We’re deeply unhappy – heartbroken, even – to report that it seems to be like Nvidia is sunsetting the RTX 2060, lengthy thought-about top-of-the-line finances graphics playing cards ever made.

Latest stories seen on Chinese language tech web site MyDrivers (opens in new tab) seem to point that Nvidia has stopped supplying its distributors in Asia with RTX 2060 chips (in addition to the upgraded RTX 2060 Tremendous and RTX 2060 12GB), in addition to requesting that its manufacturing and gross sales companions restrict provide of the playing cards by the top of November.

It is perhaps greater than three years previous now, however we’re trying reasonably wistfully on the departure of the 2060 household. These graphics playing cards have been unbelievable: sensibly priced with sound efficiency, introducing many finances video games to the magic of Nvidia’s DLSS tech in addition to ray-traced graphics.

We weren’t the one ones who appreciated this finances GPU. Even as we speak, the RTX 2060 is the second hottest GPU amongst Steam customers, as per the newest Steam {Hardware} Survey (opens in new tab). The primary spot is held by the GTX 1060, one other stellar low-cost graphics card.

Why is Nvidia placing the RTX 2060 to sleep now?

It’s troublesome to take a position relating to the reasoning behind Nvidia’s resolution to finish the RTX 2060’s life, nevertheless it’s almost certainly a transfer to push out the RTX 3000-series inventory we all know the GPU big nonetheless has knocking about.

The xx60 and xx50 variations of Nvidia GeForce GPUs are sometimes far more in style than Crew Inexperienced’s crazy-expensive flagship playing cards – just like the not too long ago launched RTX 4090. Wanting on the survey outcomes, the highest ten most-used playing cards are all xx60 or xx50 finances variants, except for the wonderful midrange RTX 3070 in seventh place.

This actually shouldn’t be stunning to anybody who hasn’t been residing in a deep-sea cavern for the previous few years. The associated fee-of-living disaster is squeezing our wallets, deepening the gulf between the rich and poor, and the easy reality is that proper now most avid gamers can’t afford to drop $1,000+ on a GPU.

The RTX 4080 is proving to be a very pertinent instance of this. Within the UK, the place skyrocketing vitality payments and meals costs are wreaking havoc on the funds of individuals all throughout the nation, we’ve seen distinctly extra inventory availability than within the US. The common PC gamer doesn’t have tons of of kilos to spend, so we’re all left sitting with our trusty RTX 2060s.

A brand new daybreak for finances GPUs – we hope

Nvidia’s deliberate wind-down of the RTX 2060 will clear the trail for (hopefully) inexpensive Lovelace GPUs just like the RTX 4060 and the newly-rumored RTX 4050. Let’s face it: these are the playing cards individuals really need, offered they’re not so absurdly priced because the currently-available RTX 4000 playing cards.

It’s mildly miserable to see Nvidia and AMD engaged in an obvious race to the highest with regards to GPU pricing. AMD has lengthy offered stable finances alternate options to Nvidia’s playing cards, however its current unveiling of its new Radeon GPUs left us wanting extra – or, extra precisely, wanting fewer digits on the worth tags. The RTX 2060 first launched at a really respectable $329 (£300/AU$599); as we speak, you may choose one up for round $250.

When you’re nonetheless rocking an previous GPU that desperately wants upgrading, don’t have any worry: the RTX 2060 will seemingly stay on cabinets for months to come back whereas Nvidia shakes its remaining inventory out of its shirtsleeves.

In actual fact, this information means there’s an excellent probability that we’ll see some critical reductions on older RTX GPUs this Black Friday, so we’d heartily advocate you retain a watch out for the most effective graphics card offers with our helpful information.

Now, should you’ll excuse us, we’ll go dig out our previous workplace RTX 2060 and cradle it gently whereas listening to R.E.M.’s ‘All people Hurts’.