MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X Review: Goosed-Up Graphics

Speed Way is the most recent addition to the UL 3DMark graphics test suite. Speed Way uses the DirectX 12 Ultimate API and leverages advanced features like DirectX Raytracing tier 1.1 for real-time global illumination and real-time raytraced reflections, Mesh Shaders, and high-resolution textures and artwork…

UL 3DMark Speed Way DX12 Ultimate Benchmarks

As we get through the rest of the graphics related tests, you're going to see a common theme. As you'd expect based on its slightly higher clocks, the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X slots in just ahead of the ASUS GeForce RTX 4060 DUAL.

UL 3DMark Time Spy DX12 Benchmarks

3DMark Time Spy is a synthetic DirectX benchmark test from UL. It features a DirectX 12 engine built from the ground up to support bleeding-edge features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading. Time Spy is designed to test the DX12 performance of the latest graphics cards using a variety of techniques and varied visual sequences. This benchmark was developed with input from AMD, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and the other members of the UL Benchmark Development Program, to showcase the performance and visual potential of graphics cards driven by close-to-the-metal, low-overhead APIs. In the older 3DMark Time Spy test, the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X trails competing cards like the Radeon RX 7600 and previous-gen Radeon RX 67x0 cards, but lands just ahead of the ASUS card, as expected.

UL 3DMark Port Royal Ray Tracing Benchmarks

Port Royal was released as an update to UL’s popular 3DMark suite. It is designed to test real-time ray tracing performance of graphics cards that support Microsoft DirectX Raytracing, or DXR. Although DXR is technically compatible with all DX12-class GPUs, the graphics card must have drivers that enable support for the feature.

In the Port Royal test, which employs some ray tracing, the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X clearly outruns the Radeon RX 7600 and outpaces the ASUS card which conforms to NVIDIA's reference specs once again.

DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR) Feature Test

We also tested the cards with UL's DirectX Ray Tracing Feature test. This test is laser-focused on path-tracing performance, and uses few of the card's other resources.
Unlike Port Royal, the Direct X Ray Tracing Feature test is solely focused on ray tracing performance and showcases the strength of Ada's newer RT cores versus AMD. Here, the Arc A770 LE puts up a nice showing and the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X slot into its familiar position ahead of the ASUS board.

VR Benchmarks: VR Mark & Unigine Superposition

Superposition is the latest benchmark from Unigine, powered by the UNIGINE 2 Engine. It offers an array of benchmark modes, targeting gaming workloads as well as VR, with both DirectX and OpenGL code paths. There is an extreme hardware stability test built-in too. Unigine Superposition uses the developer’s unique SSRTGI (Screen-Space Ray-Traced Global Illumination) dynamic lighting technology, along with high quality textures and models, to produce some excellent visuals. We ran Superposition's VR Future benchmark to compare the performance of all of the graphics cards featured here.

Unigine Superposition VR Future Test

Running Unigine's VR Future benchmark, shows the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X slightly outpacing the ASUS GeForce RTX 4060 DUAL, but it couldn't catch the Radeon RX 7600.

UL VR Mark Blue Room Benchmarks

UL's VRMark is designed to test a PC’s readiness for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets. The benchmark does not, however, require that one of the headsets is attached to the PC to run and it uses an in-house graphics engine and content to ensure comparable results between different platforms. We ran the "Blue Room" VRMark test at defaults settings here, which is currently the most taxing test offered by the tool.


VRMark flips the script somewhat, and has the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X landinig in the middle of the pack, well ahead of the Radeon RX 7600, and trailing only the higher end cards.