I dunno. This reminds me of apple and jailbreaking. They can't limit what the consumer wants to do with it once purchased.
I think it's laughable to think that making these mining gpus will help gamers get cards.
All nvidia is doing is recognizing a market space. They now get to sell you both

Quote from: NotACryptoMiner on February 21, 2021, 16:03:34
Everyone posting they are mining so they could offset gpu prices that are now double the original price thanks to miners. Don't people see the irony in this?

Those people are not the problem. Because they have only one card (they're not hoarding them) and they game on it (they would have it anyway; perhaps a lower, cheaper model, but they would still have one).

A big question here is how exactly it works. Many people use GeForce cards for engineering and scientific work. Because they're a lot cheaper than Quadro for the same compute performance. And yes, that can include cryptography. It's not ideal but perfectly workable for students, hobbyists and low-budget academic work.

Everyone posting they are mining so they could offset gpu prices that are now double the original price thanks to miners. Don't people see the irony in this?  If Nvidia stops miners, GPU prices will fall. It's too bad you paid double for a GPU of waiting. Same goes for your real estate and Tesla stock

Yes, absolutely. I had no intention of mining, but I waited for months to get 3060Ti and only managed to get a 3070 at a relatively good price but still way above msrp. So I plan to offset the increased cost with mining.

And if they limit future SKU there might be a huge increase in demand for the old ones. Which would mean that I can sell my current one, buy a non-mining one and take a profi.

If they need existing cards, they'd get sued like crazy. Like when sony locked out linux on the ps3. I have a single 3080. I mine on it when I'm not gaming on it. It's mining potent WAS factored into my decision to purchase it. Making $8 a day (it technically could earn $12, but again, I game on it) made it a no brainier to upgrade from a 2070S. If they locked out or limited features, I'd be absolutely livid. Lots of people would be.

However by only locking out new cards, and making it known before they are released, they get a pass. The card never had that feature when you bought it, so why would you be mad? It never once factored in to your purchase decision.

It's the only option they can get away with.