Worried that GeForce RTX 3060 will run out while cryptocurrency miners snap up every GPU in sight? NVIDIA thinks it has a simple way to help: make the new card unattractive to the crypto audience. The company has revealed that it is cutting the RTX 3060 hash rate (mining efficiency) in half for Ethereum miners. The driver software can detect the Ethereum mining algorithm and accelerate performance in response.
The reasoning is simple: NVIDIA wants to put GeForce cards “in the hands of players”, not just those who hope to profit from the generation of digital money. While the extremely high demand from miners was good for NVIDIA’s short-term results, it frustrated gamers, professionals and everyday users who just want better than integrated graphics – NVIDIA even brought back GPUs with years old just to give customers a few options. Scaling and price manipulation have been very common for GPUs that become available.
It is not leaving miners empty-handed. The company is launching a new CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor) line of expansion cards that do not produce graphics, but are tuned for cryptographic mining performance. The absence of video ports allows greater airflow and more compact plates, for example. The first CMP designs are 26 megahash per second 30HX and 36 megahash 40HX, both of which are expected to be available this quarter from vendors like ASUS, EVGA and Gigabyte. The more powerful plates 50X (45MH / s) and 90HX (86MH / s) will be launched in the second quarter.
This is unlikely to please miners who eagerly awaited the RTX 3060’s debut on February 25 with interest, and a similar hash restriction for other NVIDIA GPUs would not ease the shortage for a while. Still, there may be a chance that you can buy a next-generation GPU for your gaming PC without having to set up inventory alerts or pay a premium.