NVIDIA doubling down with GA106-302 crypto hash rate limiter

Two months ago, NVIDIA tried to make an end to mining on GeForce cards by introducing a hash rate limiter on the GeForce RTX 3060 video card. The idea here was to push miners towards the Cryptocurrency Mining Processors (CMP), a new line of cards aimed specifically at miners. The first CMPs are Turing based so they don't directly compete with GPU supply as these chips are made on an older node.

The hash rate limiter basically halves Ethereum mining performance, which artificially reduces the attractiveness of these cards. However, the hash rate limiter got defeated last month, not in the least because NVIDIA accidentally published a developer driver that contained code to bypass the hash rate limiter. This code was intended for internal testing and was accidentally made public. With the bypass code, use was limited to a single card but miners quickly figured out cheap HDMI dongles could bypass the restrictions entirely.

GA106-302 has new hash rate limiter

Now NVIDIA is ready to try again. VideoCardz reports. Besides a new device ID, this revision will also have further "enhancements" to deter mining.

It is said that the new GA106-302 GPU will not only not work with the new driver but it will also feature ‘further mechanisms’ to ensure that Ethereum mining on RTX 3060 will still be problematic (let’s see for how long this time).

The first GeForce GTX 3060 cards with the GA106-302 revision are expected to hit the market in May. These parts will reportedly be shipped under the same SKU, so consumers will not be able to spot the difference.