Barely a week ago, we reported that Nvidia’s notion of bringing back old graphics cards actually became a reality. As a quick heads-up, we just spotted an MSI Ventus 2X 3060 12 GB OC selling at the virtual stand of Newegg for a scant $329.99, with free shipping included. The card was essentially nowhere to be seen for years, and when it showed up, it carried near-$400 price tags.
The 12 GB of VRAM are particularly welcome sight in this day and age, where 8 GB is a significant constraint for contemporary games. That amount also makes this card a viable platform for running AI models locally.
The specific card on hand is the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12 GB OC, a dual-fan variant with a 1087 MHz GPU boost clock. Though the RTX 3060 GPU is quite frugal in its power consumption and heat generation, the steel backplate MSI included is still a welcome sight as it should help keep fan noise low by dissipating heat and avoiding PCB bending. Three DisplayPort outputs and an HDMI 2.1 connector decorate the backplate.
Given the AI-driven shortages, affordable graphics cards being in stock again is a definitive positive — particularly when they’re loaded with a good amount of VRAM. This variant of the RTX 3060 will make short work of most any game at 1080p resolution, be quite competent at 1440p with fairly high detail levels, and even play many a title with aplomb at 4K with judicious care with settings. Nvidia’s top-notch DLSS 4.5 upscaling will help you in that endeavor.
Additionally, freely available AI models have been getting smarter by the day, and 12 GB of VRAM grants you the ability to run many of them locally without spending a dime or having your data siphoned off. If you were considering this path to replace or supplement commercial bots, $329.99 is a good price, as any, to get the homelab ball rolling.
If you’re looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.
