Yet Another Video Card Comparison...

[gigica viteazu`]

5830 "tweaked" at 318 Mhash/s? How, exactly? water cooling + 50% overclock?

on air with AC on the server room

[film2240]

***EDIT*** Revised chart to include "Stock"  vs "Tweaked" results and show the possible gains to be had.



Notes:

- The MHash performance and wattages are an average of the values from the Wiki site.  There were a few cards that I pulled wattage information from other sources due to not being listed on the Wiki.  So don't be too surprised if your card does not perform as well as these averages at stock speeds.

- I did not list cards that were no longer/not currently available with two exceptions: the 5830 and the 6990.  Nobody has the 5830 available for a "reasonable price," and nobody has the 6990 available.  I didn't include eBay for these availability considerations (although you can get used 5830's there for about what I listed it for), or the large number of Google/Pricewatch shopping vendors that I consider to have questionable reputability.  YMMV.

- I pulled the majority of prices from Newegg and Tiger Direct.  I did not include prices for tax, shipping, or rebates.

- The 5770 still has the best overall performance for a combination of power consumption and price.  Newegg has a 5770 for $89.99 after rebate, making it an even better deal.  Get 'em while they're still available... the rebate is only good till 6/30, and unlike most rebates, it's good for two cards per household.  The 6870 makes a solid second place choice, but I'd probably recommend spending extra on the 6950 if you're going multi GPU and looking to maximize your performance vs space.  Of course the 6970's and 5870's are still kicking around for the brute-force-money-is-no-object fellows... ^_^

***POST REVISION***

- I've taken the averages of the lowest two scores to use as the "Stock" performance numbers.  This can account for some variance between cards that come tweaked from the manufacturer as well as different settings/mining apps.

- I've taken the averages of the highest two scores to use as the "Tweaked" performance numbers, to be used as theoretical gains.

- With these revisions, the 6950 is painted in an even more favorable light when you factor in the possibility of unlocking dormant shaders and overclocking.  The 6970 also rises to the occasion with great performance vs power consumption if you don't mind the higher entry cost.  Older cards like the 5830/5870 offer great performance/watt but are unfortunately held back by pricing and availability of these discontinued parts.  Buying second hand is a mixed bag, as people generally want more than the cards are worth (eg, people asking for $200+ for 5830's).


Thoughts?

Glad to know that my HD4670 GPU can do much better than wot I'm getting which is 34MHash/s even when OC'd to the max in Catalyst which is disappointing.I do wonder if there's ny point in mining though now,cus the difficulty has risen so much that it would remain unviable for me to run my MBP mid 2010 notebook with my PC as well combined ina  pool even.

Why does difficulty rise so much every few days?is this by design?or is something wrong with my systems? To make matters worse 4 me is I'm having no luck finding HD 6950 GPUs that are unlockable still on the shelves in Uk now as cus I'm left with VTX3D GPUs as known to be unlockable but they brick rather easily as I've found out,can't remember the source tho.So it's either stop mining for me completely or take a gamble and buy locked HD 6950.I need advice on wot to do,cus I found these 2 cards:
1.http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/837172.79/art/sapphire-technology/radeon-hd-6950-2-gb-gddr5.html
2.http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/8766002/art/pixmania/radeon-hd-6950-2-gb-gddr5.html#

Are these unlockable and do u know wot BIOS file i can use for that 2nd card?As it isn't branded like sapphire or XFX cards?


I plan to order 1 very soon but I rly need the advice b4 doing so.
Thanks

[Mousepotato]

5830 "tweaked" at 318 Mhash/s? How, exactly? water cooling + 50% overclock?

I don't understand how people are having problems hitting this with their 5830s.  I simply opened the box on mine, set the core/memory clocks in AMD GPU Clock Tool, set fan speed in MSI Afterburner, then started my miner with some parameters found in the HW wiki and it immediately hit 316 MH/s. Did I just get lucky?

[BkkCoins]

Excellent chart. Thanks for that.

I'd like to pick up a couple 5770.
Do I need to look for reference design or unlockable specs?
Will any mfr. do fine? I've seen Asus, Saphire, HIS, XFX. All good?
Thanks!

[fcmatt]

5830 "tweaked" at 318 Mhash/s? How, exactly? water cooling + 50% overclock?

I don't understand how people are having problems hitting this with their 5830s.  I simply opened the box on mine, set the core/memory clocks in AMD GPU Clock Tool, set fan speed in MSI Afterburner, then started my miner with some parameters found in the HW wiki and it immediately hit 316 MH/s. Did I just get lucky?

getting 316 is very good. you got a card that is very stable at such a clock speed.
a more reasonable speed for almost every 5830 would be ~300 mh/s at a clock speed of 980.
so it seems you are pushing yours a tad faster then the majority and if the thing runs without
crashing in a few minutes/hours more power to you.

also your choice of mining software plays a role. phatk is the way to go versus others.

[SlipperySlope]

Excellent chart. Thanks for that.

I'd like to pick up a couple 5770.
Do I need to look for reference design or unlockable specs?
Will any mfr. do fine? I've seen Asus, Saphire, HIS, XFX. All good?
Thanks!

I found that Sapphire 5770 GPUs have better fans and heatpipes that keep the temperature about 10 C cooler than alternatives.

[BkkCoins]

I found that Sapphire 5770 GPUs have better fans and heatpipes that keep the temperature about 10 C cooler than alternatives.

Thank You.

I'll look for those ones then. Just needed some way to differentiate. You didn't need to select special versions like reference ones or anything? I would just order them online so whatever comes is what I get. I guess that's what most buyers do anyway.

[film2240]

I found that Sapphire 5770 GPUs have better fans and heatpipes that keep the temperature about 10 C cooler than alternatives.

Thank You.

I'll look for those ones then. Just needed some way to differentiate. You didn't need to select special versions like reference ones or anything? I would just order them online so whatever comes is what I get. I guess that's what most buyers do anyway.

A way to look for reference cards is to look for the AMD logo neat the PCI-E connector (the bit that goes into your mobo) I hear.I hope this helps.

I'm buying the last easy to get stock of Radeon Hd 96950s with reference board as pictured.I hope this is still reference,in UK.The easy to get stock is £178.50 for that gpu from pixmania,so if ny1 still wants what looks like an unlockable card,please go for it b4 they restock with permanently 'locked' cards,if u r looking for a radeon HD 6950 card that is.

Does this look like an unlockable card to u guys?http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/8766002/art/pixmania/radeon-hd-6950-2-gb-gddr5.html

Plz advise me on this.

After that stock is gone,you'll have to pay at least £220 or more to get that same card on reference in the pic.

[malevolent]

HD 5850 is missing on the list.

[BkkCoins]

A way to look for reference cards is to look for the AMD logo neat the PCI-E connector (the bit that goes into your mobo) I hear.I hope this helps.

Not much chance of doing that online. Call sales dept... ya, can you check if it has a AMD logo next to the... oh what, can't open the package? Because the warehouse is in Kentucky and you're in Bangalore?

[hoki]

is the 6990 from the table single core?

[BkkCoins]

is the 6990 from the table single core?

A 6990 has 2 GPUs.

[hoki]

A 6990 has 2 GPUs.

How come it's only ~820 mhash/s then? According to this table it's at least 1,436 mhash/s - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

[BkkCoins]

A 6990 has 2 GPUs.

How come it's only ~820 mhash/s then? According to this table it's at least 1,436 mhash/s - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

That table has both 6990 and 6990x2, meaning a system with 2 6990 cards in it.

[crazybernie]

HD 5850 is missing on the list.

I didn't include it due to lack of availability and reliable pricing.  The few vendors that do have it are price gouging... or you can try your luck on ebay.

[hoki]

That table has both 6990 and 6990x2, meaning a system with 2 6990 cards in it.

Yeah, but a 6990x2 card doesn't cost $1440, so I think the mhs/$$$ calculation is misleading.

[crazybernie]

A 6990x2 is two SEPERATE video cards... it denotes someone using two 6990 video cards in Crossfire mode.  Just like a 6990x3 denotes someone using 3 6990 cards in Crossfire mode.

So @ $722 per card your total would in fact be $1444, not misleading in any way.  Keep in mind that the MH/s are averages based on user input, so YMMV.

[hoki]

A 6990x2 is two SEPERATE video cards... it denotes someone using two 6990 video cards in Crossfire mode.  Just like a 6990x3 denotes someone using 3 6990 cards in Crossfire mode.

So @ $722 per card your total would in fact be $1444, not misleading in any way.  Keep in mind that the MH/s are averages based on user input, so YMMV.

Thanks for the clarification!

[malevolent]

Yeah, I know, it took me some time to find them at a reasonable price in Europe. Found them in pixmania for 120€. I should have them this week.

[BkkCoins]

I think 5770s are the best value now on their own. To get a true valuation you would have to take into account how many cards per system as well. And add the system cost in that number of cards.

Higher speed cards gain back some of their higher cost with less system cost per same total GH/s.

That is, two systems total 4 x 5770 would be about 800 GH/s.
But with 6990s you can do that in one system. So you save the cost of a second system.