Bitcoin Forum

OK, I've been away from Computer Hardware for way to long.

So basically I'm starting over with my knowledge of what out in the market right now.

I was looking at newegg and to my surprise "AMD 7950" can mean several different video cards. Back my day there was only one Monster card... Well I'm showing my age :), Anyway.

Can some one tell me which is best for Mining and why? Also which one has the best cooling etc..

Thanks

this is the link I was looking at....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?N=100007709&bop=And&IsNodeId=1&Page=1&PageSize=20&PropertyCodeValue=3055%3a20549%2c3055%3a94398&SrchInDesc=7950&Submit=Property

There are plenty to pick from use google search

I'll ask the question again... Which one is BEST?

You might want to take a look the The Asicminer USB Block Erupter.  The give you about 333MHs and they can be had for about 1.9BTC if purchased in the forum. Two of these will give you about the same hash for about the same amount of money and they will use a fraction the the power. Use a R pi to run and you dont need to even run a full power hungry pc.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=217104.0

I like the Sapphire 3L, the MSi Twn Frz and the Gigabyte in no particular order.   ;)

The new versions of the Gigabyte Windforce 3 have hardware voltage lock at 1.250.  Also GPU core clock at 1000mhz, stats on the page say 900...

There isn't really a best GPU brand. It depends on how you're going to use the card.

Are you planning on mining Bitcoins, Litecoins or both?
Are you going to overclock the GPUs?
Are you going to tweak the core voltage?

I personally like the Gigabyte rev. 2 cards. I don't know if it was just bad luck, but my rev. 1 doesn't overlcock as well as the others. The rev. 2 cards overclock very well and the (rather high) core voltage can be lowered to 1.090 V by flashing a F42 BIOS. I use the stock (FX1) BIOS for SHA256 (e.g., Bitcoin) and F42 for scrypt (e.g., Litecoin). Since the card has a dual BIOS, it's painless to switch between the two.


That's outdated information. The rev. 1's stock clock was 900 MHz.

One other thing to take into consideration is the HSF design.

If keeping the gpu's together (without header cables) you would be best off with reference 'wind tunnel' design cards

e.g. http://www.redlinepctech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/HD-7950-redline-pc.png

These 'should' help push the air outwards and avoid a build up.

On the other hand if you're using a custom case or running on a desk etc with PCIe headers I would be going for non-ref design as these do cool better and create much lower noise.

Can you mine both Bitcoin and Litecoin at the same time on a computer with a GPU/GPUs?

They can't mine Litecoins. A gpu won't be obsolete by this time next year. Buyer beware.

On each individual GPU, it's only possible to mine one coin at a time. Although I haven't tried it, I believe it would be possible to mine Bitcoin with one GPU and Litecoin with another GPU in a single machine with two GPUs by running two instances of cgminer, but I don't think this is what you're looking for. There are a few coins that can be merge mined (mined simultaneously) with Bitcoin, like Namecoin, but they're not worth much.

As for recommendations on a 7950, I'd throw in a vote for Sapphire. I think the general consensus on the Sapphire cards is that they're good performers (but probably not the best), run cool and provide maximum tweakability (can be undervolted). I have 3 Sapphire 100352-3L 7950s and they've served me very well (620Kh/s each (Litecoin), 1072Mhz core, 1250Mhz memory, 1080mV core - temperatures are 64C core, 75C VRMs in an air-conditioned room). These cards have the "Dual-X" cooler with the big heatsink and dual fans. This keeps the card much cooler than the reference heatsink/fan design. As realtime pointed out, the reference design can still be useful, however, if you're trying to fit many cards directly onto a motherboard. I wouldn't recommend such a setup though -- just use (powered) risers. :)

Gigabyte and MSI 7950s seem to perform well too, but my understanding is that most Gigabyte cards are voltage-locked. I wish I had some experience with them to be able to tell you more, sorry. XFX cards seem to be all around bad for mining. I see so many complaints about them: too hot, low hash rate, etc. Powercolor cards seem hit or miss.

Whatever you choose, good luck! :D

I found MSI Twin Frozr design cards work best for me, nvidia or amd.

I too have always had good experiences with MSI cards (just haven't mined with any yet). I have two MSI Nvidia GTX460s with the Twin Frozr coolers from my old gaming rigs. They were absolutely excellent cards. They ran super cool and it was possible to tweak voltages too. It's too bad it's not really worthwhile to mine with them. :(

A vote here for the MSI 7950's.  I've got a bunch of them and they work great.  Voltage is decent stock and it can be overclocked well.  You can also undervolt these and save some juice/heat.

The stock heat management is also pretty good with the giant cooling setup.

doesn't really matter much imo, but I agree the MSI cooler is very good so it could be a good candidate if you're looking to overclock

7790 is the best for mining:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=231647.0

in terms of performance and energy comsumption effectivity.

Cheapest 7950 + gelid icy is great. 80* on VRM 58* on GPU 1.3V 1240MHz.
27* C in room.

Do you mean something like this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426026 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426026)

I am using SAPPHIRE 7950 OC with boost.
GPU clock 1100
Memory 1500
VDDC 1250
620-650 khash/s

at current (15M or so) difficulty, how much BTC is a 7950 generating per day today? Just curious from anyone that has one in hand today...

Hey,

try this online calculators. ;)

1. http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

2. http://bitcoin.web-share.nl/