NVIDIA Mining Cards are Making MAJOR MONEY for Team Green

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 27 May 2021, 10:05 am

NVIDIA, probably counting cash right now: dollar dollar bills, y'all.

(Photo : David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Nvidia Corp. is expected to release earnings figures on February 24.

If there's one thing to be gained from this GPU shortage and cryptocurrency mining boom, it's money. And NVIDIA is raking in hundreds of millions of it from their specially-designed cryptocurrency mining processors (CMP) GPUs, according to PCGamer. Around USD $155 million, give or take.

It seems like NVIDIA's original plan to sell CMP cards to miners is doing a good job sales-wise. Shortly after their release, the CMPs' earnings during the first half of this year was over triple the initial expected sales at USD $50 million.

Furthermore, NVIDIA expects an even greater boom in their mining card sales for the second quarter, with the company looking to earn a cool USD $400 million in total sales.

Despite this, however, a CNBC report revealed that Team Green's biggest market is still gaming, where it earned a massive USD $2.7 billion in total revenue.

These CMP cards were supposed to be NVIDIA's main solutions to the GPU shortage that has plagued gamers all over. It's worth noting that their current-gen RTX 3000 series are selling for exorbitant prices both locally and overseas, which has put them out of reach for most gamers.

But are they really doing what they're supposed to--sway crypto miners from buying all the desirable gaming-focused GPUs during a cryptocurrency boom?

NVIDIA CMPs: What Are They, And Are They Fulfilling Their Expected Jobs?

Imagine a graphics card without the typical display outputs, and with a slightly modified hardware configuration (i.e. less CUDA cores, no external power connector when there should be one). That's basically what a CMP is.

According to the NVIDIA blog, the CMP is specifically optimized for professional mining, with a main focus on Ethereum, which is the most popular alt coin being mined right now. They basically perform similar to gaming-grade RTX GPUs, though Team Green touts them to be far more efficient at mining.

Crypto miners have four different choices, each offering varying hash rate performances.

(Photo : Manuel Romano/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A site of mining pool of Ethereum. Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality, which facilitates online contractual agreements.

But then, why are RTX graphics cards still so hard to get despite CMPs actually selling really well?

The reason is simple: resale value. Any cryptocurrency mining enthusiast in their right mind understands that the market for crypto is extremely finicky. One day they can be super profitable, the next they'll crash through the floor.

They have to think of some sort of a backup plan to recoup their initial investment if a crash happens. That's where gaming-focused graphics cards come in.

A CMP compared to, say, an RTX 3090, has basically no resale value. Because what else can they be used for other than mining? The RTX card, on the other hand, can be used for both mining and gaming. That's the card's entire value right there. Miners know this, and as such purchase gaming-grade GPUs whenever they can for that "backup."

(Photo : Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Cryptocurrency mining machines sit in operating racks at the home of Dmitry Gutov, a Russian cryptocurrency 'miner,' in Krasnogorsk, Russia, on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017. Gutov, who works in a Moscow-based staff-outsourcing firm by day, is among a growing number of Russians who have embraced mining as the price of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether has soared.

Right now, NVIDIA does seem to make a lot of money from their CMPs, but their current-gen RTX graphics cards are still overpriced in both the brand new and secondhand markets. This is further proof that while cryptocurrency mining does play a part in the current GPU shortage, they're only one side of a coin.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce