“Crypto-locking of RTX 3060 is not limited to drivers”

Yesterday, we reported on how Nvidia is taking steps to ensure that graphics cards intended for consumers, such as the upcoming Geforce RTX 3060, mainly fall into the hands of gaming enthusiasts. As part of this, the company also announced a new series of calculation cards specifically for cryptocurrency mining under the name CMP.

By segmenting gaming and cryptocurrency mining into different product categories, the company hopes to be able to satisfy the needs of gamers through Geforce cards and cryptocurrency breakers through the CMP series. It has been clear since yesterday that Geforce cards starting with RTX 3060 will have reduced performance when breaking cryptocurrency, but it was less clear exactly how the graphics card feels the loads.

Without going into detail, Bryan Del Rizzo, PR manager at Nvidia, mentions that the limitation is not only in the drivers. Instead, he believes that the RTX 3060 mixes in three parameters to limit computing power in crypto mining – the card’s BIOS, drivers and the graphics circuit’s silicon. Modified BIOS and / or drivers will thus not be enough to convert RTX 3060 to a crypto card.

Furthermore, Techpowerup reports on how Nvidia is working towards introducing new versions of existing cards in the RTX 3000 series with the same philosophy. The information comes from the leak Kopite7kimi, and can be considered the next logical step for Nvidia in the segmentation between graphics cards in the Geforce and CMP series. According to Kopite7kimi, the graphics cards in the Geforce RTX 3000 series will not necessarily be updated with new specifications – but with new article numbers.

Exactly how Nvidia’s segmentation between the Geforce and CMP series takes place, we’ll see – but a complete refresh of Geforce RTX 3000 graphics cards with limited crypto performance can at best alleviate access problems in the long run.