Nvidia confirms they accidentally released a driver that removed the Ethereum-mining limitations on RTX 3060 GPUs, undermining their attempt to make the cards unappealing to cryptominers ~tech

nvidia confirms accidentally ethereum mining

The 3060 card reduces the hash rate of a miner when compared to a 3090, but is still a solid purchase for miners. Graphics cards were first developed to enable high-definition computer games but they’re increasingly essential for new technologies like artificial intelligence. Their usefulness in mining ether isn’t new, either — in 2017, Nvidia said it made hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter selling chips to cryptocurrency miners.

“A developer driver inadvertently included code used for internal development which removes the hash rate limiter on RTX 3060 in some configurations,” said an Nvidia spokesperson, as reported by The Verge. In a twist of events, the company revealed that it accidentally lifted the mining restrictions on the RTX 3060. “A developer driver inadvertently included code used for internal development which removes the hash rate limiter on RTX 3060 in some configurations,” says an Nvidia spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. Launched as a gaming graphics card, NVidia mistakenly lifted the Ethereum mining restrictions on the recently launched RTX 3060 graphics card. According to Verge’s report, the company removed a hash rate limiter on the cards allowing mining of Proof-of-Work coins such as Ethereum .

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Consumer spending on PC gaming hardware was up 62% in 2020, according to an NPD Group estimate. Thursday’s announcement suggests that at least some of the demand for Nvidia’s chips came from cryptocurrency miners, not just gamers. “More efficient mining hardware won’t help – it’ll just be competing against other efficient mining hardware,” he told the BBC earlier in February. Nvidia clearly wasn’t expecting to release a driver that would accidentally unlock its own restrictions. Ether mining is a process in which computers solve complicated math programs to help the Ethereum cryptocurrency network run.

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“RTX 3060 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 said in a blog post. They stated last month that the new RTX 3060 graphics card would feature a significant decline in the Ethereum hash rate. Huang, a big proponent of artificial intelligence, unveiled a lower resolution graphics card at the conference that has been designed specifically for crypto mining. He also addressed the global chip shortage, Nvidia’s role in it and whether he believes the Chinese government will interfere in the development of artificial intelligence. The RTX 3060 – which will go on sale at 0900 PT for $329 (£299) next Thursday – is Nvidia’s most affordable GPU built to date using its latest Ampere architecture. A software update released by Nvidia inadvertently bypassed the Ether (ETH) mining block the firm placed on its own GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card.

nvidia confirms accidentally ethereum mining

In spite of this, the card hasn’t sold out as quickly as the higher-rated Ampere series, although the trend of the cards being listed at a minimum of 200% mark-up continues. Caution is advised for miners searching for the driver that removes the hash rate limiter, as it offers a target for malware. A tool released on GitHub advertised the sought-after ability to unlock the full Ethereum mining capabilities of recent Nvidia RTX graphics cards but actually contains malware.

The chip designer wants to put more chips in gaming rigs while also serving cryptocurrency miners.

Nvidia said it had focused on Ethereum because it “has the highest global mining yield for any GPU-mineable coin at the moment and thus is likely the main demand driver for GPUs in mining”. Nvidia said it had intervened to make sure its products “end up in the hands of gamers”. / Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we’ve tested sent to your inbox daily.

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Nvidia has extended its efforts when it comes to reducing the total hash rate of general Ethereum mining on its new RTX 3060 GPUs sometime last month. A special system was recently developed in order to supposedly make the sps splinterlands price Nvidia RTX 3060 GPUs more undesirable to cryptominers. This, Nvidia hopes, will improve the supply of its RTX 3000-series GPUs finding its way into the hands of gamers and make future cards less attractive to miners.

Nvidia’s new beta driver unlocks RTX 3060 Ethereum cryptocurrency mining

Ether’s mining algorithms run best on graphics cards, which is the kind of chip that Nvidia is known for. Miners often buy several graphics cards and put them in a single machine to maximize their return. By limiting the mining performance of the RTX 3060, the company aimed to promote it for gaming only. According to HKEPC’s report, Nvidia is ready to redeem itself after the whole anti-mining limiter fiasco with the GeForce RTX 3060. The chipmaker is reportedly preparing a new variant of the GA106 silicon to restore the Ethereum anti-mining limiter back to its not-so-glory days.

  • Nvidia made a pretty big deal about its efforts to get more of its latest graphics cards into the hands of gamers in the company’s Q earnings call last month.
  • This has been done to curry favor with gamers, frustrated after multiple launches of the Ampere series only went to cryptocurrency miners.
  • On top of all this, the mining community came up with various ways to bypass the Lite Hash Rate limiter in the months after the restriction was launched.
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Intel already supports PCIE 5.0 in its latest Alder Lake 12th generation Core series of desktop CPUs. This implied that a substantial number of graphics cards were being removed from the pool. If I assumed that these cards were comparable to current generation Nvidia and AMD cards, then it was reasonable to assume that every used card sold was a lost new card sale.

Nvidia Ethereum mining

Reports surfaced earlier this month that the hashrate limiter might have already been busted open, but these workarounds don’t seem to impact the reduced Ethereum mining performance specifically. That doesn’t appear to be the case here, unfortunately, so it looks to be bad news for gamers hoping to have the RTX 3060 to themselves (not counting the profiteers, at any rate). Spotted in an upcoming driver release note, Nvidia will update the mining limiter already present with the RTX 3060, but a key statement claims the new driver will be required for the new GPUs shipping in May. Those GPUs will begin to replace existing RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 GPUs, which till now run at full speed when mining no matter what driver you use. The protections were defeated within its first month on the market, by Nvidia’s own hand. Some frustrated consumers are implying that Nvidia intentionally released the drivers to attend to the miner community.

nvidia confirms accidentally ethereum mining

Many consumers don’t have Nvidia on the highest regard, especially since the chipmaker accidentally leaked a driver that completely disabled its own anti-mining limiter. The chipmaker did rake in a remarkable Q4 revenue between $100 to $300 million from cryptomining sales alone. This software will be responsible for handling connections from all the individual miner rigs, keeping track of worker shares, and managing payouts. On top of all this, the mining community came up with various ways to bypass the Lite Hash Rate limiter in the months after the restriction was launched. Back in January, one miner even told PCMag Lite Hash Rate limiter had become pointless.

PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. “We don’t believe it’s necessary in the current environment,” the Nvidia spokesperson told PCMag without elaborating. I’ve been with PCMag since October 2017, covering a wide range of topics, including consumer electronics, cybersecurity, social media, networking, and gaming. Prior to working at PCMag, I was a foreign correspondent in Beijing for over five years, covering the tech scene in Asia. It told the BBC the CMP did not meet the “specifications required” of its GPUs and would also use less energy.

nvidia confirms accidentally ethereum mining

The RTX 3060’s the first GPU to be released with drivers that reduce Ethereum mining hash rates by 50%, as Nvidia tries to reserve GeForce cards for gamers rather than crypto miners. According to Hexus, the latest reports suggest that the affected driver can only unlock one RTX 3060 at a time, rendering it unsuitable for use in large mining-farms, for the time being at least. Nvidia said that the latest chip in its gaming graphics cards series, the RTX 3060, would be modified when it’s released later this year so it won’t mine ether effectively. Cards that have already been sold, like the RTX 3070 or RTX 3080, do not have the same limitations, the Nvidia representative said. It was also noted that there is actually still a secure handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060, and even the BIOS, which is a firmware that reportedly prevents the general removal of this supposed hash rate limiter.

Nvidia’s own software update inadvertently removed the RTX 3060’s Ether-mining hash rate limiter. This means that Nvidia won’t really be able to prevent the owners of these RTX 3060 from continuing to use this particular driver sometime in the future. Nvidia had reportedly restricted the RTX 3060 for mining performance as it tried to drive away cryptominers from buying the majority of these GPUs. However, Nvidia has just confirmed that it has somehow accidentally unlocked those restrictions with a brand new driver.

Last fall, Nvidia released a new series of graphics cards marketed at PC gamers that have been consistently sold out. Many miners build rigs using several graphics cards at a time to produce a powerful machine dedicated to mining crypto-currency, rather than gaming. Initial rumors suggested a custom modification had bypassed the RTX 3060’s hash rate limiter last Wednesday, allowing it to mine Ether at full capacity. It was later revealed that the mod had not enabled the card to mine Ether specifically but had been rigged to enable the mining of another GPU-mineable cryptocurrency, Ravencoin (RVN). But the back door that allowed the card’s hash rate limiter to be bypassed came from the software side, and it was released by Nvidia itself. The offending beta update has since been pulled by the software company, but versions of it have already made it out onto the internet.

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