Bis repetita placent... It seems that the scenario observed at the launch of all the latest NVIDIA graphics cards will be repeated in a few days.
In accordance with its predictions at the CES in Las Vegas at the very beginning of the year, NVIDIA will release a new graphics card based on its Ampere architecture. The little one is called GeForcer RTX 3060 and, waiting for other hypothetical models, the youngest of the bunch is also the least powerful.
It fits perfectly with NVIDIA's development logic for this generation: the American company decided to market the most powerful models first and then decline them with mid-range versions. That's why things started with the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. A month later came the RTX 3070 and six weeks later the RTX 3060 Ti.
So the RTX 3060 sort of closes the loop. Unfortunately, the situation is not expected to be any better than when the previous models were launched. Models that are still hard to find at resellers since stockouts follow stockouts with prices that have little to do with the prices officially unveiled by NVIDIA and its partners.
This time, there is no Founders Edition model - directly signed by NVIDIA - and the American company has only announced "indicative" prices: $329 or €335. Some manufacturers have followed suit and it should be possible to find cards for less than 400 euros. This will probably not be the case for at least several months if we are to believe the first information from certain retailers.
Indeed, the Coreteks site reveals the prices charged on certain models with photos of the cards in question: the MSI Gaming X Trio is $514.99 when the little sister, Ventus X2 is $484.99. Not better at Asus with the Strix at $499.99 and the TUF Gaming at $489.99. Finally, the Zotac Gaming will sell for at least $499.99. We are well and truly far from the 329$.
