A PC gaming electronics researcher made headlines in the PC world this week after finding a way to boost the computational efficiency of the Nvidia RTX 3090 card per kWh. That could save the GPU crypto mining community some coin on the electric bill.
In Chemnitz, Germany, an amateur PC gaming researcher by the name of Igor Wallossek recently found a way to reduce the power consumption of the Nvidia RTX 3090.
A report about the home lab electronics caper by Hassan Mujtaba for WCCF Tech explains why this is a breakthrough for anyone who uses the GPU:
“NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card is arguably the most power-hungry graphics card ever released, consuming over 500 watts of power and requiring incredibly massive GPU cooling solutions to control heat.”
Of course, cryptocurrency industry watchers know it’s not just full-time gamers who stand to save some money if Igor’s efficiency mod to the chip is replicable by others.
Unless they use the ASIC chips specially designed to mine cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and others – GPUs remain the most efficient way to mine cryptocurrency.
Igor Labs Mods Nvidia RTX 3090 for Big Efficiency Boost
Out of the box, the RTX 3090 has a manufacturer reference TGP (total graphics power) of 450W. That’s how much power the graphics subsystem requires to run the chip and keep it from overheating. WCCF Tech says most custom models run at closer to 500W. But Igor Labs found a way to limit power consumption to 300W— a 37% drop in its TGP rating — without losing nearly as much gaming performance. This was tested using 10 games at 4K resolution.
Out of the box, the RTX 3090 has a manufacturer reference TGP (total graphics power) of 450W. That’s how much power the graphics subsystem requires to run the chip and keep it from overheating. WCCF Tech says most custom models run at closer to 500W. But Igor Labs found a way to limit power consumption to 300W— a 37% drop in its TGP rating — without losing nearly as much gaming performance. This was tested using 10 games at 4K resolution.
That could save some money for the GPU mining industry
Graphics processing units are optimal for solving the SHA-256 hash algorithm problems that play a key role in the elaborate computational and economic architecture of proof of work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (and Ethereum for the past seven years, until mainnet merges with the Beacon Chain to create network consensus using proof of stake).
While the RTX 3090 is a powerful miner with a clocked hashrate of 135 MH/s on the Dagger Hashimoto implementation for Ethereum mining, WePC recommended a more power-efficient solution because the platform is so power-hungry. Igor’s modification to limit the electricity consumption of the Nvidia card could hit the RTX 3090 up to the GPU mining leaderboards for key landmarks like the hashrateenergy consumption and daily profit/days to break even.
