In an effort to reduce mining cryptocurrency using gaming oriented graphics cards, Nvidia had just announced the CMP GPUs – short for Cryptocurrency Mining Processor.
These CMP GPUs will be available this first quarter of the year, with the Nvidia CMP 30HX and 40HX as the initial models. Four are planned according to the spec sheet from Nvidia with the more powerful 50HX and 90HX models releasing by Q2 of 2021.
| Model | 30HX | 40HX | 50HX | 90HX |
| Ethereum Hash Rate | 26 MH/s | 36 MH/s | 45 MH/s | 86 MH/s |
| Rated Power | 125 W | 185 W | 250 W | 320 W |
| Power Connectors | 1x 8-pin | 1x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin |
| Memory Size | 6GB | 8GB | 10GB | 10GB |
| Starting Availability | Q1 | Q1 | Q2 | Q2 |
These CMP graphics are touted to be more efficient in Ethereum mining compared to the usual consumer graphics equivalent that you could get – that is, if you could get anything recent with these hash-rates.
It is also noteworthy to add that these models do not correspond to the usual SKUs from Nvidia – pointing us to the use of binned-out chips from the Ampere and maybe even the Turing family. Yah know, the ones who didn’t make the cut.
Nvidia also stated that these models wont feature a display port which is something that ASUS, Sapphire and MSI have tried already back in 2017. Nvidia removed this feature to maximize heat dissipation but we also believe that this could also allow SKUs with defective graphics pipeline to be used.
The only difference here? Nvidia just officially joined the fray, allowing authorized partners including – but not limited to ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit and PC Partner to use their resources for these cards to get manufactured on their own style.
Nerfing the GeForce RTX 3060
In addition, Nvidia went to even greater length to announce that their soon to be released RTX 3060 (February 25th) will feature a 50% less mining performance upon launch. This is to ensure that cryptocurrency based consumers will have to think twice before shelling out to a brand spanking new RTX 3060 at launch.
“We’re limiting the hash rate of GeForce RTX 3060 GPUs so they’re less desirable to miners and launching NVIDIA CMP for professional mining.”
This move also suggested that the RTX 3060 could be a crypto mining beast for its suggested retail price of $329 USD. Nvidia do not want miners to capitalize on this so they will limit the card’s ability to perform via driver based detection. Miners could possibly develop a way to counter this though, unless Nvidia decided to add an extra set of measure and create a compelling price point for the CMP’s hash-rate.
