RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3070 Ti rumored to feature Ethereum mining limiter

[midian182]

Rumor mill: Nvidia's decision to limit the Ethereum mining performance of the RTX 3060 was a move welcomed by most gamers, and while the company said it wouldn't be hamstringing the performance of any current cards on the market, it never said anything about future models. According to new rumors, team green's upcoming RTX 3080 Ti—and probably the RTX 3070 Ti—will feature the same mining limiter.

When Nvidia revealed the RTX 3060, it said that new release drivers for the card can detect "specific attributes of the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm, and limit the hash rate, or cryptocurrency mining efficiency, by around 50 percent."

There were questions over whether this supposedly unhackable limiter would also affect other Ampere-based cards running the same driver, but the company confirmed it is not limiting the performance of GPUs already sold.

It will have 12G 19Gbps VRAM and an ETH mining nerf too.

— kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) March 4, 2021

According to reliable hardware leaker Kopite7kimi, the same mining limiter will be coming to future Nvidia cards. He specifically mentions the long-rumored RTX 3080 Ti featuring "12G 19Gbps VRAM and an ETH mining nerf."

Videocardz reportedly confirmed that Nvidia has informed AIB partners about the mining limiter coming to the RTX 3080 Ti. Assuming this is the path Nvidia takes, expect any RTX 3070 Ti to be nerfed to reduced Ethereum hash rates, too. This could become standard practice for new RTX products, especially as Nvidia has its own mining-specific CMP cards.

The RTX 3080 Ti was originally predicted to come with 20GB GDDR6X 320-bit memory, though that's now expected to be 12GB GDDR6X 384-bit. It's also rumored to feature a GA102 GPU with 10,240 CUDA cores and could launch as early as April, but don't hold your breath for that release date.

A recent report from Jon Peddie Research claimed that buying a high-end card for mining would be “very foolish.”

Masthead image credit: Wit Olszewski

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88831-rtx-3080-ti-rtx-3070-ti-rumored-feature.html

 

[JamesBlond]

I say we take them to court, this is discriminations against gamers and miners, many gamers IE. me have not paid for a graphics card for gaming in over 5yrs as the cards pay for themselves when mining and not gaming.

I would like to know if there is a lawyer willing to take the case and lets fight back, this is NOT RIGHT, I don't pay for people to limit me in any place, way or form in my life, what I pay for is mine and does not belong to the manufacturer.

 

[R00sT3R]

I don't think mining is the main cause of GPU shortages any more.

It seems to be the GPU's themselves have become the target of scalpers as a product in itself, like the PS5 & Xbox Series X, which is now the main cause of absurd pricing levels.

Everyone, not just professional scalpers, are now trying to make a quick killing before silicon production levels return to pre-pandemic levels and feed through in to the supply chains.

 

[jonny888]

I say we take them to court, this is discriminations against gamers and miners, many gamers IE. me have not paid for a graphics card for gaming in over 5yrs as the cards pay for themselves when mining and not gaming.

I would like to know if there is a lawyer willing to take the case and lets fight back, this is NOT RIGHT, I don't pay for people to limit me in any place, way or form in my life, what I pay for is mine and does not belong to the manufacturer.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. No-one is forcing you to purchase anything if it doesn't meet your needs. The non-miners will thank you greatly for not buying up the supply (which is exactly their intent).
Considering they're releasing mining orientated GPUs anyway, I would say you don't have much to worry about. Let your mining GPUs pay for your gaming GPUs.

 

[VitalyT]

If you don't like it, don't buy it. No-one is forcing you to purchase anything if it doesn't meet your needs. The non-miners will thank you greatly for not buying up the supply (which is exactly their intent).
Considering they're releasing mining orientated GPUs anyway, I would say you don't have much to worry about. Let your mining GPUs pay for your gaming GPUs.

I was getting into a detailed answer also, but then settled on just "f. the miners!"

 

[R00sT3R]

I was getting into a detailed answer also, but then settled on just "f. the miners!"

Nothing wrong with calling out the parasitic nature of scum miners..

 

[themaster08]

I say we take them to court, this is discriminations against gamers and miners, many gamers IE. me have not paid for a graphics card for gaming in over 5yrs as the cards pay for themselves when mining and not gaming.

I would like to know if there is a lawyer willing to take the case and lets fight back, this is NOT RIGHT, I don't pay for people to limit me in any place, way or form in my life, what I pay for is mine and does not belong to the manufacturer.

Maybe you should find a better motivation for your time other than being driven by greed stemmed from a herd mentality.

 

[Farkinell]

I say we take them to court, this is discriminations against gamers and miners, many gamers IE. me have not paid for a graphics card for gaming in over 5yrs as the cards pay for themselves when mining and not gaming.

I would like to know if there is a lawyer willing to take the case and lets fight back, this is NOT RIGHT, I don't pay for people to limit me in any place, way or form in my life, what I pay for is mine and does not belong to the manufacturer.

Absolutely none of this argument makes any sense, legal or otherwise. The manufacturer will make it public knowledge that the cards have been limited, so if you buy it with that knowledge it's your responsibility. Even if they do not, the onus is on you to do your research before buying.

The only way this action would be viable is if nvidia limited cards AFTER they were placed on the market, thus removing features already paid for.

 

[Shadowboxer]

I wonder if this mining limiter has been hacked yet. If it actually is un-hackable as Nvidia claim then that’s a very gamer friendly move from them.

Certainly contrasts to AMD releasing dedicated mining drivers.

 

[kimo1]

I wonder if this mining limiter has been hacked yet. If it actually is un-hackable as Nvidia claim then that’s a very gamer friendly move from them.

Certainly contrasts to AMD releasing dedicated mining drivers.

As a wise hacker once said: there's always a way in.

 

[Kosmoz]

I wonder if this mining limiter has been hacked yet. If it actually is un-hackable as Nvidia claim then that’s a very gamer friendly move from them.

Certainly contrasts to AMD releasing dedicated mining drivers.

I didn't know about a real hack yet, but I because the price of ETH is still high enough, even with the limiter it is still profitable enough to mine on 3060... just not as much as it could be. Also the limiter is only for ETH, so all the other coins that can be mined on GPUs are not affected by this... It's more a marketing ploy from nvidia than actual improvement of the situation for gamers.

Also, about AMD releasing dedicated mining drivers, that was in the past right? Not for RDNA2?

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I say we take them to court, this is discriminations against gamers and miners, many gamers IE. me have not paid for a graphics card for gaming in over 5yrs as the cards pay for themselves when mining and not gaming.

I would like to know if there is a lawyer willing to take the case and lets fight back, this is NOT RIGHT, I don't pay for people to limit me in any place, way or form in my life, what I pay for is mine and does not belong to the manufacturer.

Please explain to me a legal vehicle that allows you to sue a product maker for making a product without features you demand!

That ain’t how the free market works.

If you don’t like it: DON’T BUY IT.

 

[silversea]

It's already a proven fact that miners and scalpers are in fact affecting the current short supply of graphics cards, but there are also other bumps in the road such as the availability of certain chips, but as they say in politics "let's be perfectly clear here", those affecting shortages most in order are scalper bots #1, miners are #2, with chip shortages because of plant closures, and Covid-19 restrictions bringing up the rear. Lots of reading and research and you will see that what I have said is pretty dead-on accurate.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I wonder if this mining limiter has been hacked yet. If it actually is un-hackable as Nvidia claim then that’s a very gamer friendly move from them.

Certainly contrasts to AMD releasing dedicated mining drivers.

As it hasn't been released yet... I'm going to guess, "no".... but it's only a matter of time. By calling it "unhackable", they're pretty much guaranteeing that someone will hack it - that kind of label is irresistible to hackers.

While I don't pretend to be super knowledgeable about specific hacking methods, I suspect the first method to do so would be to simply fool the software into thinking you're using an older, non-limited, card like the 2080Ti - since the same drivers install for all Nvidia cards, it would probably be the simplest approach.

 

[Shadowboxer]

I didn't know about a real hack yet, but I because the price of ETH is still high enough, even with the limiter it is still profitable enough to mine on 3060... just not as much as it could be. Also the limiter is only for ETH, so all the other coins that can be mined on GPUs are not affected by this... It's more a marketing ploy from nvidia than actual improvement of the situation for gamers.

Also, about AMD releasing dedicated mining drivers, that was in the past right? Not for RDNA2?

Looking at the numbers, the 3060 is still profitable to mine with but hashes similar to something like an RX470 which can be found for significantly cheaper than the 3060 even now. With those hash rates you really wouldn’t be interested in a 3060, it would take over a year to repay the cost at MSRP at today’s values.

What other coins can be mined with it? I’ve seen a few but none were worth anything so not really something that I think people would do en masse.

Looking at how this has been executed, home miners are going to be locked out and the price is too high after the hash rate is halved. Commercial miners however I’m not so sure about as they use custom everything and can probably get a hacked bios installed.

It’s gamer friendly PR sure and likely won’t make a difference. But it’s better than nothing.

 

[ziffel66]

Guys, please don't feed trolls. Especially the blatantly obvious ones.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

I say we take them to court, this is discriminations against gamers and miners, many gamers IE. me have not paid for a graphics card for gaming in over 5yrs as the cards pay for themselves when mining and not gaming.

I would like to know if there is a lawyer willing to take the case and lets fight back, this is NOT RIGHT, I don't pay for people to limit me in any place, way or form in my life, what I pay for is mine and does not belong to the manufacturer.

Except you haven't paid for it yet genius. You cannot sue about a company selecting features before you have bought it.

You cannot even argue they "changed" the features of a product that isn't even announced yet. Rumors are not a legally binding contract.

 

[terzaerian]

While nerfing the hash of a coin whose mining days are numbered is pointless in the first place, I guess I'll be going with AMD cards from now on.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

All this means is average consumers can't make some money back, the mining farms will continue to use these cards as they are usually based in areas with very low electricity costs so even 1/2 hash rate is acceptable.

 

[hahahanoobs]

It's funny how the blame is consistently put on miners. Yes, they are taking cards out of the hands of gamers, but this GLOBAL chip shortage def isnt helping.

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

Even by putting a limit, you will still gain a profit lol. AMD FTW

 

[punctualturn]

I wonder if this mining limiter has been hacked yet. If it actually is un-hackable as Nvidia claim then that’s a very gamer friendly move from them.

Certainly contrasts to AMD releasing dedicated mining drivers.

"Sure, the boys in Ryan's lab can make it hack-proof. But that don't mean we ain't gonna hack it." - Pablo Navarro

 

[punctualturn]

I dont mine, but must say, the selfishness of the gamers is something funny to read.

You have one device (gpu) that can be used for:

A- just play games and thats it or...

B- play games, then make money on the side, when not playing or...

C- simply make money.

Nobody ever said that GPU are exclusive to gamers and this is a scary maneuver, since it makes companies like Nvidia take your options away. As a matter of fact, Nvidia has already abused this before, when ATI had faster cards, people were using ATI cards as primary GPUs and Nvidia for PhysX. Good old Nvidia released a driver that would disable the GPU that you, the CUSTOMER paid for, just because their tiny pipp! pride was hurt.

As someone here has told me on previous occasions that he will never accept cloud gaming because he wants to own his games, which he is more than entitled to request, the same applies to miners.

If they want to spend their money on something that will generate income, then why not?

As I said again, blame COVID, blame the tariffs, blame the manufacturers for not making more chips, blame TSMC for not having capacity, whatever, but I believe that everyone is entitled to use their purchases as they see fit.

 

[punctualturn]

It's funny how the blame is consistently put on miners. Yes, they are taking cards out of the hands of gamers, but this GLOBAL chip shortage def isnt helping.

As much as I hate Nvidia and would love nothing more than they losing money due to stupid moves or whatever, I have to say, they and AMD have to play a very dangerous game.

They cannot simply order a gazillion GPUs and then have them collecting dust in a warehouse.

The sad reality is, the gamers dont buy GPU's in the same numbers as miners.

And miners buying spree comes and goes, so in the end, both AMD and Nvidia have to be very careful in how many chips they order every quarter.

 

[Nobina]

Why the limit? Either remove it completely or don't touch it at all.