Nvidia graphics card makers, sometimes referred to as add-in-board (AIB) partners, are in the middle of a big changeover, according to sources speaking to China's Benchlife. The tech site confirmed with its AIB sources that production of RTX 4060 family graphics cards was ramping up. It sought this confirmation after Chinese tech BBS sources indicated that Nvidia had "stopped supplying GeForce RTX 3060 Ti chips."
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has had a good run as a midrange GPU contender and currently sits at number 22 in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy for rasterization performance, and number 19 for ray tracing performance. It scored well in reviews when it debuted in early 2021, with the main dampener being its availability at anything close to its official $399 MSRP — this was during the peak crypto-craze of 2020–2022, in case you've been trying to wipe that time period from your memory. There were also modest concerns about potential limits from having just 8GB of VRAM, which still remain and will likewise apply to future 8GB cards.
The RTX 3060 Ti is no longer on our current list of the best graphics cards for gaming, mostly due to updates that have introduced newer models like the RTX 4070. With the touted imminent arrival of the RTX 4060 series, expected to offer regular and Ti SKUs in both 8GB and 16GB VRAM models, it seems right to divert any RTX 3060 Ti resources to producing the faster and more efficient latest generation products.
Traditionally, the GeForce RTX xx60-class graphics cards rank among the biggest sellers for Nvidia and its AIBs. The most recent Steam Hardware Survey has the RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, GTX 1060, and RTX 2060 all ranked in the top five most popular graphics solutions. As such, Nvidia and its partners will want to have warehouses well-stocked with these new graphics cards, ready to roll out between the end of May to mid-July.
There are reportedly still quite a lot of GA104 GPUs in the channel — that's the GPU in the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3070 Ti graphics cards. With the RTX 4060 family launch purportedly so close, there may be a chance to get one of the RTX 3060 Ti cards at a good discount. Certainly we wouldn't suggest paying anywhere close to $400 for the soon-to-be-replaced cards.
The question of discounts for last-gen stock also raises the specter of pricing for the new RTX 4060 family. Nvidia's RTX 40-series pricing has been widely criticized by reviewers and the public. Its current cheapest Ada Lovelace GPU is the $599 RTX 4070 (non-Ti) model with 12GB of VRAM. That's a big step above the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti launch price ($399), so we should expect some of that gap to be filled with models like the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, and RTX 4060 8GB. Hopefully, those last two will land at or under the $399 mark.
Some pressure will also be exerted by AMD's new entry-to-midrange hope, the Radeon RX 7600, which we reckon could debut at $299 (based on rumors). It's set to launch by the end of the month, according to leaks. How it will stack up against AMD's existing RX 66xx model cards remains to be seen.
In summary, it makes sense for Nvidia to halt production of its previous generation midrange part. Ampere chips are being retired as their Ada Lovelace successors become available. There's no official confirmation from Nvidia, but with multiple sources and a healthy dash of common sense, there's little doubt that Ampere GPUs are on the way out.
