Comparing three 5870 cards

[Lardie]

Hi people

I'm new to Bitcoin and video cards so please go easy on me if this question is silly.

I'm looking to buy an ATI 5870 and found that Newegg had 3 for  $200 after rebate. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=ATI+5870

I was wondering if there were any important differences between them, or between XFX and Gigabyte. More specifically my questions are:

Is there an advantage to the cards with two fans over the card with one? Does the extra fan make them run cooler?
Secondly, two of the cards have 850mhz core clocks and one has a core clock that runs at 870mhz. Will the 870mhz card mine quicker, or can it be overclocked more?

Cheers!

[1715328655]

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[1715328655]

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[qed]

The XFX 5870 doesnt have voltage control due to XFX being cheap and removing components form the VRM.

EDIT: If you are planning to buy hardware now for mining you most likely didnt understand how bitcoins work.

[williamthec]

The XFX 5870 doesnt have voltage control due to XFX being cheap and removing components form the VRM.

EDIT: If you are planning to buy hardware now for mining you most likely didnt understand how bitcoins work.

So now what's the correct plan in line with how bitcoins work? I'm new here and don't know it either.

[Ownski]

Go for the MSI cards, they have dual cooling fans which helps to keep your card cool when its gonna be on 24/7. MSI has good warranty too.

[Littleshop]

The XFX 5870 doesnt have voltage control due to XFX being cheap and removing components form the VRM.

EDIT: If you are planning to buy hardware now for mining you most likely didnt understand how bitcoins work.

So now what's the correct plan in line with how bitcoins work? I'm new here and don't know it either.

The return on mining is going down 40% in a few days, and will continue to go down.  If you are buying that card solely for mining it will take longer to pay off.  It will still probably pay off but it could take a while. 

[Lardie]

Go for the MSI cards, they have dual cooling fans which helps to keep your card cool when its gonna be on 24/7. MSI has good warranty too.

I assume you mean Gigabyte. Thanks for the advice.

The XFX 5870 doesnt have voltage control due to XFX being cheap and removing components form the VRM.

EDIT: If you are planning to buy hardware now for mining you most likely didnt understand how bitcoins work.

Reading the reviews, it seems the Gigabyte cards don't have voltage control either, and I'm buying the card primarily for gaming.

[williamthec]

The XFX 5870 doesnt have voltage control due to XFX being cheap and removing components form the VRM.

EDIT: If you are planning to buy hardware now for mining you most likely didnt understand how bitcoins work.

So now what's the correct plan in line with how bitcoins work? I'm new here and don't know it either.

The return on mining is going down 40% in a few days, and will continue to go down.  If you are buying that card solely for mining it will take longer to pay off.  It will still probably pay off but it could take a while. 

Ok~

[Beremat]

I recently purchased the XFX card myself. I'm pretty happy with it, though a bit disappointed that you can't control the voltage using software.

I have overclocked it from 875mhz or so up to 990Mhz. I was able to get it up to 1020mhz and it was stable when looking at the dekstop, however it made poclbm crash. At 990 it is rock stable and 100% working. I have also downclocked the memory to 275mhz in order to make it run cooler, quieter, and save on energy.

I really wish I could increase the voltage, I'd be able to drive it to 1050mhz at the very least. At my current settings, with the command line options -v -w128, I get around ~360mhash with this card alone.

[Sawzall]

If you're gaming, you may consider using water cooling, which would make the stock air cooling irrelevant. Water should allow you to overclock more by keeping the card cool if you increase the voltage.

[qed]

If you're gaming, you may consider using water cooling, which would make the stock air cooling irrelevant. Water should allow you to overclock more by keeping the card cool if you increase the voltage.

He is not going to buy an high end card. He can't even overvoltage the card, so watercooling is pretty much pointless. Needless to say how expensive watercooling is and a video card waterblock is about 60$. With the money you can buy a PowerColor HD 6950 PCS++ 2 GB with unlocked shaders, working at 880GHz and with a dual fan cooling system.

[Lardie]

Thanks for all the comments. One final question before I buy; are there any difference between a card that has OpenGL 3.1 to one that has OpenGL 3.2 as far as mining is concerned?

[yunk3r]

Thanks for all the comments. One final question before I buy; are there any difference between a card that has OpenGL 3.1 to one that has OpenGL 3.2 as far as mining is concerned?

it shouldn't that would only matter if you were rendering video using opengl, but i could be wrong.

[Jim Hyslop]

The return on mining is going down 40% in a few days, and will continue to go down.

Why do you say that? What happens (happened?) in a few days?

[nster]

ARE YOU GUYS STUPID??? DOES ANYONE LOOK AT WARRANTIES?

XFX has DOUBLE LIFETIME WARRANTY! This means not only do you get a lifetime warranty, if yopu sell it, you can transfer it to the buyer. Your card is worth much more because of this. Also, 5870s do not get very hot, and the way those Gigabyte's are designed, all the heat goes RIGHT in your case instead of exhausting in the back of the card...

Seriously if you guys know nothing about this kind of stuff, don't comment

And Watercooling isn't only for gamers, and GPU watercooling is rarer than CPU WCing. Also, do you guys not get that the 5XXX and 68XXX and lower ATI cards are super cool? Compared it to a GTX 480 at full load and you'll understand quickly.

[Garrett Burgwardt]

ARE YOU GUYS STUPID??? DOES ANYONE LOOK AT WARRANTIES?

XFX has DOUBLE LIFETIME WARRANTY! This means not only do you get a lifetime warranty, if yopu sell it, you can transfer it to the buyer. Your card is worth much more because of this. Also, 5870s do not get very hot, and the way those Gigabyte's are designed, all the heat goes RIGHT in your case instead of exhausting in the back of the card...

Seriously if you guys know nothing about this kind of stuff, don't comment

And Watercooling isn't only for gamers, and GPU watercooling is rarer than CPU WCing. Also, do you guys not get that the 5XXX and 68XXX and lower ATI cards are super cool? Compared it to a GTX 480 at full load and you'll understand quickly.

Insulting people and using caps lock is ridiculous and makes you look like a child. Don't do that.

You have to register the card with XFX or it gets only a few months of warranty, I was burned that way before. Completely ridiculous.

Add on to that, that XFX makes shitty third party PCBs with mediocre coolers, I don't recommend getting them.

And if you get reference cards, then the cooler is phenomenal. Go AMD.

[nster]

ARE YOU GUYS STUPID??? DOES ANYONE LOOK AT WARRANTIES?

XFX has DOUBLE LIFETIME WARRANTY! This means not only do you get a lifetime warranty, if yopu sell it, you can transfer it to the buyer. Your card is worth much more because of this. Also, 5870s do not get very hot, and the way those Gigabyte's are designed, all the heat goes RIGHT in your case instead of exhausting in the back of the card...

Seriously if you guys know nothing about this kind of stuff, don't comment

And Watercooling isn't only for gamers, and GPU watercooling is rarer than CPU WCing. Also, do you guys not get that the 5XXX and 68XXX and lower ATI cards are super cool? Compared it to a GTX 480 at full load and you'll understand quickly.

Insulting people and using caps lock is ridiculous and makes you look like a child. Don't do that.

You have to register the card with XFX or it gets only a few months of warranty, I was burned that way before. Completely ridiculous.

Add on to that, that XFX makes shitty third party PCBs with mediocre coolers, I don't recommend getting them.

And if you get reference cards, then the cooler is phenomenal. Go AMD.

I know I just got mad that out of all these posts noone even MENTIONNED the warranty.

Every lifetime warranty has to be registered, it is nothing knew, just do it and you get a very long warranty :p
Reference cards are all the same, no difference in PCBs or anything else. XFX's cards are good enough IMO, and you really can't beat double lifetime warranty, do you know how much difference this males to make a sell? XFX cards are still much better than Sparkle and Powercolor and most Gigabyte's (though that dual fan Gigabyte one isn't too shaby), plus if you are mining, there is a MUCH bigger chance for a card to fail after a few years because of extended use, so the warranty is even more important.

I usually pay an extra 20~30$ (~10%) to get XFX cards for their warranty, if you can get it at the same price as the cheapest card,IMO it is a definite buy

[Meni Rosenfeld]

The return on mining is going down 40% in a few days, and will continue to go down.

Why do you say that? What happens (happened?) in a few days?

The difficulty will be updated.
In a nutshell, the Bitcoin network tries to keep block generation at an average of 6 blocks per hour which is 2016 blocks per 14 days. If 2016 blocks were generated in less time than that the difficulty is increased proportionally.

Edit: I noticed in another of your posts that you already know all this, so your question was a bit odd.

[nster]

The return on mining is going down 40% in a few days, and will continue to go down.

Why do you say that? What happens (happened?) in a few days?

The difficulty will be updated.
In a nutshell, the Bitcoin network tries to keep block generation at an average of 6 blocks per hour which is 2016 blocks per 14 days. If 2016 blocks were generated in less time than that the difficulty is increased proportionally.

we are expecting a 35~40% increase VERY soon

[Jim Hyslop]

The difficulty will be updated.
...
Edit: I noticed in another of your posts that you already know all this, so your question was a bit odd.

Ah! I haven't been tracking the current block number, nor the current rate of generation, so I wasn't aware that we're coming up to the 2016 block mark.

<sigh>And I just started my mining operation. Well, maybe lightning will strike :-)