Thursday, March 5th 2026
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Could Return Mid-March
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, a mid-range GPU now two generations old, is reportedly returning to NVIDIA's supply this month. According to Chinese Board Channels, NVIDIA is planning a mid-March restock of the "Ampere" GPU, aligning with earlier rumors that suggested a Q1 2026 revival. Interestingly, it is unclear which version of the RTX 3060 will be reintroduced—whether it will be the original 12 GB model with a 192-bit wide memory bus or the newer 8 GB variant with a 128-bit bus. NVIDIA's decision to bring back this older SKU is puzzling, especially considering it is two generations old and comes amid memory supply chain shortages. However, this older SKU uses GDDR6 memory, which might be more readily available as the newer GDDR7 is being used by modern "Blackwell" GPUs and the upcoming "Rubin CPX" accelerators.
Why NVIDIA has chosen the RTX 3060 instead of a newer model like the RTX 4060 remains uncertain. Speculatively, it could be due to the fact that the RTX 4060 is based on the same NVIDIA 4N foundry node at TSMC as the current RTX 5060, while the RTX 3060, along with the rest of the GeForce "Ampere" generation, is built on the Samsung 8N (8 nm DUV) foundry node. Additionally, Board Channels note that GeForce RTX 3060 models from various brands will start arriving soon, which means NVIDIA's add-in card partners are doing much of the heavy lifting to bring back this SKU, with NVIDIA only supplying the GPU die and memory as an installation kit. AICs could start marketing this GPU again or just quietly add it to their websites. We are waiting a few more days to see how the re-launch unfolds and which SKUs we end up getting. Finally, the most important factor for considering this GPU when modern alternatives exist is the pricing, which will dictate its sales.
Sources:
Board Channels, via VideoCardz
Why NVIDIA has chosen the RTX 3060 instead of a newer model like the RTX 4060 remains uncertain. Speculatively, it could be due to the fact that the RTX 4060 is based on the same NVIDIA 4N foundry node at TSMC as the current RTX 5060, while the RTX 3060, along with the rest of the GeForce "Ampere" generation, is built on the Samsung 8N (8 nm DUV) foundry node. Additionally, Board Channels note that GeForce RTX 3060 models from various brands will start arriving soon, which means NVIDIA's add-in card partners are doing much of the heavy lifting to bring back this SKU, with NVIDIA only supplying the GPU die and memory as an installation kit. AICs could start marketing this GPU again or just quietly add it to their websites. We are waiting a few more days to see how the re-launch unfolds and which SKUs we end up getting. Finally, the most important factor for considering this GPU when modern alternatives exist is the pricing, which will dictate its sales.
38 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Could Return Mid-March
And hey, since Nvidia has AI doing their floorplans for them now, come on, why isn't this a thing yet. After all you've got 30k engineers twiddling thumbs now because the AI is writing drivers already.
:rolleyes:
For the people saying or even thinking this 3060 re release is a good thing... yeah. I know you're desperate, but the answer is obviously no. Just get a second hand 3060 for less then, and force Nvidia to deliver an actual new product if they want to sell something. Surely you're not going to fork over new-GPU-money for something two generations old now, I hope? It falls in the same line as pre ordering: don't be an idiot.
Like I said, a brand new DLSS card for $150-170 is a seriously attractive option, considering the used cards are around $100-150 on ebay.
The main thing isn't just framerates though, turning on any level of DLSS is basically the only competent anti-aliasing, and games look terrible without it. FSR 4 comes close at least.
I don't think I tried 4.5 Transformer on the 3080 Ti, so the likelihood is that has a performance penalty, but should still be better than native in most respects.
+20€ for fancy cover, etc.
anything else is not reasonable
the new nvidia 750 hopefully.
If it comes at the right price, this will be more than welcome to many folks.
Kinda funny, seeins how I just bought a like-new EVGA 3060/8GB for $110 for a yougin/newbie gamr boi in the family...
Really though, the RTX 3050 was still 8GB over a 128-bit bus... but with ~71% of the RTX 3060's cores.
There was a RTX 3060 3840SP variant, though, with the full GA106 chip enabled, and only 6GB VRAM.
Perhaps this will be the variant they bring back... though they will probably go with a lower enabled core count, so that they can use all their new dies 🤔
I still run my EVGA RTX 3060, it doesn't see any gaming on it anymore, but it still going in the server computer.
On the upside, if this does happen and new products are getting release, Ampere will be getting driver upgrade until 2030 or beyond.
Nvidia/AMD would much rather used their wafer allocations for those higher margin parts than consumer grade GPUs.
But older nodes don't have that demand from data centers but may be "ok" for the mass consumer markets. Just think about how many people are playing on midrange Vs the titans/xx90s
I'm guessing this is because Samsung have affordable capacity going spare to make Ampere chips, while TSMC are basically sold out for anything Ada or Blackwell . If it was solely a GDDR7 pricing/availability issue then we'd be getting more 4060 or 5050 cards since they use GDDR6 still.
In saying that, the 3070 used regular GDDR6 at first, so they could make it but I'm going to guess that they won't because the 3070 performs like a 5060 and Nvidia have no problem meeting demand with the 5060, and that's plenty profitable with it's paltry little die, simple little 128-bit PCB, miniscule VRMs and cooler, and only half the PCIe lanes to worry about.
No, I'm willing to bet the farm that Nvidia is just trying to make a low-end card they can sell for $250 street price, since the 5060's street price has climbed to $350-400 now. There's a demographic of people with $250 to buy a graphics card and Nvidia doesn't want them buying used GPUs or competitor GPUs like the Arc B570, so they need to sell something at that price point because a good fraction of buyers are too ignorant to do anything except buy a new Nvidia card that fits their budget.