A graphics card that launched in 2021 and was already discontinued in 2024 now sells for more than new cards released in 2025. That actually happened this year.
To ease the graphics card shortage, newly manufactured RTX 3060 12GB stock returned to the market at the end of June this year, priced at exactly the same $329 as its original launch five years ago. At the time, some gamers joked that it was pretty bold to sell such an old card at its original price, but unexpectedly, that launch price turned out to be the cheapest moment. Two months later, foreign media tracking current market prices found they have approached $500, a surge of 45%. I checked Taiwan and it’s no different—the gap between the lowest price and the current selling price is also 47%.
Image source: VideoCardz
RTX 3060 12GB re-release surges 45% in two months! A 2021 graphics card now sells for more than the faster RTX 5050.
Tom’s Hardware Recently tracked the market price of the RTX 3060 12GB. The report mentioned that when the MSI RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G OC was relisted on Newegg in early July, it was priced at $329.99, exactly the same as the suggested retail price at its 2021 launch. However, in less than two months, the listed price for the same model at the same retailer rose to $479.99, an increase of $150, or 45%. Not only this one—Gigabyte’s WindForce OC also reached $459.99.
The most awkward part is that NVIDIA’s own new-generation RTX 5050, Gigabyte’s Low Profile version, is only $299.99 on Newegg—$180 cheaper than the RTX 3060 12GB from five years ago. Not only is the RTX 5050 more efficient, but it also supports the latest features like DLSS multi-frame generation.
It’s not just the US—Europe is following the same trend. The ASUS Dual RTX 3060 OC V2 has gone from €333.64 at the end of June to €379, an increase of about 14%. Some German retailers are approaching €400, which works out to roughly NT$14,600.
I checked Taiwan’s PChome 24H shopping, and the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X 12G OC graphics card launched at NT$10,990, briefly dropped to NT$10,550, and is now at NT$15,590. Compared to the lowest price, the current price has increased by as much as 47.77%.
In comparison, even though the RTX 5050 has also increased in price quite a bit, it is still relatively cheaper. For example, this MSI GeForce RTX 5050 8G SHADOW 2X OC graphics card is only NT$13,590:
In real-world tests by major media outlets and YouTube, the RTX 5050 is clearly faster than the RTX 3060—the only difference is how much faster.
The RTX 3060 12GB’s main advantage is basically just having more memory—12GB of VRAM compared to the RTX 5050’s 8GB does have its value when running local AI models, video editing, or playing games with texture packs that are really VRAM-hungry. However, at the current price, the RTX 3060 12GB really isn’t something you’d want to recommend.
The second-hand market has seen a similar trend. GPU Poet’s market report released in February this year shows that the average listing price of the RTX 3060 on eBay rose 12.4% from December 2025 to January 2026. New cards are going up, old cards are going up too—gamers must be tearing their hair out.
Source: KOCPC Chinese