Nvidia RTX 3060 goes on sale as retailer apparently jumps the gun

rtx 3080
(Image credit: Nvidia)

The recently-announced Nvidia RTX 3060 has been pictured in the wild ahead of its rumored release later this month.

Nvidia first showed off the RTX 3060 at CES 2021, where it touted the graphics card as mid-range graphics card designed to bring ray traced gaming to every PC gamer. While Nvidia confirmed that the GPU will go on sale for $329 (about £255 / AU$460), making it the cheapest card in the RTX 3000-series, it failed to reveal when the card will go on sale.

While rumors point to a February 25 release date, some eagle-eyed Redditors have already spotted the GPU in the wild.

Reddit user He_never_sleeps claims to have stumbled upon two Gigabyte RTX 3060 on shelves in an unnamed European country, and even managed to pick one of the two GPUs available. 

However, given the RTX 3060 hasn’t officially been released yet, he notes that he can’t get the card functioning in Windows due to the lack of available drivers.

Separately, a second Reddit user claims one of the shops in his unnamed country has seven units of a PALIT RTX 3060 12GB graphics card in stock, which is being sold for $750 USD - more than double the MSRP. 

As it turns out, according to Wccftech, that country is Pakistan. Official Nvidia distributor Zah Computers has the card up for sale as of this writing, but how long that remains the case is anyone's guess.

Although the Nvidia RTX 3060 has started hitting store shelves ahead of its rumored release in two week’s time, it remains to be seen whether the GPU’s launch will be just as messy as its predecessors. 

Supply issues have been a consistent issue with the latest generation of GPUs from Nvidia, with the RTX 3080 and RTX 3060 Ti being particularly badly hit.

Things look set to worsen too, as European retailer Alternate revealed this week that the availability of the RTX 3000 series cards will deteriorate further in the first quarter of 2021 – which could cause prices of the GPUs to increase.

Via: PCGamesn

TOPICS
Carly Page

Carly Page is a Freelance journalist, copywriter and editor specialising in Consumer/B2B technology. She has written for a range of titles including Computer Shopper, Expert Reviews, IT Pro, the Metro, PC Pro, TechRadar and Tes. 

Latest in GPU
NVIDIA
Nvidia's new Game Ready Driver repeats an annoying black screen issue from previous versions - it needs fixing ASAP
Nvidia logo
Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti could be delayed to mid-April and RTX 5060 to mid-May – is AMD starting to look like a clear winner in the battle of Blackwell vs RDNA 4 GPUs?
An Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 leaning against its retail packaging with the RTX 5080 logo visible
Nvidia RTX 5000 series GPUs are finally getting price drops – but there's a catch
AMD RX 9070 GPU models
We won't be seeing any Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs from MSI - AMD prioritizes other board partners instead
PowerColor Red Devil AMD RX 9070 XT graphics card shown side-on
Your next GPU could be from AMD, not Nvidia, if Team Red’s success with PC gamers continues
The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 could power the latest generation of powerful mini PCs
This prototype mini PC demonstrates a massive leap forward for integrated graphics in a console form factor
Latest in News
Hornet swings their weapon in mid air
Hollow Knight: Silksong could potentially launch this year and I reckon it could be a great game for an Xbox handheld
ransomware avast
Ransomware attacks are costing Government offices a month of downtime on average
Cassian looking at someone off-camera from a TIE fighter cockpit in Andor season 2
Star Wars: Andor creator is taking a stance against AI by canceling plans to release its scripts, and I completely get why
Nintendo x Seattle Mariners partnership
The Nintendo Switch 2 logo will be featured on the Seattle Mariners' baseball jerseys this season
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Review
Siri's chances to beat ChatGPT just got a whole lot better
Acer Chromebook Plus line
Chromebooks aren't dead! Acer has just launched 7 new ChromeOS laptops aimed at students and professionals