XFX Radeon HD 7970 PCI Express 3.0 3GB Graphics Card 1000MHz HDMI Black Edition

[Projects]

Is this the best card to buy to put into my pc for mining and gaming?
I have only 1 pc no dedicated mining rig (yet). My pc has integrated graphics so I want to upgrade that so I can mine but I will also be playing games too, so is this the best card?
Also how quick would this card produce 1btc?

Thanks for your help

[legolouman]

Imo, if you are going to spend 500 on a graphics card for gaming,but you're putting it in a computer that was using onboard graphics, you're doing it wrong.

Yes,the 7970 is probably the overall best for mining and gaming. Is your computer good enough for gaming otherwise? I can assume not.

I don't want to come off mean, but if you don't have any gas in your car, a bigger engine wont help. For mining, putting a 7970 in is worth it.

Try to take that all into consideration. Also,make sure your power supply can handle the extra load

[Projects]

Hi, thank you for your advice.
I am very new to all of this so any help is greatly appreciated.
My computer specs are

Intel core i3 2120 cpu @ 3.30 ghz
4mb ram
How do I find out about the power supply?

Thanks in advance

[RicePicker]

Open your case and look on the side of your power supply. Judging by your cpu being an i3 it is probably going to be somewhere in the ballpark of 300-400watts if you are currently using on board graphics. I think you need a new power supply to handle a 7970.

[Projects]

Open your case and look on the side of your power supply. Judging by your cpu being an i3 it is probably going to be somewhere in the ballpark of 300-400watts if you are currently using on board graphics. I think you need a new power supply to handle a 7970.

You are right its 300w
So I need to upgrade this? What do you reccomend?

[TheOriginalMyth]

Open your case and look on the side of your power supply. Judging by your cpu being an i3 it is probably going to be somewhere in the ballpark of 300-400watts if you are currently using on board graphics. I think you need a new power supply to handle a 7970.

You are right its 300w
So I need to upgrade this? What do you reccomend?

I think you should hold off for maybe a week or 2 before jumping from not knowing how to find out how big of a power supply you have to BitCion mining. Just immerse yourself in the culture of computers, watch a few (internet) shows about computers, read articles on some websites just get to know what your talking about. thats what i did, im still new to the whole bitcion and bitcion mining, but its easier now that i know what im talking about computer wise. A little information will go a long way. Best of luck to you.

Oh and yes you'll need a larger powersupply and more than likely a better MoBo

[John (John K.)]

Depending on the deals you cand find and future expansion plans, you can go from 600w-1200w. Just make sure to get a reputable brand and preferably gold rated psu.

[cmg5461]

Is this the best card to buy to put into my pc for mining and gaming?

No! Stay away from that card. Buy a reference 7970. Reference cards exhaust hot air from the case much better than these other designs. Also, if you plan to overclock/underclock in the future (which you probably will if you are mining) non-reference cards can make this more difficult.

Reference cards look like this.



Non-reference cards look like this.

he may be talking about this card:

[cmg5461]

he may be talking about this card:

Indeed, there are apparently two different "black editions".

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150591

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150586

I would go with the reference cooler design if I had to pick between the two.

Same.  I've been eyeing that card for awhile now.  Lifetime warranty + water cooling friendly.

[Buckwheet]

I don't think this one meets XFX's criteria for lifetime warranty. I believe this model is 2 years only. The model number is FX-797A-TNBC.

XFX Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics Cards with 10-digit model numbers ending in “R” (example: “FX-797A-TDFR”) from their warranty page located here:

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/help/support/warrantyinformation.aspx

The second card with the dual fans, can be extended to lifetime however.

XFX Radeon HD 7000 Series Dual Fan (Double Dissipation Edition) Graphics Cards with Ghost Technology; a floating cover design that maximizes airflow by creating exceptional venting throughout the card.

[cmg5461]

I don't think this one meets XFX's criteria for lifetime warranty. I believe this model is 2 years only. The model number is FX-797A-TNBC.

XFX Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics Cards with 10-digit model numbers ending in “R” (example: “FX-797A-TDFR”) from their warranty page located here:

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/help/support/warrantyinformation.aspx

The second card with the dual fans, can be extended to lifetime however.

XFX Radeon HD 7000 Series Dual Fan (Double Dissipation Edition) Graphics Cards with Ghost Technology; a floating cover design that maximizes airflow by creating exceptional venting throughout the card.

Gah.  They changed it.  Oh well.  Know of any other cards that you can water cool without losing warranty?

[Unacceptable]

Open your case and look on the side of your power supply. Judging by your cpu being an i3 it is probably going to be somewhere in the ballpark of 300-400watts if you are currently using on board graphics. I think you need a new power supply to handle a 7970.

You are right its 300w
So I need to upgrade this? What do you reccomend?

What make of PC is it?? Or what is the mobo model #??We can go from there.

Depending on the maker of your PC,you may not be able to upgrade the PSU.Dell/HP/Gateway sometimes use psu's with specific wiring for the mobo connector & don't offer higher power psu's.

Also give us the model # of your current psu.

If you have an "aftermarket" mobo then your in luck as they use psu's you can get from newegg or other retailers.

[vindimy]

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I'll post my main mining rig configuration since I've got exact same card as the original poster:


PC 1:
   OS: Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
   MB: ASUS LGA 1155 - Z68 - PCIe 3.0 and UEFI BIOS Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1155
   PSU: Antec HCP-1200 ATX Energy Star Certified Power Supply
   CPU: Intel Core i5-2400S Processor 2.50 GHz 6 MB Cache Socket LGA1155
   RAM: Corsair 16 GB Vengeance Blue Low Profile 1600mhz PC3-12800 240-pin Dual Channel DDR3
   GPU 0: XFX HD 7970 Core Edition 3GB DDR5 925M 2xmDP HDMI DVI PCI-E
   GPU 1: XFX HD 7970 Black Edition 3 GB 1000MHZ GDDR5 Dual Mini DisplayPort HDMI DVI PCI-E
   HD: Intel 80gb SSD

   Catalyst version 12.3.
   Both GPUs are overclocked to maximum allowed by CCC: 1125 MHz core, 1575 MHz memory, max power.

As you can see, I got a top-of-the-line power supply and minimized power consumption by getting power-efficient Core i5-2400S and SSD instead of hard drive.

See full post at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74220 for details about mining and overclocking.

[hongus]

Hi, thank you for your advice.
I am very new to all of this so any help is greatly appreciated.
My computer specs are

Intel core i3 2120 cpu @ 3.30 ghz
4mb ram
How do I find out about the power supply?

Thanks in advance

Not sure if anyone brought this up yet but if you're gaming on a 7970 and you have a i3, the CPU would be your bottleneck I think. The graphics card costs 4-5x more than your CPU.

[zefir]

It took some time for my HD7970 to arrive, nevertheless here my measures:

Previous setup: 3*6950, 1.1GH/s, ~500W

New setup: replaced 2 6950 with

• 1 XFX HD7970 Black Edition (the reference design one)
• 1 Gigabyte GV-R797OC-3GD (three fan design)

Now pulling 1.7GH/s at ~750W

Linux rig is driven by cgminer with cards configured to operate within stock ranges, i.e. the XFX at core 1000-1125 and the Gigabyte at 1000-1200, voltages untouched at 1.170 and the memclock set as delta of 150 to core clock (can't be downclocked further on Linux ). All cards with powertune of 5%, auto-fan enabled with 85% target, auto-gpu enabled with temp-target of 75°C.

cgminer stats after running 48h:

GPU	Temp	Fan%	core	mem	MH/s	HW-errors	utility	intensity
XFX	77	85	1090	940	644	0	8.95	11
Gigabyte	72	69	1200	1050	698	224	9.56	11
6950	73	--	870	745	357	0	4.94	9

What you see from the table is that the three fan cooling of the Gigabyte card is way better, at max stock clock of 1.2GHz it never reaches the target temp of 75°C and therefore always runs at full speed. The XFX on the other hand gets hot with the fan always blowing at 85% (which btw. compared to the Gigabyte is unacceptably loud to sit in the same room), cgminer never pushes it to its max stock core of 1.125 GHz. Not sure what the reasons for HW errors with the GV are, but all in all it performs better than the XFX Black.

If I should stay with GPUs and ever need another HD7970 for mining, I'll stick with the Gigabyte. If you plan to buy a card also for gaming, do yourself a favor and go listen to a XFX BE before you decide to

[vindimy]

If I should stay with GPUs and ever need another HD7970 for mining, I'll stick with the Gigabyte. If you plan to buy a card also for gaming, do yourself a favor and go listen to a XFX BE before you decide to

From my experience with XFX 7970 Core Edition and Black Edition, their cooling is indeed an issue. I have an Antec 1200 case which has excellent airflow. Having cgminer run with default settings makes temperatures hover around 85 degrees, and if overclocked, close to 90-92. At 100% fan the noise is pretty significant. My room temperature is in mid-20's in the day and mid-10's at night.

So, why choose XFX brand? Their prices are $50-$100 less than competitors'

[Buckwheet]

I now have 8 XFX BE 7970s running and noticed they run a little warmer. I just let the fan run up to 100%. Since I have not done anything to the card and they have a warranty, what do I care if they burn out their fans? I don't game with my machines as they are dedicated miners, but as long as they are not unstable, I don't care.

[zefir]

I now have 8 XFX BE 7970s running and noticed they run a little warmer. I just let the fan run up to 100%. Since I have not done anything to the card and they have a warranty, what do I care if they burn out their fans? I don't game with my machines as they are dedicated miners, but as long as they are not unstable, I don't care.

To what core clock can you drive them long-term stable with 100% fan? Not sure about lifetime expectations when blowing max., but remember some senior bitcoiners mentioning better not to do it...

[DeathAndTaxes]

Since I have not done anything to the card and they have a warranty, what do I care if they burn out their fans?

How much revenue will you lose when you need to RMA it (and yes @ 100% fan you WILL need to RMA it), your card is at 0 MH/s for 2 weeks, and you have to pay the shipping. 

Also with an RMA you never get your card back you get one from the pile of "fixed cards".  Maybe from that gamer who abuses the living hell out of it with overvolting and damaged the VRM just enough to cause instabilities but still pass RMA inspection.

I had a fan fail under warranty and replaced it myself because of the risks of getting someone elses piece of shit card plus shipping costs and downtime made it more expensive to RMA.

[Buckwheet]

Since I have not done anything to the card and they have a warranty, what do I care if they burn out their fans?

How much revenue will you lose when you need to RMA it (and yes @ 100% fan you WILL need to RMA it), your card is at 0 MH/s for 2 weeks, and you have to pay the shipping.  

Also with an RMA you never get your card back you get one from the pile of "fixed cards".  Maybe from that gamer who abuses the living hell out of it with overvolting and damaged the VRM just enough to cause instabilities but still pass RMA inspection.

I had a fan fail under warranty and replaced it myself because of the risks of getting someone elses piece of shit card plus shipping costs and downtime made it more expensive to RMA.

Little to no revenue would be lost as I have built into my model a two card failure system. I have two cards that I tested that are sitting on a shelf as spare parts. I would replace the broken card with that one, then order a replacement with either overnight shipping or second day shipping as I have free two day shipping with Newegg and Amazon. I also do not use RMAed cards, so as soon as the card was sent back to me, it would be sold on Ebay or other avenue as a "recently RMAed" card with all sorts of language in the listing so people know what they are buying.

I did not say I run the cards at 100% fan 100% of the time. I let the fans go up to 100% if needed. I run them at 1150 core clock. They usually hover in the 80% range most of the time with the occasional drift up to 100%. I have also built into my model current pricing on the 7970 and have taken a slightly more aggressive depreciation on the card over current Ebay pricing.

As the weather warms up and my air cooling begins to cause the cards to run more into the 100% range, I will be running numbers on slower clocks and lower fans speeds versus an air conditioning model to determine profits.