While the primary purpose of using GPUs is for gaming, an increasing number of people have been buying them solely for crypto mining. To counter this problem, Nvidia has applied a new feature called Lite Hash Rate or LHR to discourage miners from purchasing their GPUs.
You can still use them for crypto mining, but you will receive significantly lower hash rates than a non-LHR GPU. Therefore, the question arises, which is the best LHR GPU for mining?
According to benchmarks, the best Nvidia LHR GPU is the Geforce RTX 3080 Ti LHR, which gives out a hash rate of 77MH/s. Likewise, the Geforce RTX 3080 gives a mining performance of 65.8MH/s.
Finding these GPUs in the market is difficult, as they usually sell out within a few minutes. But you can get LHR GPUs in stock more regularly at a lower price than non-LHR GPUs. The decision to choose one is quite difficult to make.
Therefore, in this article, we’ll deep dive into everything you need to know about LHR GPUs and how you can use them to start mining for cryptocurrency.
Are all Nvidia Ti cards LHR?
Yes, all Nvidia Ti cards, excluding the latest 3090 Ti Founders Edition, feature LHR or Lite Hash Rate to discourage miners from purchasing these GPUs. However, you can unlock the LHR using software like NiceHash Quickminer to use these cards on their full potential for mining.
The latest Nvidia LHR GPUs have reduced the hash rates to half, so there are better options for you to mine cryptocurrency. Additionally, they use the same amount of electricity while giving lower performances, making them even less appealing to miners.
However, in recent times, crypto mining software developers have been working on unlocking the GPUs to give out higher hash rates. Recently, NiceHash has unlocked some LHR GPUs, and supposedly, they are giving out higher hash rates, making them worth buying for mining.
But, if possible, you should use non-LHR GPUs for crypto mining, as they give more freedom to use your preferred software on a better hash rate.
What coins are affected by LHR?
LHR GPUs won’t receive a 100% LHR hash rate on mining algorithms and coins like Ethereum and Ergo. On the other hand, less popular coins like Ravencoin won’t be affected by LHR.
The LHR limits the ability to gain coins like Ethereum through mining by 50%. The GPU hash rate will go down by half when it recognizes a specific repetitive behavior after meeting certain criteria.
Those that have purchased their Nvidia GPUs manufactured before May 2021 don’t have to face the issues because these cards can give out full hash rates. On the other hand, the cards sold after May 2021 have LHR.
Will Nvidia ever unlock or remove LHR in their graphic cards?
Nvidia might unlock or remove LHR in their upcoming graphic cards, but nothing has been confirmed yet. However, they will continue to apply LHR in their Geforce RTX 30 series GPUs.
Despite the LHR features, some mining software developers have managed to crack the code to unlock the hash rates by 75-100% within a few months. It might discourage Nvidia from applying LHR in future GPUs, as mining software allowing them to be used at 100% defeats the purpose of the feature.
Regardless, Nvidia does have certain graphic cards that don’t feature LHR. You can figure it out from the label from the box or the website page, where you can purchase it.
Is Nvidia RTX 3090 non-LHR?
The Nvidia Geforce RTX 3090 is the only RTX 30-series GPU without LHR. In other words, you can use the 3090 for crypto mining without suffering any drop in the hash rate.
Nvidia RTX 3090 gives an astonishing hash rate of 115MH/s, making it the best graphic card for crypto mining. Consequently, the Nvidia RTX 3090Ti, after a memory overclock, got a stunning hash rate of 130-132MH/s, the best by numbers.
However, overclocking these GPUs takes up a lot of electricity, making it less profitable if you mine cryptocurrency using this method.
About Nvidia
NVIDIA Corporation is an American multinational technology company incorporated in Delaware, based in Santa Clara, California. They design graphics processing units (GPUs) for the gaming and professional markets, as well as system on chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market.
Best known for the “GeForce” lines of GPUs, they are a direct competitor to AMD’s “Radeon” series. NVIDIA has also expanded its offerings with its handheld game consoles Shield Portable, Shield Tablet, and Shield Android TV and its cloud gaming service GeForce Now.
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