Nvidia’s RTX 30 series of graphics cards have been subject to unending speculation, rumors and even ridicule since the firm first announced it would ship its latest GPU’s with a built-in Ether (ETH) mining limiter.
A series of missteps saw the mining limiter on Nvidia’s RTX 3060 card first undone by crafty hackers and then completely removed by one of Nvidia’s own driver updates.
The latest in a series of leaks now suggests Nvidia’s next major GPU release — the RTX 3080 Ti — could be shipped without a cryptocurrency mining limiter at all. Leaked screenshots first uncovered by VideoCardz.com show the 3080 Ti mining Ether with a hash rate of 118.9 megahashes per second — that’s more than quadruple what the hamstrung cards were originally supposed to be capable of.
It’s worth noting that there has been no confirmation that the GPU in the screenshots is the same one that Nvidia is prepping for release. The leaked model could be a model still around from before the company decided to implement its mining limiters.
Also, Nvidia’s previous missteps in releasing its anti-crypto cards have led to the company considering a complete overhaul of its 30 series range, so the performance of the card in question may not necessarily be representative of the one that is expected to hit shelves in May.
With a prospective hash rate of 118.9 MH/s, the RTX 3080 Ti stands to be a very profitable card for Ether miners, even in Western nations.
China’s average electricity costs round out at $0.08 per kilowatt-hour per household, meaning the GPU would stand to return profits of around $378 per month, or $4,611 per year.
In the United States, where electricity averages at around $0.13/kWh per household, the card would still return healthy profits of $4,488 per year, or just over 2 ETH based on current prices. The GPU is expected to cost around $999 upon release, however, another mad rush by cryptocurrency miners could see demand outstrip supply once more, again resulting in a higher price.