NVIDIA To Bring Back The GeForce RTX 3060 In Q1 2026 To Tackle Current-Gen GPU & Memory Shortages
cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/31067608
NVIDIA started to discontinue its GeForce RTX 3060 GPUs back in 2024. The original lineup, which was introduced back in 2021, is still the most popular gaming graphics card on Steam, and while the 4060 & 5060 are picking up the pace, it looks like NVIDIA might once again open up production lines for this GPU.
This indicates the extent to which the DRAM shortages have affected consumer GPUs. The GeForce RTX 5060 makes use of GDDR7 memory, and as DRAM costs rise, the RTX 5060 might not only be affected in terms of pricing but also in supply, since procuring the memory is also an issue due to poor supply. The 60-series product family is made for mass consumption, so NVIDIA will have to offer some alternative to its partners.
I wonder if we'll see a shift towards graphical stagnation with upcoming game releases. With RAM and GPUs being so expensive, there will be a lot fewer customers that can afford the hardware to play upcoming, graphically-demanding games and so targeting that demographic is economically unwise.
It sucks that this is the situation we find ourselves in, but I'm actually kind of interested in what will happen. A new age of hyper-optimisation would be so awesome.
Or perhaps game devs can focus on optimizing to appeal to lower end pcs
They really should anyway. The Switch showed almost a decade ago how popular the handheld form factor can be when powerful enough, and the Steam Deck has capitalized on that beautifully. At this point a significant component in my purchasing of games is looking for that “Steam Deck Verified.”
Hades 2 for example. Steam deck game of the year. And it is not an eyecandy GPU eater.
While actually being beautiful eye candy!
On it's own, yes.
I'd be thrilled if devs shifted to optimizing like they did with early consoles. Figuring out creative workarounds to hardware limitations got us some truly fantastic games.
The fact that the original Super Mario Bros is 31kb of space is baffling. Getting Kirby's Adventure to run on the same hardware is pure technomancy.
Batman: Return of Joker is also an amazing feat of NES technomancy. Not a supremely great game, mind you, but what they were able to achieve graphically on the NES rivals some SNES games.
Especially with big AAA companies, I think devs have gotten lazy with their optimization passes, because bigger cards means they can just continue cramming more into a game without bothering to budget for optimization.
I remember watching a video on how Contra Force did all kinds of weird tech stuff under the hood to get the game to run. That was technomancy mixed with forbidden occult arts.
I checked out a playthrough video of this game and have to agree, the graphics and gameplay is very impressive for the nes.
To better use the computing power they have, too.
No, just basic and regular optimization. There are plenty of talented devs with YouTube channels that have shown that most AAA games are horrendously optimized, and in some cases can see 2x or even 3x+ performance gains with proper optimization.
I don't know man. Maybe I just don't understand it but games like BF1 for the most part look just as good as games today.
BF1 hits the in-engine frame limiter with modern cards on 4K and maxed out settings.
Yet new games for the most part run like dog shit.
So even with old hardware creating great looking games should still be possible.
Plenty of indie games that dont need big beefy cards
I imagine this would affect PC-only or PC-first games. I think it's more likely that publishers will focus on releasing games for consoles rather than PC. I'm also wondering if this week drive more console sales in the future.
At an appropriately discounted price right?
Right?
Just for 999.95, but you can wait for a cheaper release of RTX 2090!
My Voodoo cards aren't appreciating in value bcs they are increasingly collectors items, it's bcs the mean market GPU performance is regressing ...
Nvidia preparing sell sloppy seconds to consumers