Nvidia planned to sell $50 million worth of CMPs (cryptocurrency mining processors) in the first quarter of 2021. However, it sold $155 million. And if that is not an indication of the growing demand for graphics cards solely for virtual coin mining, Nvidia expects to more than double that figure in Q2 CMP sales.

In its Q1 2022 earnings call (Nvidia's corporate calendar is very strange), Nvidia assumed $400 million in Q2 CMP graphics card sales.

"CMP products were launched this quarter to meet mining demand," says Nvidia CFO Colette Kress (via Seeking Alpha). They are optimized for mining performance and efficiency because they do not meet the specifications required for GeForce GPUs and will not impact the supply of GeForce GPUs to gamers. "CMP's revenue, reported as part of the OEM and Other category, in the first quarter was was $155 million. And our second quarter outlook assumes $400 million in CMP revenue."

The initial CMP cards, the 30HX and 40HX, will be available in Q1, while the 50HX and 90HX will be available in Q2. The latter two cards offer higher performance in mining, which may explain this sharp price increase.

What is important for us gaming enthusiasts is that Nvidia has said that the production of these chips will not match the production of GeForce GPUs. In other words, these GPUs are not suitable as gaming GPUs, Nvidia says.

When it comes to CMP cards worth a total of $555 million, there are certainly many GPUs that are not up to spec. If it were not for the mining benefits, they could have been used up through other means. However, this concept is not new, and the balance between performance and inventory usually affects the product stack and which chips go where. In the past, inventory decisions have even led to GPU mismatches, as an RTX 2060 might be placed in an RTX 2080 GPU.

Perhaps with the RTX 30 series, that will be less likely as miners scoop up what is left on the cutting room floor; Ethereum, the most popular crypto among GPU miners, plans to discontinue mining altogether in a matter of months.