ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB vs 2 GB

[NeonFlash]

Hi All,

I am investing in a new GPU and have decided to go for the ATI Radeon HD 5870 GPU considering it's high hashes/sec rate. However, this card comes in two flavors. 1 GB and 2 GB Graphics Memory (GDDR5). There's a significant price difference between the two of them which made me wonder the advantages offered by 2 GB graphics memory over 1 GB.

I came across this benchmark which attempts to cover this well however from a gaming perspective and all the benchmarks are with respect to FPS.

http://benchmarkextreme.com/Articles/Radeon%205870%202GB/P12.html

It concludes that at high image settings, an extra 1 GB of frame buffer provides a lot of advantages.

My question is, from a Mining Rig perspective, what matters the most is the Core Clock Frequency and the Stream Processors. The frame buffer shouldn't be playing much of a role to determine the speed of hashing.

I would like to know, if it's ok to go ahead with ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB GPU instead of 2 GB one.

Thanks.

[Revalin]

Memory doesn't matter at all for mining.  The entire program runs in cache.  Clock rate, number of stream processors / cores, and adequate cooling are what you should look for.  Basically all 5870s will be the same except for minor clock rate differences.

[NeonFlash]

Thanks for confirming that. I shall go ahead and purchase it then. Also, I see that 5870 gives a better speed than 6970 for the same reasons mentioned above. More stream processors and no fancy features to get a higher fps for gaming.

On a side note, I completely agree with your signature:

Bitcoins is the Devil's way of teaching geeks economics 

I was never interested in economics much but with the advent of Bitcoin I have learned several facts which I never paid attention to before.

[Revalin]

That's why I'm still here even though I have serious doubts about Bitcoin's future as a currency.  It's still a great and immensely educational project.