Gamers rejoice: the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 looks bad for cryptomining

(Image credit: Nvidia)

Given the electric current state of the GPU market, where even ageing cards are selling for several times their MSRP and store stock evaporates as before long as it appears, you'd be forgiven for thinking a new carte will be equally scarce.

But information technology looks like Nvidia has deliberately neutered the upcoming GeForce RTX 3050's ability to mine cryptocurrency in order to deter miners, and increment the odds of the carte ending up in PCs that will actually exist used for gaming.

Co-ordinate to Videocardz "source in Red china," the RTX 3050 ships with a Light Hash Rate algorithm which severely limits the rate at which the carte du jour tin can mine Ethereum. While information technology will start mining with a hash charge per unit effectually twenty MH/southward, it quickly drops to 12.5 MH/south while consuming 73W of energy.

Assuming the RTX 3050 goes on sale at $250 (non unlikely given RTX 3060 stock theoretically costs $329), the site calculates that with the electric current value of Etherium, the carte would take 500 days — or around a yr and four months — to recoup the price involved. And if the current bout of GPU aggrandizement were to up the cost to $350, that would increment to 700 days (or a month shy of two years).

For people who simply want a graphics card to game with, that's fantabulous news. And as Videocardz points out, the weak performance isn't the only thing that would make the RTX 3050 a poor investment for crypto miners.

With Etherum's switch to proof-of-stake mining — which aims to brand GPU mining redundant and hopefully meet a flurry of pre-owned cards hit the market — scheduled for June 2022, it just won't exist worth a miner buying a RTX 3050 if this Ethereum mining performance is matched in the existent world, even if it were released tomorrow.

That'south non to say that supply volition outstrip demand over night: supply chain issues are still a thing, equally is the global scrap shortage. But with cryptocurrency miners hopefully out of the flick (other coins don't offer the same ROI), the chances of actually getting a GPU for gaming are looking a lot improve in 2022 than they did in 2021.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, roofing phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are establish all over the web and in the occasional mag too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, yous'll probably notice him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more than likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.