Excellent post!
Some thoughts:
I'm not sure that taking only a single reference hardware is enough. I solved this problem by taking a weighted average of all the hardware in the network, but this is definitely not the only way to do it. Since different architecture will perform differently, maybe the correct approach is to have a reference hardware for each architecture family, but I'm not sure just one for the whole network will suffice.
Let’s asume GTX 1060 is a reference card and it is rewarded in average 17k BOINC-credits on Amicable Numbers. We nomiante Amicable Numbers as a reference (benchmark) project (RP). We award 1 credit for 17k BOINC-credits per hour. Now we want to find a number of credits that GTX 960 should be awarded on e@h project. It can achieve 7.6k BOINC-credits at e@h, thus
You didn't mention this (I don't think), but am I understanding correctly that credits for the 1060 on Einstein@home = 12k? And you're saying that 17k on Amicable Numbers = 12k on Einstein@home, and so the rest of the calculations follow from there? (and ultimately, we only need the information we already have publicly available?)
As it is chosen as a reference processor, it’s earnings in new credits are normalized to 1 per hour. Therefore it can earn as many credits at yoyo as GTX1060 at respective FP32 GPU.
I'm not sure I understand this fully. Can you please elaborate on the equivalence between CPUs and GPUs?
Only partly, as from project data (RAC, boinc credits) you don't know how many hours / day card is working plus other unknowns. Thus it would need to be averaged by the runtime of particular projects - assuming these are consistent between projects, i.e. counted the same way. Without control on reference computer it is chasing a carrot on the stick. Like WINE for Linux is chasing MS Windows compatibility. And will never get there. I run both of these projects so can make quite accurate calculations.
Should be Therefore it can earn as many credits at yoyo as GTX1060 at any FP32 GPU project. Equivalence between CPU and GPU - a computer based on Ryzen 7 1700 and GTX 1070 should earn similar amount of credits on both GPU FP32 project and CPU project. How to choose ( reference CPU and GPU) would need further research and community agreement.
Of course GTX1060 is a shorthand for ~ GTX1060 based computer; components cannot hinder card's performance.
Could you give an example?