NVIDIA RTX 3060 Hashrate Limiter Defeated, GeForce 470.05 Driver Unlocks Full Mining Performance

[btarunr]

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 hash-rate limiter has been defeated, by the company itself, through a driver update. The RTX 3060 was announced by NVIDIA to be meant purely for gamers as it came with measures that make them unviable for mining. The card purportedly had a hash-rate limiter that detected workloads from typical crypto-currency mining algorithms, and spooled down GPU clock speeds, halving the mining efficiency of the card. The idea was to sour the milk for miners, so there could be inventory for gamers. PC Watch reports that the latest GeForce 470.05 drivers distributed by NVIDIA to developers through the Windows Insider Program defeats the hash-rate limiter, significantly improving mining performance of the RTX 3060. With this driver out in the open, miners are sure to pick up RTX 3060 cards to go with it; and simply ignore all future driver updates through NVIDIA's official driver channel.

HardwareLuxx.de and ComputerBase have each independently verified that GeForce 470.05 drivers "restore" mining performance on RTX 3060 cards back to levels their hardware is capable of—roughly matching that of the RTX 2070 Super. This development confirms that the hash-rate limiter was purely driver based, and NVIDIA hoped to artificially throttle mining performance of RTX 3060 cards by simply adding this limiter to all compatible versions of GeForce drivers since the card's launch; but those behind the 470.05 special drivers probably forgot to implement it. Probably because it is based on a different branch of the source code, which is developed in parallel. NVIDIA earlier claimed that the hash-rate limited is a much more sophisticated mechanism involving a "secure handshake between the driver and system-firmware that prevents tampering." So much for that.



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[Gralorn]

I’m not surprised.

 

[Xaled]

NVIDIA hoped to seem that they throttled mining performance of RTX 3060 cards by simply adding this limiter to all compatible versions of GeForce drivers since the card's launch; and after spreading the fake news, those behind the 470.05 special drivers were told to not implement it

 

[ShurikN]

The way you are meant to be played.

 

[Ruru]

Cool, now they can be sold with even higher price.

 

[P4-630]

but those behind the 470.05 special drivers probably forgot to implement it.

 

[the54thvoid]

I no longer care. I've given up on any further PC upgrades. The entire tech environment has gone to shit and the big corporations don't care who buys their products (oddly enough). Both Nvidia and AMD have been entirely disingenuous with their committments to PC gamers.

Screw them.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Knew it was all show and no teeth.
Mining lawyers are sad lol

 

[TheUn4seen]

And that's that for this stupidity.
This really was a shitty move no matter how you look at it. A lot of people who buy a GPU for gaming actually do single-GPU mining in free time just to offset the cost. I personally do just that, my 3080 is mining whenever I don't use the computer. Underclocked and limited to around 200W it chugs along at around 85MH/s which is more than enough to pay for my monthly electrical bill and a gigabit connection with some spare change left.

I no longer care. I've given up on any further PC upgrades. The entire tech environment has gone to shit and the big corporations don't care who buys their products (oddly enough). Both Nvidia and AMD have been entirely disingenuous with their committments to PC gamers.

Screw them.

Wait, did you really think corporations care about you or any consumer? It never worked like this. Honestly, if I was weaving and selling baskets, I really wouldn't care if you used my product to blow up a kindergarten, as long as you paid in full. Corporations care even less. It's all about marketing and believe me, sincerity never had any place in the market.

 

[bug]

Yeah well, it's not like 3060s were collecting dust on shelves and will now be gone because of this. So who cares?

 

[R-T-B]

I no longer care. I've given up on any further PC upgrades. The entire tech environment has gone to shit and the big corporations don't care who buys their products (oddly enough). Both Nvidia and AMD have been entirely disingenuous with their committments to PC gamers.

Screw them.

I feel you. The sad reaction is because it's well... sad.

Yeah well, it's not like 3060s were collecting dust on shelves and will now be gone because of this. So who cares?

Exactly. Even without mining sales, we were screwed anyways.

 

[ozzyozzy]

PR PR PR PR PR PR

 

[the54thvoid]

Wait, did you really think corporations care about you or any consumer? It never worked like this. Honestly, if I was weaving and selling baskets, I really wouldn't care if you used my product to blow up a kindergarten, as long as you paid in full. Corporations care even less. It's all about marketing and believe me, sincerity never had any place in the market.

You missed the bit in brackets where I said 'oddly enough'.

I've always stated companies owe no loyalty to consumers. Though, in reality, it's very good business to listen to those who buy the product.

 

[Bubster]

Ngreedia just keep showing its true colors...

 

[Legacy-ZA]

I think they saw, that their 3060 doesn't sell well, not only to miners, but gamers, it's a sad excuse for an "upgrade" this day and age.

 

[GT610 8GB DDR3]

Nice job! nvidia! I am going to sell my PC and buy PS5!

 

[birdie]

I fully support the reversal of the decision to artificially limit mining performance. The limit never made sense in the first place.

GPUs have stopped being graphics accelerators over a decade ago, they are massively parallel computing devices and must continue to perform this way.

And neither NVIDIA, nor AMD can control where their GPUs go. Period. Whoever believes this is possible should go and make this possible.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Indeed, with AMD drip feeding the market with tiny volumes of cards, they need not bother.

 

[bug]

You missed the bit in brackets where I said 'oddly enough'.

I've always stated companies owe no loyalty to consumers. Though, in reality, it's very good business to listen to those who buy the product.

Well, miners are customers. Customers willing to pay way more for the goods you make. If you were AMD or Nvidia, what would you do?

Edit: The only glitch with that, is AMD and Nvidia still sell their chips at the previously negotiated prices. It's the AIB partners that pocket the difference.

 

[dicobalt]

That was quick.

 

[bug]

That was quick.

The laughable part is it was self inflicted. Hackers didn't need to lift a finger.

 

[Bones]

Looks like the drivers have been pulled, I'm there ATM and the latest shown is ver 461.72.

 

[Ruru]

Yeah well, it's not like 3060s were collecting dust on shelves and will now be gone because of this. So who cares?

Mostly those who would buy a 3060 for gaming, now toy money miners grab every card there is and there's no cards for gamers (at least with a reasonable price)?

 

[windwhirl]

All I have to say about this fail is:

Looks like the drivers have been pulled, I'm there ATM and the latest shown is ver 461.72.

Too late, someone already grabbed them and it's probably distributing them somewhere as we speak.

 

[RedelZaVedno]

LOL, that was SERIOUSLY FAST HACKING