Nvidia GeForce EULA change prevents data centers from using consumer GPUs

[Polycount]

With Nvidia's graphics card prices at an all-time high due to the recent popularity of cryptocurrency mining, the company is clearly looking for ways to reduce strain on the consumer market whenever it can... that is, if a recent EULA change is anything to go by.

Though early criticism of the change suggested Nvidia was attempting to push consumers into purchasing their much more expensive Tesla GPUs, the opposite appears to be true. Nvidia will now be preventing larger data centers from using consumer-grade GeForce and Titan GPUs in their operations, instead suggesting they use the previously-mentioned Tesla cards.

It's worth noting, however, that this change is not completely set in stone. Nvidia may still allow data centers to use GeForce or Titan cards on a case-by-case basis. "We expect that, working together with [our user base], we will be able to resolve any customer concerns," an Nvidia spokesperson said. The spokesperson further noted that data center customers can simply contact the company if they wish to seek an exception to this new rule.

Nvidia explained the reasoning behind this change in a statement to CNBC:

"GeForce and TITAN GPUs were never designed for data center deployments with the complex hardware, software, and thermal requirements for 24x7 operation, where there are often multi-stack racks. To clarify this, we recently added a provision to our GeForce-specific EULA to discourage potential misuse of our GeForce and TITAN products in demanding, large-scale enterprise environments.

NVIDIA addresses the unique mechanical, physical, management, functional, reliability, and availability needs of servers with our Tesla products, which include a three-year warranty covering data center workloads, NVIDIA enterprise support, guaranteed continuity of supply and extended SKU life expectancy for data center components. This has been communicated to the market since the Tesla products were first released.

We recognize that researchers often adapt GeForce and TITAN products for non-commercial uses or other research uses that do not operate at data center scale. NVIDIA does not intend to prohibit such uses."

Interestingly, this licensing agreement change doesn't institute any restrictions against large-scale cryptocurrency mining operations.

Though this could be positive news for consumers itching to get their hands on the latest GeForce or Titan cards, it's currently unclear how or when Nvidia plans to enforce these new rules.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/72545-nvidia-geforce-eula-change-prevents-data-centers-using.html

 

[p51d007]

What are they gonna do? Slap em on the wrist if they use it for commercial data center purposes?

 

[captaincranky]

What are they gonna do? Slap em on the wrist if they use it for commercial data center purposes?

How about denying any warranty claims? "You break it, you bought it", is a time honored business practice.

 

[wiyosaya]

Knowing what they do with their Quadro cards, e.g., some pro software that used to run with GeForce cards no longer does run with GeForce cards, it would not surprise me in the least that what they are really trying to do is milk data centers for the extra cash that Tesla cards command. The consumer cards are quite compute capable for single-precision calculations, and there is not a lot of software out there, to the best of my knowledge, that requires double-precision calculations - which is the realm of the Teslas these days.

nVidia could never admit to this, though, and their statement is, to me anyway, spin to make it sound like they are doing something good for gamers and the average consumer - or people like me who run BOINC projects, or worse yet - data centers when the consumer cards are capable in those environments. My bet is that there will be a lot of data centers that will not appreciate this in the least, and that may cause them to turn to AMD. Yeah, I know AMD is not at the top of the hill for gaming, but there are some compute projects where AMD kills nVidia.

 

[DaveBG]

The problem is not data centers. Its the miners who by hundreds of cards. I wanted to order a card recenltly and from 2 places I phoned both told me that they have orders of 300+ cards per person and are not sure if supply will reach my 1 card so yeah...