The cryptocurrency community has finally found a way to fully bypass the Ethereum mining limiter installed on Nvidia’s RTX 3000 graphics cards.
On Saturday, the mining provider NiceHash released a free software tool that’s capable of lifting Nvidia’s Lite Hash Rate (LHR) limiter by 100%. “We are the first to FULLY UNLOCK NVIDIA’s LHR!! You’re welcome,” NiceHash wrote in a tweet.
The cryptocurrency community has since confirmed that the tool does work. But there are some limitations. NiceHash’s software tool, QuickMiner, can’t achieve a full 100% unlock on the RTX 3050 and 3080 12GB graphics cards.
The other limitation is how the 100% unlock only works over the Windows OS, not on machines running Linux. In addition, the tool only supports mining with the Ethash (DaggerHashimoto) algorithm.
The big mystery is how NiceHash managed to unlock the LHR limiter. NiceHash didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. For now, the crypto-mining provider has only teased that it was done through a “A Kind of Magic,” which links to a song from the rock band Queen.
Nvidia introduced the LHR limiter back in Feb. 2021 to discourage cryptocurrency miners from snatching up GPU supplies from consumers. The limiter works by capping the Ethereum mining rate on applicable RTX 3000 products by 50%. Still, it didn’t take long for the mining community to find ways to partially bypass the LHR limiter, and dial back the restriction to over 70%.
The 100% unlock now means cryptocurrency miners can squeeze even more profits from any LHR graphics cards they own. However, it’s doubtful the tool from NiceHash will spark a flood of new buying for Nvidia GPUs. Many miners were already buying LHR graphics cards even with the limitation in place. Since then, demand for desktop graphics cards has cooled as Ethereum is preparing to phase out GPU-based mining and when next-generation GPUs are right around the corner.
