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NVIDIA’s Ether Hash Rate Limiter on the RTX 3060 May Drive Miners to the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

This is going to sound absurd at first, but hear me out. NVIDIA’s Ethermining block which is expected to be re-implemented, first with the RTX 3060, and then the entire RTX 30-series lineup may drive miners towards AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT. You may reply that stocks for AMD’s Navi 2 graphics cards are much worse than Ampere and that they’re not really that good at mining, but that’s not completely true. Stocks for the RX 6700 XT have been much better than the Big Navi parts, with the number of units sold in April being 2-3x more than the RX 6800 and 6800 XT. Furthermore, the supply of the Radeon RX 6000 series is expected to improve substantially over the coming quarter as pointed out by Dr. Su at AMD’s Q1 earnings call.

Looking at the numbers, you can probably understand what I mean. With the Ether hash limited in place, the RTX 3060 is limited to alternate currencies such as Raven, Conflux, and Turtle. But, these are much less profitable than Ether. The Radeon RX 6700 XT manages a hash rate of nearly 50 MH/s in Ether which results in a daily profit of close to $6. With some memory overclocking which is fairly easy with the Navi 22 part, you should be able to get it to 52-53 MH/s, making it even more attractive, and close to the RTX 3070’s 60 MH/s.

Seeing how the supply of the Radeon RX 6700 XT has improved since launch, it won’t be surprising if the price returns (close to) the MSRP in a few months. However, by then NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 and possibly even the 3070 will be less appealing to miners due to the updated miner block. This might drive miners towards the RX 6700 XT which is actually a decent mining card despite having a slim bandwidth. The primary reasons are still the improved supply and pricing (which are both out of control at the moment), but the fairly decent mining performance will certainly play a part too. In comparison, the RX 6900 XT which costs more than twice as much, has a hash rate of just 60 MH/s in Ether, just 10-15% more. This makes the 6700 XT the ideal Radeon card for miners.

Images source: Minerstat

Areej Syed

Processors, PC gaming, and the past. I have been writing about computer hardware for over seven years with more than 5000 published articles. Started off during engineering college and haven't stopped since. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Divinity, Torment, Baldur's Gate and so much more... Contact: areejs12@hardwaretimes.com.
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