- The new range of Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics cards will not be kind to Ethereum miners
- The new RTX 3060 card will halve the hash rate produced by the card if it detects Ethereum being mined on it
- Nvidia is making a CMP chip especially for cryptocurrency miners
Anyone wanting to buy Nvidia’s upcoming range of RTX 3060 to mine Ethereum is going to be in for a big surprise – you’ll only get half the hash rate. Nvidia announced last week that their new range of graphics cards, which will cost up to $900 and will be released Thursday, will be programmed to detect when Ethereum is being mined and will automatically reduce the output by half. Miners shouldn’t be put off however – the company is planning to release an Nvidia CMP chip for “professional mining” into a card arriving later this year.
RTX 3060 Cards Will Halve Ethereum Mining Hashrate
Nvidia has been the top graphics card manufacturer for many years, and the constant refining of their technology has encouraged cryptocurrency miners, both amateurs and professionals, to buy up their cards by the armful. This has had a knock on effect to the supply of top end cards and led to complaints from gamers that crypto miners are hogging them.
Nvidia has put their engineers to the task of finding a middle ground and this is exactly what they have done. In order to stop crypto miners buying up all the stock of RTX 3060 cards they have put limitations in place:
RTX 3060 software drivers are designed to detect specific attributes of the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm, and limit the hash rate, or cryptocurrency mining efficiency, by around 50 percent.
This will obviously be a massive turn off for cryptocurrency miners, although some intrepid hackers will undoubtedly try and change the driver code to eradicate this reduction.
Crypto Mining Chip is On the Way
If miners feel that they are being sidelined by Nvidia however then there is good news for them. In order to push miners away from buying up all the RTX 3060 cards, Nvidia has designed a mining-specific chip with a full card to follow later this year. The CMP chip will be directly aimed at cryptocurrency mining, with improved hash rate and reduced core voltage and frequency implemented to improve mining efficiency. The unit that houses it will also have improved air flow, preserving the life of the chip and reducing downtime.
No cards have yet been designed with the new CMP chip and it will be interesting to see how the power output compares to the RTX 3060 cards when they come out, and what the price difference is. In the meantime Ethereum miners are going to have to stick to existing Nvidia cards, although there could be about to be a few more second hand ones on the market once the RTX 3060s launch.
