In the event that Nvidia does prioritize datacenter products over consumer ones, the already elevated prices of entry-level RTX 50-series cards might give way to a situation where one simply can't buy these lower-priced, lower-margin products at any cost. And in that event, the aging RTX 3060 could be one of the few sub-$350 options available to gamers who need to build a new system or upgrade from an aging graphics card.
And frankly, that's a poor outcome for gamers, as the RTX 3060 can't run the latest DLSS 4.5 upscaling model at its full potential due to the lack of proper FP8 acceleration on older Turing and Ampere GPUs. And it can't run DLSS Frame Generation at all, leaving gamers to deal with cross-platform solutions like FSR and XeSS frame generation from other vendors. Those technologies are incredibly useful tools in getting the best experience out of modern games, and if they're only available on a smaller subset of more expensive GPUs, that further stratifies the already stratified modern PC gaming experience.
We've reached out to Gigabyte and Nvidia for comment on the reappearance of the RTX 3060 and will report what we learn if we hear back.
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As the Senior Analyst, Graphics at Tom's Hardware, Jeff Kampman covers everything that has to do with graphics cards, gaming performance, and more. From integrated graphics processors to discrete graphics cards to the hyperscale installations powering our AI future, if it's got a GPU in it, Jeff is on it.\u00a0 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-24/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Jeffrey Kampman Senior Analyst, Graphics As the Senior Analyst, Graphics at Tom's Hardware, Jeff Kampman covers everything that has to do with graphics cards, gaming performance, and more. From integrated graphics processors to discrete graphics cards to the hyperscale installations powering our AI future, if it's got a GPU in it, Jeff is on it.
hotaru251 …not for $400. AMD 9060 XT can be gotten for $50 more much higher performance & more vram. literally a waste of sand. Reply
usertests hotaru251 said: literally a waste of sand. "I hate sand." – Anakin Skywalker. Unlike the 5800X3D2, this thing doesn't get points for being older. It should be cheap to make if using Samsung 8N. The market will decide its fate. We knew this was coming for a long time, but more interesting options would have been an RTX 3070 16GB, 3080 12GB, or 3080 Ti 16GB. Reply
Roland Of Gilead I'm actually shocked at this. This has to be one of the worst component resurrections ever! There is no value there at all. More pricey gounging. Ugghh Reply
usertests Roland Of Gilead said: I'm actually shocked at this. This has to be one of the worst component resurrections ever! There is no value there at all. More pricey gounging. Ugghh AMD can offer the 5800X3D Titan A.E. with worse price/performance than the simultaneously launched 7700X3D and get away with it, because the 5800X3D is the last stop for AM4 gamers. Nvidia can't do the same with the $339 RTX 3060… unless TSMC 4N and GDDR6/7 prices rise so much that it starts to look like a good deal. An obvious point of comparison is the RTX 5050. Which could be offered with 9-12 GB GDDR7 if Nvidia wanted but 9 GB plans reportedly fell to the wayside. Reply
HideOut Its sad that this "journalistic" site posts something as sad as this. but hey, if you click on the link the corporation will get a cut. Reply
HideOut usertests said: AMD can offer the 5800X3D Titan A.E. with worse price/performance than the simultaneously launched 7700X3D and get away with it, because the 5800X3D is the last stop for AM4 gamers. Nvidia can't do the same with the $339 RTX 3060… unless TSMC 4N and GDDR6/7 prices rise so much that it starts to look like a good deal. An obvious point of comparison is the RTX 5050. Which could be offered with 9-12 GB GDDR7 if Nvidia wanted but 9 GB plans reportedly fell to the wayside. 9GB plans? Math aint mathin there. Multipls of 4GB or 12GB today Reply
artk2219 I don't hate the idea behind this, but i do hate this execution. RTX 3070 16gb's would have been super cool, or 3080 20GB's but those would have cut into the 5060 and 5070 market, so they would never release those. The RTX 3060 is pretty much their only choice. Even then they had a chance if they priced it well, it has a place in the market, but not at basically the same price as an RTX 5060. An Intel B580 has the same amount of vram, costs less, and is faster. Sadly i know that these will still sell, and sell in volume, because people are bad at making decisions. Reply
usertests HideOut said: 9GB plans? Math aint mathin there. Multipls of 4GB or 12GB today https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-reportedly-plans-geforce-rtx-5050-with-9gb-memory-and-96-bit-bushttps://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-rtx-5050-with-9gb-gddr7-memory-to-launch-around-computexhttps://videocardz.com/224049/geforce-rtx-5050-9gb-g7-variant-reportedly-has-the-same-130w-tdp-as-8gb-g6-model RTX 5050 desktop GPU uses 8 GB GDDR6 (20 Gbps) on a 128-bit bus (4x 2GB GDDR6 chips). Rumored RTX 5050 9GB would drop the bus to 96-bit, but use 3x 3GB GDDR7 chips. By using 28 Gbps GDDR7, the overall bandwidth actually increases by 5%: (96 / 128) * (28 / 20). So on paper it is superior to the original by getting 5% more bandwidth and 12.5% more memory. It should be more efficient but the rumors said they would keep the TDP the same. We already know that the RTX 5050 die (GB207) can use GDDR7 because the laptop variant uses it (for better efficiency). So that's the idea. But it hasn't materialized. Reply
Bigshrimp Lol. They are like, here are some scraps for the peasants. Reply
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/legacy-nvidia-rtx-3060-12gb-returns-to-retail-five-years-after-original-launch-priced-at-usd339-resurrected-gpu-strategy-that-jensen-called-a-good-idea-apparently-comes-to-fruition#main
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