Nvidia officially confirms hash rate limiter for graphics cards shipping from mid-May

A single line in the patch notes for the latest GeForce driver (via Sweclockers) confirms that the rumoured new cards will land mid-May and feature Nvidia's hash rate-limiting technology. The same line goes on to link to Nvidia's blog post from back in February that reaffirms that its GeForce graphics cards are for gamers, not miners.

This driver updates the hash limiter for the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and is required for product shipped starting mid-May. Refer to the NVIDIA Blog for details: Link.

In case you've been avoiding the ongoing nightmare that is the graphics card market, demand for the latest GPUs is frustratingly high rate now, and not just among gamers. A resurgence in cryptocurrency mining alongside ongoing supply problems caused by the pandemic has meant that new graphics cards are sold out mere seconds after launch. 

Nvidia's two-pronged solution to this problem is firstly to release CMP cards that are built specifically for cryptocurrency mining, while also limiting the mining capabilities of cards aimed at gamers. That's the idea, but the first card to get the hash rate limiter, the GeForce RTX 3060, was undone by Nvidia's own hand, when it accidentally released a developer driver that allowed miners to bypass the limiter.

The rumour is Nvidia will be rolling out its hash rate limiter across more cards very soon, with new PCI Device IDs suggesting that several cards will incorporate its new limiter and that it won't just be new cards being launched from now on, but all freshly minted GeForce GPUs.

That single line in the patch notes for the WHQL Game Ready 466.27 driver appears to confirm these rumours, and also gives us a mid-May timeframe to focus on. This driver also has support for Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, Resident Evil Village, and Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Hopefully, this also means that we're about to get an influx of new graphics cards as well, although, like everyone else, Nvidia is still going to be affected by the industry-wide supply issues. At least these new cards shouldn't be quite so appealing to crypto miners. Fingers crossed.