GPU Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 and RTX 4060 represent two distinct generations of NVIDIA's mainstream GPU lineup, separated by a five-year gap in release timing. The RTX 2070 launched in October 2018 with a 12 nm Turing architecture, while the RTX 4060 arrived in May 2023 on the 5 nm Ada Lovelace design. Across ten head-to-head benchmark comparisons, the RTX 4060 secures eight wins, while the RTX 2070 claims two. The average benchmark score for the RTX 2070 stands at 18789, placing it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, whereas the RTX 4060 averages 17639, sitting in the 61st percentile. This creates an interesting dynamic: the older card holds a higher aggregate average, yet the newer card dominates in most individual tests, particularly in modern DirectX 12 workloads and compute tasks.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The RTX 4060's most decisive victory comes in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where it scores 2302 against the RTX 2070's 1569. This represents a 31.8% lead for the Ada Lovelace card, an enormous gap that underscores the generational leap in raw DX12 performance. Similarly, in Passmark's GPU Compute benchmark, the RTX 4060 posts 9213 versus 6411, a 30.4% advantage. These two tests highlight where the newer architecture's efficiency and shader throughput matter most.

In DirectX 11 workloads, the RTX 4060 continues its dominance. The Passmark DX11 test shows the RTX 4060 at 175 compared to the RTX 2070's 129, a 26.3% margin. The DirectX 12 Passmark test follows the same pattern, with the RTX 4060 scoring 76 against 60, a 21.1% improvement. Even in legacy DirectX 9, the newer card holds a 10.6% edge, scoring 236 versus 211. The Geekbench OpenCL benchmark also favors the RTX 4060, which scores 95057 versus 79966, a 15.9% gain. In the 2D-focused Passmark G2D test, the RTX 4060 achieves 1037 against 819, a 21% advantage, and in the overall Passmark G3D test it leads with 19545 versus 16094, a 17.7% gap.

The RTX 2070's two wins are notable for their context. Its largest victory is in Geekbench Vulkan, where it scores 82521 against the RTX 4060's 48643, an enormous 69.6% advantage. This suggests that in Vulkan-specific API workloads, the Turing architecture's driver and hardware combination remains exceptionally strong. The second win comes in Passmark DirectX 10, where the RTX 2070 scores 111 versus 103, a 7.8% margin. While these wins are significant, they represent only 20% of the benchmark suite, and the Vulkan result in particular may reflect a specific software optimization rather than a general performance trend.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 holds a higher average benchmark score of 18789, compared to the RTX 4060's 17639. This places the RTX 2070 in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 4060 sits in the 61st percentile.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4060 in 3DMark Steel Nomad?

A: The RTX 4060 scores 2302 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 31.8% higher than the RTX 2070's 1569. This is the single largest performance gap between the two cards in any benchmark.

Q: What explains the RTX 2070's massive Vulkan win?

A: In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 2070 scores 82521, which is 69.6% higher than the RTX 4060's 48643. This result indicates that the Turing architecture's Vulkan driver stack delivers exceptional performance in this specific workload, despite the RTX 4060's newer design.

Q: Does the RTX 4060 outperform the RTX 2070 in compute tasks?

A: Yes, the RTX 4060 achieves 9213 in Passmark GPU Compute, which is 30.4% higher than the RTX 2070's 6411. This aligns with the RTX 4060's higher FP32 throughput of 15.11 TFLOPS versus 7.465 TFLOPS.

Q: Are there any benchmarks where the RTX 2070 wins by a small margin?

A: The RTX 2070 wins the Passmark DirectX 10 test with a score of 111 versus 103, a 7.8% margin. This is its smallest victory and contrasts sharply with its 69.6% Vulkan lead.

Q: What is the overall win count in the head-to-head suite?

A: The RTX 4060 wins 8 out of 10 benchmarks, while the RTX 2070 wins 2. The RTX 4060's wins span DX9, DX11, DX12, OpenCL, G2D, G3D, GPU Compute, and 3DMark Steel Nomad, while the RTX 2070's wins are limited to Vulkan and DX10.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The RTX 2070 uses the TU106 chip on TSMC's 12 nm process, packing 10,800 million transistors into a 445 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.3 million per mm². In contrast, the RTX 4060 employs the AD107 chip on TSMC's 5 nm node, integrating 18,900 million transistors into a much smaller 159 mm² die, achieving a density of 118.9 million per mm². This represents a 4.9x increase in transistor density, a hallmark of the architectural leap.

The RTX 2070's Turing architecture features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. It includes 36 RT cores and 288 tensor cores, reflecting its position as a first-generation ray tracing card. The RTX 4060's Ada Lovelace architecture ups the shading unit count to 3072, but reduces TMUs to 96 and ROPs to 48. It has 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores. Notably, the RTX 2070's FP16 performance is 14.93 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX 4060 achieves 15.11 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, indicating a shift toward unified FP16/FP32 execution.

The RTX 2070 features a 256-bit memory bus with 8 GB of GDDR6 running at 14 Gbps effective, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 4060 uses a narrower 128-bit bus but compensates with faster 17 Gbps GDDR6 memory, though its bandwidth drops to 272.0 GB/s. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 2070's pixel rate is 103.7 GPixel/s and texture rate is 233.3 GTexel/s, while the RTX 4060 achieves 118.1 GPixel/s and 236.2 GTexel/s, respectively.

Specification Differences

The most visible difference lies in the process node: the RTX 2070 uses 12 nm, while the RTX 4060 uses 5 nm. This drives a massive die size disparity, with the RTX 2070 measuring 445 mm² versus the RTX 4060's 159 mm². Transistor counts also differ significantly, with the RTX 2070 at 10,800 million and the RTX 4060 at 18,900 million.

Clock speeds favor the RTX 4060 substantially. The RTX 2070 has a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1620 MHz, while the RTX 4060 operates at 1830 MHz base and 2460 MHz boost. Memory configuration differs in bus width and bandwidth: the RTX 2070 uses a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s, while the RTX 4060 uses a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s. The RTX 4060's memory runs at 17 Gbps effective versus 14 Gbps for the RTX 2070.

Compute capabilities diverge in FP32 throughput, with the RTX 2070 at 7.465 TFLOPS and the RTX 4060 at 15.11 TFLOPS. The RTX 2070 has more TMUs (144 versus 96) and ROPs (64 versus 48), but the RTX 4060 has more shading units (3072 versus 2304). Power consumption also differs: the RTX 2070 has a TDP of 175 W with a suggested PSU of 450 W and a single 8-pin connector, while the RTX 4060 draws 115 W with a 300 W suggested PSU and a 12-pin connector. The RTX 2070 is longer at 229 mm versus 240 mm for the RTX 4060, and wider at 35 mm versus 40 mm, though heights are identical at 113 mm. The RTX 2070 offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C outputs, while the RTX 4060 provides 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Bus interface differs as well, with PCIe 3.0 x16 on the RTX 2070 and PCIe 4.0 x8 on the RTX 4060.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4060 is the clear winner for modern gaming and general compute workloads. Its 31.8% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 30.4% advantage in GPU Compute make it the superior choice for DirectX 12 titles, productivity applications, and any task leveraging FP32 shader throughput. Its 26.3% edge in DX11 and 21.1% in DX12 Passmark tests reinforce this, showing consistent superiority across the API spectrum that matters most for contemporary software. The RTX 4060 also wins in OpenCL by 15.9%, making it the better option for OpenCL-based compute and rendering tasks.

The RTX 2070's wins are narrower but specific. Its 69.6% Vulkan advantage suggests that developers targeting Vulkan APIs may see better performance on the older Turing card, possibly due to driver maturity or architectural quirks. The 7.8% DX10 win is largely irrelevant for modern use, as DX10 is a legacy API. However, the RTX 2070's higher average benchmark score of 18789 versus 17639 indicates that its aggregate performance across all tests is slightly better, driven largely by the massive Vulkan outlier. For users running Vulkan-heavy workloads or older DX10 applications, the RTX 2070 remains competitive, but for everything else, especially current DirectX 12 games and compute, the RTX 4060 is the definitive choice, offering superior performance with a 60 W lower TDP and a smaller 159 mm² die.