Question Jen Sung makes questionable decision? [RUMOR] NVidia tries to disable GPU mining?

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VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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So now, not only is Nvidia's chairman selling GPUs that can be used for Compute (*formerly called GPGPU - "General Purpose"), he's rum0ored to be attempting to effectively regulate WHAT PROGRAMS are ALLOWED to be run on the GPUs that they mfg?

Imaging if Intel decided to decree, that their CPUs, could no longer be used for searching for prime numbers.

This whole idea is a slippery slope that I am NOT willing to go down.

And to think, this is all just an (alleged) stupid band-aid, over their mfg and supply-chain issues.

If Nvidia could effectively supply all of their GPU markets with product, this wouldn't even be an issue.

Edit: If this rumor turns out to be true, expect class-action lawsuits against NVidia, much like what happened to Sony with the PS3 losing functionality (running Linux) after people purchased them.

Now, ALL NVIDIA RETAILERS will be forced to post a prominent disclaimer of the software that is NOT ALLOWED to be run on these GPUs, or they will get sued as well.

Update:
NVidia to phase out all existing Ampere PCI device-ids, phase in EtH mining "block" across ALL new Ampere line-up!
 
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PingSpike

PingSpike

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Feb 25, 2004
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PingSpike

PingSpike

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Fanatical Meat

Fanatical Meat

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MrTeal said:
I'm sure the Nvidia team is all very excited right now by the massive interest in their developer program.
Surely there's 10s of thousands of new nvidia optimized indy titles going to be released in the next year.
Click to expand...

I do kind of wonder what the shortage will do to game development especially if it goes a long time like a year plus.
Imagine making a game envisioning most will have HD lighting or ray tracing by the time you release it and nearly nobody has that capability.
 
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Mopetar

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Fanatical Meat said:
I do kind of wonder what the shortage will do to game development especially if it goes a long time like a year plus.
Imagine making a game envisioning most will have HD lighting or ray tracing by the time you release it and nearly nobody has that capability.
Click to expand...

Most gamers wouldn't have newer technologies like that even if there weren't a mining boom sucking up a lot of the GPUs right now. It'll be at least another 3-4 years before most of that technology penetrates that market. Most of the low-end cards won't be able to run the effects very well so developers will leave them as an option that can be turned on for this who want to or have the high-end cards capable of getting acceptable performance.

Besides, once the mining boom ends we're going to see all of these cards coming flooding into the market. It's the same thing that happened last time.
 
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Fanatical Meat

Fanatical Meat

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Mopetar said:
Most gamers wouldn't have newer technologies like that even if there weren't a mining boom sucking up a lot of the GPUs right now. It'll be at least another 3-4 years before most of that technology penetrates that market. Most of the low-end cards won't be able to run the effects very well so developers will leave them as an option that can be turned on for this who want to or have the high-end cards capable of getting acceptable performance.

Besides, once the mining boom ends we're going to see all of these cards coming flooding into the market. It's the same thing that happened last time.
Click to expand...

Im talking like this goes on for a year or two. What happens, who knows.
 
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Mopetar

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Fanatical Meat said:
Im talking like this goes on for a year or two. What happens, who knows.
Click to expand...

It doesn't really matter unless AMD or Nvidia stop making GPUs, which they won't given the increased demand makes it easier for them to manufacture even more GPUs. If the mining boom lasts two years, then when it does there's two years worth of GPUs previously used for mining that hit the market and deeply discounted prices that make it incredibly affordable for people to pick up.

All the mining boom ultimately does is create a temporary delay in those cards getting into the hands of gamers. Most games just starting development now or being designed to incorporate those new technologies instead of tacking them on later aren't going to come out for 2+ years.
 
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Leeea

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Fanatical Meat said:
Im talking like this goes on for a year or two. What happens, who knows.
Click to expand...

It will be over a year.

Eth's timeline for migrating over is still unknown, Eth 2.0 beta is running in parallel, and I understand they plan to merge to a hybrid PoS/PoW system before going to a full PoS system. Starting with a system that only uses PoS for 1 in a 100 blocks, and increasing that as time goes by.

This means after Eth 2 gets merged with Ethereum, we will still be mining.

----------------

Even when it is complete, there are other profitable coins out there. This plague is not likely to go away any time soon.
 
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moonbogg

moonbogg

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Jan 8, 2011
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Fanatical Meat said:
I do kind of wonder what the shortage will do to game development especially if it goes a long time like a year plus.
Imagine making a game envisioning most will have HD lighting or ray tracing by the time you release it and nearly nobody has that capability.
Click to expand...

If people keep mining despite any drop in coin value, the industry will get destroyed or drastically transformed IMO. People see now that at any point in the future, a supply of obscure coin can suddenly make them rich if a boom occurs. I'd expect people to keep mining. As long as GPUs remain good at mining, I honestly expect gaming to become a secondary use of GPUs and the discrete gaming GPU market might just go away. It could end up being only consoles and a semi-equivalent PC APU driven industry.
I can tell you this right now, if people believe that GPUs will be a source of income for them, gaming will take a back seat and miners will become the primary customer base very easily. Everyone makes more money when selling to miners while everyone makes less when selling to gamers. Gamers whine and complain about cost and issues with their games etc etc. Miners don't care. They will pay more, buy in massive quantities, and they won't request a single RMA nor will they complain about driver issues and flood the Nvidia forums with whiny, entitled complaints.
The GPU may become a mainstay in the global economy of the future and no one in the industry will miss PC gaming, except for the entire PC gaming industry that revolves around the GPU. Oh well, it is what it is. Too bad miners don't care about RGB or some of the industry could be salvaged.
 
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GodisanAtheist

GodisanAtheist

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So much for the hashrate limiter being some sort of super secret proprietary sauce involving gang signs between the drivers and the hardware or anything.

It didn't really matter anyway, these things were going for outrageous prices with the limiter, so whatever they go for now will be largely academic for the rest of us...
 
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Shmee

Shmee

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Yikes, that is scary. But then China kinda had been waffling about it a while back. Not to delve into politics at all...but it's mainly about control.
 
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VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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That summary is incorrect. What I read was NOT that India was banning ALL crypto-currency, ONLY "private" varieties... basically anything that would compete with their own home-grown, STATE-SPONSORED "crypto" that they are coming out with.

It's not about banning "crypto", it's about ELIMINATING COMPETITION.

That's OK. Like all regressive right-wing regimes, Modi's India is destined to fall by the wayside of the world, with this decision.
 
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D

Dribble

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Aug 9, 2005
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As a follow-up apparently the limiter is only removed for the card attached to the primary monitor, so this driver would allow gamers to do a bit of mining on the side but not be much use to mining farms unless they can find a way to work around that.
 
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PingSpike

PingSpike

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Feb 25, 2004
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Heard a rumor that the mining limit is also only disabled if you have a pcie link greater than 1x. The source is apparently a mining discord though...
 
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beginner99

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Jun 2, 2009
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VirtualLarry said:
It's not about banning "crypto", it's about ELIMINATING COMPETITION.
Click to expand...

Yeah, ultimately the issue crypto will face. if ethereum really gets PoS working and scales and get's more serious in terms of it's actual goals (dApps, not crypto!) then I'm pretty sure bank lobbyists will come up with a way to cripple if not forbid it by law.
 
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