In news that will surprise no one, Cryptocurrency miners have already managed to defeat the software hash limiter that Nvidia placed on its RTX 3060 graphics cards in an attempt to limit mining efficiency. Even with the limiter in place, miners were reportedly able to make around $7 per day profit using the cards, but now that it's been easily eliminated, the cards should be able to make closer to $15 per day at current prices. As they rise, though, that could see the profit margin increase further.
Nvidia made a limp move earlier this month to limit the mining capability of its gaming graphics cards by introducing a "hash limiter" on its RTX 3060 GPUs. This reportedly meant that the BIOS, Driver, and GPU itself would digitally limit the hash rate, so eliminating the limiter would be difficult. But as a software-only limitation, it was only a matter of time before miners figured out a way around this paper thin block. And they've already managed to do so.
Different mining groups have managed to get differing levels of performance out of the cards, with some managing 45 MH/s, while others have pushed their RTX 3060s to as much as 50 MH/s. That makes the RTX 3060 just about the best mining GPU out there, as it delivers the hashing power of an RTX 3060 Ti (near that of a 3070) at a much lower power draw and reduced up front cost.
That won't last, though. Now that the cat is out of the bag, the limited RTX 3060 stock will be even harder to get hold of and gamers won't get a look in at all.
Buying a new GPU in 2021 is going to be a game of pure chance.