Bitcoin Forum

Hey,

Sorry if this is an absolutely ridiculous question, but as you can see by my user creation date, I'm new :)

So, I was always lead to believe CPU's were the best way to process data (actually being named a processor and all) - However, I have noticed the most popular forms of mining tools are GPU's and ASIC's - Why is this? I am seeing that i7 processors (the best out there today for processing speed) can only do 22Mh/s whereas GPU's are giving around 400-1500Mh/s (depending on brand) and ASIC are doing 333Mh/s for a small USB stick?!

Could somebody please explain the logic - and please excuse my nativity, I am still learning.

Thank you in advanced :)

ditto, I need help on this as well

Generalized hardware vs specialized hardware.

Do you think a graphic card is not "the best way to process data"? Then why do we have to buy a graphic card to play games? Why don't we buy 2 i7 cpus? One to act as cpu and one to act as graphic card. GPU manufacturers aren't idiot. There is a reason why they make graphic cards, their engineers aren't worse than intel ones.

A graphic card is the best way to process the data it is made for, and only that, namely graphic (directx and opengl) and with opencl/cuda some other things.

An ASIC is even more specialized, it does ONLY one thing. In our case, bitcoin mining, and ONLY that. Every transistor inside it is there only for that task, nothing else.

Sure, the i7 is a fast processor, it can do everything, but it is not so specialized.

Looks like the bitcoin wiki has the answer to everything  :P
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_a_GPU_mines_faster_than_a_CPU

Would a decent CPU be better than an integrated graphics card?

Also, would a distributed system among a bunch of normal CPUs be better than a single good GPU?

I'm having a hell of a time just trying to figure out how mining software works to even begin thinking about hardware, but eventually I might want to upgrade. If I had access to a bunch of low-end CPUs, ( I mean A LOT of them) for basically free, would I be better off using them or buying a good GPU?

Imagine that a Bitcoin block is an alpha-numeric word search puzzle. The puzzle covers the same area as a pool table and hidden somewhere within this huge brain teaser is your own Bitcoin wallet address.

The CPU would simply tackle the searching (hashing) of the puzzle using a different (slower) strategy than the GPU. Maybe the slower process takes a clockwise, vertical or horizontal searching route?

The blockchain could be considered a giant word search that covers the area of a major city. Each individual pool table sized area would simply be a Bitcoin block.

Some smarter crypto guys/gals may be better able to continue this analogy with a better explanation of the individual strategy process?

Depends on the "integrated graphics card". Sure, a today i7 is faster than a 10 years old notebook integrated graphic card. But today cards integrated in the CPU like the AMD APU? No. That is the reason why modern cpu integrate a graphic card, especially why AMD is pushing so much about the GPU for their APUs, the graphic card is much more efficient and fast for some things.
Please note that modern GPU aren't only for games, thanks to OpenCL and cuda, they can also run some other things.

If you put enough CPUs together? Yes. It would be an idiocy of course, you would spend much much more and you would also consume much much more energy. A bit like "can men move these goods faster than a truck?" Ye sure, if you hire enough men... but it is not a good idea

It just keep doing SHA256 hashes tons of time. That is why a GPU is faster, a GPU is good at running easy tasks but running tons of them together. A GPU has thousands of "shaders", each one can process things. Sure, each shader can't be compared to a fully fledged cpu, but for simple things, like sha256, is ok. 4 cpu cores vs thousands of shaders.

Nah, low end CPUs vs beats like a AMD R9 290X? Nah. A single modern GPU would still kickass them and consume much much less.

Note: if you plan to mine bitcoins, get an asic and forget both cpu and gpu.

It really depends on the coin. CPU mining Litecoin is generally faster that with a GPU.

False, GPU mining is faster than CPU mining on Litecoin

If you have a old rig laying around, CPU mining is faster. But, if you built a rig with a few 7990's you'd be in business :)

So what's the best hashrate per $ in terms of hardware?

For bitcoin mining, an ASIC, i don't know exactly what model but please note that given the current price and difficulty, mining will hardly give a return these days

All awesome pieces of advice. I don't think I'm in a position go mine bitcoin, but I'd like to experiment with other currencies just to learn more about computing.

OP was talking about gpus and asics so i supposed he is talking about bitcoins anyway.