NVIDIA releasing their $400 “mid-range” 4060 Ti has made me question how one would classify a video card as mid-range or not. We can use several methods to determine a product’s position on the stack, but I have a slightly less-than-scientific (albeit more fun!) method to answer the question: is the 4060 Ti a mid-range video card?
Here’s my hypothesis:
If you can build a new gaming computer for the price of the video card, it is not a video card for the masses (mid-range and below).
Video
I chose the PC parts in 17 minutes
As it turns out, it is not difficult to part out a new $400 PC.
| CPU Option 1 | Ryzen 5 3600 | $70-80 | Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Option 2 | Ryzen 5 4500 | $70 | Amazon |
| Motherboard Option 1 | B450 Mobo (mATX) | $75-80 | Amazon |
| Motherboard Option 2 | B550 Mobo (mATX + PCe 4) | $80-90 | Amazon |
| Motherboard Option 3 | A520 Mobo (mATX) | $70-80 | Amazon |
| RAM | 2x8GB DDR4 3200 CL16 | $32 | Amazon |
| SSD | 500GB M.2 or SATA SSD | $25 | Amazon |
| GPU Option 1 | RX 580 8GB 2048 SP | $110 | Amazon |
| GPU Option 2 | RX 5500 XT 8GB | $140 | Amazon |
| GPU Option 3 | RX 6600 8GB | $180-210 | Amazon |
| Case Option 1 | Thermaltake Versa H18 | $50 | Amazon |
| Case Option 2 | Thermaltake Versa H17 | $45 | Amazon |
| Power Supply | Thermaltake Smart 500W | $40 | Amazon |
In the video, I test the $400 PC and it performs splendidly. For such a cheap computer, you’re able to play esport games at 120+ FPS (good for high refresh competitive gameplay), and 30+ FPS with tweaked settings in heavy AAA titles.
The sad news: the 4060 Ti is a good piece of technology
And I think the most frustrating part, is that the 4060 Ti is good technology. It’s the price that kills it.
My Gigabyte AERO model works well without bottlenecks. It performs well, it’s quiet, it’s cool, and it has lots of new features like DLSS3. If this card was $100 cheaper, then there wouldn’t be such a need to prove to the consumer why you should buy it. The card’s value would do the talking. DLSS3, NVIDIA reflex, all of that shouldn’t be necessary for this card to make sense to a buyer. Alas, that’s how things are right now.
To answer the question – the 4060 Ti, with its current price, is not a mid-range offering. I built a full computer, new, for the same price as the video card itself.