Nvidia RTX-30 series refreshed: mining limiter round two
It’s official! Nvidia has announced the revision of the RTX-30 series. More specifically, the models from RTX 3060 to RTX 3080 now feature a new mining limiter that is expected to halve the hash rate on Ethereum.
The cards are delivered with revised GPU Dies – the actual processor. The models have a 2 at the end of their designation. For example, GA102-202 instead of GA102-200 for the RTX 3080. Nvidia recently announced this in a blog post. The so-called Lite Hash Rate (LHR) is intended to halve the performance of graphics cards in Ethereum mining. Ethereum mining is currently the biggest driver of the shortage and high prices of graphics cards. Corona-induced high demand, scalping and resource scarcity are also contributing factors.
Nvidia's board partners like Asus, Msi or Gigabyte will put stickers on their graphics cards, specifying that they are LHR cards.
So what does this mean in concrete terms? The gaming performance of the cards remains the same. Nvidia will no longer manufacture GPU Dies without mining limiters. Cards that have already been produced without a limiter will remain on sale – provided there are any left. The new cards with LHR will gradually be replacing the existing ones.
According to Nvidia, the new cards should now manage to reach gamers. After all, GeForce cards are made for them. This should not only lower prices in retail, but also in resale. Cards without LHR that are used for mining will probably continue to fetch very high prices on resale platforms like Ricardo or Ebay. Cards with LHR should eventually settle at reasonable prices. Time will tell if this will happen. It’s very likely that the prices won’t relax as long as cards are scarce. LHR won’t change that either.
This is also shown in a recent article by Videocardz. According to it, the cards of the RTX-30 series are already up to three times more expensive in European retail than the non-binding retail recommendation.
If and how long the limiter will work remains to be seen. The limiter of the RTX 3060 launched in February lasted just a few days. Let’s hope that Nvidia has learned its lesson from this.
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