Rumors of Nvidia transferring all of its Ampere graphics cards to the new GAxx2 GPUs with hardware mining protection have once again been confirmed. According to the source, the company will begin shipping new versions of the GPU to its partners in mid-May, and ready-made devices based on them will most likely appear on sale in June. We are talking about the models GeForce RTX 3060, GeForce RTX 3070 and GeForce RTX 3080 – in the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, hardware protection against mining is provided from the outset. Instead of switching to new GPUs, these models will receive the RezisableBAR automatically, without the need to update the BIOS of the 3D card.

An important point: Nvidia makes no difference between the regular Ampere and the Ampere LHR. This means that new versions of old video cards built on the new GAxx2 with hardware protection against mining will not differ in designations or markings. And the abbreviation LHR was introduced for internal use only to make it easier for partners of the company to distinguish new GPUs from old ones. So, you can only distinguish a conventional conditional GeForce RTX 3070 from a GeForce RTX 3070 with hardware protection against mining by looking at the GPU marking under the cooler. Or by launching cryptocurrency mining – in the new version, the performance in such operations will be halved. At the same time, utilities for determining GPU parameters (like GPU-Z) should also receive support for identifying new GPUs. As for the performance in games, it will remain the same. Moreover, due to the support of RezisableBAR, it will even increase in some places.

Rumor has it that the availability of the Ampere GPU will improve after the release of GeForce RTX 30 LHR graphics cards, although it is not yet clear how. Still, the deficit has existed for at least six months, and in order to saturate the market, it is necessary to increase the production of video cards several times. Interestingly, the top GeForce RTX 3090 will be the only video card from the current ones that will not receive a built-in anti-mining mechanism. It is reportedly unattractive for cryptocurrency miners because of its high cost. At the same time, it will also be transferred to GAxx2, but only for the implementation of RezisableBAR.