Recently, when I saw the cracked drivers, it seemed easy to associate them with mining; however, this time it’s really just to achieve better graphics performance.
01
GeForce GPUs Now Support GPU Virtualization
Recently, a group of expert hackers has cracked the GPU virtualization (vGPU) feature that was previously only available on NVIDIA’s data center acceleration cards (Tesla) and professional graphics cards (Quadro), allowing it to be used on GeForce gaming cards. Some Quadro professional cards that originally did not support this feature are now usable. In simple terms, GPU virtualization technology allows multiple users to share the same GPU, similar to CPU virtualization, which has traditionally only been supported by high-end professional products. This is because it requires drivers and a lot of software to work together, along with optimization and certification from ISV software vendors.
However, in terms of hardware, there is no difference between the GPU chips used in professional cards and gaming cards; both have the capability for GPU virtualization at the hardware level, but this has been blocked on gaming cards and some low-end professional cards.
Now, the experts have released a cracked driver that allows those NVIDIA graphics cards that originally did not support GPU virtualization to take advantage of this professional skill that used to cost thousands or tens of thousands.
Currently supported are the Ampere architecture GA102, Turing architecture TU102, TU104, Pascal architecture GP102, GP104 cores, which respectively mimic the device IDs of RTX A40, Quadro RTX 6000, Tesla T4, Tesla P40, and Tesla P4.
Details are as follows:
Why are lower-end cores like TU106 and GP106 not supported? It’s simple; GPU virtualization has high hardware requirements, and lower-end cards struggle to run it.
Why is GA104 not supported? Probably because the driver cracking is not yet complete.
Currently, this cracked feature only supports Linux systems and KVM virtualization software; it does not support Windows systems or VMware virtualization. It remains to be seen if this will be added in the future.
02
NVIDIA Launches Mysterious Treasure Hunt Page
If updating drivers isn’t exciting enough and you don’t want to tinker with old graphics cards, why not take a look at NVIDIA’s new treasure hunt game?
According to foreign media reports, NVIDIA has launched a treasure hunt game, with the top prize being a new GeForce GPU. To win, players need to find clues from NVIDIA’s GTC 2021 trailer or be the first to crack the code embedded in the GTC live stream. On April 12, local time, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will live stream the Graphics Technology Conference (GTC) from his kitchen.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/gtc/hidden-treasure/
NVIDIA’s GTC Twitter account recently released a 30-second video. The simplicity of the video prompted further investigation, and some people discovered that the flashing light bulbs contained Morse code. Once decoded, it revealed the message: hidden treasure hidden treasure. Shortly thereafter, a secret page was discovered.
It is reported that the prize rules have been partially listed. The first winner will be chosen randomly from the first qualified participant to accurately describe each unique treasure. The winner from the United States will receive an RTX A6000, while the winner from the UK or EU will receive an RTX 3090. Other regions are not included in the competition.
The remaining 23 winners will be randomly selected from timely published tweets that correctly describe the hidden treasure. The second, third, and fourth prizes are RTX 3090s. Additionally, there are 20 consolation prizes, which include NVIDIA Shield TV and NVIDIA scientific rulers.