NVIDIA are preparing GeForce RTX 30 series cards with LHR models; specifically cutting down their mining performance.
Mining has become one of the bigger issues plaguing PC gamers in their quest to buying a new video card, and Nvidia has come up with a solution to the issue by limiting functionality for consumers. Videocardz reports Nvidia has decided to refresh their RTX 30 series card with Lite Hash Rate models (LHR), that will limit the mining performance of these GPUs.
This theoretically should reduce the number of scalpers, and help availability to gamers. However, many took issue with a similar strategy NVIDIA took with the RTX 3060. It had its hashing power limited by nearly half, as gamers who were paying already inflated prices sought mining a single card to try and recoup some of the costs as a consolation.
These cards were still sold at nearly double the MSRP on Ebay and other sites. A partial work around to the supposedly unhackable limiter was eventually found, though was a complex matter for most consumers.
Nvidia reportedly has already updated its board partners on shipments that are going out in mid-May. These cards will feature new SKUs under GA**2 branding, and will have resizable BAR support without any software updates. Current users need to flash the BIOS in order to permit this functionality.
These cards also will not make it clear to users which chips have LHR or not, as they will all use the same product names. Until software monitoring tools get updated, consumers will also have no way to tell for sure.
VideoCardz also stated that their source stated the RTX 3090 may not feature the crypto limter due to the already incredibly high price of the card, however will still be refreshed at least for the ReBAR support.
These GeForce RTX 30 series cards are expected to launch June 2021.
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Image: Nvidia
