> The real reason Nvidia is doing this is that when mining profitability inevitably drops, either because of a crypto price crash or Ethereum moving to Proof of Stake, the miners will flood the used market and ruin Nvidia's profits for a few quarters. Nvidia is trying to get miners to buy mining-only cards, because those can't be sold to gamers down the line. They'd rather mining cards become e-waste in a few years than get resold.

What they could have done is instead sell the video-capable cards in a way that discourages bulk buying (limits per customer, maybe a little bit bulkier and harder to correctly cool if several are in a rack) and then release a more bare-bone (no bulk, just a heatsink and optional fan) mining version that can be bulk-ordered and performs well in a rack mount.