Maybe.

If you guess that "small" pools have less bandwidth, then having more time between blocks will help with their orphans (more than larger/faster pools).

Variance shouldn't matter much, unless by "small" you mean "infinitesimal".

IMO, it's probably a net positive for small pools.

Agree. There are still going to be 720 blocks per day. With 0.14% of the network hash rate you will average a block per day.

I use an i7 quadcore CPU and "only" get 60-80 H/s. Sure there are faster ones... but I've seen GPU's with 500 H/s.

So I'm sure GPU's are much faster. But which one is the fastest? R9 390 with 8GB Ram?

Or are there even ASICS for Cryptonight?

Your i7 should be faster than that.  Try using 1 thread per 2MB L2 cache, and assign the process to alternate logical cores (1,3) to help cache segregation.

CN exploits specialized AES-NI circuitry in modern CPUs, which makes then effectively ASICs.

To make a CN ASIC, you need a chip covered on AES-NI units attached to on-die ultra-low latency memory (L1+L2+L3+L4).

For the ASIC to be remotely competitive, you'd need to use a process comparable with modern CPUs, around 22nm.

All that would cost a bloody fortune and only produce something marginally faster than an i7.

So it's not going to happen until Monero is halfway to the Moon.

Put another way, CN was designed to use modern CPUs as ASICs, in order to protect decentralization and ensure a distribution sufficiently wide to bootstrap the ecosystem.

With 6 MB cache you want 3 threads. With more or fewer threads you will probably get a worse hash rate. (Fewer might still be okay if you are using the computer or want to reduce heat though.) Should be around 180 w/3 threads.


The workhorse of GPU mining for Monero has been 750ti, with a hash rate of around 200-250 (depends on model). Many other GPUs can be used, but I'm not sure there is an up to date hardware list.

How to assign them to special cores?

I just know -t number

8 Threads = 80 H/s
6 Threads = 65 H/s
3 Threads = 50 H/s

 

Yes, something is borked.

How does 1 thread do?

Try benchmarking the subsystems to isolate the problem.

You might have to update your BIOS, set it to optimized defaults, and reinstall Windoze.

You told me the fastest GPU's doing 200 H/s? .... so why does he has 500 H/s with a 290x? I guess 390's would even be faster.

Not the fastest, most power efficient. 750 ti uses ~50 W to get 250 h/s. 290x probably uses like 300 W to get 900 h/s with claymore miner I think.