Nvidia has apparently discontinued the GeForce RTX 2060 and GTX 1660, two of the most popular graphics cards on Steam. Super variants of the GPUs are also reportedly getting the chop, but the GTX 1650 and 1630 will seemingly live on.
The Nvidia RTX 2060 and GTX 1660 aren’t best graphics card contenders in terms of raw performance, but both are being used by players more most other GPUs.That’s according to Valve’s latest Steam Hardware Survey, which places both ahead of newer releases like the RTX 4080. The GeForce RTX 3060 takes the lead, but it’s still impressive to see two 2019 cards maintain their popularity.
Sadly, recent reports by BoardChannels state the duo is now discontinued, as Nvidia wants to shift its “product sales strategy” focus to RTX 3000 production (via Wccftech). While retiring older product lines isn’t unusual in itself, the green team’s RTX 2060 12GB refresh is relatively hot off the press.
RTX 2060 and GTX 1660 production should persist until AIB supplies dry up, and BoardChannels says some vendors have already cleared out their inventory. Unlike the latter card, the GTX 1650 and 1630 aren’t heading to the GPU retirement home quite yet, but there’s a chance we’ll see 1660’s siblings follow suit in the near future.
RTX 4000 GPUs might be the next big thing, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang previously revealed that RTX 3000 is still still “part of the new family.” In other words, Ampere will likely serve as a lower-cost alternative throughout Lovelace’s time at the top, or at least until the RTX 4070 and rumoured RTX 4050 arrive on the GPU scene.