The cryptomining limiter that NVIDIA introduced into its latest Ampere graphics card, the GeForce RTX 3060, can be bypassed simply by using a select driver. This is according to ComputerBase and HardwareLuxx, which experimented with green team’s GeForce 470.05 driver and discovered that it doesn’t cripple the GeForce RTX 3060’s ability to mine Ether. The GeForce 470.05 driver is generally distributed by NVIDIA to developers under the Windows Insider program.
“[…] we installed the development driver GeForce 470.05 and lo and behold: we achieve just over 35 MH/s,” HardwareLuxx reported. “As it turned out afterwards, it is not even necessary to change the BIOS file. The installation of the driver alone is enough to bypass the brake. Flashing the original VBIOS back to the EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Gaming, we achieved a hashrate of over 41 MH/s.”
“[We] can confirm that only the beta driver GeForce 470.05 distributed by NVIDIA to developers and via the Windows Insider Program ensures that the performance of the GeForce RTX 3060 in the Ethereum algorithm no longer drops,” corroborated ComputerBase. “A BIOS update is not necessary.”
ComputerBase and HardwareLuxx were tipped off from an earlier story by Japanese tech site PC Watch, which was the first to report that the GeForce RTX 3060’s cryptomining limiter could be easily bypassed. NVIDIA previously suggested that its hash limiter could not be hacked or removed because of a secure handshake between the driver, GPU silicon, and BIOS.
Handshake between "the driver, the RTX 3060 silicon, and the BIOS (firmware)"?
— Andreas Schilling (@aschilling) March 15, 2021
Just installing the GeForce 470.05 seems to be enough to bypass that handshake. This is a joke … pic.twitter.com/CaOmE4YLJG