What just happened? Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has lent credence to the recent rumor that the company will restart production of its older GPUs – a result of the current AI-driven memory crisis. But rather than just releasing the same old card, Huang suggested reintroducing the products with modern features, such as the latest performance-increasing AI technology.
There were rumors this week that Nvidia is set to restart production of the RTX 3060, which launched in 2021 and was discontinued in 2024. With AI data centers gobbling up all the DRAM, GPU prices are climbing: there are reports that the RTX 5090 could reach $5,000.
During a Q&A session at CES, Tom's Hardware reporter Paul Alcorn asked Huang if restarting production on older GPUs on legacy processor nodes could help ease the current supply and production issues.
Huang seemed open to the idea and even suggested a way to make the re-released cards more appealing.
"Yeah, possibly, and we could possibly, depending on which generation, we could also bring the latest generation AI technology to the previous generation GPUs, and that will require a fair amount of engineering, but it's also within the realm of possibility," the CEO said. "I'll go back and take a look at this. It's a good idea."
The concept of releasing the old cards with AI features to improve their performance does sound interesting. The RTX 3060 is currently the most popular GPU among Steam survey participants, illustrating its lasting appeal. Relaunching the card (hopefully it would be the original 12GB version and not the cut-down 8GB variant) with some extra bells and whistles and a compelling price point could be a smart move on Nvidia's part.
One new AI feature Jensen could be referring to is DLSS 4.5. The latest version of Nvidia's upscaling tech introduces a slew of graphical and stability improvements, but it comes at the cost of a massive 20+% performance drop compared to DLSS 4 when used on RTX 3000 and RTX 2000 GPUs.
Nvidia felt the need to confirm that there would be no new (or old) GPUs announced at CES this year. However, there has been plenty for gamers to get excited about.
In addition to DLSS 4.5, Nvidia revealed details about its updated G-Sync Pulsar tech. Not only will the latest version further reduce motion blur, claiming to make 360Hz monitors look like 1,000Hz, but it also adjusts a monitor's brightness and color based on ambient room lighting.