• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Tracking GPU Crypto mining activity via software / hardware?

Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2018
Posts
2,710
I really don't see the point to this thread. What's in it for Nvidia? If they invest a few million dollars implementing this mining tracking tech, how will they earn that money back? Will it mean they'll sell more graphics cards? No. So why would they? Kindness? Goodwill? Lol.

When I buy a used car, how do I know a boy racer hasn't revved the nuts off it? Do you expect car makers to add a boy racer tracking device to sort that issue as well?
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
30 Jun 2019
Posts
7,868
Actually, from Nvidia's point of view, there may be a point. If a graphics card has been worn out / degraded a lot, they could check the counters for the crypto tracking chip to see if there has been hundreds / thousands of hours of GPU mining done on the graphics card. If so, this would void the warranty, if sent back to Nvidia or Graphics card manufacturers.

There's other reasons too (mostly to do with the affect it has had on the graphics card market / getting cards into the hands of retailers across the world etc).

I suspect the lifespan on LHR card versions will on average, be longer than unrestricted cards and I think this may have been a factor in Nvidia's decision to act against GPU crypto mining.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
30 Nov 2011
Posts
11,370
Actually, from Nvidia's point of view, there may be a point. If a graphics card has been worn out / degraded a lot, they could check the counters for the crypto tracking chip to see if there has been hundreds / thousands of hours of GPU mining done on the graphics card. If so, this would void the warranty, if sent back to Nvidia or Graphics card manufacturers.

There's other reasons too (mostly to do with the affect it has had on the graphics card market / getting cards into the hands of retailers across the world etc).

And what about video encoding, or any other cuda workload, they could just as easily say that any non-gaming workload is "business" use and therefore warranty void. This would have a huge impact on anyone who uses their GPU for any number of hobby or learning functions.

What about a pro or avid gamer who plays many hours per day fully overclocked?
As many people have pointed out, gaming uses much more power at higher temps than mining, so why not void warranty on people who game more than your set limit too.

How about instead of wasting money tracking their users like some draconian peeping tom, they actually design GPU's that can run their advertised software for the length of the warranty period.
But, oh, yeah, they do, as evidenced by my 8 cards that are 5 years in, 2 years out of warranty, still mining away quite happily having not failed at all.


I suspect the lifespan on LHR card versions will on average, be longer than unrestricted cards and I think this may have been a factor in Nvidia's decision to act against GPU crypto mining.

And then you throw nuggets of unfounded rubbish like this is in and say the onus is not on you to provide any evidence to back it up because "it's nothing to do with you"? Well you started the thread and throwing around baseless claims, so yes the onus is very much on you to provide actual evidence of mining card failure rates, when any miner can tell you they've had no card failures in multiple years of mining.

I mean, the people who actually make the vram rate it for use at up to 110C for a warranty period of 3-4 years, but apparently it degrades at 60-70C in a couple of months? Pull the other one, it's got bells on.
 
Last edited:

ljt

ljt

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2002
Posts
4,540
Location
West Midlands, UK
Why bother with trackers, custom chips that don't work with mining etc.

It's much easier to just ban the sale/trading of crypto.

If you stop the mechanism for making fiat money from it then the vast majority will stop doing it. Problem solved.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2005
Posts
19,982
Location
Officially least sunny location -Ronskistats

Haters gonna hate. Only select information gets listened to for ones narrative. If mining was so bad for GPUs there would be mountains of them in RMA piles or miners listing dead GPUs 'for parts only' everywhere.

On this basis, and the videos of heavy influencers like linus showing how nonsense the wives tales are, you wont convince any anti-miner types so your wasting valuable energy and better off ignoring it.
 
Permabanned
Joined
20 Jan 2021
Posts
1,337
What happened to the mining GPUs Nvidia were banging on about? The CMP graphics card line-up. Are they releasing them as that would, get miners away from gaming GPUs.
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Mar 2012
Posts
47,382
Location
ARC-L1, Stanton System
What happened to the mining GPUs Nvidia were banging on about? Are they releasing them as that would, get miners away from gaming GPUs.

They did, but in doing so they are using GPU's that would have gone to gamers, and now, because they don't have any screen output ports on them they can't be sold to gamers on the second hand market.

That is the real reason Nvidia did that, if mining crashes the used market is flooded with ex mining GPU's and that will crash the price of new GPU's, by making those GPU's (that could have gone to gamers) useless landfill if crypto crashes Nvidia avoids a used pricing war to crash new card prices.

Nvidia are clever, and they are always thinking up new devious ways to #### you.
 
Associate
Joined
31 Dec 2010
Posts
2,427
Location
Sussex
They did, but in doing so they are using GPU's that would have gone to gamers, and now, because they don't have any screen output ports on them they can't be sold to gamers on the second hand market.

That is the real reason Nvidia did that, if mining crashes the used market is flooded with ex mining GPU's and that will crash the price of new GPU's, by making those GPU's (that could have gone to gamers) useless landfill if crypto crashes Nvidia avoids a used pricing war to crash new card prices.

Nvidia are clever, and they are always thinking up new devious ways to #### you.

Exactly, all their PR "we care for gamers" is only superficially true.

Sure gamers - especially whose who upgrade each generation - are repeat customers so - like magazine subscribers - they do value them.

But their main motivation for limiting cards was the potential flood of used cards once the next crypto crash happens (or ETH goes totally PoS which might *only* crash the GPU mining market).

Have to say the only cards which over broke on me were from thermal cycling but then they were all Nvidia solder-defect "bumbgate" ones.

With Ampere I would be worried about damage to that GDDR6X which already runs way to hot for comfort although Micron obviously say all is good.

For potential longevity of cards, for it is still something like this:

Miners: worn out fans, if GDDR6X maybe the memory too. ASIC and power delivery should be fine if the miners spent any time setting up their core and memory clocks & voltages. They don't do this for altruistic reasons - it's just that in UK electricity is expensive so a tuned card makes them more profit.

Gamers: Fans are far more likely to be in good condition as even with ANC headphones nobody can stand to game at 100% fan speed. Far more power cycles though. Solder should be way better than when the lead/unleaded transition was going on so maybe thermal cycles no longer matter as much.

On balance I'd say gamers would offer the better used cards. The worst would be a gamer who overclocks like crazy and runs their fan flat out; or a miner who doesn't tune and runs full out just to chase a RoI without thinking.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2013
Posts
21,839
Location
Rollergirl
Why bother with trackers, custom chips that don't work with mining etc.

It's much easier to just ban the sale/trading of crypto.

If you stop the mechanism for making fiat money from it then the vast majority will stop doing it. Problem solved.

This is the best one yet; ban a $1,974,235,715,463 market because the OcUKers want a reliable second hand GPU.

:cry:
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2005
Posts
19,982
Location
Officially least sunny location -Ronskistats
Exactly, all their PR "we care for gamers" is only superficially true.

+1 people should know nvidia better by now, none of these companies are your friend.

This is the best one yet; ban a $1,974,235,715,463 market because the OcUKers want a reliable second hand GPU.

:cry:

Thing is some of these posters already have a current gen card (or a decent older gen) so are they complaining on somebody else's behalf?
 
Permabanned
Joined
20 Jan 2021
Posts
1,337
They did, but in doing so they are using GPU's that would have gone to gamers, and now, because they don't have any screen output ports on them they can't be sold to gamers on the second hand market.

That is the real reason Nvidia did that, if mining crashes the used market is flooded with ex mining GPU's and that will crash the price of new GPU's, by making those GPU's (that could have gone to gamers) useless landfill if crypto crashes Nvidia avoids a used pricing war to crash new card prices.

Nvidia are clever, and they are always thinking up new devious ways to #### you.

Haha, that's an interesting take on things, will agree that Nvidia's main competition is Nvidia.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2013
Posts
21,839
Location
Rollergirl
Semantics, the point being - I don't agree with any of it, be it crypto, trading, mining etc etc, everything it encompasses

Well that's not what you said, you specifically said mining. Anyway, you've made your opinion clear and whilst some may find your position fascinating, personally I've got no interest in your reasoning.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2005
Posts
19,982
Location
Officially least sunny location -Ronskistats
Strange observation but I tend to see that those who are anti-mining have never sampled it nor have put in the effort to find out what is involved. You might be surprised and actually learn something!

When my four year old turns his nose up at a food and we ask him "have you tried it" it looks odd to have that opinion when the answer is "no I have never tried it". Generally the people that have a balanced or accurate opinion tend to be the ones that have been there and done it, or tried it!
 

ljt

ljt

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2002
Posts
4,540
Location
West Midlands, UK
Strange observation but I tend to see that those who are anti-mining have never sampled it nor have put in the effort to find out what is involved. You might be surprised and actually learn something!

When my four year old turns his nose up at a food and we ask him "have you tried it" it looks odd to have that opinion when the answer is "no I have never tried it". Generally the people that have a balanced or accurate opinion tend to be the ones that have been there and done it, or tried it!

If that was aimed at me, then I have looked into it, and decided against it. It's part of a broad system of things in life I do not like and therefore will not participate in because it goes against what I believe is right.

There are many things I don't agree with in this world, crypto/mining etc is just a small part of it.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2005
Posts
19,982
Location
Officially least sunny location -Ronskistats
If that was aimed at me, then I have looked into it, and decided against it. It's part of a broad system of things in life I do not like and therefore will not participate in because it goes against what I believe is right.

There are many things I don't agree with in this world, crypto/mining etc is just a small part of it.

No this is not aimed at you. It reminded me of a handful of conversations recently, where posters seem rather bitter for obvious reasons, but when pressed they basically are a combination or just flat out have not done either which is why I have observed it.
 
Back
Top Bottom