A shortage of cheap modern graphics cards and memory supply issues forced Nvidia to return the GeForce RTX 3060 with 12 GB of memory to the market this summer, more than five years after it was first released. The Ampere generation veteran is thought to be another relatively affordable option with plenty of video memory. However, just two months after its relaunch, the price of the GeForce RTX 3060 has increased significantly, and it now costs significantly more than the more modern and faster GeForce RTX 5050.
In the United States, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G OC manufactured by MSI is a representative. It sold for $329.99 on Newegg in early July, and is now selling for $479.99 at the same store. Thus, in just two months, the price of graphics cards has increased by $150, or about 45%. The other new GeForce RTX 3060s aren’t cheap either: models from Asus and Gigabyte cost over $400.
So the five-year-old GeForce RTX 3060 finds itself in a pretty ridiculous position compared to modern Nvidia graphics cards. For example, Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 5050 Low Profile is currently on sale on Newegg for $299.99. As it turns out, MSI’s return to the market with the RTX 3060 costs 60% more than the current Blackwell generation model.
A similar situation is playing out in Europe, although price increases there have been less dramatic. At the end of June, ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 3060 OC V2 was launched in Germany, priced at 333.64 euros. The current starting price is 379 euros, an increase of about 14%. In comparison, the more modern PNY GeForce RTX 5050 costs €299.99 with a single fan. Therefore, in the European market, the old RTX 3060 is about 26% more expensive than the RTX 5050.
The only significant advantage of the GeForce RTX 3060 is the memory capacity: 12 GB compared to the RTX 5050’s 8 GB. However, in terms of gaming performance, old graphics cards are not as good as new graphics cards. recently test ComputerBase In raster games at 1080p resolution, the GeForce RTX 5050 delivered an average of 69 fps, while the RTX 3060 was 57.2 fps, which is about 21% faster. In addition, the RTX 5050 supports advanced Blackwell architecture features, including multi-frame generation, which the RTX 3060 does not have.
Therefore, the return of the GeForce RTX 3060 has not yet helped improve the situation in the downstream graphics card market. The additional shipments were supposed to give customers another relatively affordable 12GB storage option, but the attractive price only lasted less than two months. At the current cost of the RTX 3060, it only makes sense to buy it in specific scenarios where the extra 4 GB of video memory is crucial. Exactly how many GeForce RTX 3060s Nvidia and its partners will release as part of the rollout remains unknown.
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