damn i wasted money on 6970

[ninjapug]

I Could have bought 5850 which is half the price of 6970 and they produce almost the same hash rate.
Damn

After conversion to USD from my country.

5850 = $140

6970 = $300

[Basiley]

consider it "investment", not mistake ok ? -)
6970 is about 1/4 faster, at least.
have improved rendering back-end, more memory onboard and [slightly]better cooler.
and not "EoL" product, so you can get [decent]support form vendor.
and hardly you can find both for such [peak]prices. more usual is about 10% bigger prices for each.

[gwillen]

Well, that's only true if you can actually get a 5850 at US$140. Right now newegg is claiming to sell them for US$185, but the real problem is they are all sold out - you can't get them anymore!

I love my 5850, but now that they are too hard to find, if I got another card it would be a 6970, or 6870, or 6950, or 5770.

[Vanquistador]

Well, that's only true if you can actually get a 5850 at US$140. Right now newegg is claiming to sell them for US$185, but the real problem is they are all sold out - you can't get them anymore!

I love my 5850, but now that they are too hard to find, if I got another card it would be a 6970, or 6870, or 6950, or 5770.

That's what I went out and did.  I purchased two 6950s since it appeared all 58XX series were out of stock.  I can use them or re-sell them for more at a later time.


(I'm curious what will happen if the bitcoin market completely crashes and the real life market of video cards gets swarmed with cheap/used 5XXX series video cards....)

[ninjapug]

Thank you guys for making me feel better

[Nescio]

If you're going for a 6970 and sleep in the same room, check out the Asus EAH6970 DCII/2DIS4S, it takes 3 slots instead of 2 but it's much quieter than the 2 slot reference design with radial fan.

[Nescio]

Hm, got booted trying to edit that:

There is also a bounty open for a shader that works with the Linux open source driver for the 5xxx and 6xxxx range of cards, that's what I'm waiting for.

[Vanquistador]

Hm, got booted trying to edit that:

There is also a bounty open for a shader that works with the Linux open source driver for the 5xxx and 6xxxx range of cards, that's what I'm waiting for.

I'm looking for the same thing, but to also include the 4xxx series.  (I have three 4870x2s just laying around my apartment)

[Nescio]

Hm, got booted trying to edit that:

There is also a bounty open for a shader that works with the Linux open source driver for the 5xxx and 6xxxx range of cards, that's what I'm waiting for.

I'm looking for the same thing, but to also include the 4xxx series.  (I have three 4870x2s just laying around my apartment)

I have a 4870 and haven't tried yet but it might already work if the bounty is for the 5/6 series. I just can't use the noise and heat right now with summer for a third to quarter of the performance Especially since my rig is in the bedroom, don't want to end up like that guy with the heat stroke

If not then the bounty might include the 4xxx, not sure.

[joec0p]

So is the stock cooler on the high end AMD cards up to the task of GPU mining? or will the cards burn out faster from being insufficiently cooled?

Still, I am quite curious.

[dinker]

if you do any gaming at all 6970 should do better performance, and offer better resale value,
but i doubt you can get any 5850 at $150 nowdays anyways.

[Waltibaba]

So is the stock cooler on the high end AMD cards up to the task of GPU mining? or will the cards burn out faster from being insufficiently cooled?

Still, I am quite curious.

My unlocked 6950 keeps up perfectly. ATM in a (temporary) bad case, noise is audible but not terrible, OC to 920/1250 and fan at 68%. Temps are at a constant 62C. Usually I do 950Mhz core, but my mobo fried (not due to mining), throwing out a nice 405 MH/s. I try to keep my temps below 75C all the time, and its possible. However, at night I have to underclock, its just too loud or gets too hot.

Mining at 950 core with fan at 100% leaves temps at 57C. So in short, yes the stock (reference) coolers are up to the task by far.

[anu]

If you're going for a 6970 and sleep in the same room, check out the Asus EAH6970 DCII/2DIS4S, it takes 3 slots instead of 2 but it's much quieter than the 2 slot reference design with radial fan.

That's fine if you use only one card. If you use 2, the fans of the one are choked by the other because the distance is only a few mm.

[khamark]

what a bad luck...you could have boght 2 5850 for that price...i have one and it rocks

[demoncrest]

what a bad luck...you could have boght 2 5850 for that price...i have one and it rocks

Yeah but you have to realize what you've dedicated yourself to as well.

By buying 5850's sure you save yourself the money, however you have a lot more liability... if the whole bitcoin market crashes and is wiped out, or people want to jump ship, the market will be flooded with 5xxx series cards as said previously, and that means they will even further decrease in value since everyone will be undercutting eachother as well.

Secondly, you are sacrificing a good option to also game with the setup. The 5xxx series have a lot of crossfire issues with playing some modern games, and especially any older games.

Finally, you leave yourself without the ability to re-sell them for much in the next year even, because in Fall the 7xxx series are going to be out and if you think about it in current times, no one right now wants to buy 4xxx series do they?

You've completely dedicated yourself towards a dedicated rig, with hopes that the market will support you, and you have no re-sale value.



As you can tell I am a much bigger supporter of buying 6970's as I have done so myself.  (Technically 6950's unlocked into 6970's)

[pompquick]

what a bad luck...you could have boght 2 5850 for that price...i have one and it rocks

Yeah but you have to realize what you've dedicated yourself to as well.

By buying 5850's sure you save yourself the money, however you have a lot more liability... if the whole bitcoin market crashes and is wiped out, or people want to jump ship, the market will be flooded with 5xxx series cards as said previously, and that means they will even further decrease in value since everyone will be undercutting eachother as well.

Secondly, you are sacrificing a good option to also game with the setup. The 5xxx series have a lot of crossfire issues with playing some modern games, and especially any older games.

Finally, you leave yourself without the ability to re-sell them for much in the next year even, because in Fall the 7xxx series are going to be out and if you think about it in current times, no one right now wants to buy 4xxx series do they?

You've completely dedicated yourself towards a dedicated rig, with hopes that the market will support you, and you have no re-sale value.



As you can tell I am a much bigger supporter of buying 6970's as I have done so myself.  (Technically 6950's unlocked into 6970's)

You may have just sold me on a 6970...I'm due for a hardware upgrade anyway.