GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB gets pricier after relaunch, now costs more than RTX 5050

A relisted MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G OC has already jumped to $479.99 on Newegg, putting the old Ampere card above NVIDIA's newer RTX 5050. Videocardz reported that the 12 GB model went back on sale after disappearing for a time. That is a sharp increase from July, when the same card sold for $329.99 on the same retailer. In less than two months, the difference came to $150, or roughly 45%.

The MSI listing is not the only one that climbed. Other new GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB models from ASUS and GIGABYTE were also shown above $400, while Newegg listed the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5050 Low Profile at $299.99.

Against that backdrop, the older card looks especially expensive: the $479.99 RTX 3060 costs about 60% more than the newer RTX 5050. In Europe, Geizhals listed the ASUS Dual RTX 3060 OC V2 at €379, up from €333.64 in late June, which works out to an increase of around 14%.

The comparison does not favor the RTX 3060 on performance, either. In ComputerBase's 1080p rasterization test, the RTX 5050 averaged 69.0 FPS versus 57.2 FPS for the RTX 3060, making the newer card about 21% faster. The RTX 3060 still has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, but the RTX 5050 supports newer Blackwell features such as Multi Frame Generation, while the older card is limited to Ampere capabilities.

Earlier, RTX 3060 12GB relaunch sparks criticism as experts warned of a PC market crisis.

Does a 12 GB RTX 3060 still make sense when it costs more than a faster RTX 5050?