Noob question from a semi-noob

[Aahzman]

So, why are nVidia GPUs such shit miners compared to ATI/AMD GPUs?

There must be some fundamental difference to account for such a huge difference in mining performance, for devices that essentially perform the same function (graphics rendering)....

[Graet]

nvidia do nice architecture that works awesomely for games and other GFX things
ATI HD cards have a load of parallel processors (shaders) that do bulk computations in parallel, basically more brute to force with

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_a_GPU_mines_faster_than_a_CPU
has a fuller description scroll down a little for nvidia / ATI explanation

[Aahzman]

Just what I was looking for! Thanks, Graet!

[Graet]

Welcome

[Stephen Gornick]

So, why are nVidia GPUs such shit miners compared to ATI/AMD GPUs?

There must be some fundamental difference to account for such a huge difference in mining performance, for devices that essentially perform the same function (graphics rendering)....

Now don't chuck your NVidias though.  Through CoinLab you'll be able to put them to work doing GPGPU computation:

- NVIDIA cards will simply earn based off how many work units they solve.  If an NVIDIA card is 3X more efficient at solving a given HPC problem, they will earn 3x as much Bitcoin for doing that work. (And often NVIDIA cards are 3x faster than a comparable AMD at HPC tasks).

[Gleamwar]

I think Coinlab has a novel concept but if I'm not mistaken, they are giving the "money" generated back to whichever company they are working for and not to the individuals computer it was generated from. (Minus their cut off course.) The rigs operator will receive something virtual, based on whatever game is signed up with Coinlab and which the user is involved in.

[Aahzman]

could be interesting....something to look into.

[Stephen Gornick]

I think Coinlab has a novel concept but if I'm not mistaken, they are giving the "money" generated back to whichever company they are working for and not to the individuals computer it was generated from. (Minus their cut off course.) The rigs operator will receive something virtual, based on whatever game is signed up with Coinlab and which the user is involved in.

That's their game monetization service, exclusively offered to the players of the games whose makers have partnered with CoinLab.

This is a different offering.  This is a pool.  Currently, you use whatever miner software you want.  But in a few weeks they plan to release a client that performs a variety of work, whether that be bitcoin mining or solving computational problems.  Those mining through CoinLab now are building up loyalty points that will let them continue to crunch at a guaranteed rate which will come in handy when the block reward drops, in under 50 days:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99643.0

[ethnogrower]

testing 1 2 3

[Gleamwar]

Copy, I see they are offering a different model for straight mining.
Something else to think about I guess.

[Unuser]

I tried mining for a few days with my nVidia 9600GT and made the equivalent of $0.04.

I think I'll stick to selling things online instead. When I'm not a newbie that is... I have some specific items I'm looking to sell for BTC

[zomnut]

Yea. I only get at most 0.01 to 0.02 per day on my nVidia 550ti.

[WorldOfBitcoin]

a Nivida chips are like a singular MIT engineer doing your calculations, efficient and a lot better at making important decisions.   

ATI is like an army of Asians right out of a basic state college; they can crunch numbers all day. But your not going to trust them to make anything pretty. But building blocks is a good fit.