Nvidia brings the RTX 3060 back from the dead to beat the RAM crisis - there's a reason why it still tops the Steam Hardware Survey after all these years

Nvidia brings the RTX 3060 back from the dead to beat the RAM crisis

The RAM crisis is ruining the PC hardware market with high prices, and that's why the return of Nvidia's RTX 3060 is more relevant than ever.

Nvidia brings the RTX 3060 back from the dead to beat the RAM crisis - there's a reason why it still tops the Steam Hardware Survey after all these years. The RAM crisis caused this.

Nvidia's RTX 3060 has returned to retailers, amid the ongoing RAM crisis. MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus models reportedly started at $339.99, but have seemingly increased. It's a sign that the current state of the PC hardware market is in complete disarray in terms of shortages and pricing.

The PC and console hardware market is in the worst place it's arguably ever been, with the RAM crisis leading to high prices on components utilizing memory. That's why the return of a popular GPU is one that doesn't come as a huge surprise.

As reported by Tom's Hardware, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card has returned to retailers, notably on Newegg, with numerous Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte models available. While Tom's Hardware highlights that prices for these returning GPU models were seen at $339.99 (which is $10 above the MSRP when launched), listings range from at least $416. It's already a big ask at $339 for an old graphics card that doesn't have the same advantages of the current-gen RTX 5060, so the increase won't do it much favors.

Why the RTX 3060 still dominates Steam

It's worth noting that the RTX 3060 has been the most popular GPU on PC, according to Steam's Hardware & Software Survey results, consistently ranking at number one each month for several years. The same trend is evident in May's results, and likely the same for June.

The 12GB GPU is still very much capable of providing solid performance in games at 1080p or 1440p, especially when using DLSS upscaling, and that explains why it's still so popular among Steam users.

However, it's not exactly being received well among consumers. My colleague and PC enthusiast, Matthew Hanson, views the return of the RTX 3060 "like a s**t Frankenstein", and frankly, it's a reasonable observation and one that highlights just how messy the PC hardware market is.

Users on Reddit haven't been shy about highlighting why the GPU's return doesn't make much sense, with one stating:

"Even Nvidia enthusiasts would be hard-pressed to get this for $339.99. At that point, just get an RTX 5060. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. The only real benefit to this card is the VRAM, so we all know who this is really for - The AI crowd."

It's not that the RTX 3060 is a bad graphics card, because that's far from the case. However, at the current price the models from MSI and others are available at, it makes little to no sense, since the RTX 5060 is within the same price region, and it has the advantage of Multi-Frame Generation over the RTX 3060.

Regardless, one more option on the market doesn't hurt, especially since it doesn't seem as though its unstable condition will change anytime soon.

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Best graphics cards guide

➡️ Read our full guide to the best graphics card:

1. Best overall: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
2. Best budget: Intel Arc B580
3. Best Nvidia: Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti
4. Best AMD: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Isaiah is a Staff Writer for the Computing channel at TechRadar. He's spent over two years writing about all things tech, specifically games on PC, consoles, and handhelds. He started off at GameRant in 2022 after graduating from Birmingham City University in the same year, before writing at PC Guide which included work on deals articles, reviews, and news on PC products such as GPUs, CPUs, monitors, and more. He spends most of his time finding out about the exciting new features of upcoming GPUs, and is passionate about new game releases on PC, hoping that the ports aren't a complete mess.

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