Updated | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 hash rate limiter allegedly hacked by Chinese crypto miners
UPDATE: Videocardz points out that the crypto being mined is Conflux, and not Etherium. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060's Etherium mining capacity still sits around 25MH/s.
Original article: Nvidia launched the GeForce RTX 3060 with hash rate limiters to disincentivize crypto miners from scooping up cards by the truckloads. However, the RTX 3060 is still hard to find, and now, to add insult to injury, some Chinese miners have managed to bypass the hash rate restriction on the graphics card. Some salt is in order here, though, as the exact test methodology of the bypass hasn't been published.
It is uncertain as to how the miners managed such a feat, which was discovered by Twitter user @I_Leak_VN. One theory speculates that a downgraded vBIOS did the trick while another states that it was due to modified drivers. Nvidia's hash rate limiter made it so that the GeForce RTX 3060 could only mine Etherium at 20MH/s. However, with the bypass in place, the graphics card could hit its full capacity of 45MH/s, which is more than double the performance.
A report from earlier told us that Nvidia would relaunch its entire Ampere lineup with mining restrictions in place. That seems somewhat unlikely now, given that it has taken miners less than a month to beat Nvidia's seemingly unbreakable restrictions. One can only hope that Nvidia launches its CMP line of dedicated mining cards soon to slightly increase the chances of gamers getting their hands on a card.
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