Recommend me a card $300 range

[cdog]

I was planning on buying a 5970 used for gaming and some BTC (and soon LTC) mining, but are there better options?

My budget isnt big, around $300, if I can keep it under that all the better.

5970 looks like I can get in the $250-280 range. Id say $330 would be absolute max shipped I would spend on a card.

Recommendations?

[bowen151]

You could try and find a refurbed 7970, that would be around your upper levels of the budget though.

[DrG]

Basically do you want to LTC mine for a year or BTC mine for a month.  BTC mining via GPU will be dead in a month.  If you're just going to go straight for LTC then get a 5970.

If you're gaming the 7970 is a no brainer compared to 5970.  5970 will be worth $50-$100 next year while a 7970 will still be at least $150.

[cdog]

OK thanks, seeing as though BTC GPU mining will be worthless soon, its mostly for LTC mining. Which has the edge in that department, the 5970 or the 7970? I think either will be overkill for gaming 

[DrG]

OK thanks, seeing as though BTC GPU mining will be worthless soon, its mostly for LTC mining. Which has the edge in that department, the 5970 or the 7970? I think either will be overkill for gaming 

5970 hashes more for LTC purposes.  7970 if you're looking at resale value and gaming ability.

[logicbomb666]

You can get a 7950 with 2 games for $270 after rebate shipped.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?SID=yWmc0IRREeKl3ubHJGciMA0_kK0T3_86M_0_0&AID=10440897&PID=1225267&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=14-202-006&cm_sp=

[davecoin]

I thought that said 7970 and about died.  Still a pretty good deal.

[crazyates]

I thought that said 7970 and about died.  Still a pretty good deal.

I love my 7970, but it was bought as a splurge (paid for with BTC, to game and mine BTC). It's not worth the extra $100 over the 7950, as the performance differences are only minimal.

[ny2cafuse]

The Gigabyte 7950 is pretty good.  I bought one to mine with, and it gets decent hash rates.  It's a 7.9 in windows performance index, and plays everything I throw at it at high-ultra settings, depending on resolution.  Best thing is that at 99% load and overclocked to 1100-1150 on the core, it rarely gets above 66 degrees with the fan at ~70%.  At idle it's 33 degrees.  Best thing about it is it is quiet as all hell.  At 70% fan it's what my crappy 8800gtx used to sound like at 50% load.

[milly6]

The Gigabyte 7950 is pretty good.  I bought one to mine with, and it gets decent hash rates.  It's a 7.9 in windows performance index, and plays everything I throw at it at high-ultra settings, depending on resolution.  Best thing is that at 99% load and overclocked to 1100-1150 on the core, it rarely gets above 66 degrees with the fan at ~70%.  At idle it's 33 degrees.  Best thing about it is it is quiet as all hell.  At 70% fan it's what my crappy 8800gtx used to sound like at 50% load.

define "decent hash rates" im thinking about buying one

[noncecents]

At the $300 price range you are probably not going to beat the efficiency curve and you will be losing money.

Also, if you are considering a 7970, make sure your CPU has enough PCIe lanes to support that level of device, or you will be wasting a gigantic GPU.

[ny2cafuse]

The Gigabyte 7950 is pretty good.  I bought one to mine with, and it gets decent hash rates.  It's a 7.9 in windows performance index, and plays everything I throw at it at high-ultra settings, depending on resolution.  Best thing is that at 99% load and overclocked to 1100-1150 on the core, it rarely gets above 66 degrees with the fan at ~70%.  At idle it's 33 degrees.  Best thing about it is it is quiet as all hell.  At 70% fan it's what my crappy 8800gtx used to sound like at 50% load.

define "decent hash rates" im thinking about buying one

Around 575-590MH/s @1120 w/ 70%fan at 66 degrees on 50btc.com.  I've seen it spike up to 610-620 on the charts at those settings, but I've never tinkered with getting to run consistently at those speeds.  I've recently moved over to Litecoin, where I'm getting about 540KH/s, but haven't been able to go higher because of the rest of the system bottleneck.  The card is the newest thing in my rig for the last 4-5 years, so a complete CPU/MB/Ram upgrade might get me a little higher.

I love the card, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking at that price point.

[ryantc]

go for a 7950, with the current AMD promo, you can get your game download coupon, and you can sell that on ebay.

[Henchman24]

I'd definitely recommend the MSI R7950.  I have 2 of these and 2 of the gigabyte 7950s.  the MSIs blow the Gigabytes away.  

625MH/s stable at 1175 core

I'm lucky to keep the gigabytes running steady at 1110 doing 580MH/s

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667&Tpk=msi%207950

Edit: Be forewarned though - the MSI's have fans that run at much higher RPMs and are quite a bit louder.  On the cosmetic side, the MSIs have a nice brushed aluminum shell vs plastic on the gigabyte.  Finally, the MSIs run on two 6pin connectors vs 6pin+8pin for gigabyte.

[zif33rs]

I would recommend a 7950..easy 550 MH\s+ for $275ish. My Powercolor AX7950 runs at 1175mhz at 1.275v at 82c underload. I have had it running upwards of 1230mhz at 1.3v   

How are you guys getting 600MH\s+ on your 7950's. What miner? I am using GUIminer...wondering if there are any flags...


zif

[scifimike12]

How are you guys getting 600MH\s+ on your 7950's. What miner? I am using GUIminer...wondering if there are any flags...

CGMiner → diablo kernel

worksize: 256
vectors: 1
intensity: 7

I've been mining on 7xxx cards ever since they came out early last year.  This is by far the best combination I've found that yields the greatest MH/s with little to no stales.

[crazyates]

How are you guys getting 600MH\s+ on your 7950's. What miner? I am using GUIminer...wondering if there are any flags...

CGMiner → diablo kernel

worksize: 256
vectors: 1
intensity: 7

I've been mining on 7xxx cards ever since they came out early last year.  This is by far the best combination I've found that yields the greatest MH/s with little to no stales.

On my 7970, I've found the CGMiner defaults of -v 1 -w 64 -I 7 to be the best. You really have better luck with -w 256 ?

[scifimike12]

On my 7970, I've found the CGMiner defaults of -v 1 -w 64 -I 7 to be the best. You really have better luck with -w 256 ?

So far.  I may give -w 64 another try.