most cost effective GPU

[pandemic]

A few years ago, the best bang for the buck came in the form of the 5830. It was cheap and I get about 300mh/s out of each one.

I'm looking at upgrading or building a second miner for litecoin and any cryptocoin that comes up in the future. At this point what GPU is the best bang for the buck?

I'm also considering holding off for a few months to see if there's an influx of GPU's on the market. What are your thoughts?

[Xian01]

A 7950 is the best value right now.

A few years ago, the best bang for the buck came in the form of the 5830. It was cheap and I get about 300mh/s out of each one.

I'm looking at upgrading or building a second miner for litecoin and any cryptocoin that comes up in the future. At this point what GPU is the best bang for the buck?

I'm also considering holding off for a few months to see if there's an influx of GPU's on the market. What are your thoughts?

[pandemic]

Any specific brand? Any idea what mh/s I could expect? Price?

[mt_bird]

If you can, get voltage unlocked 7950s. I think the following link will answer your questions:

http://www.cryptobadger.com/build-your-own-litecoin-mining-rig/

[sniffinpoprocks]

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#AMD_.28ATI.29

this will show all cards, you could go eBay and try to get used cards for a good price. I just bought a couple 6970's that gave me a cheaper $/Mhs than 7950s I could find.

[Xian01]

Any specific brand? Any idea what mh/s I could expect? Price?

 Avoid anything by Powercolor, and any other vendor should be fine (MSI, Gigabyte, Diamond, etc I've found, anecdotally).

 Should be able to hit 580MH/s without too much sweating, and upwards of 600MH/s if you start pushing it.

 A 7970, for comparison, will get you 675MH/s with basic overclocking, and upwards of 700MH/s if you start pushing it. Most 7970's are stable @ ~685MH/s near 1130-35Mhz GPU overclocking, at an additional cost of near $100 USD.

[zvs]

7950?  what?   they'll be worth $100 less in half a year

seriously, wtf are people smoking when they list 7950 and 7970's as 'cost effective', or does 'cost effective' mean something other than 'best gpu I can buy right now that I might actually be able to make a profit on before they become totally useless'?

[Xian01]

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on what the best value GPU today is for Bitcoin mining when taking into consideration electrical use, retail cost, hash rate, and time to ROI.

7950?  what?   they'll be worth $100 less in half a year

seriously, wtf are people smoking when they list 7950 and 7970's as 'cost effective', or does 'cost effective' mean something other than 'best gpu I can buy right now that I might actually be able to make a profit on before they become totally useless'?

[nookiegirl]

You can take a look at the file inside this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=208718.0
By it, the 7970 are most effective in terms of mh/s by used electricity

[nwoolls]

A Sapphire 7950 is $290 from Amazon, and in addition you get 3 games and a $20 rebate. You can OC that card to 1180 on air without upping the voltage. That's around 600 Mh/s for $270. Much better deal than most anything you can buy easily right now, including FPGA and ASIC. And you can resell it when you're done with it.

[pandemic]

Seems the 5830 is still pretty good. I got mine for $99 a piece 2 years ago and they get about 300mh/s each. I just wish I had a bigger case and more pcie slots or I'd get 2 more.

[northcape]

7950, be sure to get the game bundle coupon and sell the games.