With Ethereum prices now at their all-time high, miners are now solely focused on mining cryptocurrency coins such as ETH, or any other altcoins. And when new graphics cards are announced, miners tend to take up most of the graphics card stocks, leading to a rise in GPU prices. And this isn’t good news for gamers. To address the issue, NVIDIA has officially announced a new product line called CMP (or Cryptocurrency Mining Processor).
The new cards are solely dedicated to crypto mining operations. NVIDIA also has halved the hash rate performance of the recently launched RTX 3060 graphics cards by 50% for the Ethereum mining algorithm so miners will focus on getting the new CMP cards. This way, GeForce cards will be available for purchase for gamers.
While most AIBs have released dedicated mining cards, it’s the first time that NVIDIA will be releasing mining-specific products. The new CMP cards will lack many features such as Display Ports, ray tracing, etc as found in GeForce cards. It is reported that NVIDIA will be releasing four CMP cards this year, in which, the CMP 30HX and 40HX are set to go on sale on Q1 2021, followed by the 50HX and 90HX cards for Q2 2021 release.
The CMP 90HX, which is the fastest of the bunch, can crank up to 86MH/s performance for ETH mining and packs 10GB of memory. The 30HX, which is the slowest, can do 26MH/s on average and features 6GB memory. NVIDIA mentions that these performance figures are achieved at reference clock speeds and at normal room temperature conditions. Miners can achieve much more hash power when they optimize the clocks and try to lower the voltage for peak mining efficiency.
While this may be good news for gamers that the GeForce cards don’t run out of stock, GeForce owners who wish to try out mining while they don’t use their PC, may not get the full mining performance out of their RTX 30 series cards, since NVIDIA decided to limit the performance of RTX 3060 cards. However, from a report by The Verge, NVIDIA has confirmed that they will not be limiting the mining performance of RTX 30 cards that are already sold.
The new CMP HX cards will be available from authorized partners, including ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit, and PC Partner.
NVIDIA PRESS RELEASE
We are gamers, through and through. We obsess about new gaming features, new architectures, new games and tech. We designed GeForce GPUs for gamers, and gamers are clamoring for more.
Yet NVIDIA GPUs are programmable. And users are constantly discovering new applications for them, from weather simulation and gene sequencing to deep learning and robotics. Mining cryptocurrency is one of them.
With the launch of GeForce RTX 3060 on Feb. 25, we’re taking an important step to help ensure GeForce GPUs end up in the hands of gamers.
Halving Hash Rate
RTX 3060 software drivers are designed to detect specific attributes of the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm, and limit the hash rate, or cryptocurrency mining efficiency, by around 50 percent.
That only makes sense. Our GeForce RTX GPUs introduce cutting-edge technologies — such as RTX real-time ray-tracing, DLSS AI-accelerated image upscaling technology, Reflex super-fast response rendering for the best system latency, and many more — tailored to meet the needs of gamers and those who create digital experiences.
To address the specific needs of Ethereum mining, we’re announcing the NVIDIA CMP, or, Cryptocurrency Mining Processor, product line for professional mining.
CMP products — which don’t do graphics — are sold through authorized partners and optimized for the best mining performance and efficiency. They don’t meet the specifications required of a GeForce GPU and, thus, don’t impact the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers.
For instance, CMP lacks display outputs, enabling improved airflow while mining so they can be more densely packed. CMPs also have a lower peak core voltage and frequency, which improves mining power efficiency.
Creating tailored products for customers with specific needs delivers the best value for customers. With CMP, we can help miners build the most efficient data centers while preserving GeForce RTX GPUs for gamers.
