ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition Review

TweakTown's Rating: 87%

The Bottom Line

The ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition is easily the best-looking GeForce RTX 4060, so thankfully its backed up with impressive 1080p performance, Ada efficiency, and support for DLSS 3.

Pros

• + In white, this is the best-looking RTX 4060
• + Great 1080p and decent 1440p performance
• + Incredible power efficiency
• + DLSS 3 is great, even at 1080p

Cons

• - Less memory than the GeForce RTX 3060
• - 1440p performance drop-off is big
• - Stiff competition at this price point

Should you buy it?

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Introduction

You may have noticed the recent trend regarding PC hardware covering everything from cases to motherboards and GPUs; the rise in the prevalence and popularity of white-colored components. It's a striking look for a GPU, especially if you can pair one with white cables and slap it into a white case. It's one of the reasons why out of all the GeForce RTX 4060 GPUs we've seen over the past few days, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition has stood out from the pack.

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Of course, performance is the primary and key driver for any GPU review but looks count for something. The white color paired with ZOTAC GAMING's curved shroud with shiny fan caps and a subtle silver strip with the company's logo lit up makes it one of the best-looking GeForce RTX 4060 cards available. As a premium model priced at USD 329.99, it's a compact two-slot 1080p and 1440p performer with a premium build that includes a metal backplate and two near-silent 90mm fans. It looks stunning in white, so if you're in the "let's buy all components in white" camp, this could be the RTX 4060 to get.

With the dust settling on GeForce RTX 4060, the high-level findings that we've seen also apply to the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition. That is a 20% improvement in raw performance over the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB at 1080p, with the new mainstream Ada card consuming 30% less energy to achieve those results.

As a part of the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up, it also fully supports new technologies like DLSS 3 and Frame Generation, with the good news being that it works great at 1080p and can deliver some impressive results in titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Diablo IV. Naturally, this also means support for DLSS Super Resolution (or DLSS 2), NVIDIA's AI technology that has matured to the point where you should enable it in all titles that support it because it's able to boost 1080p and 1440p performance without sacrificing visual fidelity.

ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$319.99	$319.99	$319.99	$279.99	Buy
	$319.99	$319.99	$319.99	$279.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/26/2024 at 10:30 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

The Ada Lovelace Generation

Below is a summary of the GeForce RTX 40 Series technology, applicable to all models.

There was a time when outright visual quality was the main driver for determining how advanced real-time rendering, especially in games, had progressed. There was also a time when pure grunt in raw hardware power determined how good a game could technically look and how fast it ran. We're now at a point where visual quality and performance go hand-in-hand, with raw power only being a part of the equation.

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The GeForce RTX 40 Series, the Ada Lovelace generation, is a lineup of GPUs built on a cutting-edge process node while leveraging and evolving all of the advances in AI and hardware-based ray-tracing that NVIDIA helped become mainstream with the GeForce RTX 30 Series.

Named after mathematician Ada Lovelace, considered the world's first computer programmer, the GeForce RTX 40 Series is built on TSMC 4N process technology - a giant leap forward over the Samsung 8nm process used in the GeForce RTX 30 Series Ampere generation. From a pure numbers perspective, the full NVIDIA Ada GPU features 76.3 billion transistors, up to 18,432 CUDA Cores (70% more than the previous gen), and delivers clock speeds over 2.5 GHz while maintaining the same power requirements of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.

Ada also introduces the latest generation of RT and Tensor Cores, with the latter introducing brand-new hardware responsible for the next iteration of AI rendering - DLSS 3. NVIDIA's DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling is one of the reasons why raw power is no longer the be-all-end-all; it's an AI-based form of upscaling that can provide a sizable boost to in-game performance without sacrificing visual fidelity. In fact, in some cases, it can improve upon native rendering.

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For this reason alone, DLSS and other forms of algorithm-based upscaling have become some of the most talked about bits of technology in the PC gaming space.

Free frames, enough said.

DLSS 3 combines DLSS Super Resolution (DLSS 2) with NVIDIA Reflex to reduce system latency and the brand-new hardware-accelerated Frame Generation technology. Three bits of rendering tech = DLSS 3. And it's exclusive to the GeForce RTX 40 Series.

And it's here where NVIDIA is looking to do what it has done for real-time graphics upscaling to the idea of frame-interpolation - or what they call Motion Plus in the TV world. Which, to be fair, is not a fair comparison on account of tech like Motion Plus being - well - terrible. But the fundamental idea is the same, albeit using specialized AI hardware in the GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards to generate and create entire frames.

So far, the results, although not without flaws, are impressive - with dramatic improvements to overall performance (in the smoothness stakes) seen in games like Cyberpunk 2077, F1 22, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Diablo IV, and more.

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As seen with DLSS 3, the Ada generation is much more than "smaller = more," with NVIDIA introducing back-end technology in the form of Shader Execution Reordering - which effectively ensures render tasks happen more efficiently and without running into bottlenecks. This means a leap forward in the real-time rendering of hardware-intensive ray-tracing effects.

The Ada generation also levels up NVIDIA's already formidable content creation chops with the arrival of AV1 encoding for better video quality for streamers without sacrificing anything in the way of performance or more bandwidth.

Specs and Test System

Specifications

Here we can see how the specs and hardware stack up for the GeForce RTX 4060 compared to the previous generation's GeForce RTX 3060 and this generation's GeForce RTX 4060 Ti.

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Outside of the boost to Boost Clock speeds, with the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition offering a modest out-of-the-box OC of 2490 MHz over the reference spec of 2460 MHz, the GeForce RTX 4060 story is all about shrinkage. In that, it's a case of doing more with less, so even though it features fewer CUDA Cores, fewer RT and Tensor Cores, a cut-down memory interface, and less VRAM capacity, it's still more powerful and efficient than the previous generation's GeForce RTX 3060.

Still, it is alarming to see the GeForce RTX 4060 specs look like a list of cuts versus doing more with more - which is what we're used to and what you'll find in the high-end GeForce RTX 40 Series models. The big sticking point is the reduction in VRAM capacity to 8GB, and although a big bump in L2 Cache results in an impressive 1% low performance across the 15 games in our benchmark suite, having 12GB or 16GB would have been significant - and help mitigate concerns over the long-term viability of the card.

Still, it's worth remembering that this is a mainstream GPU meant to replace the GeForce RTX 1060 and RTX 2060, as most people don't upgrade every generation. Alongside the GeForce GTX 1650, these are the most popular graphics cards per the latest Steam Hardware Survey results. So even though the 20% bump in 1080p performance over the GeForce RTX 3060 (which does drop to around 15% at 1440p) is decent, it becomes massive when looking at older-gen 60-class cards.

• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060
• Model: ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition
• Interface: PCI Express 4.0
• CUDA Cores: 3072
• Tensor Cores: 96 (4th Generation)
• RT Cores: 24 (3rd Generation)
• Clocks: Boost: 2490 MHz
• Memory: 8GB GDDR6
• Memory Speed: 17 Gbps
• Memory Interface: 128-bit
• Total Memory Bandwidth: 272 GB/s (453 GB/s effective)
• L2 Cache: 24576 K
• Display Connections: 3 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI 2.1 x 1
• Power Connectors: 1 x PCIe 8-pin cable
• Recommended PSU: 550W
• What's in the Box: ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition

Kosta's Test System

• Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E Carbon Wi-Fi
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
• Cooler: Corsair iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT Liquid CPU Cooler
• RAM: 64GB (2x32GB) Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB DDR5 DRAM 5200MHz
• SSD: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD 4TB, Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD 8TB
• Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850W
• Case: Thermaltake Core P3 Tempered Glass Snow
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit

Physical Design and Cooling

Okay, the introduction to this review was about fawning over the look and white color of the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition. It's the best-looking GeForce RTX 4060 model I've seen, and I'll leave it at that. It's also available in black if you prefer the traditional approach. Outside of the color, the curved look is another element that makes it stand out, and this is backed up by an overall high-quality build that is still compact. With dimensions of 221.4 x 122.7 x 43.1mm, you're looking at a two-slot thickness and an overall length that will fit just about any case - Mini-ITX included.

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Cooling-wise, the two 90mm fans designed to improve airflow and pressure are joined by composite heat pipes and a metal backplate to deliver excellent thermals. The fins and heatsink are also ample, and the White Edition features a brushed silver look that compliments the style. And with ZOTAC GAMING's revamped FireStorm software (which has been given an overhaul for the GeForce RTX 40 Series), you have complete control over individual fan speeds, lighting, and GPU tuning.

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And there's definite room to push the modest 50 MHz overclock further as the stock out-of-the-box settings saw temperatures stay at around 60 degrees Celsius during a stress test. Connection-wise, you've got three DisplayPort 1.4 ports on the back, alongside a single HDMI 2.1 port, which is standard for the GeForce RTX 40 Series.

Benchmarks - 15 Game Averages

The Games and Tests

In 2023 PC gaming is a complicated and varied space, from indie games to major blockbuster releases and titles that push hardware and technology to their limit with the adoption of effects like real-time ray-tracing.

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This is all a way of saying that the 15 in-game benchmarks we've chosen (and run at 1080p and 1440p) represent a wide range of styles, not only in terms of genres, like first-person shooters and racing games but also in the API technology (DirectX 11, 12) and cutting-edge features like ray tracing and upscaling technology.

Results include DLSS and FSR 2, where possible, as both technologies are the sorts of things, especially in 1440p and 4K, which you'd turn on. Six of the 15 game benchmarks also feature ray tracing, a great way to see the additional benefit of NVIDIA's DLSS and Frame Generation technology. Also, each title is set to ultra-equivalent quality settings to push GPU hardware and minimize CPU bottlenecks at higher resolutions.

Also, it's just fun to max out a game's visual settings and see the results. Here's the breakdown of games, graphics settings, and what's being tested.

And with 15 games, a special shoutout goes to Sabrent for providing us with the storage to ensure we can keep everything installed - and then some - with both the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD 4TB and Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus Plus-G M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD 8TB offering exceptional performance, capacity, and reliability.

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We can keep all our benchmark software installed while also installing every new game release that comes our way.

• Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Ultra High-quality settings, with the in-game benchmark tool used.
• Borderlands 3: Ultra quality settings, with the in-game benchmark tool used.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II: Ultra quality setting, in-game multiplayer benchmark tool used.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Ultra quality setting, in-game benchmark tool used. AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS results are included.
• Cyberpunk 2077 (RT): Ray tracing Ultra quality setting, in-game benchmark tool used. AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS results are included.
• DOOM Eternal (RT): Ultra Nightmare quality setting with ray-tracing enabled, the opening of Mars Core campaign level used to benchmark.
• F1 22 (RT): Ultra High-quality setting with ray tracing, one lap of the Bahrain track benchmarked. AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS results are included.
• Forza Horizon 5 (RT): Extreme quality setting with ray tracing enabled, in-game benchmark tool used. AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS results are included.
• Hitman (RT): Ultra-quality settings with ray-tracing, Dubai scene benchmarked. AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS results are included. A May 2023 update to the game has greatly improved performance, so comparison results are limited.
• Horizon Zero Dawn: Ultimate quality setting, in-game benchmark used.
• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (RT): Ultra quality setting with ray tracing enabled, the in-game benchmark tool used.
• Rainbow Six Extraction: Ultra quality settings and in-game benchmark tool used.
• Red Dead Redemption 2: Maximum quality settings, with in-game benchmark tool used. AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS results are included.
• The Division 2: Ultra quality settings with in-game benchmark tool used.
• Total War: Warhammer III: Ultra-quality settings with the in-game Battle Benchmark tool used.

15 Game Average FPS - 1080p Results

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The above 1080p results cover raw or rasterized performance without enabling DLSS Super Resolution or Frame Generation. With that, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC offers an 18.6% improvement over the GeForce RTX 3060 - the premium ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Edition, to be exact.

With the recent release of AMD's Radeon RX 7600, which is priced lower than the GeForce RTX 4060, it's the new Ada GPU's direct competitor, and the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC delivers a 9.7% increase in performance over the mainstream RDNA 3 offering. With both the Radeon RX 7600 and the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB featuring the same power usage, it's also worth highlighting that the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC is outperforming both at 1080p while consuming 30% less energy.

There are titles where the Radeon RX 7600 pulls ahead, most notably in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. Still, for the most part, the GeForce RTX 4060 maintains a comfortable lead in most benchmark results. With an average 1080p frame rate of 102 fps across 15 games, including several titles with ray-tracing enabled, it's a very good result for the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC.

And as far as the 8GB of VRAM is concerned, at least in the titles tested in this review, the bump in L2 Cache sees some impressive 1% low figures emerge - with the overall average close to both the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and the GeForce RTX 3070. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, the average performance is approximately 4.7% slower. Compared to the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC is roughly 19% slower for 1080p gaming.

15 Game Average FPS - 1440p Results

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NVIDIA is positioning both the GeForce RTX 4060 and the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti as graphics cards designed for 1080p gaming, which is still the most common resolution for budget and mainstream gaming builds and displays. That said, 1440p is the current sweet spot for modern gaming, and the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC is a solid 1440p performer in several titles.

The performance uplift over the GeForce RTX 3060 drops to 14.8%, while the lead over the Radeon RX 7600 increases slightly to 11.1%. Still, you're looking at a 31.4% drop off in performance at 1440p from 1080p, but this is still enough for the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC to deliver an average frame rate of 70 fps across the 15 games benchmarked. You'll need to tweak settings to optimize performance at this resolution, which is the norm for mainstream GPUs like the GeForce RTX 4060.

1440p is also where DLSS Super Resolution comes in handy, and these days it's rare for a game release not to include DLSS support than it is for a game to have it as a graphics option to enable. With DLSS Super Resolution using the Quality setting, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II's performance increases from 66 to 99 fps at 1440p, which is a nice bump.

Benchmarks - 3DMark FireStrike

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3DMark FireStrike is a DirectX 11 test that has been around for many years and covers quite a large portion of games released over the past decade - at least in terms of the API and graphics technologies used. The three tests cover the resolutions - 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Using the baseline 1080p test, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC delivers a 24.4% improvement over the GeForce RTX 3060 - which drops to 21.6% on the 1440p test. Interestingly, the 1080p score falls behind the Radeon RX 7600 by around 5.1%, which is not reflected by the actual in-game benchmarks.

Benchmarks - 3DMark TimeSpy and Port Royal

With 3DMark TimeSpy being DirectX 12-based, it's a more relevant synthetic benchmark for modern games. Here we see the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC deliver a score 17% higher than the GeForce RTX 3060. The result is identical to AMD's mainstream Radeon RX 7600 score, though the RTX 4060 pulls ahead regarding 1440p gaming. 4K TimeSpy Extreme results are included above, though the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC is not a 4K gaming card.

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3DMark Port Royal is a synthetic ray-tracing benchmark, an area where NVIDIA's new Ada Lovelace architecture excels. But the RT results for the GeForce RTX 4060 in this test aren't as exciting as we expected, so the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC sees its lead over the GeForce RTX 3060 drop to an underwhelming 15.1%. Perhaps we're at a point where it's diminishing returns for mainstream RT performance; it's hard to say. Compared to AMD's Radeon RX 7600, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC score is 13.2% higher - which was somewhat expected.

Benchmarks - 1080p Gaming

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Benchmarks - 1440p Gaming

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Benchmarks Summary, Ray-Tracing Performance, and DLSS 3

The stylish ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC reiterates what we've seen so far when it comes to the GeForce RTX 4060, a 20% raw performance uplift over the GeForce RTX 3060 when it comes to 1080p gaming and a 15% increase when it comes to 1440p gaming. Individual results vary, of course, and there are titles where the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC delivers a commanding lead: see Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Forza Horizon 5, and Hitman. There are also titles where the uplift sits on the low-end: see Cyberpunk 2077.

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Cyberpunk 2077 is an interesting case because it's a title that supports ray-tracing, DLSS Super Resolution, and the new Frame Generation technology. DLSS is a given when it comes to a game as visually impressive as Cyberpunk 2077, but with the bonus of Frame Generation, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC delivers around 95 fps using the RT Ultra setting - something that wasn't possible on a mainstream GPU until now. It's a mix of AI, latency reduction tech, and algorithms doing their thing - and it's a fantastic glimpse into the future of rendering.

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Frame Generation is the new RTX kid on the block, but the adoption rate has been impressive, and it's now available in several titles - including Diablo IV, which works great on the RTX 4060 at 1080p. Per the results, DLSS 3 and Frame Generation work on the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC. So the tech isn't limited to the higher-end models in the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up.

For Cybeprunk 2077, using the RT Ultra setting, the triple-digit frame-rate result with DLSS 3 represents a 2.7X increase over native 1080p rendering. In Forza Horizon 5, with RT enabled using the game's Extreme visual quality setting, you're looking at a more modest 1.2X increase. For F1 22 and Hitman 3, two titles with great ray-tracing implementations, it's an impressive 2X increase over native 1080p rendering.

Temperature and Power Efficiency

The 115W power rating for the GeForce RTX 4060 makes it the most efficient mainstream GeForce GPU in years, and it's substantially lower than the previous generation's GeForce RTX 3060 and AMD's mainstream equivalent, the Radeon RX 7600. Both cards are rated at 165W, and the direct result is the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC outperforming both while consuming less energy.

Looking at our 15-game benchmark suite, the average power consumed at 1080p for the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC is 110W, and this barely climbs up to 112W when jumping to 1440p. It's even lower than the budget GeForce RTX 1050, which the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC destroys when it comes to in-game performance.

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Using out-of-the-box settings, the thermal performance of the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC is excellent, with temperatures staying close to 60 degrees Celsius under load with a hot spot of roughly 70 degrees. And one of the great features of the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC is that fans stop when the GPU is idle.

Final Thoughts

Although priced higher than entry-level GeForce RTX 4060 offerings, there's a solid case for a more premium build with better cooling and a more stylish and robust look. And when it comes to the latter, ZOTAC GAMING knocked it out of the park here - with the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC White Edition being one of the best-looking compact graphics cards available.

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And when it comes to performance, the fact that this is the first GPU in the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up not to receive a price increase - but an actual price reduction - there's much to like about the GeForce RTX 4060. That is, of course, if you look at its performance compared to the GeForce RTX 3060, AMD's Radeon RX 7600, and forget that the USD 300 price point is currently brimming with options, namely in the form of heavily discounted previous generation cards (which admittedly aren't available in all regions). So you'll need to factor in Ada Lovelace features like DLSS 3 and AV1 encoding and see if that's enough to separate the RTX 4060 from something else.

As a brand-new mainstream GPU, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge OC is impressive in several ways - from efficiency to cooling to overall performance. It's not perfect, but worth considering if you're building a new rig or upgrading on a budget.