Nvidia's RTX 3060 Ti is likely to ship this year, one retailer's strange bragging suggests

Once again, scandals over 30-series stock are abound. An electronic company based in Saudi Arabia has been spotted (via Tom's Hardware) boasting about having the as yet unannounced GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards in stock. And, although it seems highly unlikely the seller had hands on the cards themselves before Nvidia has even had a chance to announce them, there could be something to the claims.

The potential publicity stunt from Silicon Valley Computers has been supported by screenshots of the store where the cards were supposedly in stock. The images show the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Eagle 8G listed for $986, and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming OC 8G edition at $1,013. And, although they appear to be photoshopped, the claims have also been bolstered by a video on twitter, shown below (via @harukaze5719). 

pic.twitter.com/b09WcM6kpCNovember 4, 2020

The vid clearly shows the GPU boxes in the seller's possession, although all boxes in question remained sealed throughout the video. So, we can't say for sure whether there were actual GPUs were inside. Still, seeing as the apparent boxes have been caught on camera, the brags that followed (though, terribly translated) may indeed have had some weight to them.

"Some people don’t believe.. and we [don't] blame you. But after this video, you [will] believe it. Exclusively, and before official launch RTX3060Ti. Now available at all our showrooms or through our online store," one part suggests.

"Surprise for the first time in the kingdom. Arrived now and exclusively with us. And even before the official release, RTX 3060 Ti."

Since the claims surfaced, these elusive cards appear to have sold out, and SV Comp has now "removed the product listings" from the store. That is, if they ever existed in the first place. That being said, even if the store never had the cards themselves, the presence of such convincing packaging has left us wondering.

If this, and other rumors are true, there is a high likelihood we're in for the new GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards to be announced within the next couple of months. These second generation RTX cards should sit neatly in the current Ampere stack, just below the RTX 3070.

Speculation places the likely specs of the RTX 3060 Ti at 4,864 CUDA cores, with 8GB GDDR6 memory. More to the point, the likelihood remains that Nvidia is gearing up to get an RTX 3060 Ti model out soon. Maybe even before the holidays arrive. 

Whatever the case may be, I can't imagine Silicon Valley Computers will receive any direct from Nvidia or its distribution partners after this.