Bitcoin Forum

I'm seeking opinions on 5830 versus 6870 cards. Both fall in my price range and their intro hash rate on the hardware comparison are quite similar (244 for the 5830, 232 for the 6870). The 5830s also seem to have more OC ability due to a lower clock speed but I have been told that the 6xxx series runs somewhat cooler and wonder if this would make a significant difference between these cards.

There is a HIS 6870 on Newegg for $159 after MIR right now which doesn't seem terrible. The 5830 is OOS pretty much everywhere at the moment but magically returns for brief periods of time (usually for $119). Still, if anyone has some knowledge on how these cards stack up with regards to heat, hash, crossfire performance and so on it would be appreciated.

All I can say is that Sapphire's latest batch of 5830's are indeed awesome little cards. 

I assume (but am only about 50% sure) that they totally re-worked the power circuitry so that they no longer use the 5870 reference's power circuit (the old 5830's consumed way too much power) and their TriXX software is amazing. 

A few weeks ago I paid $109.99 for a card that will easily hit 300 MH/s and probably go higher if I'm brave enough to push it beyond 1.2v core.


I've been wondering lately if there's a niche market for custom flashed mining cards, where I personally find the highest stable core clock / voltage / fan combo and flash the bios to make it permanent, so that a would-be-miner simply plugs it in and goes... (although I'd hate to be the poor sap that bought it from him on ebay and wonders why his games run at half FPS because the memory is at 300 MHz instead of 1000 LOL)

if you can get the 5830's for $109.99 from newegg, that's the best.  They're going to out perform the 6870 for $60 or so less than the 6870. 

I have 4 Asus EACH5830's, if you can find them still they are kick ass cards!

Thanks for the replies.

The only ones still expecting ambiguously-timed restock on Newegg.ca are the $119 "Xtreme" cards here: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102946 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102946).

This price is within $30 of the cheapest 6870 card I have found which runs for $159 after rebate here: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161349 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161349).

It seems performance would be pretty close, which is why I'm wondering about cooling.

Yes a large "BITCOIN MINERS ONLY" tag would be essential here. That is probably not a bad idea given how many newbs such as myself are flooding into the market casually. I'm sure demand for such would drop off whenever mining difficulty reaches its boiling point but we're not there yet.

Hi

I have all of my sapphire 5830's  hitting 300 Mhash/s easy and staying under 90C.

Hi

The 5830s do not outperform the 6870. They both have 1120 Stream Processors and 56 Texture Units. The 6870 has twice as many Z/Stencil ROP Units and Color ROP Units. Mining wise they're pretty much identical, with the 6870 giving slightly better results, likely due to it's higher clocks.

The 6870 is basically the new and improved 5830, so if they're around the same price, you'd be mad not to choose the 6870. A 5830 is not worth $160. Personally, I'd rather pay $180 for a 6870 than $160 for a 5830 but I game on my rig as well as mine.