Gigabyte has officially become the first company to offer a graphics card specifically to cryptocurrency miners. The Gigabyte CMP 30HX packs 6GB GDDR6 memory.
The Gigabyte CMP 30HX 6GB is the first-ever graphics card that lacks display ports of any kind. This card has a GPU that NVIDIA designed specifically for mining cryptocurrency.
Gigabyte CMP 30HX 6GB is the slowest-ever cryptocurrency mining card:
NVIDIA had proclaimed it will offer GPUs and Graphics Cards specifically for mining cryptocurrency under the Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) branding. These graphics cards won’t have any capability of outputting a display.
NVIDIA had announced that it will release its Crypto Mining Processor ‘HX’ series by the end of the first quarter. Sure enough, Gigabyte has become the first NVIDIA board partner to officially launch its next-gen mining card.
NVIDIA CMP 30HX Cryptocurrency Mining GPU From Gigabyte Listed In Retail For Over $700 US, Features A 3-Month Warranty https://t.co/WOqLzDszaS pic.twitter.com/o83d6vULyJ
— Wccftech (@wccftech) April 14, 2021
The Gigabyte CMP 30HX is the only model so far from the new series to reach the market. Neither NVIDIA nor Gigabyte have confirmed the GPU variant within the CMP 30HX. There’s no information on the number of FP32 cores.
However, the information has leaked earlier. The Gigabyte CMP 30HX features Turing TU116-100 GPU with 1408 CUDA cores. As mentioned above, the graphics card packs 6GB GDDR6 RAM with 192-bit memory bus and 336 GB/s memory bandwidth. The GPU Core Clock Speed is 1785 MHz, and Memory Clock Speed is 14000 MHz.
Gigabyte CMP 30HX cryptocurreny mining card now on sale in Romania https://t.co/XXOonYYfdq
— VideoCardz.com (@VideoCardz) April 12, 2021
The Gigabyte CMP 30HX supports PCIe 3.0 and draws 450W at peak performance. It needs a single 8 pin connector. It is a dual-slot and dual-fan graphics card.
Needless to mention, the specifications are quite basic. However, what’s even more concerning is the claimed mining performance. According to a listing, the CMP 30HX has a promised Ethereum ‘Hash’ rate of just 26 MH/s.
NVIDIA to soon offer more powerful CMP Graphics Cards:
The CMP 30HX is the slowest mining card yet. However, NVIDIA is also launching CMP 40HX with TU106-100 GPU and CMP 50HX with TU102-100 GPU. As the name indicates, these are Turing-based or last-generation GPUs, repurposed for cryptocurrency mining graphics cards.
NVIDIA is reportedly readying two Ampere-based models called CMP 90HX and CMP 170X. The company could launch the graphics cards next month.
The Gigabyte CMP 30HX sports an MSRP of $720. Needless to mention, at this cost, the graphics card might not be an attractive option for cryptocurrency mining.
En roumanie, la carte #GIGABYTE #CMP #30HX coute 600 euros et est garantie 3 mois https://t.co/pT1xvc7i0A pic.twitter.com/nnEKYbMwbl
— Cowcotland (@cowcotland) April 13, 2021
However, with the ongoing crunch, no graphics card is available at MSRP. Hence, cryptocurrency miners may purchase these in large numbers.
Many gamers have expressed their displeasure at graphics cards meant exclusively for cryptocurrency mining. These graphics cards will effectively become useless in the second-hand market after the next revision in cryptocurrency mining difficulty.
Some experts allege companies like NVIDIA are trying to ensure gamers will have to buy brand-new graphics cards at full or perhaps inflated prices. Since these graphics cards lack physical display ports, there’s no way gamers can trick the software for alternate purposes.
AMD, on the other hand, recently confirmed that it won’t limit cryptocurrency mining on its graphics cards. While this move may cause shortage of GPUs in the short term, gamers could grab the graphics cards at a discount later.