Nvidia to Throttle Crypto Mining on Future Graphics Cards, Introduce Mining Hardware

Hardware giant Nvidia is finally making an effort to resolve the constant conflict between gamers and crypto miners. The brand recently announced anti coin mining for future cards, as well as a line of mining specific hardware.

For those who may not have known, computer graphics cards (often called Graphics Processor Units, or GPUs) are commonly used to mine crypto like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The process essentially runs some complex computations to keep the crypto running smoothly, while rewarding the one doing the computations with some of said currency. Since the person doing this can sell the crypto later, they can make a profit by letting the mining software run. It also consumes a fair bit of electricity to do this. As such, strong graphics cards are desirable for this because they can run those computations faster, and with less energy.

This led to a problem. Once mining became mainstream, coin miners were buying as many new GPUs as they could, so they can build stronger, more efficient mining operations. This left no available stock left for people wanting the GPUs for their intended purpose: to play video games. What cards were available were often at notably higher prices due to the demand. This has been a problem for several years now.

Nvidia, being one of the biggest GPU manufacturers, are finally stepping up to fix the issue. According to an official blog post, they plan to implement anti-mining measures to the upcoming RTX 3060 graphics cards, as well as release a line of hardware that is specifically made for crypto mining.

The anti-mining measure limits hash rate, which for the layman means that someone trying to use it for coin mining will see a 50% drop in efficiency. This makes the cards a remarkably less attractive option for crypto mining.

But theyre not leaving the miners out in the cold, either. Nvidia is producing and will offer a line of CMP products -- which don't do graphics -- [that] are sold through authorized partners and optimized for the best mining performance and efficiency.

These pieces of hardware remove various components necessary to be a GeForce GPU, and as such, shouldnt overlap with gaming graphics card sales. Changes include removing video ports to allow for greater airflow cooling, for example.

They also clarified that already on the market GPUs will not be receiving an anti-mining update. It will be applied to future cards only. So dont exactly expect a RTX 2070 to drop in price.