Nvidia’s RTX 4060 struggled to make an impression when it came out – especially against the previous generation RTX 3060 Ti, even though the newer GPU was cheaper – but the graphics card seems to be finally hitting its stride.
This is according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey, where the RTX 4060 has made a positive jump in the rankings. In September report from Valve, the RTX 4060 is now the second most popular GPU used by PC gamers on Steam, up 1.13% compared to August (when it ranked sixth).
It now ranks second with 4.44%, behind only the Nvidia RTX 3060, which still tops the rankings with 5.71%.
Interestingly, the RTX 3060 Ti still outperformed the RTX 4060 last month, based on the numbers on Steam – but not anymore.
Furthermore, its Lovelace sibling, the RTX 4060 Ti, also made good progress in September, up 0.74% to 3.55%, where the GPU ranks fourth. Between the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti we have the laptop 4060, so the top three positions behind the RTX 3060 chart are now actually occupied by several RTX 4060 models.
An interesting turn of events for sure, so let’s dive in and try to analyze what exactly this means for the GPU market going forward.
Analysis: The struggle to overcome that initial perception
Of course, it’s the mainstream graphics cards that have a range of GPUs, and for Nvidia’s current generation that means the RTX 4070 and 4060 models (plus usually the xx50 too, but that card didn’t happen with Lovelace, not on the desktop anyway ).
However, as we’ve already noted, the RTX 4060 – the workhorse GPU of the mainstream – flopped quite a bit out of the gate at launch for a number of reasons.
As mentioned, one of the sticking points for PC gamers was that the RTX 3060 Ti was slightly faster, and so it felt like the RTX 4060 failed to improve on (or even match) its Ti predecessor and was, quite frankly, a notable failure was for the Lovelace GPU. . Nvidia sticking to 8GB of VRAM was also another sore point for PC gamers.
It wasn’t that the RTX 4060 was a bad graphics card, for its price, but there were concerns about these issues – and those perceptions kind of stuck because the GPU was somehow a shaky choice for PC gamers.
Slowly but surely that’s changed, and as we see now, it looks like the RTX 4060 is now on an upward trajectory (and so is the RTX 4060 Ti). Partly that may be due to the fact that the RTX 3060 Ti is no longer available – stock has dried up – so there’s no real alternative in that regard.
Some gamers are still leaning towards the RTX 3060 12GB, which is available, for that VRAM, but this really isn’t a good choice – and people are apparently starting to realize that. (The RTX 4060 is a lot faster than the 3060, much more power efficient, and has DLSS 3 frame generation – which more than makes up for the shortcomings of the video RAM. Also, don’t forget that the 3060 will drop from the Nvidia driver. radar also faster ).
Plus, the RTX 4060 is also now a bit more affordable, coming in slightly below MSRP (even if the value proposition hasn’t improved all that much).
Remember, the majority of people still game at Full HD, and there’s a reason why the RTX 4060 is our best graphics card for 1080p gaming.
This is why we believe the RTX 4060 will make pretty short work of displacing the RTX 3060 at the top of Valve’s GPU rankings – especially when we look at Nvidia’s impending next-generation graphics cards.
Remember, the RTX 5090 and 5080 are theoretically just around the corner, and as the new generation rolls in, the remaining RTX 3000 inventory – which consists mainly of the RTX 3060 12GB and the 3050 – will disappear. There’s no real alternative at the affordable end of the market other than the RTX 4060.
If the rumors are true, it could be a long time before the RTX 5060 also arrives – there could be a big gap between the first Blackwell GeForce launches and the successor to the RTX 4060. The latter should be cleared in the near future, we bet.
If you’re thinking – well, what about AMD? – we would counter: take a close look at the Steam survey. Team Red’s GPUs are virtually nowhere to be found, even though there are some very robust RDNA 3 graphics cards floating around, the top 15 are all Nvidia, and the first discrete AMD GPU is the admittedly affordable RX 6600 – but it’s number one 34.
Granted, this may not be a fair reflection of the overall market, but it’s a decent chunk – and what’s more, analyst figures from the GPU market show Nvidia approaching 90% dominance.
Via TweakTown