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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

#151

Post by saurik »

nyjah wrote: post #125

I have a dumb theoretical question, but I genuinely don't understand the answer. Why wouldn't nvidia and amd or any other card maker just keep the cards and mine all the cryptocurrency for themselves?

While having the cards is tablestakes, and newer cards can do more for less, in the end--even for Ethereum--you really still are spending more on electricity than hardware, and so you can have all the cards in the world and still not be able to mine crypto effectively. Most mining is thereby done in other places in the world where the externalities on power generation and use (clean or dirty, both) are less well tracked, with the occasional place in the US--such as the plants in NY that are being booted back up just to mine crypto--where people are actively trying to make it illegal. I would imagine a lot of the mining done in the US ends up being either to "launder" (not quite the right term) money (buying lots of power and converting it to untraceable crypto for illegal activity... kind of a reverse laundry ;P) or with "stolen" power (as is the case of a college student mining in their dorm room).

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

#152

Post by chongli »

nyjah wrote: post #125

I have a dumb theoretical question, but I genuinely don't understand the answer. Why wouldn't nvidia and amd or any other card maker just keep the cards and mine all the cryptocurrency for themselves?

Why mine gold when you could make a fortune selling shovels?

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

#153

Post by pdimitar »

oh_sigh wrote: post #98
pdimitar wrote: post #88

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 bette…

Why would them diminishing a certain aspect that you admittedly never planned on using in the first place affect your decision? Does your work involve computing millions of hashes, but isn't cryptocurrency?

No, my work doesn't involve that at all. It just sends the signal to me as a customer that they can limit what I do with something that I bought and is supposedly now mine. It's a slippery slope kind of situation where you don't know what else they might figure they'll want to limit in the future.

I am not okay with that so I'll vote with my wallet.

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

#154

Post by OminousWeapons »

nyjah wrote: post #125

I have a dumb theoretical question, but I genuinely don't understand the answer. Why wouldn't nvidia and amd or any other card maker just keep the cards and mine all the cryptocurrency for themselves?

Risk. When crypto inevitably crashes again they will be left holding the bag on a huge set of cards that may not have great resale value. Selling the cards is safer and also aligned with their core business competence.

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

#155

Post by knorker »

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.

Would you say the same if you could mine bitcoin by buying up as much medicine as you could, and burning it?

Because if you think the above behavior isn't "earning income" clearly better than "play video games", then your argument falls completely flat.

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

#156

Post by valuearb »

HappySweeney wrote: post #41
Alekhine wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Serious miners are buying Antminers, not video cards.

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

#157

Post by pavel_lishin »

_vertigo wrote: post #145
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…

It's honestly pretty surprising to me to see how many people on here are supporting this move. That's not what I would expect, I would expect people on HN to object to this move on principle. Maybe my prediction in where most HN commenters stand in principle on this issue is wrong, or just maybe, this is a rare example of a time when the principle (hardware should be free to run at their max capability, not deliberat…

I think it's hard to take the principled approach when you see that the result of sticking to principles results in large organizations enriching themselves while ignoring the myriad externalities.

At least, it makes you re-evaluate your principles.

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

#158

Post by 988747 »

valuearb wrote: post #148
nyjah wrote: post #125

I have a dumb theoretical question, but I genuinely don't understand the answer. Why wouldn't nvidia and amd or any other card maker just keep the cards and mine all the cryptocurrency for themselves?

Because BTC is down 30% in the last month?

No one mines BTC on GPU, and Etherum is up 100% from two weeks ago.

Ok, I understand that NVidia does not want to mine themselves, but why on Earth won't they just raise the prices to the level miners are willing to pay?

"We want to sell to gamers, not miners" is the stupidest excuse ever. Isn't capitalism all about selling to the highest bidder? Why do they even care about who buys their product?

EDIT: Also, think about this: gamers that are considering upgrading their hardware get additional incentive - Etherum mining makes buying this new, shiny GPU basically free. Typically, after 9-12 months the initial investment is paid off. Without the possibility of mining many gamers will delay the decision about buying a new GPU, hurting NVidia sales further.

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

#159

Post by rubito »

NazakiAid wrote: post #56

A major bad point with this is when the mining cards become obsolete, they won't be able to be used as a graphics card in a computer due to it not being able to output to a display. So realistically it will decrease avaliable graphic card supply to gamers in the future who are maybe looking for a cheap used graphics card (therefore pushing people to buy a new card instead). Short term fix, long term problem. I was th…

This is incorrect since the onboard HDMI output can be used for that as well (or a secondary GPU).

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

#160

Post by thereare5lights »

_vertigo wrote: post #145
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…

It's honestly pretty surprising to me to see how many people on here are supporting this move. That's not what I would expect, I would expect people on HN to object to this move on principle. Maybe my prediction in where most HN commenters stand in principle on this issue is wrong, or just maybe, this is a rare example of a time when the principle (hardware should be free to run at their max capability, not deliberat…

> I would expect people on HN to object to this move on principle.

I cannot think of any principle that would cause me to object to this.

Blind fealty to general purpose computing here conflicts with the very real world impact on non-crypto consumers. If we're being utilitarian, it seems to me that it would be obvious that this is a good move.

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