In this article, we are going to talk about LHR or Lite Hash Rate graphic cards. We are going to explain what a Lite Hash Rate GPU is and how does it affect mining.

We are also going to explain how to partly bypass the LHR mining lock.

LHR explained

LHR stands for Lite Hash Rate. LHR GPUs are restricted from achieving 100% mining hashrate on some of the mining algorithms and coins like Ethereum and Ergo.

GPUs labeled with LHR will, out of the box, perform at about 50% on some of the most popular algorithms mentioned above, but not all. Ravencoin (KAWPOW) for example is not affected by LHR.

You can read the official NVIDIA statement about why did they implement the LHR limiter here.

How does LHR limit the performance of the GPU?

GPU can recognize a specific repetitive behavior of itself. If certain criteria is met, then the LHR kicks in and it limits the performance to 50%. The exact criteria for LHR to kick in is unknown.

What GPUs are affected by LHR?

Luckily for us miners, the LHR is only used by the latest NVIDIA GPUs such as RTX 3080 Ti and the rest of the RTX 3000 series. It is not known if the trend of applying LHR to the new architecture will continue. You can check what GPUs are affected by LHR on our mining hardware page.

NVIDIA caused a lot of confusion by introducing LHR in the middle of the architecture lineup release. Older cards (bought before May 2021) are still FHR (Full Hash Rate). For example, some of the RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti can achieve 100% of the theoretical speed. While all the RTX 3000 series released after May 2021 are locked. You can check this article to clarify the confusion.

AMD GPUs are not affected by any kind of hash rate limiter.

How to unlock LHR?

While 100% unlock is not known up to this day, there are 70% - 75% unlocks available. Several miners, including NiceHash Miner and QuickMiner support partial LHR unlock.

NiceHash QuickMiner

To partly unlock the LHR GPU, simply install QuickMiner and start mining. NiceHash QuickMiner and its mining software Excavator will automatically recognize the LHR GPU and apply the LHR unlock parameters to it.

NiceHash Miner

NiceHash Miner supports Excavator and other various 3rd party miners with LHR unlock. We suggest using Excavator, LolMiner or NBminer.

Excavator and LolMiner will automatically recognize LHR GPU and enable LHR unlock.

NBminer requires an Extra Launch Parameter modification. Read how to unlock LHR GPUs with NBminer in this help article.