In context: On top of the component shortage contributing to rising prices of graphics cards, crypto miners have further influenced the global shortage of GPUs by buying up all possible stock. Naturally, gamers have been affected, with Nvidia “addressing” the situation by announcing its dedicated CMP GPUs for cryptomining. One such variant has now become available for an eye-watering price.
The Nvidia CMP 170HX is the flagship GPU in the company’s “Cryptocurrency Mining Processor” series. As spotted in Tom’s Hardware, the card has gone up for sale at Vipera, a retailer in Dubai. The store claims to have 238 units in stock for a price of $4,300. It was also found on a Yahoo auction in Japan where the seller is asking for $5,285.
Futile for gamers due to the lack of display outputs, Nvidia’s CMP 170HX receives power via a single 8-pin pci-e connector, joined by a 250W TDP. It also features a GA100 die with 4480 CUDA cores, along with 8 GB of HBM2e VRAM.
In terms of hash rate, the CMP 170HX can reportedly deliver up to 164 MHps for mining Ethereum. That’s a big figure compared to the listed CMP models on Nvidia’s official website, with the maximum ETH hash rate performance reaching 86 MH/s for the 90HX.
The card combines a dual-slot design with a silver metallic shroud, as well as boasting a passive-cooling solution. Built on the 7 nm process, the CMP 170HX offers 4480 shading units, 280 texture mapping units, and 128 ROPs. In addition to being powered by 280 tensor cores, the GPU operates at a frequency of 1140 MHz, which can be boosted up to 1410 MHz, while memory runs at 1458 MHz.
Also read: GPU Availability and Pricing Update: October 2021
Looking ahead, the popularity of cryptocurrency mining may continue increase due to Bitcoin prices recently reaching an all-time high. Ethereum has also been on a tear lately, exceeding previous peaks and surpassing the $4,000 mark.
Back in February, Nvidia announced that all GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards would be shipped with a reduced Ethereum hash rate. Then in May, the company unveiled additional measures by applying a reduced ETH hash rate to new units of its RTX 30 series including the GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards. However, those cards’ limiter have been partially bypassed, resulting in mining performance being boosted to 70 percent.
Meanwhile, AMD has denied that the firm is prioritizing selling cards to crypto miners over those wishing to purchase a GPU for gaming purposes, though that hasn’t helped availability in any significant way.