The RTX 4060 Ti is Nvidia’s latest graphics card, but after a few days on sale, it looks like it may be a flop.
This could be worrisome for Nvidia because just a few years ago, the (relatively) inexpensive entry into its latest generation of GPUs, offering advanced features like ray tracing and DLSS 3, would have been an inevitable hit.
However as Wccftech reportslooks like the RTX 4060 Ti has hit the mark Very slow start. According to a tweet by GDM, a company that monitors sales only in Japan one a person bought an RTX 4060 Ti from a well-known store.
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics card is used in one place購入したのみで終了しました pic.twitter.com/u9LSM1exN8May 24, 2023
Worryingly, the RTX 4060 Ti also appears to be struggling in markets traditionally focused on PC gaming. In Germany, for example, major retailer Mindfactory apparently only sold 30 RTX 4060 Ti cards during the launch period.
If that seems low, it is – the RTX 4070, launched in April, apparently sold 315 units in the same time frame, while the 4070 Ti, launched in January, sold 540 units.
Even these better sales figures are far from what the previous generation RTX 3000 achieved. So, what is going on and what can Nvidia learn from this?
Learning lessons
To begin with, it’s important to remember that the current landscape when it comes to graphics cards and requirements is very different from the previous generation.
When the RTX 3000 series GPUs hit the market, the world was in the midst of a global Covid-19 pandemic, which in turn led to a severe chip shortage as the foundries that produced the chips, including those used to produce graphics cards, were affected by lockdowns.
This coincided with the increase in the value of cryptocurrencies, which led to some people buying GPUs en masse for mining – the process of generating cryptocurrency. Both of these factors led to stock shortages of modern GPUs, which basically meant that Nvidia (and its rival AMD) were selling almost every GPU they could produce.
It also meant that the launch of new GPUs became a bit of a frenzy as people desperately tried to get their hands on a graphics card – and this scarcity made GPUs into in-demand products.
However, nowadays things are quite different. While Covid-19 is still with us, it is not causing widespread lockdowns that affect component production. The cryptocurrency bubble has also burst, leading to an influx of used GPUs into the market.
The excitement and hype surrounding the launch of new GPUs has subsided somewhat. There’s not much Nvidia can do about it (I wouldn’t recommend starting a new pandemic or artificially reducing inventory to increase consumer interest), but there are still lessons to be learned from the current climate and customer demand.
One of the most pressing issues for many of us right now is the cost of living crisis, which has made many everyday things in our lives more expensive – and this has made extravagant purchases like new GPUs much less tempting.
While the RTX 4060 Ti is a welcome sign that Nvidia is looking to attract more budget-conscious gamers, rather than pushing super-high-end cards like the RTX 4090 for $399 (around £240, AU$600), it’s still an expensive proposition. and the performance (as we discuss in our own Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti review) doesn’t justify the price.
To make matters worse, in some markets, such as Japan, local taxes have made GPUs more expensive, and a budget GPU without a budget price will not break sales records.
In fact, how Videocard Reports via a 3DCenter tweet, the sale was so dire that just four hours after its launch, Mindfactory lowered the price of the Palit GeForce RTX 4060 Ti to €419 – €20 below the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
Market launch GeForce RTX 4060 Ti for 🇩🇪🇦🇹 +4h Alternative: €439-519 (13 available, 6 MSRP)Asus: €440-500 (2/1)Chassis: €439-529 (10/ 4)Mindfactory : €419-509 (5/2) Billiger Notebooks: €439-499 (8/3) MF is now -€20 below the suggested retail price. But overall, only ~20 units were sold.May 24, 2023
I’ve certainly never seen a GPU get a price cut release dayand while it may not be good news for Nvidia, it is for PC gamers. GPUs were so rare a few years ago that when they went on sale they often cost much more than their suggested retail price. The sight of a graphics card for much more reasonable money is really welcome.
Hopefully this will also show Nvidia that consumers are more price conscious these days, so hopefully the company will add more value to its upcoming releases. With rival AMD showing the company how it’s done with the excellent AMD Radeon RX 7600 just launched for $269 (around £215 / AU$405), Nvidia needs to prove to gamers it understands money is tight these days and offer the highest return for every zloty invested.
The other issue with the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti’s lack of excitement is that it doesn’t feel like a huge generational leap over the RTX 3060 Ti, offering 10 to 20% better gaming performance. While this gap may be widened with the use of DLSS 3 in games that support it, it’s still no surprise that a small performance boost won’t make people rush to buy it.
Again, let’s hope Nvidia comes up with graphics cards in this or next gen that really show a leap in performance and get us excited again.
Nvidia remains the world’s most popular GPU maker, and its stock price has recently surged to new highs due to the excitement surrounding its AI plans. So I doubt there are too many sleepless nights at Nvidia HQ due to the RTX 4060 Ti summer sale. However, if this trend of lower sales continues, it may be time to wake up.