Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 3060 graphics card finally has a release date: The company plans on officially selling the product on Thursday, Feb. 25th.
In an email, Nvidia said the sales will start at 9am PST, instead of the standard 9am EST. Also this time, the company isn’t releasing a special Founders Edition for the graphics card. So you’ll have to settle for GPU designs created from third-party vendors, such as EVGA.
The upcoming card will start at $329 and represents the most affordable option in Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series. The RTX 3060 possesses fewer CUDA cores than its bigger sibling the RTX 3060 Ti.
It also runs using a 192-bit memory interface instead of a higher 256-bit. But to compensate, the the product does comes with 12 GB of video memory over the 8GB of memory found in the RTX 3060 Ti. Stay tuned for our review.
Unfortunately, Nvidia’s latest graphics cards have been incredibly hard to buy, due to low supplies and the massive consumer demand. As a result, the major retailers continue to sell out of the products almost instantly. So don’t be surprised if you struggle to obtain one on launch day.
The other bad news is how the prices for desktop graphics cards have all gone up. Starting last month, a Trump-era tariff on certain Chinese imports went back into effect, forcing the vendors to raise prices for many GPU models, including products in the RTX 3000 series. The RTX 3060 Ti, which should be priced closer to $399, can now fetch for as much as $639.
Despite the tariffs, an Nvidia spokesperson told PCMag the RTX 3060 will still start at $329 as the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
Nvidia didn't say where the RTX 3060 will exactly be sold. But your best bet is to try Newegg.com, Best Buy's website and a local Micro Center, if you live nearby one.