Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says • Hacker News Board

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#41

Post by xvector » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:05 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #35

beachy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or a carbon tax and solve the problem at source.

That’d only partially solve it: we don’t want to waste renewable power which could be going to something of value.

You are moving the goalposts. If Bitcoin miners pay for renewable energy, they are no longer harming the environment.

Who are you to dictate what someone does with energy they pay for? Just because you do not like what they do, doesn't mean you can ban it if it's not harming you.

There is no evidence that Bitcoin's usage of renewables is preventing others from paying for renewables too.

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#42

Post by dmm » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:05 PM UTC

beachy wrote: post #31

mrfinn wrote: post #28

World really needs a ban on PoW cryptocurrencies. I guess on one side lot of people is not caring about it as long as they make some money of it, and in the other side maybe other people in power, is not caring as that would make a perfect excuse to ban any kind of cryptocurrency. I guess too we all will care as soon as the devastation caused by the climate change becomes a massive life threatening issue.

Or a carbon tax and solve the problem at source.

Wouldn't all the miners(and every other carbon intensive industry) just move to a place without a carbon tax?

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#43

Post by zamadatix » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:05 PM UTC

wnevets wrote: post #12

cammikebrown wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 1060 3GB can still run every game I throw at it (except Cyberpunk). MS Flight Sim runs great at high, for instance, especially after the performance update.

What FPS do you consider "great"?

Looks like ~60 (more in rural areas, less in cities) for 1080p low on that card... which isn't fantastic but better than I expected. The limiting factor in cities seems to be the VRAM as the 1060 6 GB version can bench about the same flying through New York City bumped up to medium and shows using nearly 5 GB of VRAM while doing it.

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#44

Post by GhettoComputers » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:06 PM UTC

beachy wrote: post #31

mrfinn wrote: post #28

World really needs a ban on PoW cryptocurrencies. I guess on one side lot of people is not caring about it as long as they make some money of it, and in the other side maybe other people in power, is not caring as that would make a perfect excuse to ban any kind of cryptocurrency. I guess too we all will care as soon as the devastation caused by the climate change becomes a massive life threatening issue.

Or a carbon tax and solve the problem at source.

That solves nothing, it only lines politician’s pockets. The cost of electricity is the deterrent currently, which is why you don’t see everyone mining. If you want to make electricity cost more, it’ll “solve” more than crypto mining, it’ll just make mostly poor people have a lower standard of life.

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#45

Post by Tenoke » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:06 PM UTC

mrfinn wrote: post #28

World really needs a ban on PoW cryptocurrencies. I guess on one side lot of people is not caring about it as long as they make some money of it, and in the other side maybe other people in power, is not caring as that would make a perfect excuse to ban any kind of cryptocurrency. I guess too we all will care as soon as the devastation caused by the climate change becomes a massive life threatening issue.

Imposing global technological bans so willy-nilly seems like a nice idea only on the surface. Things like machine drying your clothes at home in the US (uncommon in Europe so seems frivolous) uses as much if not more energy. Others might consider gaming or self-hosted servers or who knows what else equally inefficient. Do you really want to put things so easily on the potential chopping block even if this one thing you hear a lot about might be a waste?

Now if PoW was using 10% of the world power maybe it'd worth it but I just don't see how you can justify such a ban but only apply it to this one thing.

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#46

Post by thehappypm » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:06 PM UTC

beachy wrote: post #31

mrfinn wrote: post #28

World really needs a ban on PoW cryptocurrencies. I guess on one side lot of people is not caring about it as long as they make some money of it, and in the other side maybe other people in power, is not caring as that would make a perfect excuse to ban any kind of cryptocurrency. I guess too we all will care as soon as the devastation caused by the climate change becomes a massive life threatening issue.

Or a carbon tax and solve the problem at source.

All a carbon tax does is punish consumers, while making crypto miners make less profit. The amount of tax it would take to make crypto mining less profitable basically is an imposition of austerity.

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#47

Post by acdha » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:06 PM UTC

YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo wrote: post #5

saulrh wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the entry-level card can run its clock 30% faster than the same line's top-end offering supports the story pretty solidly, IMO. Not supporting 8 GB of vram can't have given them enough breathing room to casually run the clock that fast, so this has to have been decided way up front. Like the article says, it remains to be seen whether this will also make the card bad at gaming, but I think that AMD at l…

The RX 6500 XT is a worse card than the RX480 released 5 years ago https://i.redd.it/oyxyoxmch2a81.jpg .

Do you have a more reliable source than a random Reddit image assemblage?

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#48

Post by postalrat » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:07 PM UTC

YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo wrote: post #5

saulrh wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the entry-level card can run its clock 30% faster than the same line's top-end offering supports the story pretty solidly, IMO. Not supporting 8 GB of vram can't have given them enough breathing room to casually run the clock that fast, so this has to have been decided way up front. Like the article says, it remains to be seen whether this will also make the card bad at gaming, but I think that AMD at l…

The RX 6500 XT is a worse card than the RX480 released 5 years ago https://i.redd.it/oyxyoxmch2a81.jpg .

Well is it cheaper than a 5 year old rx480?

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#49

Post by gambiting » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:08 PM UTC

xvector wrote: post #37

mrfinn wrote: post #28

World really needs a ban on PoW cryptocurrencies. I guess on one side lot of people is not caring about it as long as they make some money of it, and in the other side maybe other people in power, is not caring as that would make a perfect excuse to ban any kind of cryptocurrency. I guess too we all will care as soon as the devastation caused by the climate change becomes a massive life threatening issue.

I pay for all my energy to be renewable. I don't see why my crypto mining needs to be banned. In fact, estimates peg Bitcoin's use of renewable energy to be between 50-75%. This is a fact lost on HN, which hates crypto at all costs.

That's not how this works. Even if you pay your supplier to buy only renewable energy on the open market, if your house is supplied by a coal power plant then your mining rig is powered by coal, regardless who you're paying for your electricity. Yes it feels good to pay for renewable electricity but ultimately that's not how it works.

And crypto needs to be banned because it's all a gigantic scam that has a gigantic environmental cost attached to it.

Re: Radeon RX 6500 XT is bad at cryptocurrency mining on purpose, AMD says

#50

Post by bluecalm » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 10:08 PM UTC

mrfinn wrote: post #28

World really needs a ban on PoW cryptocurrencies. I guess on one side lot of people is not caring about it as long as they make some money of it, and in the other side maybe other people in power, is not caring as that would make a perfect excuse to ban any kind of cryptocurrency. I guess too we all will care as soon as the devastation caused by the climate change becomes a massive life threatening issue.

You don't need a specific ban. Just even the playing field for traditional finance. Either make cryptocurrencies follow normal banking/financial laws or make laws for traditional finance more liberal. Cryptocurrencies and especially PoW based ones are a terrible, slow, inefficient and vulnerable technology which wouldn't survive a day of fair competition.