Nvidia announces CMP, a GPU just for mining cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are living a truly golden age, and bitcoin and others are breaking historical records and reaching incredible values ​​that have an inevitable side effect: everyone wants to mine cryptocurrencies and "make" money.

That has made Nvidia's powerful RTX 3000 graphics a precious product for these processes, and in fact the demand has long been spectacular not only by gamers, but by the miners who get a lot of juice from these cards. To avoid this, the company has pulled out of its sleeve a very special product: it is called Nvidia CMP HX, and it is a family of graphics that do not allow playing: it is designed to mine cryptocurrencies.

With regard to these "graphics cards", it all comes down to the fact that they do not include video outputs, so no player can buy one of these cards by mistake. These cards will come from Asus Colorful, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI or Palit.

Nvidia's idea is simple: miners don't want graphics to play with, so why not create a product specifically for them? That is Nvidia CMP (Cruptocurrency Mining Processor), which basically takes advantage of the architecture and performance of the GeForce RTX, but without all the elements that guide them to gaming.

Nvidia CMP does not have support for graphics: it does not have video outputs, for example, something that as Nvidia points out improves the refrigeration and that allows more and more of these cards to be "stacked". In addition, they stand out, these processors work with lower frequencies and voltages, which allows to improve efficiency and reduce consumption during mining.

The new Nvidia CMP HX, which is the full name of the family, have several versions with different features that mainly affect their mining rate - measured in the Ethereum hash rate, a traditional reference already among miners of this cryptocurrency - and their consumption.

At Nvidia they currently offer four versions with different powers ranging from 26 MH / s of the Nvidia CMP 30HX to 86 MH / s of the CMP 90X. The latter consumes much more to offer that power, of course.

How powerful are these mining cards? To establish a reference, the GeForce RTX 3090 are around 100-130 MH / s, although the exact figure depends on the model, the algorithm used and, of course, on the working frequency of the GPU of these graphics or their systems of memory, which allow you to optimize that performance.

The launch of these processors or cryptocurrency mining systems occurs precisely with the idea of ​​preventing miners from pursuing the same graphics cards that gamers are trying to achieve, and this should help to gradually reduce the problem of graphics shortages. look relieved.

The imminent launch of the GeForce RTX 3060 on February 25 will be a good way to check the effect of this decision by Nvidia, which of course manages to propose a very interesting solution that can also end up giving it an important new market niche. if cryptocurrencies continue to generate the growing interest that we are seeing.

We are players to the core. We are obsessed with new game features, new architectures, new games, and technology. We build GeForce GPUs for gamers and they ask for more.

But Nvidia GPUs are programmable. And users are constantly discovering new applications for them, from weather simulation and genetic sequencing to deep learning and robotics. Cryptocurrency mining is one of them.

With the launch of the GeForce RTX 3060 on February 25, we are taking an important step towards ensuring that GeForce GPUs end up in the hands of gamers.

By this they mean that with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 will come a new graphics driver that will limit the performance of the GPU for cryptocurrency mining.

In this specific case, Nvidia could force you to use these drivers to support your GPU and prevent the units available for sale from coming back to miners, not to mention that these drivers will also cover the rest of the graphics cards available, although of course, enough with do not update the drivers, but knowing that new vitaminized models will be arriving, at least they seek to ensure future stock.

The GeForce RTX 3060 graphics drivers are designed to detect specific attributes of the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm and limit the hash rate, or the efficiency of cryptocurrency mining, by around 50 percent.

This makes sense. Our GeForce RTX GPUs introduce cutting-edge technologies - such as Real-Time RayTracing, AI Accelerated Image Scaling (DLSS) technology, Reflex ultra-fast response rendering for the best system latency, and many more - tailored to suit the needs of gamers and those creating digital experiences.

To meet the specific needs of Ethereum mining, we announced the Nvidia CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor) product line for professional mining.

CMP non-graphics products will be sold through authorized partners and are optimized for the best performance and efficiency in mining. They do not meet the specifications required of a GeForce GPU and therefore do not affect the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers.

For example, CMPs lack video outputs, allowing for improved airflow during mining so they can be more densely packed. CMPs also have a lower core voltage peak and frequency, which improves energy efficiency in mining.

Creating tailored products for customers with specific needs offers the best value for customers. With CMPs, we can help miners build the most efficient data centers while keeping GeForce RTX GPUs for gamers.