Bitcoin Forum

Hi i currently have a Gainward GTX9800+ Which only gets 35 mhash/s.

Before buying a completly new Pc i wanted to purchase a new ATI Card for mining.Which is the best card to start and is a 450 W power supply enough ?

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison[/ur] will help, if you have more than one slot available then you could plug in another card - or even get a PCI-E extender  (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison)

Yes ok but my question is which ati card can i take with my current power supply
Its 450 W

Could this handle a Radeon 5870  ?My cpu is core 2 duo 6600

http://www.chieftec.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=108

maybe a 5830, depends on our other stuff in case
http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html
try that for rough idea

no

Most good cards take (2) PCI-E plug-in cables.

A 450W supply probably has 2 at most -- but possibly just 1.

450W would be pushing it.

450W won't be good enough for any of the high end cards or even some midrange cards. The power is just too small. I'd suggest at least 600W if you're going for mining.

Ok which woul be a good power supply?

Are you planning on running just one card for mining, or would you want some headroom to upgrade to a 2nd in the future? I would highly recommend it, as the card can pay for its self pretty quickly.

I haven't been keeping up with hardware recently so I probably wouldn't be able to give good advice on that. Try checking Amazon or Newegg and read reviews and all that, people seem to know their stuff over there.

I'm running a Q6600, HD5870, HD6870 and it uses 492W. So a 5870 should be no problem.
Also the newegg power calc is a bad joke.
It says I need 936W with my current system.

I thinck i would upgrade if it realy works well :D But i only have one Pci-E Slot :S
But if it works pretty well i maybe create a whole new mining system

With your current PSU I'd suggest a 5770 or 6770 (same card essentially) Only requires 1 PCI-E pin and should have equivalent if not less wattage than the 9800GTX


Running at or slightly below the rated wattage of your system is a bad idea unless you trust the PSU, most fluctuate under high load and can lead to slow death and random problems from undervolting.


Many a newb has found this out the hard way, PSU is often the most important thing in yout system.

Oh and the 5770 can pull 220MHs with a nice overclock, (was the first ATI card to ever breach 1GHz on air with voltage tweak.)

Still isn't as nice as a 5830 if you can find one for 100$, but the 5830 is bout as hungry as a 5870 at times.

Do i need any additional cooling system if i overclock the 5770?

5830 is nowhere near as power hungry as a 5870. 5830s are $110 on newegg and in stock. A 450W power supply doesn't mean anything, you need to know the Brand, the Model or at least how many Amps it provides on the 12V rail.

A quality 450W powersupply can easily handle any system with an overclocked 5870 and room to spare. A crappy 450W might choke on anything. Let's not give out advice unless we know what we're talking about.

EDIT: wow the 5830s finally went out of stock. Shame. That was almost the last of the easily accessible 58xx cards. There are still a few left, but I'm guessing they'll be gone soon too.

Just go ahead and spring for one of these 1350W, 80 Plus Gold Certified ones:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194092 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194092)
It is super-efficient and you'll be able to upgrade to the R6990's you're going to want a week from now when you realize you're making some money and could be making a shit-ton more with better cards.  $300 is a small price to pay for not having to buy a new one next week or even next year. ;)

It's right and wrong at the same time.  The top of the efficiency curve for most power supplys is at 50% consumption.  So it's right on that account.  It's wrong because a high quality Seasonic built PSU can be ran at 100% load, 24/7, and still maintain 80% efficiency from the wall without risk of damage to the PSU or components.

I think they are planning for worst case scenario.. aka diablotek.

wow glad i didnt wait till this afternoon to order then, was going to but then remembered about the rush processing by noon pst so i ordered like 30 minutes ago, maybe i took the last ones?? lol

Not at all, though I would suggest a nicer card, such as a MSI Hawk R5770.

As for the 5830,
At peak loads many early reviewers saw wattage similar to the 5870, pcb revisouns have likely fixed that, but nonetheless it still uses much more power than it should for the performance it renders in games.

Mining is a different story however.

I have two that generate around 520MHs in total on a 750W PSU.

The Q6600 is a hungry beast as well, I beleive it's TDP is 140?

This card is ok or?
Because it is so cheap http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/b003u8dmsq/geizhalspre03-21/ref=nosim?m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF

A HD 6950 would be not as good or?