As AI continues to cause huge strain on the world’s supply chain of RAM, we’re starting to see predictions that gaming hardware could see prices more than double in the next year or so. In an unprecedented move, it appears that graphics card maker Nvidia could actually start manufacturing more of its older cards to meet demands.

As reported by WCCFTech, according to a renowned hardware industry insider, honxing2020 on X, Nvidia is set to bring back the RTX 3060 card as part of its 2026 Q1 plans. This card first launched back in 2021 before eventually being discontinued in 2024.

Despite this, the RTX 3060 is actually the most adopted graphics card among gamers on Steam. The recent December 2025 hardware survey found that 6.53% of users were using the RTX 3060 in their system with it closely followed by the laptop version of the 4060.

Clearly a popular GPU, it also appears much easier to manufacture than new models in Nvidia’s line-up. The RTX 5060 uses newer GDDR7 memory, which is proving tricky for consumer manufacturers to get hold of while manufacturers pivot to supplying hardware for AI data farms.

This could be good news for gamers who are on ageing hardware and are in desperate need of an upgrade soon. Despite being a little long in the tooth, the 3060 is still a capable card when running games at 1080p – but it does miss out on newer features like DLSS 4 and Frame Generation, which a lot of new games almost rely on for a steady frame rate.

It remains to be seen which version of the 3060 Nvidia might be bringing back as it previously produced both an 8GB and 12GB model. By today’s standards, 8GB of VRAM doesn’t really cut the mustard, but Nvidia could end up making it the only available option as a resource-saving method.

There’s also the question of cost. The RTX 3060 card was last seen at a price point of around £250 to £300 – but can Nvidia really justify reselling this older product for the same price tag?

Nvidia is yet to officially confirm its plans for bringing back the RTX 3060. We’ll also have to wait and see whether other graphics card models get the same treatment.

According to tech analysis site Newsis, Nvidia is expected to raise the price of its most premium graphics card, the RTX 5090, from an MSRP of $1,999 to $5,000 in 2026 – a huge 250% increase.

For many, these hikes are set to price plenty of PC gamers out of the hobby, or at least keep them stuck with the hardware they’re currently using for a few more years. Even the console market isn’t exempt with rumours circulating that the PlayStation 6 could see a potential delay until the hardware market settles down.

As it stands, there’s currently no sign of RAM prices going down any time soon. If you were holding out on that PC upgrade, it might already be too late to grab anything resembling a bargain.