While AMD explicitly stated that sales of graphics cards for mining are completely legitimateNVIDIA has actively and passively researched ways to decrease the interest of miners in its products so that PC gamers can afford to buy their gaming GPUs, so even with their measurements, it’s almost a mission impossible. NVIDIA CMP HX graphics are part of the solution offered by the manufacturer, and in this article we will talk about it in depth.
The problem of cryptocurrency mining
In 2020 a period of crisps It has touched the entire industry, from computer hardware to the automotive sector. At the same time, the boom in cryptocurrency mining has worsened the situation in the graphics card market, as these “miners” monopolize the little one. Stock graphics cards that are in stores, even buying them without them reaching the shelves thereof.
Esto ha provocado que los usuarios normale de PC que quieren cambiar su tarjeta gráfica o comprar una nueva se hayan visto imposibilitados a ello, ya que literalmente no hay stock y el poco que hay tiene precios desorbitados, ya no solo en el mercado de segunda mano otherwise what even the stores speculate with him. Thus, for example, a graphics card that NVIDIA launches on the market with a suggested price of 999 dollars, we see it in stores for amounts of 2,400 dollars or more.
While AMD has refrained from washing its hands on this problem, NVIDIA has worked hard to alleviate it both at the software level by setting a limitation in the mining algorithms of certain cryptocurrencies (known as of Lite Hash Rate which halves mining power) and at the hardware level with the launch of the NVIDIA CMP HX graphics cards, which we are talking about here and now.
What are NVIDIA CMP HX graphics cards?
CMP stands for Cryptocurrency mining processor, o procesador para minería de criptomonedas, así que con este numero aunado a todo lo que os hemos contado hasta ahora ya supondréis que estamos ante unas tarjetas gráficas que han sido diseñadas específicamente para minar criptomonedas, y de hecho dedicadas NVIDIA GPs public for the professional mining“.
These graphics cards have several peculiarities, and among them we find that they have no limitations (so they are not affected by the LHR limitations that we talked about earlier) when mining any type of cryptocurrency. and, moreover, they can only be used as secondary graphics processors since they do not have video outputs to connect a monitor. In other words, they are graphics cards without graphics and therefore no one other than cryptocurrency miners would be interested since, due to lack of video outputs, they cannot be used for games.
NVIDIA “sells” the fact that they don’t have video outputs because these graphics have optimized rear airflow, and further states that they are designed so that only one CPU is able to handle. more GPUs at the same time. . On the other hand, they also state that their architecture has been optimized to achieve the highest mining performance and with the highest efficiency, literally saying that it is about recovering the initial investment as quickly as possible.
Of course, they also specify that these graphics will only be available through the network of authorized partners of NVIDIA, which in this case are ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI and Palit in addition to certain PC wholesalers.
NVIDIA CMP HX Graphics Models and Features
By now we all know that NVIDIA CMP HX graphics are models specifically designed for professional cryptocurrency mining, have no video outputs and therefore cannot be used for gaming, and that they are one of the company’s responses to the shortage that the gaming market is suffering, which has reached the point where PC users can in no way buy graphics cards.
Now in the CMP HX line of graphics cards we currently have four different families, each with a price range and of course specific power and performance. The series are, from the lowest range to the highest range, the 30HX, 40HX, 50HX and 90HX, and below we detail the technical characteristics as defined by NVIDIA itself:
| 30HX | 40HX | 50HX | 90HX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum mining power | 26 MH / s | 36 MH / s | 45 MH / s | 86 MH / s |
| Equivalent gaming GPU power | GTX 1660 | RTX 2070 | RTX 2080 | RTX 3080 |
| Graphics core | TU116-100-A1 | TU106-100-A1 | TU102-100-A1 | GA102-100-A1 |
| Number of cores | 1.408 | 2.304 | 4.352 | 8,704 |
| Basic speed | 1.530MHz | 1.470 MHz | 1.350MHz | 1.440 MHz |
| Consumption | 125W | 185W | 250W | 320W |
| PCIe connectors | 1×8 pins | 1×8 pins | 2×8 pins | 2×8 pins |
| Memory size | 6 GB | 8 GB | 10 GB | 10 GB |
| Availability | Q1 2021 | Q1 2021 | Q2 2021 | Q2 2021 |
| Introductory price | 599 USD | 699 USD | Without defining | Without defining |
NVIDIA does not specify the number of cores for these graphics or even their graphics architecture (although it is true that they have been confirmed to use turing architecture except for the 90HX model, since for example the CMP 40HX uses a TU106-100 GPU), as well as it does not say anything about its operating speed and others; This is because he left those kinds of details in the hands of assemblers, so we can’t talk about specific data, although we can talk about general models.
So keep in mind that in the table above, the data of the GPU used, its speed and its price were collected by us and are not official NVIDIA data, in addition to the fact that they may vary depending on the assembler. Also, keep in mind that these graphics cards will generally not be sold in stores and if you want to get one you will need to contact a distributor or wholesaler directly.
