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Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

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Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#111
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I mean, is there any inherent upside to burning tons of energy for games vs burning it for a cryptocurrency? You presume the total energy consumption would be the same whereas it'd be more likely that GPUs that are used for mining will be used 24/7 whereas gaming is likely to be performed by a human being who cannot or would not utilize the GPU nearly as many hours of the day.

> GPUs that are used for mining will be used 24/7 whereas gaming is likely to be performed by a human being who cannot or would not utilize the GPU nearly as many hours of the day. Yup. And even if they could utilize them 24/7, gamers generally* won't have 10+ cards going at once. *:I'm sure someone has some weird 360 degree flight simulator edge case.

Or say 15,000 cards.

Crypto operations in modern times are not subtle. Margins are razor thin, so it's all about scale and efficiency

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#112
post #101
post #4

I have no sympathy for miners, but purely from software freedom perspective this is maximally evil: closed-source software that decides what you can use your hardware for. The CMP version is a straight-to-landfill product. As soon as it stops being profitable for mining it will have zero resale value, and become e-waste.

Imagine the PlayStation was able to be used to mine crypto. Game developers depend on gamers to actually play their games, what would you have Sony do? Encourage it or do nothing? Pretty sure their obligations to any shareholders would be to limit it so more gamers can play and buy games for it.

They literally did that with the PS3 for clusters (though not for crypto mining) and shut down the ability to do it.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#113
post #95

Does that mean they're bringing down the xx60 card price too? Rabid gamers who MUST have that 1440Hz refresh may be willing to pay anything for their space heaters, but there are people who play games but aren't willing to spend 1K (or 3K, how far have they gone these days?) on a video card. In other words, is this done to increase sales volume or just nvidia's profit?

It's done so that when the crypto bubble bursts again, the market isn't flooded with used graphics cards.

In 2017 everyone was buying GTX 10XX cards, on one hand because they actually represented a good improvement over the last generation for a change, but mostly due to the crypto bubble. Which then burst at the beginning of 2018.

Then RTX 20XX came along, which actually represented a slight drop in price/performance if you don't count the raytracing/AI cores (which to this day hardly matter in gaming), while used GTX 10XX cards were still everywhere.

So now nvidia wants to make sure cards used for crypto go straight to the landfill after the current bubble bursts.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does anybody else think that the "mining is bad for the environment and gamers can't buy the cards" argument is a bit weird? After all, if all these cards weren't used for mining but for gaming, wouldn't the environmental outcome be the same? I never had that specific opinion, but I have another point of view. Games bring inherent value to the table. That is, if you didn't play games you would be reading a book, go…

> I don't see tangible value in crypto. Crypto is worth what other people are willing to pay for it. That's pretty much true for anything that has financial value, though. Setting aside the chemical properties of gold (conductivity, resistance to corrosion, etc.) that make it more valuable than some other metals, pretty much every financial construct in human culture is only valuable because we decided it was valuabl…

> That's pretty much true for anything that has financial value, though.

Correct. Maybe a better statement would be "I don't see that the inherent value of crypto is bigger than that of the dollar or gold". This gets even more complicated when you take into account the cost of the transactions that I have discussed with another user.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#117
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>investing in crypto Crypto is an investment the same way $GME or playing the roulette is an investment. Better term would be speculating or gambling. Nothing wrong with either, but let's call it what it is.

Comparing it to roulette is such a hyperbole. Would you say that penny stocks are playing the roulette? You may argue they have similar odds but there are fundimental differences between them.

>Would you say that penny stocks are playing the roulette?

Where did I talk about penny stocks? I was talking about volatile meme stocks like $GME being like playing the roulette.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#118
post #101
post #4

I have no sympathy for miners, but purely from software freedom perspective this is maximally evil: closed-source software that decides what you can use your hardware for. The CMP version is a straight-to-landfill product. As soon as it stops being profitable for mining it will have zero resale value, and become e-waste.

Imagine the PlayStation was able to be used to mine crypto. Game developers depend on gamers to actually play their games, what would you have Sony do? Encourage it or do nothing? Pretty sure their obligations to any shareholders would be to limit it so more gamers can play and buy games for it.

>Pretty sure their obligations to any shareholders would be to limit it so more gamers can play and buy games for it.

It's not really the same because playstations are sold at break-even or at a loss with the expectation that follow-up revenue would make up for it. On the other hand no such dynamic exists for nvidia. For them, sale to a miner is the same as a sale to gamer.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#119
I don't think Nvidia (or most companies) should be deciding what to do with the tools they sell. I don't want someone telling me what software I can run with my CPU or GPU any more than I want someone telling me what I am allowed to build with the hammers or screwdrivers I buy.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#120
post #98
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can electronics actually wear out?

Absolutely, it's materials science. Most electronics like this aren't meant to be run full-tilt 24/7, especially not under the conditions that crypto mining typically occurs. Subpar cooling, potentially dirty air - so lots of dust and particulate. Not to mention crypto miners will often have the GPUs overclocked on top of running full tilt to get every last hash out of it. It's about as brutal of a situation as you c…

>Not to mention crypto miners will often have the GPUs overclocked on top of running full tilt to get every last hash out of it. It's about as brutal of a situation as you can get for a GPU.

This is false because miners often undervolt to achieve better efficiency. The popular GPU mining algorithms are all memory-bound, so you can undervolt your core clocks quite a bit and still get >95% of the original performance.

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