NVIDIA confirmed in May 2021 that it would be halving the Ethereum hash rate of newly manufactured GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards with a mining limiter as part of an attempt to get more GPUs into the hands of gamers.
That effort was largely futile, according to the thoughts of cryptocurrency miners that have been rounded up by PCMag, which include those from Teeter, a miner who owns a rig with about 95 GPUs that include some of NVIDIA’s LHR models. While NVIDIA’s mining limiter works as advertised, users such as Tweeter have suggested that green team should not have even bothered, as the GPUs are still good enough to provide nice profits and remain attractive for the majority of miners.
“Yes, I feel LHR was pointless,” said Teeter, whose mining rig still manages to generate about $4,500 in Ethereum per month (after electricity costs) even with the handicapped versions of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX cards. The mining “isn’t a deal breaker for miners,” he noted.
Other reasons as to why NVIDIA’s Lite Hash Rate Limiter has been ineffective:
- Software programs exist to raise the Ethereum mining capabilities of NVIDIA LHR models to over 70 percent
- GPU shortages mean that miners won’t hesitate to pick up whatever is viable, even models that have been handicapped
- NVIDIA’s LHR cards only have a reduced hash rate for Ethereum, so the limiter is not a factor for the many miners out there who work with other cryptocurrencies
Others have pointed out that the usage of desktop graphics cards for mining is only going to increase, as it’s so easy to make a decent profit.
“We’ve heard a bunch of stories from users in less than developed countries, where with one GPU, they can feed a family,” said Marko Tarman, a mining hardware specialist for NiceHash. “If you can basically earn money with zero effort, why not?”
Source: PCMag