NVIDIA: the RTX 3060 will soon be prevented from mining hardware
After the failure of its software solution to curb Ethereum mining on its RTX-3060, NVIDIA wants to use drastic measures. The mark would this time pass to a material restraint.
To do this, and according to information from the Hong Kong site HKEPC (via TechPowerUp), NVIDIA is preparing to introduce a brand new variant of the GA106 GPU used for RTX 3060 graphics cards. This new version (GA106-302) would be identical to the one we currently know (GA106-300), except that she would receive a new PCI ID. Enough to make any existing driver useless.
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Above all, this solution would allow NVIDIA to rectify the situation after the mistaken publication of a driver containing the keys to circumvent the software restriction previously implemented on the RTX 3060, one of the models most appreciated by cryptocurrency miners.
Note that this algorithm, dedicated to limiting the hash rate on the card, did not prevent motivated miners from making profits using RTX 3060, in particular by going through other cryptocurrencies than the Ethereum. It remains to be seen whether the hardware solution that NVIDIA seems to be about to adopt is more efficient… and above all more durable.
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A “new” GPU introduced somewhere in May?
The introduction of this new GA106-302 variant would happen in May. It will logically replace the GA106-300 GPU on the RTX 3060s shipped later, but the thing should be perfectly painless for the consumer… who is having a hard time getting their hands on a next-gen NVIDIA card anyway.
Interesting fact: according to leaker kopite7kimi, NVIDIA is working on a similar solution for its other GPUs (GA104 and GA102 in particular) and could thus extend this hardware blockage to its other RTX 3000s.
Source : TechPowerUp
