A report from hardware outlet VideoCardz states that Nvidia’s upcoming reissue of its RTX 30-series cards will include chips that will limit their ability to mine cryptocurrency. According to the report, Nvidia’s GAxx2 chips will ship in the middle of May, and they will feature “LHR” chips, which stands for “Lite Hash Rate.”
The report notes that Lite Hash Rate is not a marketing term, but a term used internally to describe GPUs to company partners. While these sellers will know which cards include the LHR chips, it will be invisible to the customers buying the chips, hence the “quiet launch” mentioned in the piece. It also claims that these new chips will offer the same performance as cards that are already on the market.
In fact, performance might actually increase thanks to the on-board “ResizableBAR” feature, which allows the GPU to transfer data to the CPU more effectively than normal. According to Nvidia, existing 30-series GPUs require a VBIOS update to take advantage of that feature, which also requires compatible hardware.
This isn’t the first time that Nvidia has tried to use a limiter to prevent crypto miners from snapping up its supply. The company’s RTX 3060 card included a measure designed to prevent Ethereum mining, which was subsequently removed by a beta driver issued by Nvidia. Based on this report, it would seem that Nvidia is investing much more effort into stymying would-be miners as it attempts to deal with the ongoing GPU shortages caused in part by crypto bubbles. However, a source told VideoCardz that the RTX 3090 may not include the crypto limiter due to the card’s high price tanking its perceived profitability to miners.
