A reputable leaker has indicated that NVIDIA plans on bringing the RTX 3060 back to market, according to reports by Kotaku and WFCCTech. It first released the GPU at the beginning of 2021. The leaker Hongxing2020 indicates that NVIDIA will resume production of the 3060 sometime in the next few months.
Why is the world’s most valuable company reportedly bringing back such an antiquated graphics card? You know the answer. It’s the endless gaping maw known as AI. Tech companies have been hoovering up PC parts for AI applications with reckless abandon. It has become a legitimate challenge for a regular person to buy RAM and graphics cards, which has led to price increases across the board and companies like Crucial closing up shop.
01.05update
rtx3060 Q1 come back…— hongxing2020 (@hongxing2020) January 5, 2026
It’s particularly difficult to get ahold of GDDR7 RAM, which is needed for the newer RTX 5060 cards. So NVIDIA’s solution looks to be a hop in the time machine to 2021. Gamers will need something, after all, and the 3060 technically gets the job done. Any downgrade in graphics and performance will be worth it once you watch an AI-generated video of Kurt Cobain singing in heaven with Albert Einstein, am I right? It’s hilarious because they never got to meet in real life.
The RTX 3060 is still pretty popular, despite NVIDIA phasing out the card back in 2024. We don’t know how much the company plans on charging for this trip down memory lane. The GPU originally cost around $329.
One would think that five-year-old technology could easily hit a much lower price point, but NVIDIA has us in a chokehold here and it can pretty much charge whatever it wants. Again, no price is too high when considering the magical wonders of generative AI. You can watch Tupac hang out with Mr. Rogers for five seconds.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/nvidia-is-reportedly-bringing-back-2021s-rtx-3060-gpu-because-ai-is-eating-all-of-the-newer-cards-194241706.html?src=rss
