GeForce RTX 4060 Ti: Release Date, Specs, and Price – 8GB PCIe 4.0 Controversy Explained

The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti with 8GB of memory is expected to be released on May 25, followed by a 16GB variant at the end of July. Nvidia will supply a different version (SKU) of the GPU to the card manufacturers for both versions, so the manufacturer will not have to buy an AD106 core and then decide which piece to fit which memory, but will have to plan ahead how many AD106-350 will order for the 8GB variant and how many AD106-351 pro 16GB.

The price of GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB is expected to be $449 (or another, but not very different amount), while the information of the VideoCardz website surprised to some extent that even in this price and performance session, a bus with only 8 PCIe lines (4.0) will be used.

8 lines would not be a problem if the card had PCIe 5.0 (which many new motherboards are equipped with). However, if we take into account the performance ratio, the price ratio, the presence of PCIe 4.0 and above all the 8GB memory capacity, then this deficit will manifest itself quite significantly. The moment the card runs out of free graphics memory (GDDR6), the data starts moving directly from the operating memory to PCIe, and if this data path is 2x narrower (8 lines instead of 16), then the performance drops are up to 2x bigger.

8 PCIe lines will thus increase the differences between the 8GB and 16GB versions in situations where the memory capacity is not enough for the 8GB card. The decision to equip the AD106 core with only 8 lines is rather strange, because it is even a generation older, slower, and with respect to the games of that time and the width of the system bus, the GeForce RTX is less limited 3The 060 Ti was equipped with 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes, which also applied to the slightly slower GeForce RTX 3060 (without Ti).