Topic: PSA: Malta 7990s are NOT suitable for mining! - page 6. (Read 21055 times)
You really should do more research so that you know what you're talking about when posting. There's a ton of misinformation you have so I'll only touch on one. You correlate Furmark and scrypt. First, there's no dual gpu card in existence that does not get throttled from running Furmark. Second, scrypt is more reliant on ram than it is on the core clock. Where as Furmark stresses the core more than anything.
Hello all. After my experiences with 2x partner card (PC) non Malta 7990s, I wanted to raise my concerns about the new Malta (M) versions. I hope one of my first threads is useful to the community.
Mining:
Just for reference, at 1050 cores I get 1280 per card for ~400W from the wall.
Pricing:
So the PC cards come in at about $900, 7970s at $400. This means they are viable for limited space internal card builds and will possibly hold their value better as they'll stay in the usable performance bracket longer.
The new M cards come in at $1000. Although they have more games, its pushing it a bit. Not a problem, but something for each to evaluate.
Tldr: New M cards more expensive, but have more games.
Temperatures and cooling:
Partner cards are 3.3 slot and weigh nearly 3kg each. This means they do NOT work without at least a full slot gap. Most motherboards don't have a usable non-riserable slot in the first expansion slot, so you require an 8 slot case. Not a problem.
They take up 3 slots AND the typical gap between the bottom and next slot. Running without a free gap you can only mine on 3 cores. Regardless of the underclock, TDP limiting, undervolting or intensity, the 4th core always overheats.
With a gap the bottom card loads at +45-50 above ambient, and the top card +55-65 above ambient. [Note I don't have voltage control of the 2nd core on each card, hopefully this will arrive with newer drivers as I have control when there is only ONE card - this will improve temps slightly]. This is with a 1050 core, undervolted.
Now the new M cards have dual slot coolers, ouch. At stock clocks they were loading just below the 80s, horizontally mounted in an open air, single card system. This was on GPGPU computing. Due to the heatsink design, ZERO air is exhausted and its all left to be removed by the case. My PC cards heat the case ambient up to 40+ even with 3x250mm, 5x240mm of fans removing heat. You will have to open air, just have to.
Tldr: Mining is doable on the 3 slot PC cards, but will be almost impossible to dual M cards within a case. The M cards are 2 slot and don't exhaust air at all.
Power delivery:
This is the major problem. My PC cards have 3x8pin for a max of 525W. These new M cards only have 2x8 pins for 375W max. Even with my moderate overclocks (focusing on power consumption rather than MAX POWA), I'm going over/hitting the power delivery limits of the PC cards at about ~400W from the wall per card [1050 core, mem 625 and undervolted]. AnandTech saw this in Furmark, the card was power throttled HEAVILY. Now imagine trying to scypt mine with decent clocks - its not going to happen.
Tldr: The power delivery on these cards LIMITS the performance of these cards and causes power throttling even on moderate computing load. Hence these cards are not appropriate for mining.
I'm more than happy with my 3 slot non Maltas, hopefully more stock is made. If I helped, small small small donations are appreciated and pay for good things
Mining:
Just for reference, at 1050 cores I get 1280 per card for ~400W from the wall.
Pricing:
So the PC cards come in at about $900, 7970s at $400. This means they are viable for limited space internal card builds and will possibly hold their value better as they'll stay in the usable performance bracket longer.
The new M cards come in at $1000. Although they have more games, its pushing it a bit. Not a problem, but something for each to evaluate.
Tldr: New M cards more expensive, but have more games.
Temperatures and cooling:
Partner cards are 3.3 slot and weigh nearly 3kg each. This means they do NOT work without at least a full slot gap. Most motherboards don't have a usable non-riserable slot in the first expansion slot, so you require an 8 slot case. Not a problem.
They take up 3 slots AND the typical gap between the bottom and next slot. Running without a free gap you can only mine on 3 cores. Regardless of the underclock, TDP limiting, undervolting or intensity, the 4th core always overheats.
With a gap the bottom card loads at +45-50 above ambient, and the top card +55-65 above ambient. [Note I don't have voltage control of the 2nd core on each card, hopefully this will arrive with newer drivers as I have control when there is only ONE card - this will improve temps slightly]. This is with a 1050 core, undervolted.
Now the new M cards have dual slot coolers, ouch. At stock clocks they were loading just below the 80s, horizontally mounted in an open air, single card system. This was on GPGPU computing. Due to the heatsink design, ZERO air is exhausted and its all left to be removed by the case. My PC cards heat the case ambient up to 40+ even with 3x250mm, 5x240mm of fans removing heat. You will have to open air, just have to.
Tldr: Mining is doable on the 3 slot PC cards, but will be almost impossible to dual M cards within a case. The M cards are 2 slot and don't exhaust air at all.
Power delivery:
This is the major problem. My PC cards have 3x8pin for a max of 525W. These new M cards only have 2x8 pins for 375W max. Even with my moderate overclocks (focusing on power consumption rather than MAX POWA), I'm going over/hitting the power delivery limits of the PC cards at about ~400W from the wall per card [1050 core, mem 625 and undervolted]. AnandTech saw this in Furmark, the card was power throttled HEAVILY. Now imagine trying to scypt mine with decent clocks - its not going to happen.
Tldr: The power delivery on these cards LIMITS the performance of these cards and causes power throttling even on moderate computing load. Hence these cards are not appropriate for mining.
I'm more than happy with my 3 slot non Maltas, hopefully more stock is made. If I helped, small small small donations are appreciated and pay for good things
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