5830 difference between different manufacturers

[foreshadow]

Whats the difference between all the 5830 manufacturers (besides the price)?
Which ones are better miners?

• SAPPHIRE 100297L Radeon HD 5830 w/ ATI Eyefinity Technology
• Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 XTREME
• PowerColor ATI Radeon HD5830 PCS+
• GIGABYTE HD5830
• Asus Radeon EAH5830
• XFX ATI Radeon HD 5830
• Radeon HD5830 from Sharp?

[billiophile]

The Sapphire (5850 Extreme) has stock speed but you can overclock it via its Trixx software (bump up the voltage, etc.). If you can find one cheap, buy it before it disappears (excellent bang for buck). This will be faster than the 5830 cards listed.

Asus normally has voltage tweak software but not sure about the 5830.

XFX has several flavours, some with different coolers.

Powercolor comes pre-overclocked with custom cooling.

For this range of cards, it's down to how much you're willing to pay. If it's just for light mining, 1 x 5830 will do nicely. If your motherboard / power supply support crossfire, go for 2. This means you can get better hashrate and be able to play the current games.



William

[foreshadow]

Thanks.

I'm figuring what to get as a new computer for my gaming and mining. I'm still on a few old games and not looking for anything particular to run at max settings. Maybe Guild Wars 2 when it will come out.

Do AMD processors run better with ATI/AMD graphic cards versus intel i7?

Is hashing more of a fix bit or floating bit calculations?

[grue]

lol, "pre-overclocked". Why don't you get msi afterburner, and save yourself $30. oh, and hashing is int only, that's why ATI cards are so good.

[techwtf]

just get the ones you thought with the greatest heatpipe / fan / heatsink.

[chihlidog]

Do AMD processors run better with ATI/AMD graphic cards versus intel i7?

Nope. But they run just as well and are cheaper. If youre only using it for mining, light gaming, there is absolutely no reason to buy an intel over an AMD. Or even a higher end AMD. A nicely overclockable 955 can be had for around $130, there's no reason to get more than that for your stated uses.

[BitCoinsForGold]

When i was buying some cards i actually asked my computer guy this same question. He said the difference is that ATI for example, releases a model for a card, in this case the 5830

And then, they make specific specs for it.

Then, specific manufacturers take that model and create it.
The cheaper the card, the more likely they are following the model exactly as ATI released it

Some manufacturers go and make little changes, often using better quality parts or metals, and each have thier own way they are creating the model "in their image"

So thats the difference between the models.

As far as specific differences you can probably see that on the box or description of the card itself

[billiophile]

Unless you overclock the card, there's little difference between the brands / models. Some may have better custom coolers, whilst others provide you with voltage tweaking software.

XFX tends to be cheap but no fancy extras. The Sapphire Extreme range is good if you can still find them in stock.

All depends on how much you have to spend. If it's £100 or less, a 5830 is a no brainer. If it's around £150, you can grab a 6870 for £130. Having looked at the latest ATI driver (11.6), it looks like performance tweaks are now focussing on the 6xxx series. I went with 2 x 5830 for £144, ticking both mining and gaming boxes.



William

[deslok]

The largest difference between manufactures is going to be their cooler and the warentee included pick one with good reviews and a longer warentee as you're going to be running it 24/7 as a miner you'll approach a failure sooner than someone who only plays games on it for 6 hours a day(~4 times sooner)