The GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti LHR antimining cryptocurrencies are launched. With the hope that the miners do not rush on when they are available in a few days.
The shortage of graphics cards does not appear to be subsiding, and most analysts now expect an improvement in the situation that is not likely to occur until 2022. NVIDIA tries to meet player demand by making its graphics cards less efficient for mining cryptocurrencies.
Reduced hash rate
The U.S. manufacturer announced GeForce RTX 3080, 3070, and 3060 Ti LHR (for Lite Hash Rate). For gamers, these GPUs are just as satisfying as the original models. But for miners, as the name suggests, they offer a much lower yield with a much lower hash rate.
All new RTX 3080, 3070, and 3060 Ti graphics cards are now manufactured as LHR. The first units will be available for sale from the end of May 2021. Graphics cards already produced are not affected, and NVIDIA does not anticipate any new Founder’s Edition stocks with LHR.
Retailers will need to specify whether they are marketing the original version or the LHR version of a graphics card. The word “LHR” will also appear directly on the box of the affected products.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 HLR: Amid shortage, the first stocks would go to cybercafés
NVIDIA had already indicated that all new entry-level graphics cards in the RTX 3060 series would have a reduced hash rate. The aim is to deter cryptocurrency miners, including Ethereum, from mass buying GPUs, leaving only crumbs for players who want to upgrade their configuration.
In its blog post entitled “One more step to bring GeForce cards into the hands of players,” NVIDIA explains that the versatility and power of its GPUs make them desirable to an audience other than gamers, such as scientists to generate weather simulations, for DNA sequencing work, for deep learning… Miners, who have partly broken the market, should now find less interest.