NVIDIA's RTX 3060 12GB GPU is about to disappear from the shelves - but it's no great loss

NVIDIA's RTX 3060 is finally going to sell through entirely likely later this month, after Team Green pulled the plug on the graphics card some time ago.

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MSI's Ventus 2X variant of the RTX 3060 12GB (Image Credit: MSI)

VideoCardz highlighted a post on the Board Channels, a source of a lot of hardware rumors in China - but one that should be regarded with some caution - insists that time has been called on the RTX 3060.

• Read more: GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU prices finally hit MSRP and below in the US
• Read more: GIGABYTE listing shows five different RTX 5060 Ti models coming versus just one for the 9060 XT
• Read more: Black Friday Sales - The best GeForce RTX and Radeon RX GPU deals

We're told that board manufacturers including ASUS, Colorful, Galax, GIGABYTE and MSI cleared their remaining RTX 3060 supply in September and October, with Zotac being the only player with a meaningful level of stock left after that - and that went dry in November.

In other words, all RTX 3060 inventory is out there in retail channels now, and it probably won't take all that long to sell through.

If we look at Newegg in the US, there are only two RTX 3060 (12GB) models on sale, an MSI Ventus model and GIGABYTE WindForce board.

Affordable and VRAM-heavy

These graphics cards have maintained their popularity (to an extent) due to having 12GB of video RAM at a relatively low price, with NVIDIA not equipping some more modern GPUs with that amount of memory, sticking with 8GB in the RTX 5060 (and 5060 Ti in some cases). Even the RTX 5070 only has 12GB, which was a major pain point for PC gamers this generation, as you'll doubtless recall.

Of course, you can get an RTX 5060 8GB for $300, barely any more than these RTX 3060 12GB models at their current price, and it'd be very foolish not to take the Blackwell GPU if you want an NVIDIA graphics card - it's a lot more performant, despite the admittedly stingy VRAM allocation.

Or you could go for AMD's RX 9060 XT 8GB, of course, which is a more than solid rival (and we'll perhaps get some decent holiday or new year's discounts on this model, as there was an appreciable reduction for Black Friday a couple of weeks ago).

If you really want more video RAM at the $300 or just under level, then there's Intel's B580 with 12GB of VRAM, if you're happy enough with Team Blue's longer-term prospects in the GPU world (and driver support therein, which is something that concerns me, I must admit).

NVIDIA actually canned the RTX 3060 quite some time ago in terms of producing the chips for its third-party manufacturers - that happened back in August 2024, well over a year ago now. Of course, it takes a lot of time for the remaining chips to be used and the resulting boards to make their way out via the distribution chain (which may involve a fair bit of sitting in warehouses).