Over the previous few months, we have spent a ton of time testing and reviewing the newest technology of mainstream GPUs from AMD and Nvidia, that are anticipated to be able to 1440p given their pricing vary between $270 and $400. Nonetheless, to briefly summarize our expertise, these new merchandise have been extraordinarily underwhelming.
The RTX 4060 Ti arrived with a price ticket of $400, the usual 4060 at $300, and the Radeon RX 7600 was initially marketed at $300, just for AMD to revise the worth to $270 on the final minute.
A placing commonality amongst these is their 8GB body buffer and their total underwhelming efficiency at their respective costs. That is notably true for the RTX 4060 Ti, with a 16GB model coming at an excellent greater value – a improvement we aren’t notably passionate about.
The frustration with the RTX 4060 Ti stems from a number of components. Ignoring the 8GB VRAM buffer on a $400 graphics card in mid-2023, there are two different notable points. First, the technology uplift offered right here is laughable; our earlier 50 sport benchmark confirmed that the 4060 Ti is a mere 8% quicker than the 3060 Ti at 1080p and 5% quicker at 1440p.
Thus, it is honest to conclude that it falls in need of expectations. However it manages to get much more disheartening contemplating that as of final September – lower than a yr in the past – the Radeon 6700 XT has been obtainable for lower than $400. By November, the worth had dropped to $350 and has extra not too long ago dipped to round $320.
Based mostly on our day-one evaluation, the Radeon 6700 XT is on common simply ~5% slower than the RTX 4060 Ti. Moreover, the Radeon GPU would not falter in VRAM demanding video games because it comes with a bigger 12GB buffer, making it significantly better suited to 1440p gaming.
Granted, you lose out on DLSS assist and ray tracing efficiency is not practically as competent – offered you do not exceed the 8GB buffer. Nonetheless, given the present 20% low cost together with the bonus of additional VRAM, it is difficult to dismiss the attraction of the 6700 XT. It is regrettable that newly launched current-generation elements should not outperforming practically three-year-old merchandise as anticipated.
For at present’s large benchmark, we goal to check the Radeon 6700 XT and GeForce RTX 4060 Ti throughout a wider array of video games and ray tracing configurations than we’ve previously. It is going to be fascinating to see how they stack up.
For our checks, we used the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, paired with the Gigabyte X670E Aorus Grasp and 32GB of DDR5-6000 CL30 reminiscence. We examined 50 video games at each 1080p and 1440p. We’ll cowl the extra fascinating outcomes one after the other, earlier than inspecting the general margins noticed throughout all of the examined video games in a single graph as regular. Let’s get into it…
Benchmarks
In Star Wars Jedi Survivor, the 6700 XT and 3060 Ti are neck and neck at each examined resolutions, rendering the 4060 Ti solely 12% quicker at 1080p and eight% quicker at 1440p. That is considerably underwhelming, contemplating the 4060 Ti prices 25% extra and was launched 2.5 years later.
In A Plague Story: Requiem, the efficiency among the many 6700 XT, 3060 Ti, and 4060 Ti are even nearer, with the 4060 Ti outpacing the Radeon GPU by a mere 3% at 1080p, whereas sustaining an identical efficiency at 1440p.
A difficulty we have beforehand detailed with the RTX 4060 Ti is its 8GB VRAM buffer, contemplating the GPU itself is just not solely fairly expensive but additionally fairly highly effective. The Final of Us Half 1 performs properly on the excessive preset, however these aiming to maximise the sport’s settings will want greater than 8GB of VRAM, even at 1080p, to keep away from any stuttering.
The true subject surfaces at 1440p, the place 8GB graphics playing cards just like the 4060 Ti turn into fully unusable, whereas the 6700 XT performs easily regardless of its sub-60 fps efficiency. Outcomes like these do not bode properly for the way forward for Nvidia’s new $400 GPU.
Doom Everlasting presents one other concern, highlighting one other weak spot of the RTX 4060 Ti: its restricted 128-bit broad reminiscence bus, which ends up in much less reminiscence bandwidth than earlier merchandise. As Doom is a memory-sensitive sport, the 6700 XT was 29% quicker than the 4060 Ti at 1080p and a powerful 44% quicker at 1440p. Though the 4060 Ti nonetheless delivers a playable efficiency, it is clear that it could wrestle with future memory-demanding titles.
In Hogwarts Legacy, the 6700 XT and 3060 Ti are once more neck and neck, and on this occasion, each outperform the 4060 Ti, although the margin is simply 5% at 1080p.
Enabling ray tracing provides the 4060 Ti a bonus, besides, the 4060 Ti is simply 14% quicker than the 6700 XT on this cutting-edge new title, a slightly disappointing end result.
Subsequent, we examined Resident Evil 4 utilizing the second-highest high quality preset, the place the 6700 XT and 3060 Ti matched intently, though the Radeon GPU did pull forward at 1440p. In comparison with the 4060 Ti, the 6700 XT was 13% slower at 1080p and seven% slower at 1440p, so the margins aren’t substantial. One thing fairly surprising happens once we allow ray tracing.
The max high quality RT preset requires 12GB of VRAM, a problem for the brand new RTX 4060 Ti as a consequence of its 8GB restrict. Whereas the sport performs fairly properly after a number of updates, total efficiency is weak, with the 6700 XT providing 36% extra frames at 1080p and 33% extra at 1440p.
In Cyberpunk 2077, the 3060 Ti and 6700 XT are intently matched with out RT results enabled. This implies the Radeon GPU is simply 11% slower than the 4060 Ti at 1080p and eight% slower at 1440p. Whereas these are affordable margins, notably at 1080p, given the distinction in value, the margin is definitely extra beneficial for AMD.
Enabling ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077 considerably hampers the 6700 XT, although, to be honest, it equally impacts the GeForce GPUs with out the help of upscaling. In any case, the 4060 Ti was 80% quicker at 1080p, an unbelievable distinction, although do not forget that the 3060 Ti was already 60% quicker than the 6700 XT, suggesting this configuration is just not beneficial for the Radeon GPU.
In Far Cry 6, the 6700 XT, regardless of utilizing the ‘Extremely’ high quality preset, delivers 146 fps at 1080p, making it 2% quicker than the 4060 Ti, one other disappointing end result for the brand new GeForce GPU.
With ray tracing enabled, the 6700 XT manages to maintain tempo with the 4060 Ti at 1080p, trailing by a mere 7% margin. Moreover, at 1440p, it really performs quicker, albeit by a slight 5% margin.
Lastly, in F1 23, the 3060 Ti and 6700 XT once more match intently. The 4060 Ti is quicker on this instance, although solely by a 7% margin at 1080p and 4% at 1440p, indicating very comparable efficiency amongst all three GPUs.
When enabling ray tracing with the ‘Extremely Excessive’ preset, the 6700 XT faces comparable troubles as we noticed in Cyberpunk 2077. Though nonetheless playable at 1080p, the 6700 XT was 32% slower than the 4060 Ti, a major margin, suggesting that ray tracing must be disabled when utilizing the earlier technology Radeon GPU.
Efficiency Abstract
Relying on the sport, the 6700 XT and RTX 4060 Ti may be fairly evenly matched, and enabling ray tracing would not at all times hand the win to Nvidia. These intriguing outcomes immediate us to try a 50 sport comparability to acquire a transparent image of their standings…
At 1080p, the Radeon 6700 XT is on common solely 9% slower than the 4060 Ti, a wonderful end result for the AMD GPU contemplating it is at present 20% cheaper. There are a number of situations the place the 6700 XT even outperformed the GeForce, reminiscent of in Resident Evil 4 utilizing ray tracing, The Final of Us Half 1, Doom Everlasting, and Demise Stranding, to call a number of examples.
Nonetheless, there are quite a few situations the place the 6700 XT falls considerably behind the 4060 Ti, with 9 video games the place it was slower by 20% or extra.
At 1440p, the hole narrows additional which means the Radeon 6700 XT is on common solely 7% slower than the 4060 Ti on the greater decision. Though the Radeon GPU was extra usually slower than the 4060 Ti, the margin was sometimes lower than 10% both means, with 56% of all examined configurations solely seeing single-digit margins.
For these not involved in ray tracing efficiency, we have excluded any configurations with RT results enabled. In consequence, the margin at 1080p is diminished to simply 6%, and now there’s solely 3 video games the place the 6700 XT was slower by a margin of 20% or extra.
Equally, for these gaming at 1440p however no ray tracing enabled, the distinction turns into even smaller. Right here, the Radeon 6700 XT is 4% slower on common, which intently aligns with the 5% margin noticed in our day-one evaluation. So, relying on what you are after and the video games you play, the distinction between these two GPUs might be fairly small.
And the Winner is…
Should you’re searching for an reasonably priced GPU for 1440p gaming in mid-2023, your choices are very restricted except you are keen to spend $600, as there is not any current-generation GPU obtainable at a lower cost level.
The subsequent best choice we all know of is the 16GB model of the RTX 4060 Ti. Nonetheless, at a $500 price ticket, it can mainly ship what we have noticed from the 8GB mannequin right here, with some enhancements for video games reminiscent of Doom Everlasting, Resident Evil 4, and The Final of Us Half 1. These enhancements may increase the general efficiency by a number of %, whereas costing nearly 60% greater than the present Radeon 6700 XT inventory.
Other than that, your decisions are to both spend $600 on the GeForce RTX 4070 to get a 12GB buffer, or to downgrade to an RTX 3060 12GB for $290. Nonetheless, that is ~25% slower than the Radeon 6700 XT for a meager 10% saving, so it isn’t really worthwhile.
In actuality, the higher decisions are both a Radeon 6700 XT for $320 – $350, or a GeForce RTX 4070 for $600. This makes selecting an reasonably priced 1440p GPU fairly simple: go for the 6700 XT and hope to safe one earlier than the inventory dries up. These ~$300 listings for the 6700 XT have gotten much less frequent, suggesting that the inventory could deplete quickly, nonetheless as of writing, the Sapphire Pulse model was obtainable for $320.
Even after the final sub-$350 Radeon 6700 XT is offered, it does not imply that the RTX 4060 Ti immediately turns into a superior product. At $400, it is persistently going to be a poor providing that you need to attempt to keep away from if attainable. Its efficiency barely marks an enchancment in comparison with the two.5-year-old GeForce product it is changing, the 3060 Ti. The truth is, it manages to be slower in a number of video games.
Backside line, our greatest recommendation for these in want of an reasonably priced GPU for 1440p gaming is to grab up a low-priced Radeon RX 6700 XT earlier than inventory runs out.
Purchasing Shortcuts:
- AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT on Amazon
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 on Amazon
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti on Amazon
- AMD Radeon RX 7600 on Amazon
- AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT on Amazon
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 on Amazon
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D on Amazon