GALAX has now become the first NVIDIA partner from whom some details on how NVIDIA's push to limit the mining hash rates on their graphics cards will turn out. The new GALAX graphics cards in question are the already-released, unicorn-like RTX 3070 and RTX 3080. The GALAX packaging doesn't seem to have any differences compared to their original launch packaging for these graphics cards, though; however, the product pages for these respective products do have an additional [FG] compared to the original releases. This seems to be in-line with NVIDIA's decision not to differentiate between LHR and non-LHR cards at a packaging level, so as to reduce desirability for miners to just keep gobbling up remaining supply for the non-LHR graphics cards still in the channel.

As we already knew before, the LHR graphics cards feature an NVIDIA-designed solution that identifies the workload you're putting your card through and artificially halves its performance for Ethereum mining workloads. Of course, NVIDIA would prefer to have miners buying their mining-specific CMP (Crypto Mining Processor) cards and free up demand from their gaming-oriented RTX cards, effectively feeding two very distinct markets. It remains to be seen whether this new NVIDIA hashrate limitation survives more than a few days compared to their latest attempt at such a solution.

Starting today, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint expands its use of Intel Threat Detection Technology (Intel TDT) beyond accelerated memory scanning capabilities to activate central processing unit (CPU) based cryptomining machine learning (ML) detection. This move further accelerates endpoint detection and response for millions of customers without compromising experience.

"This is a true inflection point for the security industry as well as our SMB, mid-market and enterprise customers that have rapidly adopted Windows 10 with built-in endpoint protections. Customers who choose Intel vPro with the exclusive Intel Hardware Shield now gain full-stack visibility to detect threats out of the box with no need for IT configuration. The scale of this CPU-based threat detection rollout across customer systems is unmatched and helps close gaps in corporate defenses," said Michael Nordquist, senior director of Strategic Planning and Architecture in the Business Client Group at Intel.

We saw Gigabyte release the first NVIDIA CMP (Crypto Mining Processor) 30HX card last week, ASUS has now revealed their version of the card with RGB lighting. The ASUS CMP30HX-6G features the same design as the ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER DUAL EVO minus the display connectors. The card features a 2.7 slot design with a dual-fan cooling solution which appears to be the most common design for these cards. The clock speeds and memory configuration are identical to that of Gigabyte's which are both the same as the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER on which the CMP 30HX is based on. The ASUS CMP 30HX will reportedly launch in May with a MSRP of 799 USD which is similar to other rumors.

Gigabyte has recently launched the first NVIDIA Crypto Mining Processor with the CMP 30HX D6 6G (GV-N30HXD6-6G). The entry-level CMP 30HX mining card features an Ethereum hash rate of 26 MH/s and a TDP of 125 W and was slated by NVIDIA for a Q1 2021 launch. Gigabyte is the first manufacturer to officially launch an NVIDIA CMP card and has revealed some interesting information including that the card is listed as having only a three month warranty period and 14 Gbps 6 GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit memory bus. The card features a WINDFORCE 2X Cooling System with alternate spinning 90 mm fans and no video outputs. NVIDIA also announced the CMP 40HX with a Q1 2021 launch date so we expect that partners will list that card shortly. These cards will be followed by the CMP 50HX, and CMP 90HX in May.

When NVIDIA introduced its Ampere family of graphics cards, the GPU lineup's first product was the A100 GPU. While not being a GPU used for gaming, the model is designed with compute-heavy workloads in mind. Even NVIDIA says that "NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU delivers unprecedented acceleration at every scale to power the world's highest-performing elastic data centers for AI, data analytics, and HPC." However, it seems like the GA100 SKU, the base of the A100 GPU, could be used for another task that requires heavy computation and could benefit very much from the sheer core count that the biggest Ampere SKU offers.

According to a known leaker @kopite7kimi (Twitter), NVIDIA could repurpose the GA100 GPU SKU and launch it as a part of the CMP HX crypto mining series of graphics cards. As a reminder, the CMP series is specifically designed for the sole purpose of mining cryptocurrency, and CMP products have no video outputs. According to Kopite, the repurposed GPU SKU could be a "mining monster", which is not too hard to believe given the huge core count the SKU has and the fact that it was made for heavy computation workloads. While we do not the exact specifications of the rumored CMP HX SKU, you can check out the A100 GPU specifications here.

Hot on the heels of NVIDIA's recent Cryptocurrency Mining Processors (CMP) launch and slightly debacled driver-level neutering of popular mining algorithms with their latest GeForce RTX 3060, AMD product manager Nish Neelalojanan confirmed to PC Gamer that AMD's stance is a fundamentally different one: that they won't be the ones to decide what their customers can or can't do with their hardware. His words, precisely, were this: "We will not be blocking any workload, not just mining for that matter."

Nish then went on to speak on how AMD - and its current RDNA2 product stack - have been specifically geared and optimized for gaming workloads. There are some architectural choices present in RDNA2 that automatically reduce its utility and performance when it comes to mining, such as its infinity Cache - an architectural choice that aims to increase gaming performance by improving cache hits, at the expense of overall memory bandwidth (the most important metric for actual mining operations).

The first NVIDIA CMP (Crypto Mining Processor) 30HX card from Gigabyte has been pictured and it closely resembles that of Gigabyte's GTX 1660 SUPER OC 6G. This resemblance makes sense considering the 30HX uses the same TU116-100 GPU found in the GTX 1660 SUPER and is paired with the same 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. The NVIDIA CMP 30HX features a TDP of 125 W and achieves a hash rate of 26 MH/s in Ethereum mining similar to that of the RTX 3060 with it's anti-mining algorithm. The card features no display outputs which limits the cards capabilities once it's no longer profitable to operate. The card should run cool with the dual-fan cooling solution and improved airflow due to the lack of outputs.

Last year, we found out that a group of investors has accused NVIDIA that the company has misled its investors by reporting crypto revenue as gaming revenue numbers and making its gaming revenue seem much bigger than it is. The original lawsuit was filed in 2017 and it demanded that NVIDIA should pay one billion US Dollars to investors shall they be proven right. In 2017, cryptocurrency mining was at the same craze it is today, with people buying every possible card that exists and consumers having a hard time upgrading their PCs. Investors in NVIDIA corporation have believed that in 2017, the company has presented its cryptocurrency earning figures as a part of the gaming figures, thus giving misleading information about the company's success in the gaming market.

Today, we have information that NVIDIA has won this lawsuit. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam has dismissed the case and ruled that investors were unable to provide any significant evidence that the company has used such practices and misled investors. By taking this case off the company, NVIDIA will not be paying one billion USD to the accusing investors and the company continues operations as normal.

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card is likely to feature a hardware hash-rate limiter, much like the recently launched RTX 3060, according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source for NVIDIA rumors. The hash-rate limiter ensures that that crypto-currency mining performance of the card is significantly lower than what its hardware is capable of, so it doesn't remain viable for miners. The limiter works through a secure key exchange between the video BIOS, system firmware, and the driver; so driver-level modifications wouldn't affect it.

The RTX 3080 Ti is being launched to fill the large price-performance gorge between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. Its rumored specifications wildly swing between a 12 GB memory setup maxing out the 384-bit memory interface of the "GA102" silicon; and 20 GB of it across a narrower 320-bit wide interface. The card allegedly features 80 out of 84 streaming multiprocessors (40 out of 42 TPCs) enabled, working out to 10,240 CUDA cores, 80 RT cores, and 320 Tensor cores. Below is a picture of the RTX 3090 Founders Edition.

We recently reported that the NVIDIA 30HX and 40HX CMP cards will be based on the Turing TU116 and TU106 processors. This was good news to those hoping for improved graphics card supplies however, according to a recent report the top-end 90HX CMP card will be based on the Ampere GA102-100 GPU also found in the RTX 3080. The report also claims that the 50HX will feature the Turing TU102 GPU found in the RTX 2080 Ti making the 90HX the only card in the series to feature an Ampere design. The 50HX and 90HX cards are expected to launch later this year and will likely restrict GPU supply if the cryptocurrency boom continues.

NVIDIA's recently published Q4-2020 + Fiscal Year 2021 results show that the alleged "GPU shortage" has had no bearing on the company's financials, with the company raking in $5 billion in revenue, in the quarter ending on January 31, 2021. In its outlook for the following quarter (Q1 FY 2022), the company expects to make another $5.30 billion (± 2%). To its credit, NVIDIA has been maintaining that the shortage of graphics cards in the retail market are a result of demand vastly outstripping supply; than a problem with the supply in and of itself (such as yields of the new 8 nm "Ampere" GPUs). The numbers show that NVIDIA's output of GPUs is fairly normal, and the problem lies with the retail supply-chain.

Crypto-currency mining and scalping are the two biggest problems affecting the availability of graphics cards in the retail market. Surging prices of crypto-currencies, coupled with the latest generation "Ampere" and RDNA2 graphics architectures having sufficient performance/Watt to mine crypto-currencies at viable scale, mean that crypto-miners are able to pick up inventory of graphics cards at wholesale; with very little making it down to retailers. Scalping is another major factor. Those with sophisticated online shopping tools are able to buy large quantities of graphics cards the moment they're available online, so they could re-sell or auction them at highly marked up prices, for profit. NVIDIA started to address the problem of miners by introducing measures that make their upcoming graphics cards artificially slower at mining, affecting the economics of using GPUs; while the problem of scalping remains at large.

We have recently discovered that NVIDIA's newly announced 30HX and 40HX Crypto Mining Processors are based on the last-generation Turing architecture. This news will come as a pleasant surprise to gamers as the release shouldn't affect the availability of Ampere RTX 30 Series GPUs. The decision to stick with Turing for these new devices is reportedly due to the more favorable power-management of the architecture which is vital for profitable cryptocurrency mining operations. The NVIDIA CMP 40HX will feature a custom TU106 processor while the 30HX will include a custom TU116. This information was discovered in the latest GeForce 461.72 WHQL drivers which added support for the two devices.

The NVIDIA RTX 3060 isn't even released yet, but as you might've heard, cards are already doing the rounds throughout the secondhand market at ridiculous prices. And now, to sour the pot even more, one crypto enthusiast going by the name of CryptoLeo on YouTube has shown that he already has his hands on the card - and performed a quick mining test on it. The user showcases the cards' serial number, so I hope NVIDIA is reading this post so as to know exactly which distributor this graphics card came from; breaking time-to-market likely isn't to be taken lightly by the company.

The test, done without the RTX 3060's release drivers (which are still a week away), showcases the graphics card capping its own mining performance a little after the mining algorithms begin to be processed. The card, identified in the below screenshots as tagged "1", shows a decline in performance from the initial 41.5 MH/s down to 24-24 MH/s. The card tagged as "2" is a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, which doesn't show the same performance decline (naturally). That the card exhibited this behavior sans release drivers goes to show that NVIDIA's solution is, at the very, very least, BIOS-based, and isn't a shoestring-budget driver-based solution that was haphazardly thrown in for good measure. And once again, it's a ZOTAC card in the mining spotlight. Is this a pattern?

Yesterday NVIDIA announced the company's first Crypto Mining Processor (CPM) that serves the purpose of having a dedicated processor only for mining with no video outputs. Alongside the new processors, the company has also announced that in the next driver update the GeForce RTX 3060 GPU will get Etherium mining performance halved, limiting the use of this GPU SKU by miners. However, up until now, we have thought that NVIDIA is limiting the mining performance of this card by simply having a driver detect if crypto mining algorithms are in place and limit the performance. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. According to Bryan Del Rizzo, director of global PR for GeForce, more things are working behind the driver.

According to Mr. Del Rizzo: "It's not just a driver thing. There is a secure handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060 silicon, and the BIOS (firmware) that prevents removal of the hash rate limiter." This means that essentially, NVIDIA can find any way to cripple the mining hash rate even if you didn't update your driver version. At the same time, according to Kopite7Kimi, we are possibly expecting to see NVIDIA relaunch its existing SKUs under a different ID, which would feature a built-in anti-crypto mining algorithm. What the company does remains to be seen.

An internet cafe in Vietnam has turned to mining cryptocurrency as the pandemic has affected their business. Internet cafes have been ordered to close to limit the spread of COVID-19 forcing the owners to find an alternative use for their computer hardware. The owner of Star Computer computer cafe in Ho Chi Minh city has announced that they will be switching to cryptocurrency mining as the "profits are higher". The cafe is owned by a Vietnamese computer store and has managed to secure a significant number of RTX 3080 GPUs for the mining operations. Star Computer internet cafe has also encouraged other internet cafe owners to contact them about setting up similar operations.

Star Computers (translation)Switching business season, Profits are higher than net business, whoever wants to do, contact me for free.

Cryptocurrency market capitalization has now hit over $650 Billion, and that is mainly influenced by a single, most wide-spread currency on the network - Bitcoin. The Bitcoin (BTC) is the biggest cryptocurrency available, simply because it was the first one established and well designed. In its history, Bitcoin was priced anywhere from 0.1 cents to tens of thousands of US Dollars. However, in the recent soaring, the cryptocurrency has reached its peak value since it was created. Today, at around 09:14 UTC, the cryptocurrency has reached an astonishing value of 23,441.60 USD, making it a record high value. What is driving the price up and the reason for soaring is unknown, but it is a reflection of the market capitalization of cryptocurrency and its use, so it must mean that the BTC is getting more attention than ever.

New Linux patches seem to point towards a cryptocurrency-focused graphics card from AMD. First spotted by Phoronix, the patches add descriptions for a "navi10 blockchain SKU" - it's a pretty self-describing, well, description. The device ID is reported as 0x731E, and Phoronix says that the major difference between this graphics card and the other Navi 10 offerings in the market (namely RX 5700XT and RX 5700) is the absence of Display Core Next (DCN) and Video Core Next (VCN) engines. Whether these are absent from the silicon, or simply disabled by other means is currently unclear. Their absence, however points towards cards with no graphical outputs, a lapalissian practicality for cryptocurrency-focused graphics mining products.

Phoronix estimates a release of no sooner than early 2021, considering the timing of the patch information on Linux. While the market for GPU-accelerated cryptocurrency mining isn't what it used to be (luckily), there is still a market opportunity to be taken advantage of here - while ASICs have become more commonplace, there are still many GPU-mining alternatives within the realm of crypto. A crypto-focused product might steer users away from gaming-oriented consumer products, thus easing strain on supply for AMD's upcoming RX 6000 series - especially if this Navi 10-based GPU (or should we call it a CHU - Cryptocurrency Hashing Unit?) features some voltage and power adjustments to increase power efficiency on these workloads.

Intel today unveiled the suite of new security features for the upcoming 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable platform, code-named "Ice Lake." Intel is doubling down on its Security First Pledge, bringing its pioneering and proven Intel Software Guard Extension (Intel SGX) to the full spectrum of Ice Lake platforms, along with new features that include Intel Total Memory Encryption (Intel TME), Intel Platform Firmware Resilience (Intel PFR) and new cryptographic accelerators to strengthen the platform and improve the overall confidentiality and integrity of data.

Data is a critical asset both in terms of the business value it may yield and the personal information that must be protected, so cybersecurity is a top concern. The security features in Ice Lake enable Intel's customers to develop solutions that help improve their security posture and reduce risks related to privacy and compliance, such as regulated data in financial services and healthcare.

NVIDIA has (not surprisingly) dismissed allegations that it had misled investors in regard to demand towards its GeForce graphics products circa 2017. The original allegation claimed that NVIDIA has wrongfully misrepresented GeForce division sales to investors by including crypto-focused sales on its bottom line. This, investors claim, painted a safer investment opportunity on NVIDIA stock than it actually was - the volatility of the crypto market and associated unpredictability in NVIDIA GeForce products' demand being the sore point for investors. Demand of GeForce products for gaming is considered to be less risk-averse and less elastic than crypto-focused sales.

NVIDIA says that investors cherry-picked corporate statements while ignoring others that, according to NVIDIA, showed transparency. The ammended class suit, which was amended in May 2020 from its original 2017 entry date, accuses Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Jeff Fisher, head of gaming, claiming they knew the rise in GeForce GPU sales was linked to the crypto mining boom and wasn't going to last in the long-term. NVIDIA says that executives didn't lie when they described crypto sales as a "small portion" of their revenue (which was disclosed at $6.9 billion for the year 2017). Another contention point from NVIDIA is that executives in the company (and the company itself) had no way of knowing ecactly what purpoze its sold GPUs were being put to.

During its second quarter earnings call, Intel announced that it has started shipping of 10th generation "Core" CPUs to OEMs. Making use of 10 nm lithography, the 10th generation of "Core" CPUs, codenamed Ice Lake, were qualified by OEMs earlier in 2019 in order to be integrated into future products. Ice Lake is on track for holiday season 2019, meaning that we can expect products on-shelves by the end of this year. That is exciting news as the 10th generation of Core CPUs is bringing some exciting micro-architectural improvements along with the long awaited and delayed Intel's 10nm manufacturing process node.

The new CPUs are supposed to get around 18% IPC improvement on average when looking at direct comparison to previous generation of Intel CPUs, while being clocked at same frequency. This time, even regular mobile/desktop parts will get AVX512 support, alongside VNNI and Cryptography ISA extensions that are supposed to bring additional security and performance for the ever increasing number of tasks, especially new ones like Neural Network processing. Core configurations will be ranging from dual core i3 to quad core i7, where we will see total of 11 models available.

This is a pretty high-profile heist, as heist come, since Binance is actually the rworld's biggest crypto exxchange in terms of traded volume. The act was reported by Binance as a well-conducted orchestra, with hackers using seemingly unconnected accounts at the most opportune time to achieve a single, high-value withdrawal of $41M (roughly 7,000 Bitcoin at current pricing) - only 2% of Binance's total value in their so-called "hot wallet".

The hackers also took away with several information on users' accounts: a large number of user API keys, 2FA codes, and "potentially other info" were taken besides the cool $41M in Bitcoin. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao warned that the hackers could still be controlling enough relevant accounts that could allow them to influence pricing and make even more money.

Remember Coinhive, one of the most negative faces of crypto currencies to ever grace the world wide web? The platform, which allowed for websites (or malicious players) to inject web pages' code with cryptocurrency mining algorithms that hijacked visitors' CPUs to mine the privacy-focused Monero cryptocurrency has announced they are shuttering their doors (and services) on the 8th of March. The company cites changes to Monero's rewards and has rates declines following some hard forks, as well as overall crypto market value being down, with Monero having deprecated some 85% since the website put its code up for grabs.

For companies and/or users that used Coinhive's code to mine Monero with other users' systems - usually, without their consent or knowledge - have until April to withdraw any earnings they have amassed. After that, it's all gone. It's quite obvious that this was only one of the first manifestations of wrongly-designed cryptomining, but then again, some users will always take advantage of these sorts of tools.

In a classic case of why businesses should have disaster mitigation plans in place, Vancouver-based crypto-currency exchange QuadrigaCX has potentially lost USD $137 million in assets (customers' money), after its founder's death. Founder and director Gerry Cotten had stored the money in an offline cold wallet on an encrypted laptop and committed its password to memory. In December, Cotten died overseas of Crohn's disease, leaving the company with no other handwritten record of the laptop's password.

Crypto exchanges tend to store assets in cold wallets either on offline computers or plain paper, to avoid the wallets getting stolen on hacked online computers. The company has hired cybersecurity firms to try and decrypt the laptop to no success thus far. Cotten's widow Jennifer Robertson in a sworn affidavit to a court said that she had not found any traces of the password in their residence despite repeated and thorough searches. QuadrigaCX in addition to the $137 million under management, also holds $53 million in disputed assets.

The new year does not seem to bring good tidings alone for NVIDIA, with yet another class action lawsuit promising to keep their legal team busy. When we first posted about NVIDIA stock prices falling 2.1% following the launch of their Turing microarchitecture cards, there was no warning that just a few days after that post things would get worse. Indeed, as of today, the NVIDIA stock price on the NASDAQ stock market has fallen nearly 54% from the 1-year high that was only this past calendar quarter. California-based Schall law firm believes this drop in price can be attributed to more than just the volatile trading that has been ongoing in general in the stock markets, and has decided to file a class action lawsuit against NVIDIA.

Schall Law believes, and we quote, "the Company made false and misleading statements to the market. NVIDIA touted its ability to monitor the cryptocurrency market and make rapid changes to its business as necessary. The Company claimed to be "masters at managing our channel, and we understand the channel very well." NVIDIA also claimed to the market that any drop off in demand for its GPUs amongst cryptocurrency miners would not negatively impact the Company's business because of strong demand for GPUs from the gaming market. Based on these facts, the Company's public statements were false and materially misleading throughout the class period. When the market learned the truth about NVIDIA, investors suffered damages." These are strong words indeed, as oft is the case with the launch of class action lawsuits, and they have put out a press statement to accompany a link for those wanting to join along which can be seen in the source below.

In a move that made us go "WTF" internally, Razer has decided to test their fanbase's loyalty more so than ever before. Today, the company introduced Razer Softminer, a mining software program that is intended to be installed on computers and run to mine cryptocurrency. But instead of the users getting whatever new cryptocurrency is in fashion, Razer instead wants to retain all mined crypto and in turn "award" users with the so-called Razer Silver- loyalty reward credits, in their own words. The miner appears to be running off a version of the Gamma desktop application, as per speculation from TweakTown.

Razer Softminer utilizes heavy GPU performance loads, and there is no mention as to what the actual mining is for. It is clear, however, that the users are not mining Razer Silver (which Razer is quick to admit is not cryptocurrency) and these loyalty credits are handed out in an equivalent manner based on the mining power of the system. In their estimate, a sytem with at least a NVIDIA GTX 1050 or AMD RX 460 running the mining program for a whole day will net ~500 Razer Silver, and these can be used to "redeem Razer peripherals, digital rewards such as games, vouchers and more" from a dedicated rewards page.