So a card they mined on for 18 months and after initial testing they did not:
1. Clean the HSF of dust and retest.
2. Remove the HSF, repaste and retest.
18 months of 24/7 mining degrades the paste, not the silicon.
Complete and total garbage commissioned by nvidia, no doubt, to cast doubt on the used card market in order to get those prices down. They can't get 3000 series silicon fast enough, the ETH crypto limiter on the 3060 has already been defeated in Linux, and ain't nobody want a 1050Ti.
I have a Gigabyte 1080Ti I have mined on since day 1 in my possession back in 2018. I have cleaned and repasted it several times over the years. This last time, I lapped the OEM heatsink and got an excellent mount. It's been running an XOC BIOS since 2019 so no temp, current, or voltage protections. Mines ETH at 49-51 MH/s with Ethlargement. 2088/6050 clocks for 24/7 use. Best part: load temp never breaks 35C in a 22C ambient basement. Heatsink gets hot, but doesn't saturate with fans at 100% and the cosmetic shroud popped off.
Fake, bullshit news piece for clicks.