Best 7950 card right now??

[bobbobobbo]

Everyone seems to have their best pick of cards, it's rough shuffling through all the search results.. I currently have 3 SAPPHIRE 100352-4L and looking to build a second rig.. I'd like to choose the best card for maximum hashes.

These seem to be the top 4 choices.

https://i.imgur.com/5wvmYCc.png

(this will be for litecoin mining)

[dogie]

Depends on your cooling setup. If you're going open air, get the double fan cards as they circulate better at the expense of exhausting the heat. If going case and noise isn't an issue, exhausting cards.

[bobbobobbo]

Depends on your cooling setup. If you're going open air, get the double fan cards as they circulate better at the expense of exhausting the heat. If going case and noise isn't an issue, exhausting cards.

Ah that's very good advice. So the other 2 (gigabyte and xfx) push the air everywhere mostly?
Where as the powercolor and sapphire force it out the rear?

I'm currently open air, but would like to fit this next batch into a case... "exhausting" cards sound much better to me.

[Rawted]

Nothing beats the sapphire 4Ls. Amazing cards.

[pekv2]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186651.msg1934011#msg1934011

[WuNinjaTmp]

Nothing beats the sapphire 4Ls. Amazing cards.

+1

[bobbobobbo]

Thank you for the responses, very helpful!

[bcpokey]

I've had 2 sapphire 4Ls and they've both been crap. Run hot as hell, noisy (lil quieter in a case but still noisy) and unless you run it by itself, you better have good case airflow to assist the blower. Not to mention both cards thus far began IMMEDIATELY artifacting my desktop while mining as the display card.

Maybe I'm just unlucky but that's been my experience. Double d has bad reviews, no personal experience.

[bitrocket]

Im running both the Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 and the Sapphire HD 7950. Out of the box the Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 outperforms the Sapphire and runs cooler.

Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 - 560 kh/s, 60-70 deg (no OC)
Sapphire HD 7950 - 485 kh/s, 70-80 deg (no OC)

using the same settings in cgminer for both cards (litecoin)

The Sapphire can run very cool (~55 deg) with the fan at 85%, but it sounds like a jet engine

The Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 runs silently around 65 deg with the 3 cooling fan design

[EngMan]

I agree with Bitrocket....better performance from the Gigabyte 7950s vs Sapphire 7950s.

[bobbobobbo]

Thank you all! Very good information.

Im running both the Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 and the Sapphire HD 7950. Out of the box the Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 outperforms the Sapphire and runs cooler.

Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 - 560 kh/s, 60-70 deg (no OC)
Sapphire HD 7950 - 485 kh/s, 70-80 deg (no OC)

using the same settings in cgminer for both cards (litecoin)

The Sapphire can run very cool (~55 deg) with the fan at 85%, but it sounds like a jet engine

The Gigbyte Radeon HD 7950 runs silently around 65 deg with the 3 cooling fan design

 I have the Sapphire currently, even at 65% the thing is loud.

Since this will be mounted in a case, is there a concern with the gigabyte not exhausting enough air..? Like the poster above mentioned. Seeing as some of the air is dispersed into the case, and not forced out the back.

Last question, have you attempted any overclocking? Do you mind posting your cgminer input for your sapphire?

[kcobra]

Nothing beats the sapphire 4Ls. Amazing cards.

+1

+2. Running 3 of them at 1ghz core at 1000mv vcore. They are loud like any reference design squirrel fan, but they run cool. Also, not voltage locked unlike the latest batches of the Gigabyte 3 fan card. XFX card is absolute crap. Belongs in a "Worst 7950 card right now" thread. I can not speak to the PowerColor.

[dogie]

Depends on your cooling setup. If you're going open air, get the double fan cards as they circulate better at the expense of exhausting the heat. If going case and noise isn't an issue, exhausting cards.

Ah that's very good advice. So the other 2 (gigabyte and xfx) push the air everywhere mostly?
Where as the powercolor and sapphire force it out the rear?

I'm currently open air, but would like to fit this next batch into a case... "exhausting" cards sound much better to me.

The open air blows will typically exhaust about 25% of the heat, and the single blowers 70%. It can make quite a difference if you're trying to mash 3 in a case.

[bobbobobbo]

Very good info everyone, thank you so much!

+2. Running 3 of them at 1ghz core at 1000mv vcore. They are loud like any reference design squirrel fan, but they run cool. Also, not voltage locked unlike the latest batches of the Gigabyte 3 fan card. XFX card is absolute crap. Belongs in a "Worst 7950 card right now" thread. I can not speak to the PowerColor.

I as well have 3 4Ls currently, yet I'm still having a bit of trouble getting them dialed in..
 I have powertune to +20 and clocks to 1000/1250. (cant tell if that's best...)

My CGMiner is the main thing giving me trouble.... anyone care to copy/paste an ideal input??

edit:: I found this thread quite helpful. will test tomorrow https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,620.0.html

[juve4v]

None of the listed models: they all crap -performance/cooling read more.

[Chiz]

So the 4L or the Gigabyte?

Which is the better choice? and Pros and Cons of each?

Someone said the Gigabyte with the 3 fans was voltage locked, is this true?
But then everyone else says the 4L runs way hotter than the Gigabyte and is a loud son of a bitch.... Consensus?

[kendog77]

I have 2 Sapphire 4Ls and 7 Gigabyte 7950s. In my opinion, the Gigabytes are much better cards.

The Gigabytes come factory overclocked at 1000/1250 and can do over 600k mining litecoin with no extra overclocking or overvolting.

The 4Ls run hotter, have extremely loud fans, and don't perform very well. I can only get the 4Ls up to 550k mining litecoin overclocked to 1000/1250 with overvolting, which puzzles me. I have no idea why these cards don't seem to perform as well as the Gigabytes at the same clock speed, but the Sappires do like to throttle back a lot.

Needless to say, I have 4 more Gigabyte 7950s on the way and won't be purchasing anymore Sapphire cards.

[bitcoiner49er]

So the 4L or the Gigabyte?

Which is the better choice? and Pros and Cons of each?

Someone said the Gigabyte with the 3 fans was voltage locked, is this true?
But then everyone else says the 4L runs way hotter than the Gigabyte and is a loud son of a bitch.... Consensus?

Sapphires are loud (duh, REF always are), but I get 575 Mh/s @ 1100/300 70-72 C with 65% fan on BFGminer. So I'm pleased with them currently. If noise is an issue, then go Gigabyte. Oh yeah, I'm 1.050 V too.

Sorry, I missed the Litecoin application.

[crazyates]

Newegg has the SAPPHIRE 100352-4L 7950 for $270 with 3 free games. Worth it?

[Chiz]

Newegg has the SAPPHIRE 100352-4L 7950 for $270 with 3 free games. Worth it?

Well all of those cards, on Newegg and on Amazon, all comes with those games.
But its 290 + tax .... the Mail-in Rebate is 20 dollars back, but those suck lol

But yeah that's why I keep asking which card is better overall (quiet, cooling, Khasing, overclocking) cause Im down to this one and the Gigabyte which is only like 10-15 dollars more, for a better card I am willing to pay more money. The guy who said eh has like 7 Gigabyte cards, I think you've won me over. Straight outta the box clocking really nets that great of a hash rate? I hope so cause you cant change the voltage I heard