Resurrected RTX 3060 12GB price jumps 45% in the two months since it was revived — 2021-era GPU now costs nearly $500 across most retailers
An uphill battle cut short by a prevailing landslide.
Nvidia ostensibly brought back the RTX 3060 12GB in late June to help gamers cope with the ongoing component crisis. Since most of the world's memory is being routed to expensive AI chips, the RTX 3060 12GB offered gamers a 12GB VRAM pool for what was supposed to be a reasonable price... if only the price remained steady. As of today, this five-year-old GPU now costs almost $500 across the world, which is just as much as the RTX 5060.
MSI's Ventus 2X OC variant of the RTX 3060 12GB launched at just $300 on its online store and $340 on Newegg. It's now listed for $480 in both places. That's a 60% increase in less than two months, compared to its lowest price. Similarly, Asus' Dual V2 OC variant was released with a $330 MSRP, which quickly rose to $360 on Newegg, and the same card is now sitting at $500, constituting a 52% price hike from launch.
The cheapest RTX 3060 12GB right now, the Gigabyte Windforce OC Rev 2.0 model, currently costs $460, up 35% from the $340 it arrived at in late June. The same GPU is listed for 417 GBP on Amazon UK, which converts to $566. In Europe, the cheapest variant is once again Asus' Dual V2 OC, costing 386 EUR on Amazon Germany, or roughly $450; price aggregator Geizhals says it was just 330 EUR a month ago.
In comparison, the RTX 5060, which is two generations newer, can be easily had for around $450 from a bunch of different vendors. That GPU is not only significantly faster but also more efficient, while carrying the latest features such as DLSS multi-frame gen support. In our GPU hierarchy, the 5060 is actually just as powerful as the RTX 3070 at 1080p and 1440p, and it carries the same amount of VRAM, 8GB.
That VRAM capacity is the only thing going for the 3060 12GB at this point, and even with extra memory to utilize, the GPU isn't really capable enough to deliver better performance in games. Plus, you can find better deals on the used market, or even renewed offers from big retailers, so the re-launched RTX 3060 12GB just doesn't make sense from any angle right now, despite its still-decent 1080p chops.
The 3060 is cheaper to produce for Nvidia, thanks to its slower GDDR6 memory compared to the GDDR7 you get on the 5060. It's fabricated on the older, less in-demand 8nm node from Samsung, compared to TSMC's N5, which should also help with yield. But none of those manufacturing leniencies seem to be trickling down to the customer. Even the RTX 5050, which can be had for $300, is faster than the revived RTX 3060 12GB.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
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usertests I'm not convinced local AI users are grabbing it, which has been argued in previous threads. I think it's probably low initial supply, and strong demand for anything with 12 GB VRAM.Reply
It's only a little slower than the RTX 5050 at 1080p in Tom's review, and a little faster in 1440p. It will age better, and Nvidia fans will value it higher than the 5050.
The near-$500 pricing could simply be a consequence of supply running out. -
logainofhades That price is crazy. I did see a couple for under $500, but at those prices, the 9060xt 16gb makes more sense, uness you need CUDA support. I have seen a handful of those for under $500.Reply -
usertests Reply
I haven't been tracking prices religiously, but I got the impression that in recent weeks, nothing Nvidia offers above 8 GB makes sense compared to AMD (unless you have a caveat like CUDA).logainofhades said:That price is crazy. I did see a couple for under $500, but at those prices, the 9060xt 16gb makes more sense, uness you need CUDA support. I have seen a handful of those for under $500.
It's so bad that you can get a 9070 XT for less than a 5070:
Radeon RX 9070 XT vs. GeForce RTX 5070, 52 Game Benchmark @ 1440p & 4K (2026 Update)
Even the relaunched 9070 GRE (12 GB) at $550 could be relevant. More performance than 9060 XT 16GB with less VRAM. It's the card most likely to hold its pricing or even drop. -
Trake_17 I am so glad I bit the bullet on an overpriced 4080 in 2023 and DDR5 6 months ago. This crap just keeps getting worse. God help me if the card should failReply -
logainofhades I did my rig overhaul, back in Feb. Sold a lot of stuff to get it. Looking at prices now vs what I paid for some of those parts in Dec and Jan, even I dodged a bullet. My ram is more than double what I paid for it, on a Microcenter special buy.Reply -
thestryker Reply
I doubt that is the case since these should be a new run of silicon. It seems more likely to be related to VRAM: assuming nvidia is providing the memory their margins could explain most of the rise, and if they're not providing the memory that could explain it as the open market is brutal.usertests said:The near-$500 pricing could simply be a consequence of supply running out. -
usertests Reply
They're buying 2 GB GDDR6 modules for the RTX 5050 though. Although the 3060's are at 15 Gbps while the 5050's are at 20 Gbps.thestryker said:I doubt that is the case since these should be a new run of silicon. It seems more likely to be related to VRAM: assuming nvidia is providing the memory their margins could explain most of the rise, and if they're not providing the memory that could explain it as the open market is brutal.
What I meant was that they made a batch of maybe 100k 3060s, they have mostly been sold off, and more are coming later. That's just my guess though. -
thestryker Reply
Look at the pricing on the majority of 5050s now (if you take away the two cheapest the rest are 9060 XT 8GB+ priced) and I'd imagine the two cards probably using the same memory. Memory prices have gone absolutely insane and nvidia isn't losing a penny of their margins.usertests said:They're buying 2 GB GDDR6 modules for the RTX 5050 though. Although the 3060's are at 15 Gbps while the 5050's are at 20 Gbps.