Bitcoin Forum

Currently I have an Nvidia Geforce GTS 250 Graphics card which has been great for gaming but not so great for mining. I'd like something similar in terms of game performance but also able to get a decent m/hash rate (around 200 or more). Anyone have any recommendations.

a good brand 5850, OC'd a bit.  Sapphire or MSI imho.  http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-Express-Graphics-100282XTREME/dp/B004W75ATI/ref=pd_cp_e_3 (http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-Express-Graphics-100282XTREME/dp/B004W75ATI/ref=pd_cp_e_3)

Thanks I'll take a look.

5850's are great gaming cards for the price. I can run mostly everything on Highest settings on the 5850 I have, not like that's much anymore since most PC games are shitty ports. I can run Portal 2 and Starcraft 2 on Highest settings with no frame rate issues. Sadly, those are the only two good games with high demands that I've played recently.

  On the other hand if you deicide that mining is stupid and you want your card to last more than a few months, grab yourself either an EVGA (OC Series)Gtx460  or a Gigabyte (windforce series) Gtx 460, both come OC stock and OC very, very well beyond that. EVGA has lifetime warranties and a 90 day step up program.  I friggin wish someone selling Radeon had that and wasn't charging double the card worth.  They also put the smack down on those games you mentioned. I play EVE on a Gigabyte windforce 2 and it slaps out 150+ fps without breaking a sweat.

HD6870 with an aftermarket cooler so you can OC it a bit

Awful suggestion, get a 6950, used 5870, 5850, or two 5770s

i'd sign this. 6950 is a good buy because you can unlock its shaders (search for a reference model). i'm seeing 411Mhash/s at the moment without any overvolting. works good at gaming, too (although i didn't play any games on my amd card yet)

While that is very nice, it is unfortunatly not under $200. Atleast not any I could locate.  I can't speak for the current available price on the 5870 or 5850(seen a few but the under $200 are out of stock) 

I also left out the Xtreme edition 5830 ($129) Newegg which comes with some fairly loose voltage and clock capabilities. 300+ Mhash/s


I still think you'd be happier in the long run with a GTX 460 or even a 560. Not been price shopping on them but they are likely approaching sub $200 if not already there and make games their biotch at a much better fps/$ than the Radeons. Also, the friggin nvidia dirvers are not nearly as much of a headache....

I recently bought a 6950 for 200 off Newegg with rebate, its a 1gb model though only 350mhash, I feel more comfortable with the resale value vs other cards, 5830s will be worthless soon

I see the Diamond 1gig, $229 after rebate. Not bad but still over $200 ;p  I'm also not sure the OP is worried about resale as he has stated it is to be used for gaming as well.  Which leaves the 5830, Xtreme edition atleast, as a very good prospect for its price of $129.

I just sold my GTS250 and bought this 6870:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521&cm_re=6870-_-14-150-521-_-Product
Highly recommend it too.
The dual fans are way quiet. Even at 100% they were still quieter then my GTS250 was at low speeds. You can easily OC this thing a bit with the stock cooler.

Its only 204.99 (free shipping) and its got a rebate, so it ends up costing 174.99. Killer deal

Very nice find, m8!!  And I see a few of those pushing over 300 Mhash with a little tweaking. And, more importantly, its in stock. ;p

That one looks great and it might be the best buy, I just wish newegg didn't charge tax where I live it might push it out of my budget. The Xtreme edition 5830 also looks good for the price but it's out of stock. While I was looking I also came across this 6790. http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-100316L/dp/B004VQECF8/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2LLCR1G79MVB8&colid=1W39N3GYB3CKM (http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-100316L/dp/B004VQECF8/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2LLCR1G79MVB8&colid=1W39N3GYB3CKM) The reviews are good and they say the card runs very quiet plus the temps stay low under a full load. I'm not sure about the mining potential though, but I think it should be at least 200mhash.

I also got an xbox that I use often so I'm alright with going Radeon and losing a little bit of performance in certain games. It shouldn't be enough to make me regret the decision. Plus I'll be getting better mining ability. Yea I agree about the drivers, I've had an ati card in the past and the drivers could be annoying sometimes.

Rock on. That sucks that 5830 Xtreme went out of stock before you got to it.

I've got two of those. 

• One is rock solid and performs @ 1040mhz, 1275mV, 228 memory, 100% fan @ 325 Mhash/sec and 67 degrees.
• The other is running 1000mhz, 1225mV, 228 memory, 302 Mhash/s, 100% fan @ 71 degrees

 

5830 in crossfire is still a very solid solution.

http://cdn5.tweaktown.com/content/3/1/3170_28.png

Not even overclocked in that benchmark.
There are lots for sale in this thread:

https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=24910.msg309374#msg309374 (https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=24910.msg309374#msg309374)

5870s in stock at NewEgg now!!!! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161331

nice price too, thanks!

You've shown that 2 $130 cards are better than a single $190 card...

Is this going somewhere?

Thought it was atleast loosly following this, the thread topic.......  Good Ati Card for mining and gaming under $200?

Its a no-brainer.

Radeon 6870: 300+ megahash and good gaming performance.
Radeon 5830 Crossfire: 600+ megahash & Better Gaming performance.

2x 5830 is a bit more than $200, but the other requirements are met and then some.

Reading the thread is a no-brainer as well. *refers to post #14*

And in case you're lazy on top of being argumentitve for the sake of it, here is what I am refering to.

"Its only 204.99 (free shipping) and its got a rebate, so it ends up costing 174.99. Killer deal"


"That one looks great and it might be the best buy, I just wish newegg didn't charge tax where I live it might push it out of my budget."

try to get your hands on 3x 5830 from sapphire...

jm2p Zeph

I decided to go with a 6850.I just realized the other day that my power supply was only 400w and I don't wanna risk putting a card in my system that needs 500w or more. The 6850 I found only needs 400w and seems efficient so that's the one I'm going with.

Rock on, m8. Thanks for updating us on it. And do be sure to chime in when you receive it to let us know how well it hashes, etc.


cheers

I got the card last week and it's been hashing around 195 to 193 with no overclocking and these flags (-v -w 128 -f 0 ). Overall it's a good card, it's runs way cooler than my old card did and it plays all my games maxed out. I was hoping it would get over 200mh stock but it's close enough. This is the one I bought http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-Express-Graphics-900339/dp/B004AM73AE/ref=sr_1_16?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1311700652&sr=1-16 (http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-Express-Graphics-900339/dp/B004AM73AE/ref=sr_1_16?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1311700652&sr=1-16)

Not bad at all stock. only other stock listed using a miner I'm not familiar with is pulling 171.x Mhash.   You might could try other agressions on it, step thru them, i.e aggression=7, then aggression=8, aggression=12  to see if you can get a bit more at stock. I'd be willing to bet you could OC to just 900 or so without adding much volatage to it. Also try phoenix if you're using poclbm or vise versa with your settings just to see if there is any gain even without OCing.

Again, cheers for the update m8!

Thanks I'll try those out when I get home. I did do some light overclocking yesterday, and I went up to 805 from 775 which got me to 203 hashes. I'm sure I can keep going up a bit more but I'll wait till winter for the higher clocks since my house is always in the mid 80's and I don't want to heat it up even more lol.