Rumor mill: Following reports earlier this year that Nvidia was preparing to restart production of the RTX 3060 due to the memory crisis, it's now claimed that the Ampere-era card(s) will return in the middle of March. It's still unclear which models will be reintroduced – the 12GB or 8GB version – or whether Nvidia will relaunch both.
At the beginning of January, leaker hongxing2020, who has a long and impressive record when it comes to revealing Nvidia's plans, claimed Team Green has told its partners that the RTX 3060 will be returning in the first quarter of 2026.
– hongxing2020 (@hongxing2020) January 5, 2026
Now, a post on the Chinese forum Board Channels has given a more solid timeline. It claims that the RTX 3060 series from various brands will begin to arrive between March 10 and March 20, which is when manufacturers can officially start shipping.
In addition to the original RTX 3060 and its 12GB of VRAM, there's a cut-down model with 8GB and a reduced memory bus (192-bit vs. 128-bit). If a relaunch does happen, we still don't know if it will involve one or both of these cards.
The impact of the AI-driven memory crisis has been well-documented, affecting a myriad of products. During its blockbuster earnings call last month, Nvidia warned that GPU supply is going to be very tight over the next few quarters as a result.
Why Nvidia has decided to return the RTX 3060 rather than the RTX 4060 isn't clear. One likely reason is simple capacity. The RTX 4060 (AD107) is made on TSMC's custom 4N process, which Nvidia relies on for much of its newer lineup, so ramping that card back up could mean fighting for the same wafer capacity Nvidia wants reserved for higher-margin parts.
By comparison, the RTX 3060 (GA106) is an older Samsung 8N product, which could let Nvidia add volume without pulling from TSMC allocations.
There's also a product-positioning angle: the 12GB RTX 3060 has stayed popular largely because it offers more VRAM than mainstream successors like the 8GB RTX 4060, making it an easy stopgap in a market where memory capacity has become a bigger selling point.
These are still rumors and speculation, of course, so take them with a grain of salt. However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in January that releasing older cards featuring modern AI tech was a "good idea." Ultimately, the potential relaunch of a card from two generations ago really illustrates the state of the market right now.