NeoScrypt slow to start on new blocks

[Kholdheart]

Just wanna say... best version of ccminer right here, hands down.

With that said however, there appears to still be an issue with Neoscrypt (yes I've updated to the most recent version). The issue occurs in all versions. It seems that it takes 10-20 seconds to start on every new block. Once it finally starts, it's good to go. However with a 1 minute block time on average, there are many occasions where many quick blocks go by in 15 seconds or less where this is too slow to even start mining them. You can see the issue here below:

[2017-12-18 18:37:40] hub.miningpoolhub.com:20510 neoscrypt block 2010917 [2017-12-18 18:37:40] GPU #2: Zotac GTX 1080, 1023.63 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:40] GPU #1: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1424.87 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:40] GPU #0: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1380.01 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:42] hub.miningpoolhub.com:20510 neoscrypt block 2010918 [2017-12-18 18:37:42] GPU #0: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1389.12 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:42] GPU #1: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1408.43 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:42] GPU #2: Zotac GTX 1080, 1009.19 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:46] hub.miningpoolhub.com:20510 neoscrypt block 2010919 [2017-12-18 18:37:46] GPU #0: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1382.67 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:46] GPU #1: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1423.15 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:46] GPU #2: Zotac GTX 1080, 1021.15 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:56] hub.miningpoolhub.com:20510 neoscrypt block 2010920 [2017-12-18 18:37:56] GPU #2: Zotac GTX 1080, 1024.31 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:56] GPU #0: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1380.89 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:56] GPU #1: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1425.26 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:57] hub.miningpoolhub.com:20510 neoscrypt block 2010921 [2017-12-18 18:37:57] GPU #1: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1426.04 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:57] GPU #0: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1387.37 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:37:57] GPU #2: Zotac GTX 1080, 1036.21 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:38:11] GPU #0: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1377.00 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:38:11] accepted: 4465/4465 (100.00%), 3824.42 kH/s yay!!! <--- Note the timestamp here. It took 14 seconds to start working on this block and finally submit a share. [2017-12-18 18:38:11] GPU #1: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1423.39 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:38:11] accepted: 4466/4466 (100.00%), 3824.32 kH/s yay!!! [2017-12-18 18:38:20] hub.miningpoolhub.com:20510 neoscrypt block 2010922 [2017-12-18 18:38:20] GPU #0: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1378.93 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:38:20] GPU #1: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti, 1423.62 kH/s [2017-12-18 18:38:20] GPU #2: Zotac GTX 1080, 1020.31 kH/s

Is there anything we can do to speed up the start time on these new blocks? I've been looking at the source code for a few days and I'm starting to understand a bit of it, but it's going to take a lot more studying before I can figure out what is going on with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[KlausT]

When the difficulty is high it can take a while to find a share, depending on your luck. Sometimes it looks like nothing is happening, but ccminer is still mining. Take a look at this:

[2017-12-19 05:05:21] accepted: 15/15 (100.00%), 1052.74 kH/s yay!!!
[2017-12-19 05:05:25] hub.miningpoolhub.com:17012 neoscrypt block 2011105
[2017-12-19 05:05:26] GPU #0: stop mining
[2017-12-19 05:05:26] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1053.20 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:05:26] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:05:39] GPU #0: stop mining (share found)
[2017-12-19 05:05:39] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1050.33 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:05:39] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:05:40] accepted: 16/16 (100.00%), 1052.64 kH/s yay!!!
[2017-12-19 05:05:45] GPU #0: stop mining (share found)
[2017-12-19 05:05:45] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1050.49 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:05:45] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:05:45] accepted: 17/17 (100.00%), 1052.53 kH/s yay!!!
[2017-12-19 05:05:52] GPU #0: stop mining (share found)
[2017-12-19 05:05:52] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1050.45 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:05:52] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:05:52] accepted: 18/18 (100.00%), 1052.43 kH/s yay!!!
[2017-12-19 05:06:08] GPU #0: stop mining (share found)
[2017-12-19 05:06:08] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1049.89 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:06:08] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:06:08] accepted: 19/19 (100.00%), 1052.32 kH/s yay!!!
[2017-12-19 05:06:17] hub.miningpoolhub.com:17012 neoscrypt block 2011106
[2017-12-19 05:06:17] GPU #0: stop mining
[2017-12-19 05:06:17] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1053.86 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:06:17] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:06:42] GPU #0: stop mining
[2017-12-19 05:06:42] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1052.29 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:06:42] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:06:46] GPU #0: stop mining (share found)
[2017-12-19 05:06:46] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1052.16 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:06:46] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:06:46] accepted: 20/20 (100.00%), 1052.37 kH/s yay!!!
[2017-12-19 05:06:50] GPU #0: stop mining (share found)
[2017-12-19 05:06:50] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1050.59 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:06:50] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:06:50] accepted: 21/21 (100.00%), 1052.30 kH/s yay!!!
[2017-12-19 05:07:12] Stratum difficulty set to 335.659
[2017-12-19 05:07:12] hub.miningpoolhub.com:17012 neoscrypt block 2011106
[2017-12-19 05:07:12] GPU #0: stop mining
[2017-12-19 05:07:12] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1050.34 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:07:12] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:07:30] GPU #0: stop mining (share found)
[2017-12-19 05:07:30] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1051.87 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:07:30] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:07:30] accepted: 22/22 (100.00%), 1052.22 kH/s yay!!!
[2017-12-19 05:07:55] GPU #0: stop mining
[2017-12-19 05:07:55] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1049.66 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:07:55] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:07:56] GPU #0: stop mining (share found)
[2017-12-19 05:07:56] GPU #0: ASUS GTX 1070, 1040.19 kH/s
[2017-12-19 05:07:56] GPU #0: start mining
[2017-12-19 05:07:56] accepted: 23/23 (100.00%), 1051.73 kH/s yay!!!

Usually the mining starts in the same second.

[Kholdheart]

I was going to argue that luck thing, but yeah I did see a share just report 2 seconds after a new block, so you're right, it's just bad luck. This is my first time really using neoscrypt, I'm used to shares flooding my screen with other algorithms... so when I saw huge blocks of time without submitted shares, I thought something was wrong.

Two questions still though:

1. What option allows me to see the miner start and stop times like you have it?
2. How the heck is your 1070 beating my overclocked 1080? :'( What kind of special sauce did you add to your version? :P

[KlausT]

That was not in the code, I had just added three lines of code to neoscrypt.cu. Something like this: applog(LOG_WARNING, "GPU #%d: start mining", device_map[thr_id]);

Your 1080 is slower because it has a different kind of memory that's not optimal for algos like this.

[xfactor8383]

How do you get the GPU # and manufacturer ( ASUS GTX, Zotac GTX, etc) to come up in the command lines? Also how do you get the block info to appear in the command window... ie hub.miningpoolhub.com:17012 neoscrypt block 2011105?

@Kholdheart @KlausT

[KlausT]

That's the default when you don't use the -q option

[xfactor8383]

Thanks!