Apparently Nvidia has decided that the value offered by their gaming cards for some compute applications is a trifle too good compared to their dedicated compute cards and decided to fix that.
They explain that they are merely ‘clarifying’ out of concern for people using hardware outside its designed specs; but obviously invalidating the software license is a fair bit punchier than a ‘clarification’.
GeForce and TITAN GPUs were never designed for data center deployments with the complex hardware, software, and thermal requirements for 24x7 operation, where there are often multi-stack racks. To clarify this, we recently added a provision to our GeForce-specific EULA to discourage potential misuse of our GeForce and TITAN products in demanding, large-scale enterprise environments.
It will be interesting to see what, if any, reaction there is. Another instance of the fact that you don’t really own hardware that relies on vendor software.
Interesting.
But I see this aimed at bitcoin mining with rack mounted server hardware that is definitely a different beast than your desktop gaming rig which is what their stuff is made for.
Basically they are saying we don’t test for this environment and don’t support it and we are not going to replace it for you if you break it from overheating due to “misuse”.
Except that bitcoin, or other block chain related activity, is specifically allowed. It’s only any other “data center use” which is forbidden.
No Datacenter Deployment. The SOFTWARE is not licensed for datacenter deployment, except that blockchain processing in a datacenter is permitted.
The prohibition doesn’t include any mention of the warranty (either hardware life under given conditions or behavioral correctness and suitability); it’s just a flat refusal to license the driver if they don’t like your intended use.
