The NVIDIA GH200 MGX Mystery Revealed

Many have asked, we explain what these depopulated connectors are for

We have been showing off the NVIDIA GH200 and associated systems on STH for some time. This week, we went into detail on why the NVIDIA GH200 is more of a family of products, rather than a single package solution. Some of the MGX systems we have seen over the past year or so have had depopulated connectors. The answer is a simple one, but like many things NVIDIA, the detail is not widely broadcast.

If you want to see the connector, here it is in a Supermicro MGX system for the GH200:

Over the past year or so, we have seen different vendors with MGX platforms for the NVIDIA GH200 with these same depopulated connectors. Here is the “PRESS-FIT” labeled QCT machine:

The answer on what these are is actually quite simple, but also tells us a bit about what is going on behind-the-scenes at NVIDIA. Let us get into it.