a comparaison guide to mining

[rouhaud]

go to see this article is really interrested

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Bitcoin-Currency-and-GPU-Mining-Performance-Comparison

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[P4man]

Not very interesting, they completely ignore arguably the most important factor: power consumption (and therefore, cost).
They also omit some of the better mining cards, like the 5850 and 5870 and some of the better cards still available new (69x0).

[DeathAndTaxes]

They include performance per watt.

http://www.pcper.com/files/review/2011-07-11/perfperwatt.jpg

however they look at total system wattage not card wattage and that is a mistake because most miners are going to use 2,3,4 cards and thus gain higher performance per watt than what they describe.

Also the price points are very dated now so the conclusions aren't accurate.

For example I buy nothing buy 5970s from ebay.  At $300 to $340ish a card they anihilate everything else in terms of performance per $.  Even at full retail $500 they beat any 6xxx card.

Still interesting writeup but new miners need to do their own research as the pricing is incorrect and wattage is misleading.

[P4man]

They include performance per watt.

http://www.pcper.com/files/review/2011-07-11/perfperwatt.jpg

I guess I skipped the conclusion since they ignored the most important issue until there, so I didnt care for their conclusion .

For example I buy nothing buy 5970s from ebay.  At $300 to $340ish a card they anihilate everything else in terms of performance per $. 

You keep saying that, but a 5970 is just 2 underclocked 5870s, with arguably less overclocking headroom.  At least here, you can buy 5870s for (considerably) less than half the price of a 5970. Then there is also the fact if a 5970 dies, you will probably lose the equivalent of 2 5870 cards.

[DeathAndTaxes]

They include performance per watt.

http://www.pcper.com/files/review/2011-07-11/perfperwatt.jpg

I guess I skipped the conclusion since they ignored the most important issue until there, so I didnt care for their conclusion .

For example I buy nothing buy 5970s from ebay.  At $300 to $340ish a card they anihilate everything else in terms of performance per $. 

You keep saying that, but a 5970 is just 2 underclocked 5870s, with arguably less overclocking headroom.  At least here, you can buy 5870s for (considerably) less than half the price of a 5970. Then there is also the fact if a 5970 dies, you will probably lose the equivalent of 2 5870 cards.

I can get a 5970 for $500 new (periodically $400 on sale) and $300 to $340 used (w/ guarantee from ebay).  I haven't seen a 5870 for <$150.  Obviously supplies around the world vary but for US market nothing(I mean nothing) even comes close to 5970.

Higher performancer per $.
The dual GPU setup means I can rack up 6 (or even GPUs without need for extenders. 
Hash for Hash 5970 has superior performance/watt than a 5870 due to less duplicated components.   Wattage is about 15% less at same hashrate.

[P4man]

The dual GPU setup means I can rack up 6 (or even GPUs without need for extenders. 
Hash for Hash 5970 has superior performance/watt than a 5870 due to less duplicated components.   Wattage is about 15% less at same hashrate.

Thats because by default its clocked at only 725 MHz instead of 850 for the 5870 and the vcore is therefore be dropped to 1.05v rather than 1.16v for the 5870.  Im pretty sure a 5870 can do that just as easily, considering my 5850s can do 800+ at 1v.  Underclocking will increase your perf/w if you also drop voltage, that goes for any card. It will decrease your performance /$ though. But having 2 cards also means you can tweak clock and voltage per card.

Anyway, not saying 5970s arent great cards, particularly if the prices are like that in US, but saying nothing comes close seems somewhat exaggerated and depending on how you clock and volt them, local prices, the rest of the system, how much luck you have with them breaking down (*), 5870s can be more cost and power efficient.

My 2 cents.

(*) Stumbled upon this:
ATI Failure Rate
28.57% Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2GB
20.83% XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB
17.14% Asus Radeon HD 5870 1GB V2
14.29% MSI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
10.00% XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB
7.41% PowerColor Radeon HD5750 1GB Silent
6.67% MSI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
5.10% XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB
0.00% XFX Radeon HD 4770 512MB
0.00% MSI Radeon HD 6870 1GB
0.00% Asus Radeon HD 5850 1GB
0.00% Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6
0.00% Asus Radeon HD 5870 1GB
0.00% XFX Radeon HD 5750 1GB
0.00% Asus Radeon HD 6850 1GB
0.00% XFX Radeon HD 5670 512MB

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/ek3ie/ati_vs_nvidia/

[Transisto]

Why not look at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison ?

And conclude we already had much more and better data available before they did this article 2 month ago.