During NVIDIA’s Q1 earnings call, company CFO Colette Kress provided some details on the revenue generated by the sales of the CMP lineup (mining-centric GPUs). CMP, short for Cryptocurrency Mining Processors were launched (re-launched) by the company to satiate the growing demand of industrial cryptominers. According to NVIDIA, these parts don’t affect the supply of GeForce gaming products, but the truth is more complicated than that.
| 30X | 40X | 50X | 90X | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Turing (TU116) | Turing (TU106) | Turing (TU104) | Ampere (GA102) |
| Ethereum Hash Rate | 26 MH/s | 36 MH/s | 45 MH/s | 86 MH/s |
| Rated Power | 125 W | 185 W | 250 W | 320 W |
| Power Connectors | 1x 8-pin | 1x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin |
| Memory Size | 6GB | 8GB | 10GB | 10GB |
| Starting Availability | Q1 | Q1 | Q2 | Q2 |
In reality, this simply prevents the flooding of second-hand GeForce GPUs into channel inventory after the mining boom ends. The CMP cards which lack display adapters can’t be sold to gamers after use and as such, largely end up in landfills as eWaste. The end result is that there won’t be a “crypto-hangover” for NVIDIA like last time where large quantities of GPUs ended up being unsold, thereby lowering the company’s revenue post the mining boom.
As per Kress, the CMP cards along with the LHR (low hash rate) graphics cards which come with an Ether mining block have been designed to allow more and more GeForce GPUs to reach gamers. Regardless of how true that may be, the company generated $155 in Q1 from the sale of the CMP lineup. The same is expected to grow to a rather considerable $400 million by the second quarter of 2021. As always, the execs didn’t comment on the possible quantity of GeForce products sold to cryptominers.
