Nvidia takes drastic action against miners to tackle RTX 3060 stock shortages

Cryptocurrency miners may want to look at Nvidia's new Cryptocurrency Mining Processor instead of the RTX 3060

Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti
(Image credit: Nvidia)

The range of Nvidia RTX 30 GPUs have been incredibly difficult to get hold of, but the brand has a plan to help get the upcoming RTX 3060 into the "hands of gamers" – and it involves launching another product entirely.

The Nvidia RTX 3060 is releasing next week, and to make sure it's not snapped up by customers who are planning to use its power for other tasks, like mining cryptocurrency, the RTX 3060's software drivers will be able to detect mining algorithms and limit the efficiency of mining by half.

So if you were planning on picking up the RTX 3060 for your cryptocurrency mining needs, it's not going to be worth it; especially as Nvidia has an alternative solution readily available for you with the Nvidia CMP HX.  

In a blog post, Nvidia explains how the move will help availability of the GPU, which will no doubt be as elusive as the rest of the series, hopefully avoiding the drought we've seen with the RTX 3080, RTX 3090, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti. 

"CMP products — which don’t do graphics — are sold through authorized partners and optimized for the best mining performance and efficiency. They don’t meet the specifications required of a GeForce GPU and, thus, don’t impact the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers...

"Creating tailored products for customers with specific needs delivers the best value for customers. With CMP, we can help miners build the most efficient data centers while preserving GeForce RTX GPUs for gamers."

This is great news for those of you preparing to try your luck with the RTX 3060 next week, and offers a solution to avid miners. You can find out more about the Nvidia CMP HX here

Gamers looking for graphics cards can keep tabs on the the RTX 30 series with T3's Nvidia RTX 3080 stock tracker, Nvidia RTX 3070 stock tracker, and Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti stock tracker. Or you can swing by T3's pick of best graphics cards to find the perfect GPU to spruce up your rig. 

Shabana Arif

Shabana worked at T3.com as News Editor covering tech and gaming, and has been writing about video games for almost a decade (and playing them since forever). She's had bylines at major gaming sites during her freelance career before settling down here at T3, and has podcasts, streaming, and video content under her belt to boot. Outside of work, she also plays video games and should really think about expanding her hobbies. If you have any tech or gaming tips, shoot over an email or DM her on social media.