When choosing a new graphics card for our gaming computer, we have to take into account many details, not just raw power; Compatibility with new technologies and price are equally, if not more, important aspects. The Nvidia RTX 3060 met all these requirements, but it will now disappear from the market.
According to data from Steam, the largest PC gaming platform on the market, The RTX 3060 is the most used GPU by gamers, and it’s not surprising. In Europe it is easy to find it for less than 300 dollars, but it has features and power more typical of a higher price range. It is capable of running modern games, albeit at low resolution, and is compatible with RTX technologies such as ray tracing or DLSS.
Unfortunately, this great option is going to disappear very soon. According to reports VideoCardzNvidia has reached out to brands to inform them that this is the last opportunity to place orders for the RTX 3060; some brands, such as Colorful and Palit, have reportedly already been informed that you can place your last orders.
Released in January 2021, this marks the beginning of the end for the RTX 3060, as once current orders are fulfilled, will not return to production; Therefore, the cards remaining in stores and those that will be produced will be the last ones that can be purchased. This will be the end of one of the most popular cards among players, which was a relatively cheap alternative at the time when it was difficult to get cards due to the cryptocurrency fever.
The decision to stop production of the RTX 3060 does not mean that this GPU will disappear from stores immediately. The end consumer will probably only perceive the consequences of this decision in a few months, when the last orders are finalized and the stock in stores is sold out. However, if we are interested in an RTX 3060, It is advisable to buy it as soon as possible.; And it’s very likely that its price will increase as stores run out of units, especially if demand remains at current levels.
The RTX 3060 isn’t the only mid-range graphics card that Nvidia offers, with the RTX 4060 which offers slightly higher performance
The RTX 3060 has 12GB of VRAM but for the RTX 4060, Nvidia decided to include only 8GB of VRAM; this was a decision that was widely criticized at the time because it seemed like Nvidia was being “stingy” by sacrificing the future potential of the GPU. For practical purposes, the difference is not noticeable in many games, but in the most demanding ones in terms of texture size, RTX 3060 is still superioralthough it is the oldest model. For this reason, it continues to be the favorite of many players.
The big question is whether Nvidia’s next-generation graphics card, the RTX 5000, will solve this problem in the mid-range, and whether it will arrive in time to fill the void left by the RTX 3060.
