Topic: What card to get? (Read 7356 times)

That's semantics, you can't get those cards new & boxed anywhere at reasonable prices anymore, or at all since they are 99% out of stock. The bulk of my rigs contain 5830's and 5850's and I bought those ~9 months ago..
Even then it was a struggle, and I had to settle for a few used ones.

Even eBay is mostly filled with used ones or massively price gouged pieces. Newegg ran out ages ago.
The only realistic purchase option at this time is a 6870 or a 6950/6970 if you go for ordinary cards instead of dual gpu's.

But I do agree that if you run your cluster as a home op, even a single 6990 will make your room uninhabitable.
I'd never do it at home, but I do run 4 at separate location.

From personal experience, Sapphire and PowerColor make great cards.  XFX cards aren't the best, as they tend to run hotter and overclock less than others.  I have no experience with ASUS or EVGA cards.

Anyone can reply to this?


Thank you.

This keeps getting spewed around because its true for most people. For the price of one 6990 without a new system, I can get an entire pc with 3 5850s that have better cooling and 50% higher hash rate. Thats only for the 6990 (580 euros minimum). It doesn't matter how many spare slots you have on your mobo, at 750MH for 580 euros, it simply cannot be justified. At all. Not even by power consumption. If you are considering spending 600 euros on mining equipment, I suggest spending 50 more, and buying 2 mobos, psus, cpus, hdds, and 4 5830s or 3 5850s and get 50% more hash rate at only 50% more power consumption.

Also consider noise. If you put a 6990 in your living room/pc room/bedroom, it becomes uninhabitable. A separate rig can be put into your basement or an unused room. Heat generation can also be a problem. My 2 rigs are in a guest room with full open windows 24/7. 3 5830s and a 6950 mining 24/7 generate around 35C ambient in the room, with outdoor temp around 20C. I don't care because I'm not there, but back when it was in my room it used to be really hot.

Only in shortterm view. 5830 is worst in Mhash/s/W. It is crippled 5870, so it has power draw of 5870, but only 2/3 output.

Sure. But with remaining warranty until october 2011.

Thank you for your explanation.
About manufacturers, how do i choose the best one? I see companies like Asus, Sapphire, Power Color, XFX, EVGA and so on for the same ATI chip. Have i just to buy the cheaper one?

There is multiple information submitted for the same chips, so they are listed multiple times. It's not multiple listing for the same card.

They need more info, honestly.

Take the Radeon HD 5830, for example.

You can't just list "5830", or even "Sapphire 5830". Sapphire made 3-4 different 5830 cards. Each company that released a 5830 probably made multiple ones as well. Not all cards are made the same. Some are sold overclocked. Some sold at stock speeds overclock more than those sold pre-overclocked. Different cards use different memory. There are lots of differences. Listing JUST the chipset doesn't help.
Some 5830 cards released in 2010 may mostly be reference designs. Maybe bad 5850/5870 chips crippled and sold as 5830s that suck up a lot of power and don't overclock well. Ones released in 2011 have more efficient, non-reference designs. Maybe they are 5850/5870 chips that have simply been sold as 5830 chips because of the demand for 5830 chips, so they run cooler and overclock better.

Chip name, Manufacturer of card, model # (plus revision, if possible), manufacture date, then GPU speed, memory speed, Voltage, Operating System, drivers used, miner used, and command-line switches.
THAT would give you a good idea of what card does what.

Regarding colors of entries ... I have no clue.

Why in the comparison table there are different entries for the same card? What is the difference?
And why some of them are colored with different color?

This keeps being spewed around as if miners are just blindly buying ineffective hardware.

The fact is that the 6990 is a great miner because:

1. It has two GPU's in 1 card
2. If your motherboard has 2 PCI-e slots, you can turn them into 4 gpu's worth of hashing power.
3. If your motherboard has 4 PCI-e slots, you can turn them into 8 gpu's worth of hashing power.

In the case of single core GPU's, you would now have to buy 2 computers with 2 power supplies, processors, motherboards, RAM, casing etc.

So in the end you save space & don't have to buy a second rig to house more cards & you get greater resale value.

Where? Was it used?

I bought older one for 250 euro.

Why don't you see 6990x4 (only up to 6990x3) while i frequently see 5850x4?

Yes, and a 5850 can work at 425mhash/s if you OC the core from 725 to 1015mhz and up the voltage by about 30%.
Good for mining if you are setting up a one-week operation.

I hope people don't blindly follow the chart but also use their common sense & think what is a safe 24/7 clock frequency.

6990s are the best yet at the same time you gottta look at how expensive they are 750ish a piece. The x2 and x3 is relateing to two graphics cards running together or 3

What could be the right price for it?

No, you're right. 5970 is best in MHash/s/W. I have straight comparison... 5970 vs. 2x5870 vs. 2x6970 and I definitely prefer 5970. If you can buy it, don't hesitate.

I want the best video card for MHash/Watt and 5970 is ok. I have checked again the comparison table and 5970 should be the best solution.
Am i wrong?

Since you are from europe you might want to look at http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-168-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1711

5830s are the most cost effective, but they are hard to find anymore. The 6870 is the next best, since it is only a little more and can go up to 330 mh/s. Only $160 at Newegg this weekend...