Nvidia limits cryptocurrency mining to three GeForce RTX types

NVIDIA announced that it will limit cryptocurrency mining hash rates for GeForce RTX 3080, 3070, and 3060 Ti from shipments at the end of May. These GPU products greatly reduce the efficiency of mining cryptocurrency Ethereum.

This change can be said to be good news for gamers who have difficulty obtaining GPUs due to cryptocurrency miners hoarding and semiconductor shortage double punch. GPU products that have lowered the hash rate are marked as LHR (Lite Hash Rate) on the package.

Nvidia has been shipping GPU products that contain measures to reduce the Ethereum hash rate since February. However, until now, the target was only the RTX 3060, but as a result, it has been expanded to the upper level models. Nvidia is expanding its countermeasures to the top three models, and is planning to spread more products to gamers whose purpose is to use GPUs. Nvidia says it believes that this additional measure will bring GeForce graphics cards to the hands of all gamers at a better price.

From the point of view of cryptocurrency mining, there may be someone trying to access the Ethereum hash rate limit part of the GPU firmware. In March, Nvidia accidentally unveiled a driver that circumvents the RTX 3060 restriction briefly, but this mistake could trigger Nvidia to maintain stronger security.

NVIDIA is releasing CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor) as a dedicated product for cryptocurrency mining. For reference, the reason Nvidia applies the hash rate reduction measure only to Ethereum is that Ethereum currently accounts for more than 90% of the cryptocurrencies that can be mined with GPUs. Related information can be found here.