MSI is reportedly readying Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti boards designed specifically for cryptocurrency miners.
According to Videocardz, a new EEC listing includes entries for a pair of new MSI cards based on the RTX 3060 Ti chipset with conspicuously mining-centric branding. The boards in question are the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Miner 8G and MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Miner 8G OC.
Several graphics card makers have produced mining-specific boards in the past. Typically, such cards eschew features and frills irrelevant to the mining task, such as RGB lighting, ornate styling, and video outputs.
As for the choice of the RTX 3060 Ti chipset, it makes sense on a bang-for-buck basis for mining. The RTX 3060 Ti is based on the GA104 GPU, as opposed to the smaller and weaker GA106 chip on the plain vanilla RTX 3060.
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Given the dramatically higher pricing of other members of the RTX 30 series range, such as the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, the RTX 3060 Ti may well deliver the best return on investment when it comes to mining cryptocurrencies.
Given the widely held assumption that miners are in any case buying up large quantities of Nvidia RTX 30 series cards, arguably there’s little harm in giving them an official SKU or two to call their own. But as gamers at a time of chronic graphics card shortages and crazy pricing, every GPU that disappears into a mining rig hurts. And seeing the problem possibly confirmed in official mining boards from MSI is pretty depressing.