The Malta would certainly have trouble IF it used the exact same chips used in the Powercolor version. But the Malta uses higher binned chips that are more efficient which is why they can give the Malta a 375w TDP
Looking at the data, I don't believe they are. Stock clocks less than 1GHz chips, max overclocks seem similar to my PC boards and less than decent 7970s. Power consumption was 15W less than the PC, no where near enough to make up for the lack of power headroom.
Not taking sides on the discussion in this thread. If power and heat seems to be a problem with Malta, it would be interesting to have it liquid cooled - though EK is releasing a block, has anyone used Arctic Accelero Hybrid coolers for mining (despite its price)? It stands to reason the pump/block section would fit well, and the tubing might be able to pass through the grills on the top of the Malta card. The 7970 version of the Arctic cooler is expensive, using an EK 79xx shim with the regular Arctic hybrid might work interestingly - almost cooled like the Ares II but two separate loops.
Did you mean 7990? But anyway, this WOULDN'T work.
Max. Cooling Capacity 320 Watts. You'll max out the cooler very quickly using 375W to 525W [disputed], then just start rocketing temps until it thermal throttle crashes. This gets away with cooling a Titan because its very close to actual max power consumption and it typically assumes you're not going to mine 24/7.
It also wouldn't fix the max power draw being an issue.
Density and power consumption are better than in 7970, and that counts for me.
Good luck running 4 or more of these in 1 rig, power consumption is only better if you don't touch the vcore of the 7970s. In general the dual cards pull 5-10W extra due the bridge chip etc and if all other parameters are identical (vcore/clocks etc) in general 2x single cards will be cooler and pulls less power than a dual card. Also add the fact that the leakage increases quite a bit with the 7xxx architecture at higher temps and it becomes even worse.
Most of the time they cost more than 2x of a single card so tell me again why someone should buy these for mining
Back when people started mining large scale with GPUs back in 2011 it was a lot hard to find decently priced motherboards with 6x PCIe slots, that was one of the main reasons 5970 became so popular for mining. Also the usage and availability of extension cables was more limited back then. There was also the whole issue about the shorting the detection pins for 1x cables that wasn't really public knowledge until mid/late 2011. These days on the other hand you can find boards for less than 100 bucks with 6 slots and higher density than 6x7970/board is just completely pointless.
Exactly, no way you'd be able to run 4, or there be much point. If you're running in a case, congratulations it alone with your $4k of cards is now on fire. If running out of a case, why did you buy such high density?
The ONLY case where it makes sense, is what I used it for. I wanted a mining rig, but I only have the space to store one reasonable case.
