NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 12GB "Ampere" graphics card two generations ago is expected to return to the market in June 2026, while the RTX 5050 9GB version that has been exposed many times before is accused of "pressing the pause button." Hardware whistleblower MEGAsizeGPU said on the social platform
It is said that in this price range, Nvidia currently only plans to re-produce and sell a single model of RTX 3060 12GB with 192-bit memory width.
In order to resume mass production of RTX 3060 12GB, Nvidia will once again use Samsung's 8 nm DUV process technology, which was the production node of the previous generation of Ampere architecture GeForce products. Its "comeback" after a few years is quite unexpected. Currently, NVIDIA's new generation of consumer-grade "Ada Lovelace" and latest "Blackwell" GPUs have fully switched to TSMC for foundry and have become one of the largest customers of TSMC's 5 nm family node. Therefore, under this background, returning to Samsung's 8 nm is regarded by the industry as an intriguing strategic choice.
Judging from the specifications, the RTX 3060 is equipped with 3,584 CUDA cores and 12GB GDDR6 video memory, while the new-generation RTX 5050 uses a newer generation CUDA core on a more advanced process node. It is rumored to be 2,560 CUDA units based on the GB207 core and equipped with 9GB GDDR7 video memory. Since the "resurrection version" RTX 3060 will still use GDDR6, the industry speculates that Nvidia will reserve the more expensive and more scarce GDDR7 particles for the rest of its product lines at this stage, leaving the relatively easy-to-procure GDDR6 for this old architecture product to fill the market gap from entry to mainstream range.
Industry observers pointed out that reviving a GPU architecture two generations ago in 2026 is an anomaly in itself, and what is even more puzzling is that Nvidia chose the RTX 3060 instead of the more "forward" RTX 4060. Some analysts believe that this may be related to foundry node planning: the NVIDIA 4N (5 nm level) used by the RTX 4060 belongs to the same process platform of TSMC as the current RTX 5060, while the RTX 3060 and the entire Ampere family correspond to Samsung's 8N (8 nm DUV) node, which can provide "Blackwell" and enterprise-level products without further squeezing TSMC's 5 nm production capacity. The GPU leaves more production space.
From a design and manufacturing perspective, once the GPU IP design is completed and solidified on a certain process node, migrating to other processes often means considerable early adaptation costs and cycle risks. Therefore, by reactivating the RTX 3060 and continuing to cooperate with Samsung, Nvidia not only avoids investing additional research and development costs for the old architecture, but also can exchange relatively cheap 8 nm production capacity for a product with 12GB of video memory that is still competitive at mainstream resolutions in the current environment of tight production capacity and high costs, as a phased alternative to the new generation of entry-level RTX 5050 series.