Altcoinz aren't actually considered a part of this communabout This is a Bitcoin forum.
That's alright, I'm not interested ultimately in altcoins, just mining them for now and keeping a close eye on bitcoin value. That's the goal here.
Do you know the hashing power of your 6950? What does that yield over time [either day/week/month]? I too, am a newbie. I have been spending the last couple of night reading over some of the material found both on this website, as well as other locations across the web.
Ultimately, i would like to get involved with Mining, but only if it makes sense. I wouldnt mind investing a couple thousand dollars into a dedicated mining rig, however at this point i just don't know enough about the technology. Thanks for sharing!
Keep in mind that I am fairly new to this also, and more knowledgeable people could probably answer better. My unlocked sapphire 6950 averages about 480khps with a simple setting of - - shaders 1536 -I 18 on cgminer 3.7.2. Mining is more of an investment in the future value of the coins than it is a short term gain. If anything, you will pay significantly higher power bills while you hope that the value of the coin rises. That being said, the yield from my card is absolutely worth the power costs if you mine for doge/ltc, as the value of those two are projected upward by a large amount, and the difficulty mining them is still relatively low compared to bitcoin.
EDIT: Here's a link to common hardware configurations for cgminer, and the expected yield of each card. Use this as a guide for buying a video card for mining if you'd like.
https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparisonKeep in mind that there are better options for dedicated mining rigs. I've done very little research outside of at I video cards, but there are dedicated cards built for the sole purpose of mining. If they are better/more cost effective than the video cards, I do not know.