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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

#81

Post by Siira »

optymizer wrote: post #72
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…

I woke up early back on launch day in October 2020 to buy a 3080 when they said it would be available. Couldn't get one. Periodically I'd check newegg and other sites to see if the shortage is gone. Nope, on 05/18 it's still out of stock everywhere. Throwing $750 on a piece of hardware to play games shouldn't be this horrendous of an experience. I for one am glad nVidia is doing something about it.

They should just raise the prices. Supply and demand, you know?

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

#82

Post by [deleted] »

livre wrote: post #71
smiley1437 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've read, the card detects if it has been continuously mining for 30 minutes then throttles itself.

GP's question was about _how_ it detects it has been mining. Does it have a list of processes or executable names of popular mining software? Does it perform some kind of heuristic and detect if the code it is about to execute corresponds to a hashing algorithm? I don't know the answer, I hope someone can explain it to me and GP.

[deleted]

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

#83

Post by PragmaticPulp »

Siira wrote: post #81
optymizer wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I woke up early back on launch day in October 2020 to buy a 3080 when they said it would be available. Couldn't get one. Periodically I'd check newegg and other sites to see if the shortage is gone. Nope, on 05/18 it's still out of stock everywhere. Throwing $750 on a piece of hardware to play games shouldn't be this horrendous of an experience. I for one am glad nVidia is doing something about it.

They should just raise the prices. Supply and demand, you know?

Prices have been raised.

You can buy an RTX 3080 right now if you want. It's just going to cost you $2500 or so because vendors and scalpers are capturing that markup.

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

#84

Post by CardenB »

neither_color wrote: post #77
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…

While I wholeheartedly agree that nvidia should do this, what bothers me is that they take functionality away without adding anything in or lowering the price. They are selling a "technically" inferior SKU for the same price.

Due to supply constraints, retail does not represent the true price. 3080s are generally going for $3k on eBay right now. Their move is allowing the price of the card to LOWER back to retail price.

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

#85

Post by Siira »

tshaddox wrote: post #47
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.

Price discrimination is evil. Perfect discrimination leads to products having zero economic worth to the consumer.

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

#86

Post by nickff »

tshaddox wrote: post #47
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.

De-rated units are usually chips that didn't perform as well as they could have. A variety of manufacturing discrepancies (defects) can cause excess heat dissipation or non-functional cores.

Selecting what a given unit should be rated to (clocked at or enabled to do) is often known as 'binning', and is common throughout the electronics industry.

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

#87

Post by [deleted] »

optymizer wrote: post #72
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…

I woke up early back on launch day in October 2020 to buy a 3080 when they said it would be available. Couldn't get one. Periodically I'd check newegg and other sites to see if the shortage is gone. Nope, on 05/18 it's still out of stock everywhere. Throwing $750 on a piece of hardware to play games shouldn't be this horrendous of an experience. I for one am glad nVidia is doing something about it.

[deleted]

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

#88

Post by pdimitar »

I never planned to mine cryptocurrency but such a move sends a very bad message to me as an end user.

Fine, NVIDIA. I planned to have a dedicated Win10 gaming PC with an RTX 3090 and a separate Linux workstation but I guess it's better if I just get the Threadripper Pro workstation and equip it with an AMD 6900XT and do both my work and gaming under Linux. Will spend 40-50% less money, too.

And Steam is getting better and better at gaming under Linux with each passing week so the Linux users automatically get in a better position with time.

If that's how you want to play, good luck to you, NVIDIA. You just lost a future customer.

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

#90

Post by snuxoll »

canada_dry wrote: post #53
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.

Hacks that re-enable mining likely won't be showing up on tpb anytime soon! A bypass will be worth quite a bit of money for large miners that can get hold of the cards.

Scalpers benefit from it, and they have an extreme incentive to drive up demand.
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