Nvidia has reportedly announced that it’s discontinuing the most popular gaming GPU on the Steam Survey. According to the latest leak, the GeForce RTX 3060 is now ceasing production, and there is just one batch of the chips left, with Taiwanese graphics card manufacturers being informed that their next orders for the chip will be their last.
Thanks to its solid 1080p performance, ray tracing abilities, and affordable price, the GeForce RTX 3060 has been Nvidia’s best graphics card in terms of popularity over the last few months. This Nvidia GPU has sat in the top spot of the Steam Survey for ten months, while its modern-day equivalent, the RTX 4060, is still at number five.
This latest leak comes from a report on Chinese tech industry site Board Channels (registration required), as spotted by Videocardz, which claims “Nvidia has indeed announced the discontinuation of production of the RTX3060 series.” According to the post, three core board partners in Taiwan, including Colorful and Tongde (Palit), have been notified that “there is only one batch of GPU supply left” of the RTX 3060.
If this is true, it will take a while to filter through to the market, though. There are plenty of RTX 3060 cards still in stores, and the Board Channels report also notes that “According to NV’s rules, it [the RTX 3060 GPU] will be supplied to AIC [add-in-card, like a graphics card] brands in batches in the next few months.”
Of course, none of the above has been directly confirmed by Nvidia, so take this rumor with a pinch of salt for right now. If it’s true, though, it’s not a huge surprise, despite this GPU’s popularity at the moment. Nvidia ceased production of all the Ampere gaming GPUs above the RTX 3060 a while back.
It’s really only the lack of any Ada GPU cheaper than the RTX 4060 that means there’s still a market for both the RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 below it. The RTX 3060 took its place at the top in the October 2023 Steam Survey, beating the GTX 1650 into second place. Since then, this affordable RTX GPU has ruled the roost, commanding 5.88% of the graphics cards in Steam users’ machines, as of July.
However, with new top-end Nvidia GPUs expected to come out either at the end of this year, or the beginning of next year, it will only be a matter of time before the RTX 5060 comes out, and the RTX 4060 drops in price to likely become the new favorite among Steam users.
You can read our guide to the Nvidia RTX 5090 to find out everything we know so far about the new flagship Blackwell GPU that’s expected imminently.