[WTS] Crippled 5970s

[nelisky]

Hey,

So I've tried to push some of these before, but ended up not doing it. I have 4 x 5970 that all exhibit the same crippled symptoms; one of the cores can't be used, it locks at 99% usage if you use it and eventually the whole card stops responding.

They all work (and are working) if you limit yourself to the other core. I can get ~360MH/s out of each with 820Mhz (using 300Mhz ram clock). I'm no longer sure what brand these are as I've mixed and matched the fans, with AC coolers and watercooling in the midst. They are all reference design, some will be Saphire, some ATI and some Asus. The BIOS has been tweaked in all of them to allow using lower ram clocks, down to 300Mhz, but that's it, stock voltages and other values for everything else.

I can only mine with these during the night time, as my household power usage during the day prevents me from sucking all that power without tripping the breaker, thus I'm starting to "clean up the house". These are the first I will try to sell, but I'll also have some WC material to follow.

No photos yet, but you know what a 5970 looks like, right?

NO GUARANTEE!!! The fact one core gave up means the other may give up too, obviously. I can assure you the other works, and has worked consistently for months after the first one gave up (if only at night time as described), so if you get a card from me and it simply does not work, I'll take it back and refund. But if it works and then quits, you are on your own, I will not take any refunds after a couple of days from you receiving the card.

Also, don't even consider using this on windows unless you can make sure the bad core isn't touched at all. These cards don't give out any image (probably because the bad core is the one responsible for the DVI output) so they are worthless outside mining.

Finally, these will be shipped from Europe, and they are heavy. Expect $45 shipping in Europe and $65 to the US, though I might be able to cut that down a little if I shop around. Of course, combining shipments is possible and less expensive than individual ones, but ask for quote first.

Any takers?

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[dmcurser]

Hmm well are you.willing to do about 60 per card I have 4 5970 that have no video and I only paved 90 per card

[nelisky]

I'm willing to sell for what they are deemed to be worth by the community. I didn't put up any price on purpose, though I will give this away to a family member, as a full working mining machine, if the price offered is just not worth my trouble of packaging and sending. Come to think of it, that's one amazing xmas gift

Anyway, make me a full offer, how many cards, full price in btc or us$ you are willing to pay for them shipped and also tell me where I'll be shipping to, and I will most certainly consider it.

[dmcurser]

well to be far i dont know what the rest of the rig is but id offer like 300 for all 4 of the 5970 since you already stated that they are one core bad cards  making them more or less a 5830 and the zip code you would be mailing to is 08088 plz get back to me with more details on the rest of the rig so i can make a more accurate offer

[nelisky]

well to be far i dont know what the rest of the rig is but id offer like 300 for all 4 of the 5970

Ok, I'm not familiar with the unit of measurement of value you state... is that us$, btc, something else?

since you already stated that they are one core bad cards  making them more or less a 5830

They are as good as a 5870, but with lower clock ranges and much better cooling. So better than a 5850, not more or less a 5830.

and the zip code you would be mailing to is 08088

And the country? I'm biased to believe you are American, given you decided to assume I know where you are.

plz get back to me with more details on the rest of the rig so i can make a more accurate offer

There is no 'rest of the rig'. If you read my posts carefully you'll see only the cards are offered, the full rig would be something I'd cook up if I was to decide giving away the cards to relatives.

[dmcurser]

yes my applogys i live in the usa and yes my offer was  is us dollars. and also sorry but many place i have read that a 5970 is basically two 5830 so that is why i said that once again im sorry for assuming things was kinda in a hurry doing things and i made myself look like an ass hmm Orwell lol

[nelisky]

No problem, it is just important we keep things as clear as possible, for everyones benefit.

So $300 for all 4, shipped... I'll pay around $140 for shipping these, which leaves me with $160 for the pack, or $40 a piece. I'll have to do some calculations to see if it is worth the trouble or not, but for now... any higher bidders? Maybe someone in Europe so the shipping doesn't take such a high cut?

[AniceInovation]

250 euros shipped. I'm from europe.

EDIT: wait, there's no way i can't get the good core to mine in windows? If that's the case i'll retract my offer, sorry.

[nelisky]

My experience is with XP and about an year ago. I tried mining on Windows and what is appeared to me is that the two cores were usable individually, but windows kept the cores linked internally, thus there was always some processing going on in either core, which is something you most certainly don't want with these cards.

So, yeah, I wouldn't buy these if you are stuck with windows, but it might work, I don't know.

[dmcurser]

id be willing to pay 350 to help you out with the shipping if that migh make things any better

[P4man]

Just how exactly did you manage to (half) kill 4 5970s?

[nelisky]

Just how exactly did you manage to (half) kill 4 5970s?

That is one great question. They didn't all die simultaneously, mind you, but I've been mining for over a year now and I have had my share of overheating cards, so I'm guessing that's the thing.

Nowadays I do either WC or open frame with pci-e extenders, but there was a time when I ran 2 or 3 5970 on a smallish case with improper air flow, meaning they would run at 80~90ºC for weeks in a row. So I'm guessing that did it, but they didn't just fail, the cores would start locking randomly (always the same core) and I would eventually take out the card, take the cooler off, apply better thermal paste and replace pads as needed, it would run both cores for a while again and then the failing core would start failing again until eventually the failing core would die and neve operate again.

There's at least one of the cards where the failing core is still operational, in the sense you can mine off it for a while before it locks. I have also completely killed some 5970s along the way, and I have one such paperweight if anyone is after the cooler or believes they can fix it. The card does POST and gets detected by the X driver, but one call to aticonfig --odgc takes a minute or so to respond, after which the driver locks.

[cablepair]

This is a perfect example of what happens when you run your cards too hot for too long and with the fans up too high

I suspect we will start seeing many more threads like this in the months to come, Ive been mining almost as long as he has, the only card out of my 17 that I have crippled is a reference 6870 that does not like to mine clocked over 950mhz but other than that I have had good luck

I have never run my fans over 75% and now I have most of them around 50%


Question, does the card still work for gaming? You would probably have better luck selling it as a gaming card, coincidentally gaming takes much less resources than mining does

[nelisky]

This is a perfect example of what happens when you run your cards too hot for too long and with the fans up too high

I suspect we will start seeing many more threads like this in the months to come, Ive been mining almost as long as he has, the only card out of my 17 that I have crippled is a reference 6870 that does not like to mine clocked over 950mhz but other than that I have had good luck

I have never run my fans over 75% and now I have most of them around 50%


Question, does the card still work for gaming? You would probably have better luck selling it as a gaming card, coincidentally gaming takes much less resources than mining does

Indeed that's true and I have since learned my lesson, proof being I have a handful of 5970s and 5870s that work flawlessly and have done so for almost a year now. But these have been mining on the good core without issues.

They will not work for gaming because the primary core is the damaged one. Most will not even give any image, and while one of them (at least) does give image, using any 3D will immediately lock or reboot.

[cablepair]

damn man, thats a tough lesson to learn

Have you tried reflowing or reballling them to see if it fixes anything?

I mean its a long shot but its worth a try

[dmcurser]

I'll do
400 for everything even you paper weight and also the stock fans effect if you hqve them still

[nelisky]

damn man, thats a tough lesson to learn

Well, I did learn it and I've been told no lesson is too expensive, provided you learn it

Have you tried reflowing or reballling them to see if it fixes anything?

None of the two verbs presented make sense to me... sorry. Reflowing make me think about wave flow soldering, which is NOT something I'll try, and reballing makes me think of basketball which, hmmm, there's an idea!

[P4man]

reflowing is baking them in an oven. It helps if there are hair fractures in the solder or underfil.  But thats usually only the case on certain nVidia cards and a result of thermal cycling, not something Id expect from an ATI card that has been mining.
My guess is that you burnt out VRMs

[cablepair]

(poor/lazy mans reflow)

preheat your over to 385

remove anything plastic from the card

bake it in the oven for 8 mins

wait for it to cool and see if it works!

(you would be surprised)

reballing would mean to take it apart, take the chips out, clean them and resolder them back in by hand



and p4 man is probably right but at this point it really can't hurt to try and it is the small chance that it works it would be well worth it

[nelisky]

I'm (obviously) no electronics engineer, but from the way the cards behaved, especially when I could still use them with 2D but not 3D I would say the VRMs are almost certainly to blame. Of course, I don't really have a good way of asserting that.

Is that something I can fix "at home"? I have access to top of the line soldering stations, all the test equipment I can handle, and all the other gizmos at a friend's factory, but I don't want to waste their time unless there's a chance it can actually work, and I surely can't use any of it without proper guidance.