RTX 4070 (which also had price cuts recently) or the new generation gaming console. Since I mentioned the price, MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X costs about $330 in online stores like Newegg. The competition cost between $299 and $360 everywhere, so I would say that the highest MSI version isn’t expensive.
The MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X is a good card, and MSI made a lot to improve it, but because of limited GPU performance and not the most convincing graphics card prices, it’s hard to recommend it to everyone. There will still be a group of gamers who find the RTX 4060 just perfect, and we can recommend the MSI option as a well-designed, if not the best, RTX 4060 they can get.
Click here to learn what this means.
Bartosz Waluk – Woomack
Related articles:
- MSI RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X Review
- MSI RTX 4080 Suprim X Review
- MSI RTX 3090 Ti Review
- MSI RTX 3080 Ti Suprim X Review
- XFX MERC319 BLACK RX 6700 XT Review
- MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio Review: Best Value 4k/60fps Gaming
- AMD RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 Review: Competing at the Top Again
- ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 OC Review
- MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio Review
No replies yet
Loading new replies...
Member
Join the full discussion at the Overclockers Forums →