[Hardware]When buying an NVIDIA GPU, don't we own the graphics card?

[WilkerCSBD]

We cannot deny that the announcement of the new graphics cards for mining by NVIDIA has caused quite a stir. The CMP HX GPUs would arrive to solve the problem of the stock of graphics cards for gaming, but the cross of the coin arrives with the RTX 3060 and will be extended shortly to the rest of the models, since NVIDIA limits the performance of its gaming GPUs for mining . Do we or are we not really owners of our hardware if this happens?

We may not have thought about it, we may not be aware of it, but indirectly NVIDIA has set a precedent in the industry that can be very dangerous for the user. This article is rather opinionated, thoughtful and with a clear objective: to ask ourselves for a moment if what has just happened with the new RTX 3060 (and those to come) is really a restriction on the freedom of the consumer who acquires an NVIDIA GPU .

Are we about to lose ownership of our hardware by purchasing an NVIDIA GPU?
RTX 3070 vs RTX 3060 Ti

As we assume you know, NVIDIA has limited the performance of its new RTX 3060 for mining use, so that the performance will drop by 50% in this area when the driver detects the algorithm of the software to mine the cryptocurrency Ethereum.

This is something totally new in the industry and the company masks it with the slogan of "GeForce is made for gaming" and although they are right, it is the company that is dictating what we can do with our GPU and what not. Let's not limit this to mining, because this is not an argument or attack against the company or against wanting to launch a new line of GPUs exclusively for mining.

The problem is that you are limiting the buyer's freedom to a specific segment to use their proprietary hardware. Now let's think about video editing software, what would happen if NVIDIA limits its use to us, such as the performance in SONY Vegas? In exchange for this performance restriction, it offers us GPUs that do a worse job, slower, but cheaper and more efficient, but also limited and with an exclusive use for this purpose, which is why it encourages us to buy those new models.

But, by pure logic, it is indirectly limiting the use of our proprietary hardware, it would take away a range of possibilities simply because it does not fit with their sales strategy and they have a stock problem that they cannot solve themselves (current case of the RTX 3000).

Will paying to own something fully be a thing of the past?
RTX 3060

If we look at any other sector or company, we will see that the trend is to reduce the uses of a product that has been paid for, with the excuse that certain functionalities must be unlocked by paying extra for them. Call it forcing the repair in official stores like Apple, call it upgrades in a car to offer more equipment, or directly the opposite as we have seen with NVIDIA: if you want the best efficiency and performance you have a specific product, but the rest of my range, although be better, I limit it to make you go through the hoop.

Last but not least, NVIDIA has locked down its upcoming GPUs that we know of only for Ethereum, why not BitCoin or any other cryptocurrency? Do you assume that even if the Hash performance is worse, no one uses your GPUs to mine anything other than Ethereum?

Go ahead, product segmentation is something that has been around a lifetime, but what NVIDIA has done is totally different from this. Here we are talking about layering the performance in a specific task on a product that performs an excellent job so that with it you buy another, with the detail that the product you already have or are going to buy did not have that starting restriction.

Therefore, and in a certain way, whether we like it or not, we are at the mercy of each company and it is this company that determines what can and cannot be done, regardless of whether the product belongs to us as buyers, the limitation comes from above. and the cap could be so exhaustive that just thinking about it is scary ... Is it legally and morally legal to do this?