NewEgg Black Friday - Diamond 5970 for $299 shipped

[amazingrando]

NewEgg Black Friday special.

Wish I didn't live in CA and could get these without sales tax.   

DIAMOND A5970PE52G Radeon HD 5970 2GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - OEM

$299.99 with free shipping.

Limit 10 per customer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103195

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[chieffery]

at the risk of sounding like a noob, can somoene please explain to me why these cards go for so much more than the 6970s...

[Eveofwar]

at the risk of sounding like a noob, can somoene please explain to me why these cards go for so much more than the 6970s...

5970 = Dual GPU
6970 = Single GPU

?

[amazingrando]

at the risk of sounding like a noob, can somoene please explain to me why these cards go for so much more than the 6970s...

58xx and 59xx series cards are generally the best for mining.  Fast performance and lower power consumption compared to the 68xx and 69xx.

ATI did some weird stuff with naming.

The 6970's equivalent is the 5870 in the prior generation.  A 5970 is a dual gpu part with two 5870 GPUs on board and 2GB of RAM.  Makes for a lot of hashing power in one slot.  Also, the 5970 uses less power than 2 x 5870's, partly because it is volted and clocked lower than the 5870's, even though it's the same chip.

[chieffery]

at the risk of sounding like a noob, can somoene please explain to me why these cards go for so much more than the 6970s...

58xx and 59xx series cards are generally the best for mining.  Fast performance and lower power consumption compared to the 68xx and 69xx.

ATI did some weird stuff with naming.

The 6970's equivalent is the 5870 in the prior generation.  A 5970 is a dual gpu part with two 5870 GPUs on board and 2GB of RAM.  Makes for a lot of hashing power in one slot.  Also, the 5970 uses less power than 2 x 5870's, partly because it is volted and clocked lower than the 5870's, even though it's the same chip.

Thanks for the info, would you still recommend this card over a 6970 for gaming?

[P4man]

Thanks for the info, would you still recommend this card over a 6970 for gaming?

A 5970? In general it would absolutely crush a 6970.
Only when crossfire is not supported in a game will a 6970 be faster, but not even all that much.
Oh and if you are running extreme high resolution and AA settings (like triple monitor), I can see the 5970 performance being held back by a lack of vram. Both cards nominally have 2GB, but its really only 1GB (x2) usable for the 5970 since most stuff in vram has to be duplicated for both GPUs.

[amazingrando]

Thanks for the info, would you still recommend this card over a 6970 for gaming?

Depends on the game.  If the game has good CrossFire support and a good CrossFire profile, you will probably end up with much higher performance than a single 6970.

P4man makes a good point that if a game makes good use of VRAM and can use >1GB, then a 6970 *might* be better.

FYI, I can play BF3 at high settings on my 5870 1GB with very good results.  If I stuck one of my 5970's in here I'm sure I could get it to run at ultra settings at 1080p with no problems.  Don't forget you might need a quad core CPU on current gen games.

[chieffery]

Thanks for the info dudes, very much appreciated

I suppose my last question would be then why does the 6970 seem to be a well selling card? just uniformed people like me shelling out for higher model numbers thinking it must be better?

[P4man]

5970 is supposed to be discontinued by now. Its successor is the dual gpu 6990.

5xx0 cards are becoming rarities.  Deals like the above are really steals. Probably stock clearance. Second hand they generally sell for more than neweggs new price.

[Tullphan]

Nice deal!

[ataranlen]

On top of that great price, "Free Shipping, 60-Day Return & Price Guarantee on this Product."

So mine for 59 days, then ship em back for a full refund!

[SgtSpike]

On top of that great price, "Free Shipping, 60-Day Return & Price Guarantee on this Product."

So mine for 59 days, then ship em back for a full refund!

Or, if you have any sort of ethical or moral standards, don't do that.

[chieffery]

On top of that great price, "Free Shipping, 60-Day Return & Price Guarantee on this Product."

So mine for 59 days, then ship em back for a full refund!

Or, if you have any sort of ethical or moral standards, don't do that.

What if he donated all the bitcoins he mined with it during that period to impoverished families?  Would he then be some sort of Robin Hood? Hrmmm.....

[SgtSpike]

On top of that great price, "Free Shipping, 60-Day Return & Price Guarantee on this Product."

So mine for 59 days, then ship em back for a full refund!

Or, if you have any sort of ethical or moral standards, don't do that.

What if he donated all the bitcoins he mined with it during that period to impoverished families?  Would he then be some sort of Robin Hood? Hrmmm.....

I suppose so... I mean, to an extent.  He'd be stealing from both the rich and the poor.  Lot of the people who own stocks are mutual funds, who manage retirement accounts for the average Joe.

That said, I don't even believe Robit Hood is morally right in what he does.  Theft is wrong, regardless of who is being stolen from or the purpose behind it.

[P4man]

But no one would be stealing anything. Its up to newegg to charge restocking fees or not.

[btc_artist]

But no one would be stealing anything. Its up to newegg to charge restocking fees or not.

Technically it's not stealing.  Morally, it is stealing, since the intent of the guarantee is not to give you free use of a product for 60 days before returning it.  The intent is if you're not happy with the product or it doesn't work right, etc.

[EPiSKiNG]

I hope you all read the fine print:

We want to ensure your holiday shopping this year is hassle-free. That’s why we’re automatically extending our return policies on almost every product to 60 days. There's nothing additional that you have to do!

Return for refund within: non-refundable
Return for replacement within: 60 days
Restocking Fee: No

-EP

[SgtSpike]

I hope you all read the fine print:

We want to ensure your holiday shopping this year is hassle-free. That’s why we’re automatically extending our return policies on almost every product to 60 days. There's nothing additional that you have to do!

Return for refund within: non-refundable
Return for replacement within: 60 days
Restocking Fee: No

-EP

Good call. 

[btc_artist]

NewEgg Black Friday special.

Wish I didn't live in CA and could get these without sales tax.  

DIAMOND A5970PE52G Radeon HD 5970 2GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - OEM

$299.99 with free shipping.

Limit 10 per customer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103195

Assuming:

- the current difficulty
- a bitcoin is worth $2.50
- and you would get 550mh/m from the card
- and not taking into account electricity costs

it would take about 8 months to make back the $300.  Doesn't seem like too good of an investment, unless you want to do it as a hobby. Of course when you quit you still have the used card.

Are my numbers off?

[DeathAndTaxes]

NewEgg Black Friday special.

Wish I didn't live in CA and could get these without sales tax.  

DIAMOND A5970PE52G Radeon HD 5970 2GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - OEM

$299.99 with free shipping.

Limit 10 per customer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103195

Assuming:

- the current difficulty
- a bitcoin is worth $2.50
- and you would get 550mh/m from the card
- and not taking into account electricity costs

it would take about 8 months to make back the $300.  Doesn't seem like too good of an investment, unless you want to do it as a hobby. Of course when you quit you still have the used card.

Are my numbers off?

550MH/s is way light. You can get 700MH/s+ stock, and up to 760MH/s with a little tweaking.

Also I think people need to realize the days of 1000% per year ROI are over.  They only existed for a short period of time due to an aberration (the spike to $30 USD and the slow reaction of the community to expand hashing power).   Bitcoins are a commodity business. As such the ROI is going to be low.  I don't care what hardware you use there is no barrier to entry so eventually the rest of the community will react.  Anything above a 30% annual ROI is just a pipedream by people who don't understand economics.