Nvidia RTX 4000 should officially be a thing by the end of the month, but RTX 3000 apparently isn’t ready to retire. Reports suggest revamped Ampere GPUs will arrive alongside the green team’s next best graphics card lineup, including an RTX 3060 with less VRAM.
According to GPU leaker Zed__Wang, a trio of RTX 3000 graphics cards are getting a re-release alongside RTX 4000 newcomers. The first GPU mentioned by the insider is an RTX 3060 that chops the original model’s memory from 12GB to 8GB. The refreshed range also includes souped-up versions of the 3060 Ti and 3070 Ti, both of which boast a GDDR6X upgrade.
The original leak lacks an ETA, but Videocardz says board partners have confirmed they’ll arrive by the end of October. That means they’ll likely roll up at the same time as RTX 4000, as Nvidia is set to officially unveil its Lovelace lineup at its Project Beyond event and GTC 2022 keynote.
As with all graphics card rumours and speculation, we’d advise cooking up your expectations with a hearty pinch of salt. Nvidia hasn’t announced any plans to release refreshed current-gen GPUs yet, and earlier rumours claim the company is actively trying to evict RTX 3000 stock.
That said, the RTX 3000 news potentially ties into Nvidia’s suspected next-gen launch plans, as leaks hint that only the RTX 4090 will arrive this year. Whether holds true remains to be seen, but the green team will need to maintain availability if it wants to take on AMD RDNA 3 rivals and lower spec Intel Arc alternatives in the gaming PC ring.
Of course, if leaked RTX 4090 price tags are anything to go by, Nvidia might need to postpone its RTX 3000 retirement. Without affordable GPUs fighting the green team’s corner, Intel’s RTX 3060 rival could come in swinging and snatch budget enthusiasts before RTX 4060 options arrive on the scene.