NVIDIA this morning has launched a brand new driver set for his or her GeForce playing cards, model 466.27. And although it’s primarily for subsequent week’s launch of Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition and a few different video games, this newest driver drop from NVIDIA additionally consists of an replace to their anti-Ethereum throttle, which they first applied of their GeForce RTX 3060 playing cards. In quick, NVIDIA has tweaked future RTX 3060 playing cards to require this driver (or newer), which can stop them from utilizing older drivers that may bypass NVIDIA’s hash limiter. As a outcome, RTX 3060 playing cards delivery beginning in mid-May will as soon as once more be totally locked down in opposition to operating Ethereum at full (native) velocity.
As a fast refresher, again in February with the launch of the GeForce RTX 3060 household of desktop video playing cards, NVIDIA applied a novel throttling mechanism to artificially restrict the Ethereum mining efficiency of the playing cards. This was carried out in an try and make the playing cards much less palatable for miners – who’ve infamously been shopping for up playing cards in what’s already a supply-constrained market – and thereby guarantee extra playing cards made it to players. Unfortunately for NVIDIA, this technique labored for lower than a month earlier than the corporate unintentionally launched a driver with out the complete anti-Ethereum code in place, making it doable to mine Ethereum at full velocity in some instances.
Now, having discovered from their earlier snafu, NVIDIA is taking one other shot at locking down the Ethereum mining efficiency in future RTX 3060 playing cards by updating their hash limiter and stopping these new playing cards from utilizing the older, damaged improvement driver.
It additionally updates the hash limiter for the GeForce RTX 3060 and is required for merchandise shipped beginning mid-May 2021.
Unpacking this quick (and considerably ambiguous) assertion a bit, beginning with the subsequent batch of RTX 3060 playing cards, that are anticipated to start delivery in mid-May, 466.27 would be the minimal driver model required for these playing cards. Which, regardless of NVIDIA’s multi-branch naming system, is a more moderen driver than the compromised 470.05 launched again in March. This driver has the up to date hash limiter code, and thus, baring future unforced errors on NVIDIA’s half, it won’t be doable to mine Ethereum at full velocity on future RTX 3060 playing cards.
NVIDIA has in any other case been pretty tight-lipped on their anti-Ethereum code, however because of their March flub and efforts by miners to get across the code, we are able to take an informed guess at what NVIDIA is doing underneath the hood with these future RTX 3060 playing cards. Most probably, NVIDIA has blown an eFuse or two with a purpose to require that newly-minted GA106 GPUs can’t be used with older BIOSes. By altering the minimal BIOS requirement, NVIDIA can have the newer BIOS implement the newer driver requirement, with the motive force in flip implementing (or not less than serving to to implement) the Ethereum throttle. All advised, that is similar to how {hardware} safety works on consoles, the place NVIDIA has some expertise because of the Tegra X1-powered Nintendo Switch.
As for whether or not this try will fare any higher than NVIDIA’s earlier one, it stays to be seen. But whilst issues stand with current-generation RTX 3060 playing cards, NVIDIA’s anti-Ethereum throttle has largely held up; the March snafu has uncovered that NVIDIA is already working a “defense in depth” technique with a number of checks to establish mining playing cards, in search of issues reminiscent of playing cards working on a PCIe x1 bus and playing cards not hooked as much as screens. So if there are any weaknesses, particularly on the Linux facet of issues, then this shall be NVIDIA’s alternative to shore issues up for his or her anti-Ethereum throttle.
Finally, NVIDIA has additionally knowledgeable us that these revised RTX 3060 playing cards won’t be labeled any in a different way than current RTX…
