I would like to comment briefly on awarding the bounty since I am responsible for the largest pledge (I think).
From what I have seen, tsiv should receive a bounty payment. I'm not sure he should receive the full amount quite yet. (Though I am also not saying he should not.)
I would like to hear public comments on the following points before reaching a conclusion.
My criteria for awarding the bounty are:
1. Quality. Is the miner 100% reliable, or does it crash or hang?
2. Compatibility. Does the miner support a full range of operating systems, hardware devices (limited to the specified family -- AMD or NV), and drivers? Hardware, operating systems, or drivers which lack some essential features for acceptable performance can be excluded, as can obviously obsolete ones.
3. Open source, maintainability. Is the code provided in a full open source manner, such that others can contribute improvements? Is it well documented, well organized, and easy to understand?
4. Performance. Does the mine provided competitive performance (i.e. does it make sense to actually use it).
100% perfection on every one of these points is not necessary or practical -- certainly not to receive a partial bounty. These are guidelines for evaluation, not specific requirements.
If there are significant deficiencies in any or all of these areas, then the original developer should have the opportunity to address them in order to qualify for the full bounty. Failing that, others may contribute improvements to claim part of the bounty.
I would like to hear substantive comments from any stakeholders or community members addressing these points.
Here are my own experiences using Tsiv's ccminer revision (with CN algo support). For reference, I mine using 17 GPUs, all of them gtx750ti of 3 kinds: 1x MSI tf oc gaming, 10x Zotac dual-fan oc, 6x Zotac single-fan oc.
1. Definitely no crashing or hanging in my experience. Since crashing can be a result of overclocking and improper settings, I share mine in hopes to avoid 'crashing' as an obstacle to Tsiv's bounty: I have clocks set via msi afterburner on all 3 rigs 17 gpus, and use +140 +317 95% power. My os are all w7 x64, 8gb ram or higher.
2. I can only personally attest to w7 x64 os. I have read (in the cudaminer thread on this forum site) that S_tring has made it possible to mine in w8 by specifying switches (-l 6x40) follow this link:
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/167229.msg7529384#msg7529384This leaves Linux based OS, OSX (if anybody mines using that os, I just dont know), and older versions of windows.
As for hardware devices, I have strong opinions on this one: the Tsiv miner is intended for Nvidia, and in my opinion the only real nvidia gpu worthy of being used for mining is the GTX 750ti (until more maxwell GPUs come out that are comparable or superior in terms of hash/cost and hash/watt. This said, the newer nvidia gpus do seem to be supported. And I can see a scenario such as this: ask forum members to chime in re compatibility with their specific nvidia GPUs; ask Tsiv to modify his miner to support the missing ones (just the major ones, of course).
3. I am not a coder, so I can't answer this one. I just know some basics that giv me impression in the affirmative: [.a.] the code is essentially a fork of CBuchner & ChrisH's ccminer; [.b.] it is (has been) on github for a long time with many revisions, contributions
4. I get 210-220h/s per gpu x 17gpus = 3.5 kh/s average (conservative), and total wattage of 920w (an over estimate). As the miner app gets revised, expect that it will get more power hungry in order to deliver more hashes. In my experience, the current miner from other algos require 10-15% more power from my rigs, whereas previously, they consume around the same wattage as Tsiv's miner, and delivered around 20-25% less hashes.
To be fair, I believe Tsiv already deserves a substantial portion of the bounty. However it is also practical to withhold a small portion of the bounty for some things people may have overlooked. In the interest of fairness, may I suggest think of it as a warranty period -- if no problems arise in the next 14 days (a lifetime in cryptoland), then Tsiv gets awarded the balance of the bounty.
CHeers!
