NVIDIA driver confirms return of hash rate limiter in mid-May

NVIDIA confirms rumors about an upcoming "Hash Rate Lite" revision of its Ampere GPUs. The company's original hash rate limiter got foiled by the accidental release of a developer driver with bypass code, but NVIDIA remains is keen on making GeForce cards less attractive to miners.

GeForce 466.27 WHQL needed for new RTX 3060 cards

The goal here is to try to get more GeForce cards in the hands of gamers and to force miners to buy the CMP cards. The new hash rate limiter is introduced via the GeForce 466.27 WHQL driver. The changelog of this new release reveals the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB will get a revision with a new device ID -- which will make it impossible to use current mining-friendly drivers with these new cards. According to NVIDIA, the revised model will start shipping in mid-May. NVIDIA's message does not explicitly confirm whether other cards will get a hash rate limiter too.

Besides hash rate limiter 2.0, the GeForce 466.27 WHQL driver adds support for Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and Resident Evil Village. It also supports five more G-SYNC compatible screens.

New Features and Other Changes

Added support for DirectX 12 Agility SDK.

This driver updates the hash limiter for the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and is required for product shipped starting mid-May. Refer to the NVIDIA Blog for details: Link.

What’s New in Release 465

Version 466.11 added security updates for driver components See the NVIDIA Security Bulletin 5172 for details.

Added support for CUDA 11.3.

Added support for extended DP-to-HDMI 2.1 PCON clock frequency range to better support 8K TVs.

Changed the G-SYNC on-screen status indicator to be less obtrusive.

Fixed Issues in this Release:

[NVIDIA Reflex][Rainbow Six Siege]: Fixed a number of performance related issues related to NVIDIA Reflex and Rainbow Six Siege.

[HDMI 2.1:] In-game FPS may be capped to the display refresh rate when "Vertical sync" is set to Off [3285334].

[Rigid Gems][Prepar3D]: The applications may crash or fail to launch.[3285067/3286874