Nvidia's hash rate limiter, which is integrated in most of its graphics cards that are being sold by regular retailers these days, has apparently done very little in regard to the astronomical prices and scalping issue which has made a new GPU unattainable for a large number of gamers. Even though the cryptomining boom may be over, a new utility could possibly worsen this frustrating situation once again.
According to a report by Tom's Hardware, a developer named Sergey is about to release a public beta of the "first fully automated BIOS modifier for RTX cards with LHR v2 lock", which is supposed to be able to restore the full cryptomining performance of most hashrate limited Nvidia RTX GPUs by modifying their BIOS. In addition to the BIOS modification, a custom graphics driver is also provided to unlock the full hashrate of these graphics cards.
The aforementioned developer has apparently already tested this procedure and achieved massively improved cryptomining performance on many notable Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 GPUs which are commonly used for Ethereum-based mining. These purported hashrates can be found in the table below, and they for example include the RTX 3070 LHR and RTX 3080 LHR which are supposedly able to hit 57 MH/s and 100 MH/s respectively with the modified BIOS and drivers. Of course, there are no guarantees that the workaround will in fact work, but in that case users can apparently easily revert to the original drivers and BIOS of their Nvidia RTX graphics card. But as always, cryptominers may install this utility at their own risk, as the legitimacy of such unverified software should always be put into question.
GPU | Hashrate after unlock |
---|---|
RTX 3060 LHR V2 | up to 49 MH/s |
RTX 3060 Ti LHR | up to 61 MH/s |
RTX 3070 LHR | up to 57 MH/s |
RTX 3070 Ti | up to 69 MH/s |
RTX 3080 LHR | up to 100 MH/s |
RTX 3080 Ti | up to 115 MH/s |
Buy the EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 XC3 Ultra Gaming on Amazon
Update
According to numerous user comments as well as a tweet by VideoCardz.com, the Nvidia RTX LHR v2 Unlocker unfortunately contains malware and should not be installed under any circumstances.
Source(s)
GitHub via Tom's Hardware, Image: Christian Wiediger