NVIDIA may be bringing back one of its most popular GPUs, and interestingly, Samsung could help develop it. According to a report by Korean outlet HankyungSamsung Foundry is preparing to produce chips for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, effectively reviving the older Ampere GPU for the current market. The move suggests NVIDIA may be leaning on Samsung’s manufacturing capabilities to maintain production of gaming GPUs as the industry struggles with supply constraints and changing demand.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 originally launched in 2021 and quickly became one of the most used GPUs among PC gamers. Even though newer generations have come out since then, the card remains popular thanks to its strong entry-level 1080p and 1440p performance.
Why NVIDIA could revive an older GPU
Resuming production of a five-year-old graphics card may sound strange at first, but the timing actually makes sense. You see, demand for advanced semiconductor nodes, particularly those used for AI chips, has skyrocketed, making it harder for companies to secure enough production capacity for consumer GPUs.
On the other hand, the RTX 3060 uses Samsung’s 8nm manufacturing process, which was already used for NVIDIA’s Ampere series when the card was launched. That means Samsung may be able to restart production without competing for the same cutting-edge nodes that are currently being prioritized for next-generation AI accelerators and GPUs.
For NVIDIA, the revival of the RTX 3060 could help keep affordable GPUs on shelves while focusing newer production capacity on high-margin AI and data center hardware. In fact, the revived GPUs could reportedly come back to market as early as March 2026. However, this schedule has not been officially confirmed by NVIDIA.
Nonetheless, for gamers still using 1080p setups, which remain very common, the return of a tried-and-true mid-range card might not be such a bad thing.
