As far as I remember, this was created to limit mining performance. If this cut-down is not going to affect performance in usual tasks like video editing and gaming, why do GPUs have it in the first place?
In: Technology
GPUs now are a bit like “programmable CPUs”, or ASICs.
Basically, you can program them to do functions in hardware. Some very specific functions are used for mining cryptos, usually one specific algorithm per crypto family ( i say family because nearly every bitcoin derived cryptos use the same algorithm). Mostly, GPUs are used to mine ethereum, because that is the crypto that earns the most. It will also stop being that much profitable in july, with some modifications to the transaction system, and it is supposed to go “proof of stake”, meaning it cannot be mined anymore, by the end of the year.
That being said, nvidia’s new GPU lock means it will recognise the algorithm used to mine ethereum, and perform lower when found. The algorithm is very unlikely to ever be used for gaming or video editing.
Note: unlike the previous “soft lock” , that was a kind of an added identifier chip on the board that the driver would read, then cut performance or not, the new one is supposedly a “hardware lock”, meaning the locking part is IN the GPU and cannot be bypassed.
Now, the reason nvidia does that is simply to shift the blame from them to a convenient scapegoat.
Nvidia cannot face the demand for its 30×0 chips, due to originally not making enough, then being struck by the global chip shortage, and that is not going to be better soon.
Just like every product in huge demand and low supply, it gets scalped to oblivion. AMD’s card suffer from the same, although their architecture prevents them from being used for mining.
But popular opinion claims this is caused – and keeps going on- because miners buy them all.
Now, miners usually do it for the money, which means they are predictable. upon a very simple return on investment computation, and a risk vs reward analysis. And, most of all, they use the cards, they do not sell them. Meaning if you can get cards, even at scalping price, it means miners do not get them.
The question is then “are cards available at scalper prices ?” and since the answer is “yes”, it means miners are not a concern. They may have been by the end of last year/start of this one, but it became very risky financially wise to start eth mining past february/march. It did hit an all time high not that long ago… and lost more than 70% of its value in a couple of days, last week.
In the end what most people do now when they buy a 3070 or 3080 is to use them to play / work, and mine when they do not, because it went from highly technical to as simple as making some double clicks. Just … dont expect making much doing that.
anyway.
Since popular opinion says miners are the cause, and not nvidia for not making sufficient chips, nvidia claims they are doing something to address that issue.
This gives them a few months of tranquility. And then they will probably say miners bypassed their protection as a reason for the scalping to continue.
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