NVIDIA Launches the GeForce RTX 3060
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NVIDIA released the GeForce RTX 3060 in February 2021 as a more affordable Ampere-generation graphics card. It used the GA106 GPU and included 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, an unusually large amount for its market segment at the time.
Like the higher-end RTX 30 cards, it contained second-generation RT Cores for ray tracing and third-generation Tensor Cores for AI operations such as DLSS. DLSS rendered a game at a lower internal resolution and used a trained reconstruction system to produce a higher-resolution image, reducing the cost of advanced graphics effects.
The launch was also shaped by cryptocurrency mining and severe GPU shortages. NVIDIA attempted to reduce Ethereum mining performance on the RTX 3060 while promoting separate CMP mining products, illustrating how unexpected workloads can distort the supply and pricing of general-purpose computing hardware.