You may have heard ofLHR GPUsbefore the Cryptocurrency bust of last year.
Now that GPU prices are back to normal, you may consider buying an LHR GPU.
But is it any different than a generic graphics card?
Or what about its gaming capability?
So, follow along as I answer all these questions right in this article today.
What is LHR GPU?
Lite Hash Rate (LHR)are GPUs that have reduced hash rate performances when mining cryptocurrency.
During the rise of Bitcoin, it became very profitable to mine cryptocurrency using graphics cards.
To counter this, NVIDIA introduced LHR on its GPUs.
It decreases the crypto-mining capability of an existing GPU to 50% of its original.
Here is an important post about what isIdle GPU temp?
What is a GPU Hash Rate?
A hash rate is a representation of the computational power of a GPU.
This indicates how many calculations you’re able to perform in a second.
A GPUs hash rate is expressed inmega hashes per second (MH/s).
Hashes are calculations performed to verify the transactions performed in Bitcoin.
Users who mine, use their computing resources to solve complex calculations and are rewarded with Bitcoin tokens.
LHR GPUs have the50%of the hash rates available for mining.
This is to discourage using these cards for mining cryptocurrency.
Lets now look at how some LHR and non-LHR flagship GPUs perform when mining cryptocurrencies.
The hash rate was only limited to NVIDIA cards.
AMD did not limit the hash rate in any of its cards.
Which GPUs Come with LHR Enabled?
Only a handful of NVIDIAs 30 series cards came with limited hash rates.
These were the RTX 3060, RTX 3070 Ti, and the RTX 3080 Ti.Although there are some exceptions.
RTX 3080 has both LHR and Non-LHR variants.
The only way you might verify its LHR status is by looking at the manufacture date.
Any 30-series GPU made afterMay 2021will likely be hash-rate limited.
Any 30 series cards released before this date came with a full hash rate enabled.
Does LHR Affect Gaming and Productivity Applications?
LHR GPUs will always give you less hash rate when compared to a graphics card that is non-LHR.
But this does not affect its performance when running games.
The rasterization and ray tracing capability remains unaffected.
To test this, lets take an RTX 3060 LHR and run some games on it.
We do not need to initiate the usual strenuous 20-game benchmarks here.
The FPS is basically the same across all titles.
This confirms that there is no performance degradation when gaming.
Now lets see how they perform on applications that utilize GPU acceleration, such as rendering.
I have provided some benchmarks comparing the scores inV-RayandPuget Bench.
There is also no noticeable performance drop when rendering using an LHR GPU.
We get almost the same results as before.
The video encoding test using Premier Pro produced identical results.
If anything, the LHR cards scored more than the non-LHR variant.
So, if you get a good deal with a hash-limited GPU, definitely go for it.
It will save you some money for other components.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is LHR important for gaming?
No, LHR is not important for gaming.
It is only present to reduce a GPUs capability when mining cryptocurrencies.
It also does not affect a graphics card when running games.
Does LHR hurt performance?
No, LHR on a GPU will not give you less performance.
But if you aim to mine cryptocurrencies, an LHR graphics card will get you fewer cryptocurrencies.
You should buy a non-limited graphics card for that purpose.
Which GPU is better, LHR or non-LHR?
The only difference is LHR is less capable when it comes to mining cryptocurrency.
Their hash rate is limited to 50% of their overall capacity.
With that said, thats all for today.
And its time to say goodbye.
