Buying a Radeon 7950 Tonight....but which one

[Draxus]

Hey all,

I am buying a Radeon 7950 in 10 hours...I will just be using 1 card for mining to get my feet wet.

So the issue is a lot are sold out:

here is newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006662&IsNodeId=1&Description=7950&name=Video%20Cards%20%26%20Video%20Devices&Order=PRICE&Pagesize=20

here is tigerdirect: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=7950

So out of what is in stock, which should I buy?  Or does anyone have a different site they would buy from.

I wanted to get the gigabyte but that just sold out while I couldn't make up my mind :\ 

Trying not to go too far over $300 btw

[xenigma]

redacted

[Draxus]

Thanks for the fast reply.

I was about to buy this saphire....but just realized it does not have the boost :/
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7542562&CatId=7387

[Vigil]

You'll get much more for your money if you just buy coins. I made the mistake of jumping into mining.

[bitgolfer]

Thanks for the fast reply.

I was about to buy this saphire....but just realized it does not have the boost :/
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7542562&CatId=7387

I have this card, so far I can mine Bitcoin at 530mh/s with the card overclocked to 1000mhz. Others are able to mine at 550mh/s, with more tweaks and overclocking.

Like Vigil said, it may not be worthwhile at this point, as you could only get 0.03 bitcoin per day. If Bitcoin's price crash to below $50 then you will most likely lose money.

[Draxus]

Thanks for the fast reply.

I was about to buy this saphire....but just realized it does not have the boost :/
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7542562&CatId=7387

I have this card, so far I can mine Bitcoin at 530mh/s with the card overclocked to 1000mhz. Others are able to mine at 550mh/s, with more tweaks and overclocking.

Like Vigil said, it may not be worthwhile at this point, as you could only get 0.03 bitcoin per day. If Bitcoin's price crash to below $50 then you will most likely lose money.

Thanks bitgolfer and Vigil,

Yeah I think I am coming into this at a bad time... my only thing is my computer needs a new video card desperately...so even if I only get 0.03 coins per day I could still break even in about 3 months (as long as they don't mass release any ASIC's)

Hmmmm maybe I should just play it safe and get a 7850 for half the price.....gah sooo torn

[Kinetic915]

Ive got my sapphire mining at 600 easy.  Mine litecoins?

[Draxus]

Ive got my sapphire mining at 600 easy.  Mine litecoins?

I could do litecoins... if I bought that sapphire, is that more profitable then mining bitcoins?  I really just want to break even with my card and then I plan on choosing a currency to hold onto as a long term investment

[Draxus]

Just pulled the trigger on the sapphire while it is still in stock! w00t

[Kinetic915]

congrats it really depends on the market.... as I am new at this I am sure someone can give you better advice.  I am hoping to convert my ltc to btc as the exchange rate seems pretty good right now.  Trying to accumulate a bit to buy and sell on the market.

[buzzkillb]

I bought an XFX 7950 last week to match my current XFX 7950 and found out the hard way the new revisions are voltage locked.  I haven't read anything about the Sapphire's being voltage locked.

[Draxus]

congrats it really depends on the market.... as I am new at this I am sure someone can give you better advice.  I am hoping to convert my ltc to btc as the exchange rate seems pretty good right now.  Trying to accumulate a bit to buy and sell on the market.

Well since we own the same card  .... would you mind telling me what you are using for mining and any fancy code you are using in the programs ?

[Kinetic915]

the sapphire is voltage unlocked! woo lol thats strange xfx would lock their voltage :/  they seem to push the whole overclocking deal.  Well I am running reaper 3x 7950s at 1800 kh/s, check out https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki/Mining-hardware-comparison#wiki-ATI_AMD_GPUs if you havent seen it already.  I also use the python script on the guide page to close and open my reaper program as it drops to one card after about 2 hours of constant mining.  Let me know if i can help!

[Draxus]

the sapphire is voltage unlocked! woo lol thats strange xfx would lock their voltage :/  they seem to push the whole overclocking deal.  Well I am running reaper 3x 7950s at 1800 kh/s, check out https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki/Mining-hardware-comparison#wiki-ATI_AMD_GPUs if you havent seen it already.  I also use the python script on the guide page to close and open my reaper program as it drops to one card after about 2 hours of constant mining.  Let me know if i can help!

Awesome and thanks!  My card will be coming in Wednesday....so I will see how it goes 

[Vigil]

Thanks for the fast reply.

I was about to buy this saphire....but just realized it does not have the boost :/
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7542562&CatId=7387

I have this card, so far I can mine Bitcoin at 530mh/s with the card overclocked to 1000mhz. Others are able to mine at 550mh/s, with more tweaks and overclocking.

Like Vigil said, it may not be worthwhile at this point, as you could only get 0.03 bitcoin per day. If Bitcoin's price crash to below $50 then you will most likely lose money.

Thanks bitgolfer and Vigil,

Yeah I think I am coming into this at a bad time... my only thing is my computer needs a new video card desperately...so even if I only get 0.03 coins per day I could still break even in about 3 months (as long as they don't mass release any ASIC's)

Hmmmm maybe I should just play it safe and get a 7850 for half the price.....gah sooo torn

But that is at the current rate of difficulty. Whatever you calculate now is only going to be good for a few days, then the diff will increase and a few days later it will increase again. I bought my cards thinking I was going to bring in 200 LTC per month - I will be lucky to mine 100 LTC in 3 months as quickly as the diff is increasing. That is with 1200KH/s. The difficulty has jumped from about 230 to 320 in just the past couple weeks. This time last year I would have been doing great.

But I am running 2x7950s Sapphire - got them for $300 each. they are the Dual X - 100352-2L. They are pretty steady at 550 KH/s each. I have hit 600 Kh/s but it isn't consistent. GuiMiner default settings have worked better than anything for me.

[Wesly]

How hot does your Sapphire 7950 cards gets at 1000 Mhz?  And do you know how much power (watts) do your cards use?

I have this card, so far I can mine Bitcoin at 530mh/s with the card overclocked to 1000mhz. Others are able to mine at 550mh/s, with more tweaks and overclocking.

Like Vigil said, it may not be worthwhile at this point, as you could only get 0.03 bitcoin per day. If Bitcoin's price crash to below $50 then you will most likely lose money.

[TLB]

Congrats on the purchase. I'm thinking about getting a 7950 or 7970 as well but I'm not yet sure. Electricity here is relatively expensive, with the current market I am losing ~30% just for the electricity. I have a 6850 mining constantly now and I also have a 6950 which I want to have mining when I'm not using it for anything else. With both cards I am generating about 550 MH/s. Would love to have a 7950 running 24/7

[Kinetic915]

How hot does your Sapphire 7950 cards gets at 1000 Mhz?  And do you know how much power (watts) do your cards use?

I have this card, so far I can mine Bitcoin at 530mh/s with the card overclocked to 1000mhz. Others are able to mine at 550mh/s, with more tweaks and overclocking.

Like Vigil said, it may not be worthwhile at this point, as you could only get 0.03 bitcoin per day. If Bitcoin's price crash to below $50 then you will most likely lose money.

My 3 7950s run from 70 to 78 c. That's over clocked to 1025 and 1480. Trying to work out better airflow

[xenigma]

redacted

[Kinetic915]

7950 sapphires , used to average 1800 + then I reimaged my miner, now at 1750.... lol but overall pretty decent.