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Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

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Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#171

I'm probably going to be downvoted into oblivion but I'm genuinely curious: 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 mean, is there any inherent upside to burning tons of energy for games vs burning it for a cryptocu…

> After all, if all these cards weren't used for mining but for gaming, wouldn't the environmental outcome be the same?

I would assume miners keep these cards pegged at 100% 24/7. By comparison very few games actually push graphics cards to 100% utilization, especially when you're talking about top of the line cards like the nVidia 3000 series, and on top of that very few people play games for more than a couple hours per day. A card in the hands of a gamer probably consumes only a small fraction of the power that same card would in the hands of miners.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#172
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still render without a display port and use the output image to for example stream it to another display.

You need another GPU for that. Not really practical.

How do you think gaming streaming services work?

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#173
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It's a bad move. Provide a better product for mining .. don't cripple what's out there. This feels similar to when Nurofen tried to repackage generic drugs for different types of pain. I.e. ultimately a branding exercise. -- Edit: spelling and s/paracetamol/generic drugs

I appreciate this move to make GPUs more available for non-crypto users. As someone who wants to buy an AMD GPU to run my Ryzen machine, I have been waiting 2 weeks because there is no supply of GPUs at the RRP price. I can only buy the 2 year old models for double the price they sold for.

We have a global chip shortage. NVidia isn't magically pulling more GPUs out of their asses. Yes as they claim some chips might be defective in a way that makes them unsuitable for a graphics card but still work as a mining chip, but if you believe that they won't redirect perfectly fine chips into mining card production if demand permits it, just because they care so much about gamers and not their shareholders, I got bad news for you.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#175
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be. NVDA's stance is utter bull. It is entirely possible to render video games and stream them to another display [1,2] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY4s35uULg4 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1nok2VlF1M [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfIibTBaoMM

It will be possible but as your third video suggests the number of cards that'll be used this way and not end up as landfill will be peanuts.

I don't disagree, but I suppose the structure of my comment didn't convey the message correctly, that is, that NVDA is just maximizing profits while screwing over gamers because a) they can get away with it and b) they are an ever decreasing portion of their revenue.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#176
post #107
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can electronics actually wear out?

There is the effect of 'electromigration' at least, which causes atoms of conducting materials to be transported over time because of the current (if I understand it correctly). That might be an issue over the long term, especially at the ridiculously small scale of chip manufacturing we've reached now.

But how big of an issue is that really in practice? You still see 20+ years old machines chugging along just fine.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#177
post #51

A lot of people are claiming this as a win for the non mining consumer but as the articles puts it: > Nvidia does state that these GPUs "don't meet the specifications required of a GeForce GPU and, thus, don't impact the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers." Frankly, that doesn't mean much. What does Nvidia do with a GPU that normally can't be sold as an RTX 3090? They bin it as a 3080, and GA102 chips that can't…

If they can simply change the key needed to sign the bios or whatever for new cards coming off their production line they can continue to support cards that were sold before the change and have the limiter for cards made after the change. They could also make a tiny to change to the model number. I don't see how they could possibly be sued for doing so.

Nvidia is making the same money regardless if a miner or gamer buys their existing cards. They won't be losing any money of 100% of their production goes to gamers. As a game er if this reduces miners interest in the products I want I'd say it's good for me.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#178
post #97
post #80

I wonder if open source drivers will eventually circumvent this limit?

Nvidia PR [1] has stated that it's a bios level feature. And their bioses require signatures. [1] https://twitter.com/bdelrizzo/status/1362619264423747590?s=2...

I remember years ago (we're talking 20 years), it was possible to circumvent chip level batching between Nvidia Geforce and Quadro.

Geforce was the consumer range, and Quadro was used for workstation graphics.

They both used the same chip .. but a resistor on the board gave the driver an indication of which range the card belonged to.

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#179
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It's a bad move. Provide a better product for mining .. don't cripple what's out there. This feels similar to when Nurofen tried to repackage generic drugs for different types of pain. I.e. ultimately a branding exercise. -- Edit: spelling and s/paracetamol/generic drugs

I appreciate this move to make GPUs more available for non-crypto users. As someone who wants to buy an AMD GPU to run my Ryzen machine, I have been waiting 2 weeks because there is no supply of GPUs at the RRP price. I can only buy the 2 year old models for double the price they sold for.

How long until gpgpu isn't cost effective for mining? I know a lot of fpgas went on ebay for cheap when the new xilinx line came out. The watt per hash has to be lower for fpgas already. Will the cost of a coin always reflect the current price to make a new one and thus gpgpu will always be a cost effective technique?

Re: Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mining cards are run near always, while gaming cards are usually pushed only a small number of hours per day. I have no data to back this up but anecdotally this makes a huge difference in wear.

GPUs are not mechanical parts (well save for the fans but those can be replaced). I would imagine thermal stress from heating and cooling would be the biggest issue - you don't get that under constant load.

Heat = bad for silicon. Also electromigration. And probably a couple other effects I don't know about.
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