Valve recently published the results of its monthly Software and Hardware Survey, revealing the most popular components, operating systems, monitors, and other parts of the glorious PC gaming. According to the July 2024 survey, the RTX 3060 is the most popular graphics card on Steam. However, its days may be numbered as a new report emerged about Nvidia pulling the plug on manufacturing this GPU.
The report comes from a Chinese tech forum (via Tom"s Hardware) where a local admin claims, citing allegedly "accurate information," that Nvidia had notified its board partners about the incoming end of manufacturing, urging them to place their final orders. The information, if accurate, means that the manufacturing of RTX 3060 graphics cards may end in just a few months, just a little short of four years after the initial announcement.
The end of manufacturing does not mean that the remaining RTX 3060 graphics cards will suddenly evaporate from store shelves. You can expect these graphics cards to be available for quite a while with the stock slowly depleting. It also does not mean that Nvidia will stop supporting the GPU—like the rest of the RTX 3000 lineup, it will continue receiving driver updates, new features, support for new games, and other changes for years to come.
These days, you can get the RTX 3060 with 12GB of video memory for about $285. While the more powerful RTX 4060 is not that far away price-wise, the RTX 3060 offers more VRAM, which may be an important factor to consider for those shopping in the lower-end segment of the market. If you are looking for a sub-$300 graphics card, you can also consider the RX 6700 XT or even RX 6750 XT, which offers the same 12GB of VRAM with a significantly better performance in games.
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