NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 is a high-end desktop graphics card based on the AD104 chip using the Ada Lovelace architecture. The 4070 offers 5,888 cores and 12 GB GDDR6X graphics memory with a 192 bit memory bus and clocked at 21 Gbits. The card offers a good raytracing performance thanks to the 46 dedicated raytracing cores. For AI calculations (and DLSS 3 in games), the RTX 4070 has 184 Tensor cores.

The gaming performance is well suited for 2k/QHD gaming in most demanding games, and should be able to handle 4k gaming for lesser demanding games (or with reduced settings / DLSS activated). The raw gaming performance is comparable to an older RTX 3080 or a AMD Radeon 6800 XT. Compared to the similar named mobile GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, the desktop variant is much faster.

The AD104 chip is manufactured in the modern 5nm process at TSMC (4N with EUV) and specified with a TGP (Total Graphics Power) of 200 Watt (compared to the 450 Watt of the RTX 4090).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile

The mobile Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 is a graphics card for high end laptops. It is based on the Pascal architecture and manufactured in 16 nm FinFET at TSMC. The GPU is using the smaller GP106 chip. Compared to the desktop version of the GTX 1060, the laptop version offers the same amount of shaders but slightly lower clock rates. The TDP is slightly less than the old GTX 970M (predecessor).

For thin and light laptops Nvidia offer a Max-Q called version of the GTX 1060 with lower TDP and also significantly lower performance. Sadly this variant im sold with the same GTX 1060 name, making it hard to judge the performance.

The performance of the mobile GTX 1060 is a few percent below a reference GTX 1060 desktop card. In our benchmark so far (no max-Q version) the mobile GTX 1060 was somewhere between -1 and -16% slower than a desktop variant. A comprehensive review of the dekstop GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition with 6 GB GDDR5 can be found here. Therefore, the card is most suited for Full HD or WQHD gaming in high to maximum details (see benchmarks below).

The GP106 chip is produced in 16nm FinFET at TSMC and offers a range of new features, like DisplayPort 1.4 (ready), HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) and improved H.265 video de- and encoding (PlayReady 3.0). A list of improvements and features can be found in our article on the Pascal architecture.

The power consumption is specified with a TGP of 80 Watt and therefore slightly below the old GTX 970M. Since summer 2017 a low power variant (Max-Q) is available for thin and light laptops with reduced performance and a lower TGP of 60 - 70 Watt.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is a mid-range desktop GPU manufactured using the 5 nm process at TSMC. The AD107 chip is used here. It combines 3,072 shader units and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. The memory interface is 128-bit, resulting in a memory bandwidth of 272 GB/s in conjunction with the VRAM clock speed.

Features

The features that were introduced with the high-end models of the Ada Lovelace generation, such as DLSS 3.0 with frame generation, are also present in the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060. This sets the new mid-range card apart from the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 and provides a significant advantage in games that offer these features.

Performance

Without DLSS, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 performs slightly behind the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Compared to AMD, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 often competes with an AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT. The GeForce RTX 4060 caters to the 1080p gaming range in terms of performance. At times, the performance is sufficient for 1440p gaming as well, although older games are more suitable for this resolution. Additionally, some compromises in terms of graphical fidelity might be necessary for the latest games. The performance is suitable for playable frame rates at high detail settings.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is specified by the manufacturer at 115 Watts (TDP). This is significantly lower than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, which has a TDP of 170 watts. In comparison to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (200 W TDP), the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 performs well and delivers similar performance with significantly lower power consumption. Power is supplied through a PCIe slot and an additional 6+2-pin connector.