NVIDIA CMP GPU Buyer's Guide for AI Workloads

The NVIDIA CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor) series, originally launched for professional mining, has transitioned into a niche but active secondary market for AI inference and parallel computing Arxiv. Following Ethereum's "Merge," these display-less cards are now being repurposed by budget-conscious labs and regions under export restrictions due to their high memory bandwidth Arxiv Siliconanalysts.

Product Series Specifications

The HX series spans from entry-level Turing architecture to high-end Ampere models Nvidia Techpowerup.

Model	GPU Chip	Memory	Performance (ETH)	TDP
30HX	TU116	6GB GDDR6	26 MH/s	125W
40HX	TU106	8GB GDDR6	36 MH/s	185W
90HX	GA102	10GB GDDR6X	86 MH/s	320W
170HX	GA100	8GB HBM2e	164 MH/s	250W

Key Market Trends (2024–2026)

* AI Repurposing: The CMP 170HX is particularly sought after for Large Language Model (LLM) inference. Its HBM2e memory (1.5 TB/s bandwidth) allows it to compete with the NVIDIA A100 in memory-bound tasks, despite having its floating-point compute restricted to 1/32 of its potential Arxiv.

* Software Unlocking: Researchers have developed CUDA modifications to improve FP32 performance by up to 15x on these "crippled" cards, extending their life cycle in the academic AI sector Arxiv.

* Supply Shift: The product line is currently at End-of-Life (EOL). Market demand is primarily satisfied by "used" or "second-hand" inventory from former mining farms, with wholesale prices for the 170HX ranging between $1,900 and $2,300 Alibaba Alibaba.

* Data Center Integration: In regions restricted from high-end H100/H200 imports, these cards serve as a critical "stop-gap" for edge computing and lightweight training Stratviewresearch Siliconanalysts.

Nvidia Cmp Gpu

Overview

Product Series Specifications

Key Market Trends (2024–2026)

Cmp 30hx 40hx Gpu Card

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Sources & References