OEMs are reportedly selling Nvidia laptop GPUs as desktop mining cards, helping crypto miners bypass Lite Hash Rate caps. While the best gaming laptops powered by RTX 3060 and RTX 3070 chips haven’t been affected as much as their gaming PC counterparts, business practices may contribute to continued shortages.
Dedicated by Videocardz, I_Leak_VN shares proof of reuse Nvidia GPU for laptops like the mining cards in Twitter. The leaker shows photos of the RTX 3070M desktop board, along with specs from Taobao confirming suspicions of the laptop chip. Although the parts are sold to the mining industry, they do not have special OEM markings, but I_Leak_VN suspects that smaller Chinese manufacturers such as Huananzhi may be behind the products.
This is not the first time we have heard of GPUs being turned into cryptocurrency components, as there is reportedly a mining rig using recycled PS5 chips. Of course, digital currency enthusiasts need not find alternatives, as there are ways around hash rate caps on desktop cards.
Availability and pricing of gaming PCs are starting to normalize as you can actually get an RTX 3090 Ti for less than MSRP. However, questionable OEM practices could hamper gaming laptop shipments if not taken into account, but Nvidia has yet to take action on this.
Practical sheets “RTX 3070M” 🤣🤣 https://t.co/ouCgCxvlwQ pic.twitter.com/Hhk9i026Fa
— I_Leak_VN (@I_Leak_VN) May 26, 2022
There are reports that a crypto lockdown is imminent (via Forbes), which could prevent these manufacturer moves from becoming an issue. However, this still needs to be watched, especially as we are all aware of the implications for stocks and prices.
Source : PC Gamesn
