Nvidia Reinstates RTX 3060 Ethereum Cryptocurrency Mining Limit

Nvidia has once again implemented a hash limiter on its RTX 3060 graphics cards in an effort to restrict their use for mining Ethereum. This move comes after a prior attempt in February where the company rolled out new drivers to limit the hash rate of Ethereum mining by about 50%. However, Nvidia faced a setback when an accidental unlock occurred with a beta driver release in March, allowing RTX 3060 owners to bypass the restrictions.

With the release of the new GeForce 466.27 driver, Nvidia has reinstated the original limit on the RTX 3060 cards and indicated that this restriction will be mandatory for all future RTX 3060 cards starting in May. Additionally, Nvidia is considering extending hash rate limits to other graphics cards as well.

Matt Wuebbling, head of global GeForce marketing at Nvidia, emphasized the company’s focus on designing GeForce GPUs for gamers and announced the introduction of the Nvidia CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor), a dedicated GPU tailored for cryptocurrency mining, to address the growing demand.

Moreover, Nvidia is reportedly working on a new version of “LHR” (Lite Hash Rate) GPUs for other RTX 30-series cards like the RTX 3060 Ti, 3070, and 3080 models. This initiative aims to deter cryptocurrency miners from buying up stocks quickly, thereby allowing more availability for gaming-focused customers. Only the high-end RTX 3090 model might be excluded from these limitations due to its higher price, making it less attractive for mining purposes.

It will be interesting to see how these measures impact the cryptocurrency mining ecosystem and the availability of Nvidia’s GPUs for both miners and gamers in the future.