NVIDIA Mellanox MCX623105AN-VDAT - ConnectX-6 Dx EN adapter card (NIC): single-port QSFP56, 200 Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe 4.0 x16, Crypto and Secure Boot disabled, tall bracket. Condition: Refurbished, tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS.
Technical Identity
The MCX623105AN-VDAT is a PCIe stand-up Ethernet network interface card built on the NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Dx ASIC. One QSFP56 cage carries up to 200GbE; the host side is a PCI Express Gen 4.0 x16 edge connector. In NVIDIA's OPN scheme the AN suffix means Crypto disabled and Secure Boot disabled - no inline IPsec/TLS engine, no hardware root-of-trust boot chain. PCB is 142.00 x 68.90 mm, low-profile, on a tall full-height bracket. Ethernet-only NIC: not a VPI adapter, not an InfiniBand HCA, not a BlueField DPU, not a switch.
Engineering Context
The QSFP56 port runs four electrical lanes of 50 Gb/s PAM4 SerDes (4 x 50G PAM4 = 200 Gb/s), with PHY support from 200GBASE-CR4/KR4/SR4 down through 100GBASE-CR4/SR4, 50GBASE-R2/R4 and 25GBASE-R, so it negotiates down through 200/100/50/40/25/10/1 GbE. PCIe Gen 4.0 x16 at 16.0 GT/s per lane gives roughly 256 Gb/s (~32 GB/s) per direction; a Gen 3.0 x16 slot supplies only about 128 Gb/s of raw bus bandwidth and caps a 200GbE port below line rate. Typical board power is 16.94 W passive, maximum 24 W, with 5 W available to the module. Airflow at 55 deg C: 600 LFM passive, 950 LFM with a 4.55 W active module, heatsink-to-port (hot aisle). Operating 0 to 55 deg C, altitude to 3050 m. Dx offloads: RoCEv2, GPUDirect RDMA / PeerDirect, NVMe-oF acceleration, hardware VXLAN/NVGRE/GENEVE encap-decap, Open vSwitch offload via ASAP2 with connection tracking, SR-IOV, IEEE 1588v2 PTP hardware clock.
Deployment & Use Cases
200GbE leaf-spine and storage fabrics needing one high-speed uplink per node: AI training nodes running NCCL collectives over RoCEv2 with GPUDirect RDMA; NVMe-over-Fabrics targets and initiators; Ceph, VMware vSAN and Spectrum Scale (GPFS) storage nodes; SDN/NFV hosts running Open vSwitch offloaded via ASAP2; VMware ESXi on the nmlx5 driver. The No-Crypto build also suits export-controlled destinations.
Technical Specifications
Brand / family: NVIDIA Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx EN
MPN / OPN: MCX623105AN-VDAT
Product type: PCIe stand-up Ethernet adapter (NIC)
Ports: 1 x QSFP56, copper and optical
Port speed: 200/100/50/40/25/10/1 GbE (4 lanes x 50 Gb/s PAM4)
Host interface: PCIe Gen 3.0/4.0 SERDES @ 16.0 GT/s, x16 lanes
Protocol: Ethernet only - no InfiniBand, no VPI
Offloads: RoCEv2, GPUDirect RDMA, NVMe-oF, ASAP2 OVS, VXLAN/NVGRE/GENEVE, SR-IOV, IEEE 1588v2 PTP
Crypto / Secure Boot: both disabled
Board / bracket: 142.00 x 68.90 mm low-profile PCB, tall bracket
Power: 16.94 W typical / 24 W max passive, 5 W to module
Airflow: 600 LFM passive, 950 LFM with 4.55 W module, heatsink-to-port at 55 deg C
Condition: Refurbished - tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
Compatibility & Parent Systems
200GbE switches: NVIDIA Spectrum-2 SN3700 (32 x 200GbE QSFP56) and Spectrum-3 SN4600 (64 x 200GbE QSFP56). Third-party 200GBASE-CR4/SR4 ports (Cisco, Arista, Juniper) normally interoperate.
100GbE and below: Spectrum-2 SN3700C / SN3800 / SN3420, Spectrum-3 SN4600C, Spectrum SN2700 / SN2410 / SN2100. 400GbE switches (SN4700, SN5600) only via a QSFP-DD or OSFP breakout to QSFP56.
Cabling: QSFP56, Ethernet-coded NVIDIA LinkX - MCP1650-V series DAC, MFS1S00-V series AOC, MMA1T00-VS transceiver. HDR-coded (-H) QSFP56 cables also work in NVIDIA-only Ethernet systems; the reverse is not true.
Host slot: one PCIe x16 slot, Gen 4.0 for line rate. Typical hosts: Dell PowerEdge R750/R7525, HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 Plus, Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650 V2, Supermicro GPU nodes.
Drivers and checks: MLNX_OFED or DOCA-Host (Linux), in-box mlx5_core, WinOF-2 (Windows), nmlx5 (ESXi). Verify firmware, driver, switch FEC and cable EEPROM via mlxlink / mlxconfig.
What This Is NOT
NOT an InfiniBand or VPI adapter. ConnectX-6 Dx is Ethernet-only silicon; HDR/EDR InfiniBand needs a ConnectX-6 VPI card such as MCX653105A-HDAT.
NOT a crypto or Secure Boot SKU. For inline IPsec/TLS use MCX623105AC-VDAT or MCX623105AE-VDAT; for Secure Boot only, MCX623105AS-VDAT.
NOT a dual-port card. One QSFP56 cage; dual-port ConnectX-6 Dx cards are the 100GbE MCX623106xx-CDAT series.
NOT a QSFP-DD, OSFP or SFP28 cage. QSFP56 accepts QSFP28 and QSFP+ downward, never QSFP-DD or OSFP.
NOT a Socket Direct or Multi-Host adapter. One PCIe x16 edge connector to one host - no auxiliary card, no second PCIe path.
NOT a BlueField DPU, and NOT supplied with transceivers, DAC/AOC cables, low-profile bracket or riser.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What switch models is the MCX623105AN-VDAT compatible with?
At 200GbE the MCX623105AN-VDAT pairs with NVIDIA Spectrum-2 SN3700 (32 x 200GbE QSFP56) or Spectrum-3 SN4600 (64 x 200GbE QSFP56) over QSFP56 DAC, AOC or SR4 optics. At lower speeds it links to Spectrum-2 SN3700C/SN3800, Spectrum-3 SN4600C and Spectrum SN2700/SN2410/SN2100.
Q. Does the MCX623105AN-VDAT support InfiniBand?
No. The MCX623105AN-VDAT is ConnectX-6 Dx EN silicon and Ethernet-only: no VPI port-mode switch, no InfiniBand personality. For HDR 200Gb/s InfiniBand in the same QSFP56 form factor use the ConnectX-6 VPI MCX653105A-HDAT.
Q. Will the MCX623105AN-VDAT reach full 200GbE in a PCIe Gen 3 slot?
No. PCIe Gen 3.0 x16 supplies roughly 128 Gb/s of raw bus bandwidth. The MCX623105AN-VDAT needs PCIe Gen 4.0 x16 (16.0 GT/s per lane, ~256 Gb/s per direction) for line rate. It still links in a Gen 3 slot, simply throttled.
Q. What does the "AN" in MCX623105AN-VDAT mean?
Those letters encode the security feature set: AN = Crypto disabled and Secure Boot disabled. The MCX623105AN-VDAT therefore has no on-card IPsec or TLS inline encryption engine.
Q. What airflow and power does the MCX623105AN-VDAT need?
600 LFM with passive cables and 950 LFM with a 4.55 W active module at 55 deg C ambient, heatsink-to-port. Typical board power 16.94 W passive, maximum 24 W, up to 5 W to the QSFP56 module.
Q. What condition is supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS?
Refurbished. Each MCX623105AN-VDAT is bench-tested for PCIe Gen 4 x16 lane training, QSFP56 link-up, firmware integrity and thermal sensors, then inspected and packed anti-static. EU stock. Cables, optics and low-profile bracket not included.
Why T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS (tes-itsolutions.com) supplies NVIDIA Mellanox networking hardware from EU stock. Every ConnectX adapter is powered up and verified before dispatch - PCIe lane width, port link training, firmware revision and EEPROM data. Handling time 1-3 business days, international shipping, plus technical consultation on switch pairing, cabling and firmware.