NVIDIA’s hardline stance on people using GeForce GPUs for mining will extend beyond the RTX 3060, according to multiple sources. So far, NVIDIA has only confirmed that it has limited the hash rate of the RTX 3060, its latest RTX 30 series card. According to RedGamingTech, yesterday’s announcement from NVIDIA may not be its last on the matter.
In that vein, @kopite7kimi claims that NVIDIA may even phase out its current RTX 30 series cards for new SKUs with anti-mining features built-in. While that may seem like an expensive thing for NVIDIA to do, @kopite7kimi correctly predicted in late January that the company would ‘start a battle against mining’. @kopite7kimi is unsure if NVIDIA will tie these refreshed cards to any hardware upgrades, but it will assign every current RTX 30 series card with a new SKU.
This would also suggest that NVIDIA cannot, or will not, patch existing RTX 30 series cards with anti-mining features. Of course, NVIDIA could release new BIOSes and drivers to limit hash rates across its Ampere product stack, which would be controversial. However, it may struggle to force people to adopt these updates, and they would not necessarily be as foolproof as the technology it has integrated within the RTX 3060 is.