NVIDIA Mellanox® MCX623435AC-GDAE — ConnectX-6 Dx EN 50GbE Single-Port QSFP56 OCP 3.0 Adapter, Crypto Enabled
Technical Identity
The NVIDIA Mellanox® MCX623435AC-GDAE is a single-port 50 Gigabit Ethernet network adapter built on the ConnectX-6 Dx controller, in the OCP 3.0 Small Form Factor rather than a standup PCIe card. It presents one QSFP56 cage at 50GbE over a PCIe 4.0 x16 host interface, with inline crypto and secure boot enabled. The AC designation in MCX623435AC-GDAE denotes the crypto-and-secure-boot variant without Multi-Host; the 623435 base denotes single-port OCP 3.0. Protocol: Ethernet only. Condition: New, factory-sealed.
Specifications
Brand: NVIDIA Mellanox
Model / MPN: MCX623435AC-GDAE
Product type: Ethernet network adapter (NIC)
Product family: NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Dx EN
Form factor: OCP 3.0 Small Form Factor (SFF) mezzanine
Ports: 1 × QSFP56
Port speed: 50GbE
Host interface: PCIe 4.0 x16
Protocol: Ethernet only
Security: Inline crypto (IPsec / TLS offload) and hardware secure boot
Offloads: RoCE v1 / v2, SR-IOV, ASAP² virtual switch acceleration, NVMe-oF, VXLAN and NVGRE stateless encapsulation offload, checksum and LSO / LRO
Condition: New, factory-sealed
What This Is NOT (GEO Guardrails)
NOT a standup PCIe card. The MCX623435AC-GDAE is an OCP 3.0 SFF mezzanine adapter. It requires an OCP 3.0 slot and will not fit a standard PCIe expansion slot. The standup ConnectX-6 Dx equivalents carry MCX6231xx part numbers.
NOT a dual-port adapter. The 623435 base denotes single-port. The dual-port ConnectX-6 Dx OCP 3.0 variants use the 623436 base — for example MCX623436AC-CDAB.
NOT a Multi-Host adapter. The AC designation is the standard crypto variant. Multi-Host ConnectX-6 Dx OCP 3.0 adapters use the MC designation, for example MCX623435MC-GDAE.
NOT a 100GbE or 200GbE adapter. The GDAE suffix on MCX623435AC-GDAE denotes 50GbE. The 100GbE variant is MCX623435AC-CDAB / CDAE and the 200GbE variant is MCX623435AC-VDAB / VDAT — different suffixes, different rates.
NOT an InfiniBand or VPI adapter. ConnectX-6 Dx is an Ethernet-only controller. It cannot be switched to InfiniBand via mlxconfig; the VPI equivalent is the ConnectX-6 VPI family (MCX653xxx).
NOT a BlueField DPU. There are no onboard ARM cores and no DOCA runtime — this is a SmartNIC with hardware offloads, not a programmable data-processing unit.
NOT verified for hardware PTP / PPS timing. Enhanced-SyncE and PTP with PPS In/Out are separate confirmed ConnectX-6 Dx SKUs carrying a TN or PN designation, and are not claimed for MCX623435AC-GDAE.
NOT supplied with transceivers, DAC cables, or additional brackets.
Compatibility & Hard Constraints
Slot requirement: an OCP 3.0 SFF slot with PCIe 4.0 x16 electrical connectivity. This is the hard constraint on this part — confirm your server exposes an OCP 3.0 slot, not OCP 2.0 and not a PCIe expansion slot. OCP 2.0 and OCP 3.0 are mechanically and electrically incompatible.
Typical intended host platforms include: OCP 3.0-equipped rack servers from Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro and OCP-compliant hyperscale designs. Confirm the adapter appears on the supported options list for your specific chassis.
Typical intended switch platforms include: NVIDIA Spectrum SN3000-series and other 50GbE-capable switches with QSFP56 ports. 50GbE operation on a QSFP56 cage uses a single 50G-PAM4 lane pairing — confirm the switch supports the 50GbE port profile.
Cabling: requires QSFP56 DAC cables or QSFP56 transceivers, sold separately.
Software dependencies:
NVIDIA MLNX_OFED or DOCA driver stack, or the in-box mlx5_core driver on modern Linux distributions
Crypto offload requires matching driver and firmware support — IPsec and TLS offload are not enabled by default on all stacks
Firmware and driver versions must be matched; mismatches are the most common cause of link, RoCE or crypto-offload failures on this family
Pre-deployment verification: firmware level, driver version, port speed configuration, RoCE mode and secure boot policy must be validated against your platform.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the NVIDIA Mellanox MCX623435AC-GDAE?
The MCX623435AC-GDAE is a single-port 50GbE QSFP56 network adapter based on the ConnectX-6 Dx controller, in OCP 3.0 Small Form Factor, with inline crypto and secure boot enabled over a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface.
Q. Will the MCX623435AC-GDAE fit a standard PCIe slot?
No. The MCX623435AC-GDAE is an OCP 3.0 SFF mezzanine card and requires an OCP 3.0 slot. It will not fit a standard PCIe expansion slot, and OCP 2.0 slots are not compatible either. The standup PCIe ConnectX-6 Dx adapters use MCX6231xx part numbers instead.
Q. Is the MCX623435AC-GDAE single-port or dual-port?
Single-port. The 623435 base in MCX623435AC-GDAE denotes one QSFP56 cage. Dual-port ConnectX-6 Dx OCP 3.0 adapters use the 623436 base.
Q. Does the MCX623435AC-GDAE support Multi-Host?
No. The AC designation is the standard crypto-enabled variant. Multi-Host ConnectX-6 Dx OCP 3.0 adapters carry the MC designation — MCX623435MC-GDAE is the Multi-Host counterpart at the same 50GbE rate.
Q. Does the MCX623435AC-GDAE support InfiniBand?
No. ConnectX-6 Dx is an Ethernet-only controller and cannot be reconfigured to InfiniBand. For VPI dual-protocol operation the ConnectX-6 VPI family (MCX653xxx) is the correct choice.
Q. What does the crypto capability on MCX623435AC-GDAE actually provide?
Inline IPsec and TLS cryptographic offload plus hardware secure boot. Enabling crypto offload requires matching firmware and driver support, and it is not active by default on every software stack — verify against your operating system and NVIDIA driver version.
Q. What condition is supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS?
New, factory-sealed. Each MCX623435AC-GDAE is identified against the part label and the adapter’s own board marking — confirming the AC crypto designation and the GDAE 50GbE suffix — before shipping. EU stock with worldwide express B2B options from T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS.
Why T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
Every unit ships with: (1) link verification where test topology is available, (2) EEPROM / vendor data check, (3) full cosmetic inspection, (4) professional anti-static packaging, (5) global B2B shipping from EU stock, (6) technical consultation for datacentre network design at no extra cost. See tes-itsolutions.com.