The present graphics card panorama could also be a barren wasteland, however there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon. On Tuesday, Nvidia introduced that the mining hash fee limiter launched alongside the GeForce RTX 3060 will now be rolling out to newly manufactured RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 as nicely, through a brand new “Lite Hash Rate” sequence beginning in mid-May. (The work exhausting, play exhausting GeForce RTX 3090 will not be receiving a nerf, nevertheless.) Gaming efficiency shouldn’t be affected.
“We believe this additional step will get more GeForce cards at better prices into the hands of gamers everywhere,” Nvidia’s announcement states. We wouldn’t be shocked if most if not all new GeForce GPUs produced by Nvidia embrace these protections going ahead. “Software drivers are designed to detect specific attributes of the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm, and limit the hash rate, or cryptocurrency mining efficiency, by around 50 percent,” Nvidia’s Matt Wuebbling mentioned when the expertise was first launched within the RTX 3060.
That sound you hear is 1,000,000 crypto coin miners gnashing their tooth.
People utilizing GPUs to mine cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Dogecoin are a giant half (however removed from the one half) of why graphics playing cards value a lot proper now. The costs of each of these cash are booming proper now.
By slicing the speed at which RTX 30-series GPUs mine crypto, Nvidia will take plenty of the luster off these new playing cards for these trying to earn cash reasonably than play video games—that’s, assuming Nvidia doesn’t shoot itself within the foot by cracking its personal anti-mining safety once more.
Fingers crossed.
And hey! If you have been fortunate sufficient to snag one of many unique GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs with out the limiter in place, earlier than lengthy you would possibly simply be capable of promote it to a miner for sufficient that you can afford an improve to a extra highly effective LHR mannequin. We’ll see how this goes.
