AMD says it won’t try and stop crypto miners from using its graphics cards

Computing hardware maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has no plans to follow rival Nvidia in limiting the use of its GPU products for cryptocurrency mining.

PC Gamer reports that the comments came during a pre-briefing call about AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card. Graphics cards are used to mine certain cryptocurrencies, including Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network. 

“We will not be blocking any workload, not just mining for that matter,” AMD product manager Nish Neelalojanan told the publication. 

AMD’s decision stands in opposition to Nvidia, which aimed to limit 50% of the processing power behind its latest chip, the RTX 3060 GPU, if it was used to mine ETH or other cryptocurrencies. However, Nvidia briefly stymied its own efforts by accidentally published a driver that removed the restriction in question. 

GPU demands from both crypto miners and gamers have historically led to shortages of the latest graphic chips. Gamers have long griped about the lack of availability of the latest cards, and Nvidia’s move was seen as a nod toward those critics. Nvidia is also moving to launch a product specifically dedicated to crypto mining in the coming months.