Bitcoin Forum

Everyone seems to have their best pick of cards, it's rough shuffling through all the search results.. I currently have 3 SAPPHIRE 100352-4L and looking to build a second rig.. I'd like to choose the best card for maximum hashes.

These seem to be the top 4 choices.

https://i.imgur.com/5wvmYCc.png

(this will be for litecoin mining)

Depends on your cooling setup. If you're going open air, get the double fan cards as they circulate better at the expense of exhausting the heat. If going case and noise isn't an issue, exhausting cards.

Ah that's very good advice. So the other 2 (gigabyte and xfx) push the air everywhere mostly?
Where as the powercolor and sapphire force it out the rear?

I'm currently open air, but would like to fit this next batch into a case... "exhausting" cards sound much better to me.

Nothing beats the sapphire 4Ls. Amazing cards.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186651.msg1934011#msg1934011

+1

Thank you for the responses, very helpful!

I've had 2 sapphire 4Ls and they've both been crap. Run hot as hell, noisy (lil quieter in a case but still noisy) and unless you run it by itself, you better have good case airflow to assist the blower. Not to mention both cards thus far began IMMEDIATELY artifacting my desktop while mining as the display card.

Maybe I'm just unlucky but that's been my experience. Double d has bad reviews, no personal experience.

Im running both the Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 and the Sapphire HD 7950. Out of the box the Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 outperforms the Sapphire and runs cooler.

Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 - 560 kh/s, 60-70 deg (no OC)
Sapphire HD 7950 - 485 kh/s, 70-80 deg (no OC)

using the same settings in cgminer for both cards (litecoin)

The Sapphire can run very cool (~55 deg) with the fan at 85%, but it sounds like a jet engine

The Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 runs silently around 65 deg with the 3 cooling fan design

I agree with Bitrocket....better performance from the Gigabyte 7950s vs Sapphire 7950s.

Thank you all! Very good information.


 I have the Sapphire currently, even at 65% the thing is loud.

Since this will be mounted in a case, is there a concern with the gigabyte not exhausting enough air..? Like the poster above mentioned. Seeing as some of the air is dispersed into the case, and not forced out the back.

Last question, have you attempted any overclocking? Do you mind posting your cgminer input for your sapphire?

+2. Running 3 of them at 1ghz core at 1000mv vcore. They are loud like any reference design squirrel fan, but they run cool. Also, not voltage locked unlike the latest batches of the Gigabyte 3 fan card. XFX card is absolute crap. Belongs in a "Worst 7950 card right now" thread. I can not speak to the PowerColor.

The open air blows will typically exhaust about 25% of the heat, and the single blowers 70%. It can make quite a difference if you're trying to mash 3 in a case.

Very good info everyone, thank you so much!


I as well have 3 4Ls currently, yet I'm still having a bit of trouble getting them dialed in..
 I have powertune to +20 and clocks to 1000/1250. (cant tell if that's best...)

My CGMiner is the main thing giving me trouble.... anyone care to copy/paste an ideal input??

edit:: I found this thread quite helpful. will test tomorrow https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,620.0.html

None of the listed models: they all crap -performance/cooling read more.

So the 4L or the Gigabyte?

Which is the better choice? and Pros and Cons of each?

Someone said the Gigabyte with the 3 fans was voltage locked, is this true?
But then everyone else says the 4L runs way hotter than the Gigabyte and is a loud son of a bitch.... Consensus?

I have 2 Sapphire 4Ls and 7 Gigabyte 7950s. In my opinion, the Gigabytes are much better cards.

The Gigabytes come factory overclocked at 1000/1250 and can do over 600k mining litecoin with no extra overclocking or overvolting.

The 4Ls run hotter, have extremely loud fans, and don't perform very well. I can only get the 4Ls up to 550k mining litecoin overclocked to 1000/1250 with overvolting, which puzzles me. I have no idea why these cards don't seem to perform as well as the Gigabytes at the same clock speed, but the Sappires do like to throttle back a lot.

Needless to say, I have 4 more Gigabyte 7950s on the way and won't be purchasing anymore Sapphire cards.

Sapphires are loud (duh, REF always are), but I get 575 Mh/s @ 1100/300 70-72 C with 65% fan on BFGminer. So I'm pleased with them currently. If noise is an issue, then go Gigabyte. Oh yeah, I'm 1.050 V too.

Sorry, I missed the Litecoin application.

Newegg has the SAPPHIRE 100352-4L 7950 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202030) for $270 with 3 free games. Worth it?

Well all of those cards, on Newegg and on Amazon, all comes with those games.
But its 290 + tax .... the Mail-in Rebate is 20 dollars back, but those suck lol

But yeah that's why I keep asking which card is better overall (quiet, cooling, Khasing, overclocking) cause Im down to this one and the Gigabyte which is only like 10-15 dollars more, for a better card I am willing to pay more money. The guy who said eh has like 7 Gigabyte cards, I think you've won me over. Straight outta the box clocking really nets that great of a hash rate? I hope so cause you cant change the voltage I heard :(

Ah ok. I noticed that card on the Newegg home page as a daily deal, so didn't know if the price or the games were special. Both look to be pretty common, so idk why it was advertised?

The Sapphire is $270, and the Gigabyte is $310. I love Gigabyte, but is $40 worth it? Also, what are the VRM temps on the Gigabyte? I have the Gigabyte 7970 GHz edition, and it has a heatsink on the VRM chips, but they still run hot. The stock cooler directly cools the VRM chips, but the aftermarket Giga one doesn't.

If the Sapphire one has a stock heatsink, and gets good hashrates, I'd say go with that one.

Part of the reason I bought two sapphires was because of the rebate, but unfortunately it's limited to one rebate per household. Keep that in mind if you're buying more than one card.

Sooo... Which one wins? :P

The gigabyte windforce is basically the best 7950 around.

Pro's
Reliable
Cool
Quiet
Can get high stable hashrate.

Cons:
Huge
Heat expelled everywhere(Filling a closed case with hot air)
Voltage Locked(if you start having trouble with heat in summer for example it nice to be able to undervolt the cards to keep them cooler)

The XFX has no advantages over the gigabyte so just ignore that one.

I personally would get the Gigabyte but not being able to undervolt is a concern, i know i will be undervolting my cards when the summer temps begin to ride.
I recently bought a  powercolor AX7950 3GBD5-2DHV5E and i am very happy as it is almost as good as a gigabyte windforce but was cheaper and is not voltage locked. Availability might be poor though :P

I have several rigs now and have been undervolting and whatnot with no real guidance.  Can anyone point me to a good guide or to a good thread about undervolting (7950s and one 7990 are the majority of my setups.)  I have looked, just haven't found anything other than stats about what people have cards at.  I am looking for the underlying methodology on it and heat in general.  Though I have several systems setup now I know my heat profile for these systems is only 10% above n00b level.  Thanks,

D

So I happened to pickup a couple of the gigabyte cards - imo the custom cooling in junky. The cards vent heat in all directions and in addition to that the back side of these boards become quite hot. No chance of running these on board without it overheating whatever's behind it.

IMO the ref. design with the canister is much better since it vents out the back of the case.
HIS-iceQ or Sapphire Vapor-X are the best options imo.

11196-09-40G this is the model right?

I have an 6970 HIS stock cooler on it and it's warmer and louder then my 2 Gigabyte 3 fans 6970 even if the HIS is unlocked and undervolted.  :)

go with the 3 fans Gigabyte and open case or lots of fans over a stock cooler even if undervoled.  ;D

but that's not with 7950  ::)

Best would be dependent on the user's tolerance for noise, heat, undervolting, overclocking options.

Personally I prefer ref cards since I just lock my cards away at work  ;D

I have 2x Sapphire 100352-4Ls

They are very loud and they run hot. They do overclock well, I've had them up to 1250 for short periods but normally run at 1000 for better temperatures. About 520MH/s each at that speed.

If I was buying more now I'd have no qualms about 7950s but I would get the Gigabyte cards for the better coolers.

P.S. They are not voltage locked, which I found odd.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

RTFP, not the model we're talking about.

2L is better than the gigabyte. Ignorant mofo.