- Palit has launched a new RTX 3060 model with 12GB of VRAM
- This continues a recent topic about resurrecting old GPUs.
- These GPUs can pack 12GB of video RAM at a relatively affordable price, but they don’t make sense compared to current-gen prices.
We may not have seen any new graphics cards from Nvidia this year so far, and there are no RTX 5000 Super updates in sight (although there are rumors again), but we are still witnessing the resurrection of some old GeForce GPUs, with Palit officially revealing a new RTX 3060.
That popular workhorse of a gaming GPU is already back, returning to the shelves of retailers like Newegg as an alternative budget graphics card in a RAM-starved climate where prices for many of these current-gen boards are rising (along with other PC components, of course).
As noted by VideoCardz, Palit has announced the launch of its new GeForce RTX 3060 Infinity 2 OC graphics card as “the return of a classic,” which is certainly one way to put it.
Although, to be fair, even today, the RTX 3060 is still a very popular GPU, coming in second in Steam’s June 2026 hardware survey (only behind the RTX 4060 laptop GPU in a rather strange twist that I won’t get into here).
Palit observes: “Combining a massive 12GB GDDR6 memory capacity with a clean, all-black dual-fan shroud, Infinity 2 delivers honest, reliable performance without a hefty price tag.”
Analysis: Let’s hope for a Palit-friendly price, but so far, the RTX 3060 price has been out of control
The key selling point of these RTX 3060 models is that they are loaded with 12 GB of video RAM (VRAM), as Palit emphasizes with this new Infinity 2 OC model. Where this avoids the RAM crisis (to some extent) is that these previous-generation Nvidia cards use GDDR6 VRAM, a different memory supply than the GDDR7 used in the RTX 5000 graphics cards (except the RTX 5050, which goes with GDDR6, but that’s the outlier here).
This means that Nvidia can get its partners to produce graphics cards that have 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM (a load that some gamers prioritize securing), but that sit at the cheaper end of the market. Due to cost issues, it is much less sustainable today to sell low-end GPUs that pack GDDR7 VRAM (like the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB).
It’s sad that the RAM crisis has forced us to this point, but that’s the reality of the GPU world right now. What’s also problematic for me here is that the RTX 3060 may have 12GB of VRAM at a relatively affordable price, but if we take the current price in the US as an example, it’s not significantly cheaper than the RTX 5060 with 8GB.
Yes, you get a reduced RAM configuration with the latest current-gen graphics card, but it’s still a much faster GPU (one that also benefits from DLSS 4) and only a little over 5% more expensive (at the time of writing). With this kind of price difference, the 12GB RTX 3060 doesn’t make much sense.
If these RTX 3060 models were a batch cheaper, then there might be more arguments. To be fair to Palit, we don’t have a price for this new offering yet, but the price should be much more attractive than what I’m seeing now (especially in the UK, where the RTX 5060 8GB is actually cheaper than the 3060 at some retailers, although there isn’t much stock of the latter).
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