Unfortunately with GPUs now having 6 gigs of RAM, and faster RAM than most desktops, one GPU now has more RAM than most consumer desktops, doesn't it?
Yes . . . but the advantage of the GPU is the large number of parallel cores . . having to assign 1GB of memory means most of those cores won't be in use - you'll have 6 (underpowered GPU) cores running against your 6GB ram . . a well programmed GPU miner might come up to the same level as a CPU miner. Maybe, and at approximately the same capital cost.
Plus, a desktop is a rapidly becoming obsolete fossil that businesses maybe still use because too many of their employees who need a computer don't have a laptop or handheld yet; isn't a desktop a kind of specialised equipment less and less consumers tend to have in their homes? Maybe if first they get some kind of run your own business thing in their minds they might go out and buy a desktop but isn't it more and more likely they have a handheld or laptop or xbox or whatever?
That's a fair point. I think it'll run nearly as well on laptops with a good chunk of memory. I'm not sure about handhelds. I'd love to see a coin optimized for mining on Xbox or PS3 - but it's a bit beyond my technical capabilities at present.
Do entry level desktop machines at Walmart routinely have more than 6 gigs of RAM?
I think 2GB - 4GB is standard now. There are very few uses for more than 4GB of memory. Anyway the key metrics here are 1. GB/Core 2. Power efficiency of the machine. You might see similar efficiency on a dual core machine with 2GB as on a quad core with 4GB.
i do like the intermittent nature of their mining as you envision it though. Six billion people each running a miner 24/7 on their phone are not likely to get more than one six-billionth of the loot, but if it only takes one phone one week to mine one person's typical ongoing-average amount of coin wanted and each only wants/needs that coin once per year each could rake in up to fifty-two six-billionths of the loot...
Well I think there is a demand/supply curve here. Certainly not everyone would be mining, and if they were rational, they'd need to consider the cost of it.
3 types of miners would dominate -
1. Those with the most efficient hardware
2. Those having the greatest difficultly obtaining coin by other methods.
3. Those not bearing the costs
Hmm, those number still seem to work out to be somewhat scant. maybe we need to be using not electricity, which goes up in heat, to buy with but, rather, something that isn't burned up on use like that, so that when someone mines $10 worth of coin, close to $10 worth of what they expended to mine it goes to someone else who is also looking to mine $10 worth of value/wealth.
Real trade seems to work that way: I want to "mine" (aka take posession of, make it mine, cause it to belong to me) ten pounds of cabbage, you want to "mine" ten pounds of potatoes. We both run our "cause things to be mine, aka 'mine things'" software, my cost to run my mining app is ten pounds of potatoes, your cost is ten pounds of cabbage...
Yes, but I think that's a somewhat wider discussion.
