First GeForce RTX 3080/3070 LHR graphics cards go official

by Mark Tyson on 10 May 2021, 10:11

Tags: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), GALAX

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Last month HEXUS reported on the rumours that Nvidia was about to roll out updated GAxx2 GPUs to refresh its entire GeForce RTX30 product stack. The new GPUs were being referred to by Nvidia AIB partners as 'LHR' GPUs which is an abbreviation of 'Lite Hash Rate' or 'Lower Hash Rate' but definitely not London Heathrow. A people in the know indicated that the GPU changeover wouldn't be broadcasted, and you wouldn't be able to tell from the graphics card packaging, for example, if you had an older stock GPU or an LHR one.

This weekend VideoCardz noted that graphics cards maker Galax / Galaxy added some new models to the pages of its site. The Chinese language listings see Galax suffix these cards with 'FG' in square brackets, which is helpful, but the product photos don't bear any 'FG' branding. The packaging doesn't appear to show this is an 'FG' product either but we only get to see the front and one end of the box.

  • Galaxy RTX 3080 Black General OC [FG]
    GA102-202(LHR) 1740MHz
    This GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card has the feature of limiting mining performance (lower hash rate), and the Ethereum computing power is about 43MH/s
  • Galaxy RTX 3080 Black General [FG]
    GA102-202(LHR) 1710MHz
    This GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card has the feature of limiting mining performance (lower hash rate), and the Ethereum computing power is about 43MH/s
  • Galaxy RTX 3070 Black General [FG]
    GA104-302(LHR) 1725MHz
    This GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card has the feature of limiting mining performance (lower hash rate), and the Ethereum computing power is about 25MH/s

I've outlined the key specs of the new Galax 'FG' suffixed graphics cards above. You will see a short explanation regarding the ETH mining performance for each card, as provided by Galax. The Galaxy RTX 3080 Black General OC [FG] and non-OC versions aren't appreciably different, and one questions the creation of an SKU with just 30MHz difference in headline boost clocks (1.7 per cent difference).

These GeForce RTX 3080s offer an ETH computing power of approx 43MH/s, while the new RTX 3070 can do about 24MH/s. Remember, that an RTX 3060 with LHR is capable of about 22MH/s, but with the crypto-nerf tech bypassed could achieve double that – better than the RTX 3080 FG models just listed by Galax. It would be good, for the sake of transparency, if other graphics card partners add a suffix like 'FG' to their LHR products which we expect to proliferate in the coming weeks.

HEXUS Forums :: 14 Comments

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Posted by tapmybuttons - Mon 10 May 2021 16:26
Ill probably cry when I finally get my hands on a new graphics card from NVIDIA; one can hope hackers don't find a way around the limiter
Posted by Euphonium - Mon 10 May 2021 16:45
I want to know if these anti-mining mods will affect things like folding@home
Posted by watercooled - Mon 10 May 2021 17:23
Euphonium
I want to know if these anti-mining mods will affect things like folding@home
I don't believe so - Ethereum has a very distinctive memory-thrashing usage pattern which makes it easily recognisable. It's one of the frustrating things about it, most of the GPU is practically going to waste when mining, it's more like a “proof of memory bandwidth” algorithm.

It would be good, for the sake of transparency, if other graphics card partners add a suffix like ‘FG’ to their LHR products which we expect to proliferate in the coming weeks.
My view would be to not mention it at all - why make life easier for the ones destroying the GPU market for its intended audience? The cards have never been advertised for their mining ability and the change has been well-broadcasted, so it's tough if miners/scalpers buy a bunch of graphics cards that end up being useless to them. The uncertainty makes it more difficult to hoard supplies.

Nvidia have released a set of actual mining cards largely using older GPUs, possibly part-broken or unsold silicon they'd stocked up on, and not competing for 8nm capacity in any case. Miners are free to source those to burn power with, and it's in Nvidia's interests to protect themselves from another stock disaster should the crypto market come crashing down (again) and the used market gets flooded with offloaded mining GPUs (again) meaning new cards are tough to sell.
Posted by kalniel - Mon 10 May 2021 17:36
watercooled
My view would be to not mention it at all - why make life easier for the ones destroying the GPU market for its intended audience? The cards have never been advertised for their mining ability and the change has been well-broadcasted, so it's tough if miners/scalpers buy a bunch of graphics cards that end up being useless to them. The uncertainty makes it more difficult to hoard supplies.

They'll just hoard them on the off-chance and bin according to hash-rate and sell on LHR versions (which given the second hand going rate for cards, will still net them a profit). I guess the increasing amount of second hand cards in the market *may* exert some downward pressure on scalpers, but I doubt it'd be much. I think making it clear from the start would do a better job of decreasing prices by increasing the supply of first-hand cards.
Posted by watercooled - Mon 10 May 2021 18:22
You're probably right. I wonder what the supply allocation will be between these limited cards and the original ones? I was kinda assuming they were stopping production altogether.

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