Topic: reference versus non-reference gpu card for mining (Read 2194 times)
lol, thanks for the reply
reference cards tend to be blower types which push all the hot air one way. Non-reference cards tend to recirculate air mixing hot and cold air together. They are nice for gamers who may have 1 or maybe 2 cards in a closed system as the total thermal load isn't that much so having intake air a little warmer isn't much of an issue.
Mining rigs tend to be much more dense with 4 to 8 GPU per motherboard. Combine that with multiple rigs and you can be talking 20, 30, or more GPUs in a small space. Having them all pull cooler air from one side and blow hotter air out the other side simplifies heat management.
Then again the preference for reference cards isn't universal. Some miners prefer non-reference cards. The blower wheel tends to be very noisy and they die at a much higher rate than axial fans.
BTW: "Ultra Durable" blah blah blah is 99.9% marketing. They take things that already exist and create fancy charts, and bold claims. I mean honestly does Gigabyte also have the "Rather Fragile" version of the card for sale also?
If other products did the same thing you would see:
Mining rigs tend to be much more dense with 4 to 8 GPU per motherboard. Combine that with multiple rigs and you can be talking 20, 30, or more GPUs in a small space. Having them all pull cooler air from one side and blow hotter air out the other side simplifies heat management.
Then again the preference for reference cards isn't universal. Some miners prefer non-reference cards. The blower wheel tends to be very noisy and they die at a much higher rate than axial fans.
BTW: "Ultra Durable" blah blah blah is 99.9% marketing. They take things that already exist and create fancy charts, and bold claims. I mean honestly does Gigabyte also have the "Rather Fragile" version of the card for sale also?
If other products did the same thing you would see:
Quote
"Elite Gamer" Chicken Breasts. Contains less human corpse than other brands. By not feeding our chickens rotting human corpses we ensure a higher protein to fatal blood disease delivery system. Get into the game. Don't be sidelined with stomach cramps (which may or may not happen because other brands don't feed chickens human corpses either). Insist on "Elite Gamer" Chicken Breasts.
not really the ideal place to post this, but apparently this is the only place I can post for now, anyhow:
I've seen some posts of people prefering reference cards above non-reference cards for mining. What's the reasoning behind this? Is it because it's easier to bios-flash reference cards?
I'm looking to buy a new 7970 for mining, and am contemplating if I should get a reference card, or if I should get a custom design. More specifically I'm looking at the Gigabyte "Ultra Durable"-series, which claims lower temperatures, higher overclocking capability and higer quality components (thicker copper PCB layer, tier 1 memory, solid capacitors, ferrite core chokes, low rds (on) mosfet), which looks ideal to me for a device that will run 24/7 at 100%. Am I correct with this assumption, or are there some additional factors to take into account (next to costs ofcourse, the ultra-durable is quite a bit more expensive).
thanks!
I've seen some posts of people prefering reference cards above non-reference cards for mining. What's the reasoning behind this? Is it because it's easier to bios-flash reference cards?
I'm looking to buy a new 7970 for mining, and am contemplating if I should get a reference card, or if I should get a custom design. More specifically I'm looking at the Gigabyte "Ultra Durable"-series, which claims lower temperatures, higher overclocking capability and higer quality components (thicker copper PCB layer, tier 1 memory, solid capacitors, ferrite core chokes, low rds (on) mosfet), which looks ideal to me for a device that will run 24/7 at 100%. Am I correct with this assumption, or are there some additional factors to take into account (next to costs ofcourse, the ultra-durable is quite a bit more expensive).
thanks!
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