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Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

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Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#41

Post by HappySweeney »

Alekhine wrote: post #23
Scoundreller wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to be a fun future game of cat-and-mouse as miners figure out how to disable/bypass nvidia’s electronic countermeasures.

It'll be a good opportunity to see some nice hardware hacks, sure. But I'd guess serious miners don't really wanna deal with that shit and will just buy the miner-specific cards or use ASICs. This measure just raises the bar enough to make it a hassle.

Serious miners will go to great lengths to improve their efficiency by even a fraction of 1%. They will absolutely patch some drivers if it gets them better hashes/kwh (which it will or Nvidia wouldn't do this).

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#43

Post by capableweb »

emsy wrote: post #11
wbraun wrote: post #2

Does this behavior anger anyone else on a deep level? I get that its hard to buy GPUs right now, but this seems like such an attack on general purpose computing. Hardware manufactures already segment features between consumer and busness grade parts that the silicon itself is capable of, such as virtualization, but restricting what algorithms one can run is a whole new level. I am pretty sure my next GPU is going to…

If we didn’t have such a dire chip shortage I would be upset on principle, but I see this as a move that’s supposed to help long time customers get a hand at a Graphics card at a reasonable price. Once mining will ebb off, those customers are unlikely to keep buying Nvidia products so it’s entirely understandable why they would do this. Also, it’s not like on iOS where the company whitelists apps, this is a very spec…

"If we didn’t have such a dire X I would be upset on principle, but I see this as a move that’s supposed to help ..."

What worth is a principle if you don't still have it when it get challenged? Then it's just a opinion, which is fine by itself and it's ok to change opinion, smart people do it all the time. But don't call it a principle.

Unlikely that mining will disappear because NVIDIA limits a specific algoritm/client software/however the limit is implemented. It will, like most "limit for your self-protection" systems, eventually be broken. Miners are already not afraid of picking apart the components they are using, so neither software nor hardware is safe.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#44

Post by munk-a »

arthurcolle wrote: post #10
creato wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is unfortunate, but it is less unfortunate than the behavior of crypto miners. Freedom is great when people aren't using their freedom to infringe on other people's freedom.

How is someone mining on GPUs they bought themselves infringing on your freedom, pray tell?

I suspect this definition issue is partially due to cultural issues - freedom means different things in different parts of the world. Outside of the US societal freedom and the freedom from pain are valued over the individualistic freedom valued in the US.

I don't think either view is absolutely correct after having lived in a few different' societies - but there are valid points to support a view where individual freedom to act isn't the primary freedom to protect (i.e. protecting the freedom for everyone to live a healthy life better enables all individuals to achieve a greater degree of freedom as a society than being individually focused).

I really think there's a philosophical disagreement on what freedom is at the core of a lot of the libertarian vs. socialist arguments.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#45

Post by TameAntelope »

dheera wrote: post #37
Scoundreller wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to be a fun future game of cat-and-mouse as miners figure out how to disable/bypass nvidia’s electronic countermeasures.

Couldn't one just not upgrade their drivers? NVIDIA has no way of crippling an offline system.

This is for future manufactures, and it'll come out of the box disabled.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#46

Post by Scoundreller »

Alekhine wrote: post #23
Scoundreller wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to be a fun future game of cat-and-mouse as miners figure out how to disable/bypass nvidia’s electronic countermeasures.

It'll be a good opportunity to see some nice hardware hacks, sure. But I'd guess serious miners don't really wanna deal with that shit and will just buy the miner-specific cards or use ASICs. This measure just raises the bar enough to make it a hassle.

We’ll see a cottage industry of modders. Turning a $300 thing into a $600 thing should be a viable business.

Though I’ve seen some really sketchy mods before… can’t find it at the moment, but one involved taking a dremel to the chip to break an internal pad/link.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#47

Post by tshaddox »

wbraun wrote: post #2

Does this behavior anger anyone else on a deep level? I get that its hard to buy GPUs right now, but this seems like such an attack on general purpose computing. Hardware manufactures already segment features between consumer and busness grade parts that the silicon itself is capable of, such as virtualization, but restricting what algorithms one can run is a whole new level. I am pretty sure my next GPU is going to…

Don’t these hardware manufacturers already deliberately reduce the performance of some chips just so they can sell them for cheaper without actually developing and manufacturing an additional line of chips (i.e. price discrimination)? This doesn’t seem much different.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#48

Post by munk-a »

arthurcolle wrote: post #39
belltaco wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The extra power usage is destroying our planet all for someone to try and make a quick buck, and causing shortages of GPUs during a pandemic where mental health from entertainment like gaming is valuable and stops people from going outside and getting/spreading the virus. The incentives for crypto all are f'ed up right now. The ETH PoS switch can't come soon enough.

So earning income is less important than letting people play video games? Let's just say I'm unconvinced by this argument.

I think it's quite fair to say earning income is less important than allowing people to achieve happiness and video games are a pretty well known way to accomplish that.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#50

Post by mywittyname »

Scoundreller wrote: post #19
skytreader wrote: post #18

Total hardware noob here. How do they do it? Is there a particular instruction that ETH needs to be "efficient" but games can live with throttled? Or perhaps a sequence of instructions that's signature to ETH?

Going to be a fun future game of cat-and-mouse as miners figure out how to disable/bypass nvidia’s electronic countermeasures.

It doesn't need to last forever, just long enough to prevent shortages from pissing off non-mining customers.

I wouldn't be surprised if nVidia releases updates to unlock hardware after a set time period.

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