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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

#141

Post by patrickk »

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 they’re in the business of manufacturing and selling GPUs, not speculating on volatile crypto markets which could nosedive 90%+ in short order and drastically cut the profitability of mining.

If they suddenly changed strategy like this, their stock price would be hammered instantly and there would be a clamour to replace their CEOs and boards.

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

#142

Post by Vrondi »

dorkwood wrote: post #99
seneca wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Freedom is great when people aren't using their freedom to infringe on other people's freedom. Other people driving up the price on something you want is not "[infringing] on other people's freedom". It's an inconvenience, but you're still completely free to buy at the inflated price.

Could the price ever reach a point where you would say it infringes on the general public's freedom to purchase? Or are all prices simply greater and greater inconveniences?

No. There is no constitution of any nation which says you are owed the freedom to be guaranteed that a luxury good (like gaming graphics cards) will be available when you feel like buying it. Market scarcity of luxury goods has no infringement on anyone's freedom. Just like market availability of luxury cars or gold jewelry in no way infringes on anyone's freedom.

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

#143

Post by 542458 »

akersten wrote: post #133
542458 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPUs have been doing this forever. This is exactly the same as some features being enabled on quadros that don’t exist on RTX/GTX/GT cards. That’s (mostly) not silicon, that’s just firmware. This isn’t covering any supply chain failures (despite what nvidia says, the number of available GPUs remains approximately fixed), it’s just more market segmentation to minimize the secondhand mining GPU market and capture more…

> GPUs have been doing this forever though. This is exactly the same as some features being enabled on quadros that don’t exist on RTX/GTX/GT cards. No, I think this is the first time a GPU has been heuristically trying to detect what you're doing and self-limiting in response. How is that equivalent to features just being literally off? There's no special "mine-crypto" instruction in the CUDA ISA. > there have been…

The 3060 has been out for a few months now, and it has the limiter. Re: your edit about noticing, I strongly disagree. Tech reviewers would LOVE to run the “limiter cripples Blender/Tensorflow/whatever” story, but that hasn’t happened. And in this market users are generally taking what they can get, so I’ve seen lots of people who would normally run 70/80/90s running 60s instead.

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

#144

Post by knorker »

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…

No matter if you think of what's happening here, NVidia is clearly not the bad guys in this story.

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

#145

Post by _vertigo »

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 deliberately hamstrung, etc. etc. - to me, this kind of ties in with the "software should be free" principle) conflicts with a more immediate desire to play the latest video games (lol).

Harder to take the principled approach when you've been waiting "like 11 whole months for the 3080 I mean seriously dude".

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

#146

Post by TwoBit »

levesque wrote: post #94
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.

Going to be fun to see cases of false positives. "Help! My FPS drops 75% after running game for 30 minutes!"

Those games are using a lot more of the gpu than just the compute functionality.

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

#147

Post by akersten »

luma wrote: post #140
akersten wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this works (spoiler: it won't, it will be cracked within a month), it will create more e-Waste as miners will toss their no-video-output-mining-only cards after they're no longer the latest tech, instead of being able to resell them to gamers, thinning the used graphics card market, forcing more gamers to buy new from nVidia instead of rebuying old cards online. That makes me angry, it should make you angry too.

They are clearly marking the new models with a new suffix on the model number. As someone who has been trying for months to buy a 3080 and has zero interest in crypto, this is fantastic news... IFF it means I can actually purchase a card. This doesn't make me angry, and I don't think it should make you angry either.

The e-Waste part is what should collectively anger us, but I'm glad you're able to buy your card.

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

#148

Post by valuearb »

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?

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

#149

Post by slver »

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 wouldn't nvidia and amd or any other card maker just keep the cards and mine all the cryptocurrency for themselves?

Bitcoin costs more to mine than the power bill you'll receive. This is why increasingly most malware happens by stealing power one way or another. And I don't think NVidia and AMD are in the stealing power business.

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

#150

Post by [deleted] »

akersten wrote: post #123
slownews45 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thrilled by this. This has been a common approach in I think almost every industry. What nvidia is doing is recognizing that the needs of existing long time consumers / clients / partners are not being met by the current situation. Yes, it inflates short term profits and increases their pricing power, but long run if you can't buy nvidia for your dev box, your game box etc, this reduces the long run nvidia ecosys…

If this works (spoiler: it won't, it will be cracked within a month), it will create more e-Waste as miners will toss their no-video-output-mining-only cards after they're no longer the latest tech, instead of being able to resell them to gamers, thinning the used graphics card market, forcing more gamers to buy new from nVidia instead of rebuying old cards online. That makes me angry, it should make you angry too.

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