Nvidia's new cryptocurrency mining graphics cards 'don’t impact the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers'

Nvidia created an entire line-up of cards dedicated to cryptocurrency mining in 2021.

(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia has promised that its new lineup of cryptocurrency mining GPUs, called CMP for short, won't impact the supply of GeForce graphics cards for PC gamers.

That's because these cards are reportedly using GPUs that don't fit the specifications for the company's GeForce graphics cards and thus were otherwise not going to find much use in the existing lineup, the company says.

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Nvidia CMP graphics cards
Header Cell - Column 0	30HX	40HX	50HX	90HX
Ethereum hash rate	26MH/s	36MH/s	45MH/s	86MH/s
TDP	125W	185W	250W	320W
Power connectors	1 x 8-pin	1 x 8-pin	2 x 8-pin	2 x 8-pin
Memory	6GB	8GB	10GB	10GB
Availability	Q1	Q1	Q2	Q2

There are four new cryptocurrency mining graphics cards for miners to choose from: the CMP 90HX, 50HX, 40HX, and 30HX. As you might imagine, the numerical digit in the name loosely represents the hash rate these cards will offer when mining Ethereum, the most popular cryptocurrency for GPU mining today.

How exactly these GPUs stack up versus the existing graphics cards in the GeForce lineup does hint at some similarities between the two, a nod to their possible destination in the gaming lineup.

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For example, the CMP 90HX is an 86MH/s card with a 320W TDP and 10GB of memory. That's bang-on the RTX 3080 specification, although may differ in the exact configuration and clock speed.

The CMP line also lacks the new 12-pin power connector introduced with the RTX 30-series, instead opting for either one or two 8-pin power connectors.

Since these cards are destined for mining rigs they will also lack video outputs. That may mean the resale value is diminished, which has been one reason why miners prefer gaming graphics cards. That's likely why Nvidia's also taking action to nerf at least one gaming GPU's mining capability.

The news comes alongside a new ruling from Nvidia that it will force its upcoming GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards to run at a lowered hash rate when an Ethereum mining algorithm is detected, in order to prevent miners from chasing cards and eating up available stock.

Anything to get more graphics cards in the hands of gamers. Let's hope this works.

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Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog, before graduating into breaking things professionally at PCGamesN. Now he's managing editor of the hardware team at PC Gamer, and you'll usually find him testing the latest components or building a gaming PC.