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When the value of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed in 2017, it created a huge shortage of graphics cards, as the parallel processing power of a graphics card makes it ideal for mining cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (but not bitcoin ). It created a financial windfall for the leading graphics card makers, but it also angered gamers, the traditional customers of the companies.
Over the past few months, cryptocurrencies have skyrocketed again, driving another rise in the price of graphics cards. When Nvidia launched its RTX 3060 graphics card last month, the company deliberately limited the card’s ability to exploit cryptocurrency. Our quick and dirty test suggested that Nvidia reduced the mining capacity of the card by about half. The hope was that miners would leave the card alone, ensuring that some cards would still be available for the gambling market.
Unfortunately, it seems that the restriction on mining has been implemented in the software. And Nvidia accidentally released a new driver that unlocked the 3060 mining capacity. Nvidia acknowledged the error in a statement to the Border.
“A development manager inadvertently included code used for internal development that removes the hash speed limit on RTX 3060 in some configurations,” acknowledges Nvidia.
As the Verge notes, Nvidia has previously boasted of the robustness of the mining constraint. Last month, Nvidia spokesman Bryan Del Rizzo said tweeted that there was a “safe handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060 silicone, and the BIOS (firmware) that prevents the removal of the hash speed limit.”
Nvidia quickly removed the driver from its website, but that’s not the kind of thing the company can take back. Now that the driver is in the wild, we can expect it to spread online indefinitely. Which means that anyone who has an RTX 3060 and wants to convert it to mining will be able to do so.