News The GeForce RTX 3080 Could Ignite Another Cryptomining Frenzy

[nofanneeded]

You can game on so-called mining cards with modified drivers.

NVIDIA is also risking a PR kerfluffle because those GPUs could've been used in gaming cards, whether they're in the consumer or OEM space.

No you cant if Nividia made them from scratch ... how do you expect to connect a monitor to it if there is no i/o at all to begin with ? no HDMI ? no DP ?

Also , There is no way you can modify drivers to work with it .. had it been that simple people would modify Gaming cards to work like professional $5000 Quadro cards ..

 

[hotaru.hino]

No you cant if Nividia made them from scratch ... how do you expect to connect a monitor to it if there is no i/o at all to begin with ? no HDMI ? no DP ?

Using hacked drivers to redirect the output of the GPU to the framebuffer in system RAM that an iGPU is using.

Also , There is no way you can modify drivers to work with it .. had it been that simple people would modify Gaming cards to work like professional $5000 Quadro cards ..

Well, not by modifying the drivers, but people have been able to fool Quadro drivers into thinking their GeForce cards are Quadros. There used to be soft mods too. Although I haven't seen something like this on newer cards, so it likely doesn't work anymore.

 

[TheHughMan]

Looks like COVID19 and crypto mining are a perfect pair.

 

[Gurg]

Hopefully they will wait a month and buy AMD.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Hopefully they will wait a month and buy AMD.

Por que no los dos?

 

[cryoburner]

Actually Nvidia could release Mining only cards with no I/O on the back and no gaming drivers ... and shut down gaming on it ... But I think that they dont want to gamble on it ...

How would that help anything at all? The GPU chips would still be going to miners rather than being available for gaming cards. And nothing would be preventing the miners from picking up gaming cards as well. In fact, gaming cards would be preferable for mining, for the simple reason that when the market predictably crashes a year or so down the line and mining on the cards becomes unprofitable, they can be easily resold on the used market, whereas it will be much harder to recoup the value of a mining card that can't be easily used for other tasks.

I wonder if Nvidia purposely designed these cards with mining in mind when they were seeing the profits they made from miners a few years back. After all, it seems a bit odd how they changed this architecture to offer substantially more FP32 compute performance per core, despite it appearing to have minimal impact on performance in today's games. A 3070 might offer around 20 Tflops worth of FP32 compute, but in games it only performs about on par with a 13.5 Tflop 2080 Ti. There appears to be around a 50% greater increase in compute performance relative to gaming performance. Because of this, we might actually see Nvidia's cards be more in demand for mining than AMD's this time around, if mining takes off again, unless AMD happened to make similar changes to their architecture.

 

[Unolocogringo]

#$^568 678^78%
#^%
56 %856
)%$ $%78 $#%^&Y &^%^(*

What I think about miners driving up prices.

Was able to pick up a pair of 1070s just before prices skyrocketed last time.
Was hoping to do the same this time around.
Don't game a lot except for when the grand kids are here.
Mostly Folding@Home.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Oh for the love of Pete! Not THIS crap again! The RDNA2 cards are probably going to be more energy-efficient than Ampere so they might get hit worse. I REALLY hope that ATi has been successful in optimising the gaming aspects and downplaying the GPUCompute aspects of RDNA2 or RDNA2 could be completely bought up by miners. It would be a replay of the price-inflated and hard-to-find Polaris cards.

It makes me extra glad that I got my RX 5700 XT when I did.

Also remember, there's an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the used market right now with tons of near-desperate sellers. You can pick up a GTX 1080 Ti for under $300USD right now and that's still a great card for gaming.

 

[Avro Arrow]

If this is the case Tomshardware , why are you helping spreading this news ?

It's Tech News and this is a Tech News site. What else could they do, sit on their hands while TechSpot and Gamers Nexus get all over it anyway?

Is Tom's Hardware trying to get readers to "Just buy it" / pre-order again - now using fear of crypto miners snatching up all the cards?

I don't really think that this is the case. I guarantee you that this story will be covered by TechSpot, Gamers Nexus and WCCFTech anyway. It's better than not knowing I guess. If nobody reported it and it happened, people would be screaming "Why didn't you tell us?" so Tom's is really in an impossible position.

Because of this, we might actually see Nvidia's cards be more in demand for mining than AMD's this time around, if mining takes off again, unless AMD happened to make similar changes to their architecture.

Maybe but I don't know about that. RDNA2 sure seems to be A LOT more power-efficient than Ampere. That performance-per-watt metric will mean everything in this case. Polaris' high GPUCompute performance and great power efficiency was a perfect storm for miners. Maybe buying my RX 5700 XT when I did was actually the right thing to do (I did get a great price on it).

 

[nofanneeded]

How would that help anything at all? The GPU chips would still be going to miners rather than being available for gaming cards. And nothing would be preventing the miners from picking up gaming cards as well. In fact, gaming cards would be preferable for mining, for the simple reason that when the market predictably crashes a year or so down the line and mining on the cards becomes unprofitable, they can be easily resold on the used market, whereas it will be much harder to recoup the value of a mining card that can't be easily used for other tasks.

I wonder if Nvidia purposely designed these cards with mining in mind when they were seeing the profits they made from miners a few years back. After all, it seems a bit odd how they changed this architecture to offer substantially more FP32 compute performance per core, despite it appearing to have minimal impact on performance in today's games. A 3070 might offer around 20 Tflops worth of FP32 compute, but in games it only performs about on par with a 13.5 Tflop 2080 Ti. There appears to be around a 50% greater increase in compute performance relative to gaming performance. Because of this, we might actually see Nvidia's cards be more in demand for mining than AMD's this time around, if mining takes off again, unless AMD happened to make similar changes to their architecture.

well two resons ,

One, it will be at least $100 less for the lack of i/o and lack of OC

Two , Nvidia would manufacture special GPU for them , not the Gaming GPU .. with some few tweaks , same like the Quadro lines that differes little from Gaming line in specs.

I did not say the same GPU , I said no I/o so it wont be picked up y gamers at lower prices. and thats why I said Nvidia does not want to gamble on it as well ..

 

[RegistrationSux]

Don't hate the playa, hate the game ...

Ah yes, the cry of those who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Thanks, but I'll continue to blame both.

 

[King_V]

Ah yes, the cry of those who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Thanks, but I'll continue to blame both.

Look at the context in which the statement was made.

I assume it was, appropriately, a flip response to the implication that Tom's Hardware is just shilling.

 

[SkyBill40]

This doesn't bode well for those looking to upgrade, potentially myself included. While I'm not all that keen on the Nvidia card, I am looking forward to see how the AIB market plays out as I'm in no hurry to part with my money since my 1080 is still fine.

That said, to hell with the mining segment. Easily one of the most wasteful things I've ever seen.

 

[AcademyGroup]

This photo is INNO3D published on their sina blog. I guess it is the test before packaged. Someone in the baidu tieba copied this picture, and falsely claim to use it for mining.
Take a think, which miner only use 1 GPU on their computer?

 

[mcgge1360]

ugh. i wish these ponzi scheme idiots would stop ruining things.

huh? How is mining anything like a ponzi scheme? You're allowed to not like it, but at least get your facts right

 

[mcgge1360]

^This! Cryptocurrency is just a ponzi scheme.

The only way to make money off crypto is to make others suckers buy into crypto. So basically you convince other suckers that crypto is worth something to drive it's value up. Then you cash out and leave them holding monopoly money.

I'm not sure you understand exactly how mining works. The more miners there are, the LESS you make. That's the exact opposite of what you're saying.

 

[watzupken]

Is Tom's Hardware trying to get readers to "Just buy it" / pre-order again - now using fear of crypto miners snatching up all the cards?

I thought so too. I feel Tomshardware should consider more constructive articles, instead of 1 that is not validated and basically makes people panic.

 

[watzupken]

It's Tech News and this is a Tech News site. What else could they do, sit on their hands while TechSpot and Gamers Nexus get all over it anyway?

I think it is debatable if this qualifies as news though. Comments and opinions should not fall into the category of news. Having said that, if the comment/ opinion is to add flavor to a product, I think that is acceptable. If the article is written for an event that have not taken place and will potentially cause panic or anger(whether intentional or unintentional), I feel editors should stop spreading it further even if other sites are doing it.

 

[samopa]

Cryptomining is about RoI, not about bragging rights. It is about how soon you can recoup your investment and gaining profit, and because it is very volatile market (no one can predict about it in 10 years in the future) that's the most important thing for cryptominer. That's why there aren't many of them using Quadro series because it takes long time (>2 years) to recoup their investment.

If I am a cryptominer, I will wait until RDNA 2 being released before I will make new investments, and history told them that AMD product is usually better investment in cryptomining.

So, no need to fear from cryptominer, the stock will empty because of other gamer and bragging rights

Just my 2cent

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I think it is debatable if this qualifies as news though. Comments and opinions should not fall into the category of news. Having said that, if the comment/ opinion is to add flavor to a product, I think that is acceptable. If the article is written for an event that have not taken place and will potentially cause panic or anger(whether intentional or unintentional), I feel editors should stop spreading it further even if other sites are doing it.

Feel free to not read it

 

[Avro Arrow]

I think it is debatable if this qualifies as news though. Comments and opinions should not fall into the category of news. Having said that, if the comment/ opinion is to add flavor to a product, I think that is acceptable. If the article is written for an event that have not taken place and will potentially cause panic or anger(whether intentional or unintentional), I feel editors should stop spreading it further even if other sites are doing it.

I agree with your sentiment, I share it myself. The problem is that this kinda puts Tom's in an impossible situation. Let's say that Tom's didn't report on it and another stupid mining craze hit, driving up the prices of cards. If it got out that Tom's knew about it, then some people would be furious that they received no warning. Kinda like "damned if they do, damned if they don't" because some people would accuse Tom's of helping the miners get the cards first by keeping mum on the subject.

If I were in their shoes, I'd probably have done the same thing because if it is reported by sites like AnandTech, TechSpot, Guru3D, etc. I'd be able to say "It wasn't only us!" but if I didn't report it and they did, it would appear that I was trying to help the miners by remaining silent.

I don't really think that Tom's is trying to push people to buy stuff, I just think that there's no way to handle this situation without looking bad to some people.

 

[techhedz]

Why even post something like this when Asic Miners are readily available and much cheaper for the performance level. Nobody buying a new Nvidia card should be Mining and wearing their card out. Just get a cheap Asic miner if you are looking to mine. This article seems like click bait.

 

[watzupken]

I agree with your sentiment, I share it myself. The problem is that this kinda puts Tom's in an impossible situation. Let's say that Tom's didn't report on it and another stupid mining craze hit, driving up the prices of cards. If it got out that Tom's knew about it, then some people would be furious that they received no warning. Kinda like "damned if they do, damned if they don't" because some people would accuse Tom's of helping the miners get the cards first by keeping mum on the subject.

If I were in their shoes, I'd probably have done the same thing because if it is reported by sites like AnandTech, TechSpot, Guru3D, etc. I'd be able to say "It wasn't only us!" but if I didn't report it and they did, it would appear that I was trying to help the miners by remaining silent.

I don't really think that Tom's is trying to push people to buy stuff, I just think that there's no way to handle this situation without looking bad to some people.

This is where I generally prefer Anandtech. At least I noticed the articles I read there are factual and I don't recall seeing this sorts of article. If they do report on mining which they did in the past, it was based on events that have happened. Here what I am reading is that there MAY be a mining craze because the hash rate of the Ampere cards are really good. So this MAY push the prices up. The 2 MAY (deliberate in caps) are guesses, and also one that will cause people to worry and stir up demand.

 

[watzupken]

Feel free to not read it

Yes, I am trying to unread it.

 

[animekenji]

Why the hell would you post something like this? Don't you think the cards are going to be hard enough to get as it is without miners making a run on every card in the stores?