If you’re looking for an RTX GPU for a mining rig build, there may be some Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti cards hitting U.S. shores soon. Mining GPU availability has been all but nonexistent since February of this year. A drop of not only RTX 3080 Ti’s but also 3090s would be welcomed by gamers and miners. But, there’s a lot of reasons to question whether this reported GPU shipment.
A shipment of RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 GPUs. Source: Facebook.
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Shipment with RTX 3090s
Speculation comes by way of a Facebook user posted image dated April 17th. The image is of a shrink-wrapped pallet which is labeled GEFORCE RTX 3090 and GEFORCE RTX 3080 TI VENTUS. The destination is the United States, but the label requires a scan to reveal the GPU shipment’s final destination. The card manufacturer is MSI, and these are MSI’s unreleased GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Ventus 3X 12G OC. These cards are currently not listed on MSI’s website.
There have been numerous 3080 Ti rumors, with some of the most recent indicating a mid-April 2021 release. There had also been speculation that 3080 Ti would ship with 20 GB of RAM, but if the images are legitimate, it looks like the Ti will be a 12 GB card.
GPU hope more than anything
Nvidia had previously stated that they would be shipping their CMP mining GPUs in Q1 of 2021. Anything that may have made its way out of a factory made its way into the hands of a corporation, not the retail market. And, only 30xx series RTX cards that have been seen in well over a month were the hashrate limited 3060 variant. No clear statement at that time was made about limiting the RTX 3080 Ti or any other GPU.
While we’re hopeful, the reality is that Nvidia didn’t ship CMP GPUs that were made available to the general public. If there were any RTX shipments in April, they were few and far between. And, of course, we can’t forget that this speculation is all based on a single photograph posted on Facebook.
Will the RTX 3080 Ti be miner friendly?
Not much is known about the RTX 3080 Ti, including if it will ship with Nvidia’s hashrate limiter. The same could be said of the 3090s in this shipment, too. Between the two options, our guess is that there’s a 75% chance the 3080 Ti comes with the limiter while the 3090 is identical to those which shipped earlier in the year.
If the 3080 Ti is hashrate limited, it will be interesting to see if is merely a driver limitation or if Nvidia really did execute on a hardware/software handshake.
