Nvidia‘s software update was found to be caught up with a blunder, as it mistakenly removed the Ether(ETH) mining block placed on its own GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card.
A spokesperson for Nvidia confirmed the news on 16 March, that the latest 470.05 driver update got released with a code that was meant for Nvidia developers, but instead resulted in the removal of the Ethereum mining hash rate limiter.
Nvidia’s spokesperson said:
A developer driver inadvertently included code used for internal development which removes the hash rate limiter on RTX 3060 in some configurations.
With the unlocking of the restrictions on RTX 3060 with the latest 470.05 beta driver, it ended up boosting the Ethereum mining hash rate. On the driver’s swift performance, Bryan Del Rizzo, Nvidia’s head of communications said:
There is a secure handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060 silicon, and the BIOS (firmware) that prevents removal of the hash rate limiter.
Tom Warren, Senior Editor at The Verge posted the news on Twitter on 16 March, to which a Twitter user “greyfu” replied with a witty comment, “accidentally made our card more appealing to a wider customer base.” along with a GIF image.
accidentlally made our card more appealing to a wider customer base pic.twitter.com/IteEdotYWZ — greyfu (@GREY_FU) March 16, 2021
Nvidia intentionally tried to reduce the hash rate of Ethereum last month in its new GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card. Nvidia’s plan was to divert the attention of the crypto miners from purchasing the cards but it seems that they have put an axe in their own feet. With the intention of preventing the removal of Ethereum(ETH) mining hash rate with a special system, it happened to unlock the restrictions in RTX 3060.
Source: Cointelegraph | Verge