HD5850 @ 340Mhash/s

[jondecker76]

I'm running 3 HD5850 Saphire cards in my miner (open air cooled, mounted on a piece of plywood).
I spaced the the tops of the cards apart with 2-liter pop bottle caps (the connectors have a little flex to them). This keeps the cards much cooler (0ver 10 degrees C) because of the better airflow.

I can run all of mine overclocked at 900mhz, where they all put out about 360Mhashes each, but I'll get daily random crashes.  I've since dropped down to 875mhz and I have all 3 cards stable and humming along at around 340 MHashes each (with the hottest card around 83 degrees C)

Oh yeah, and this is all off of a Rosewill 750w power supply! (though I haven't checked what my actual power draw is)

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[caston]

Have you tried submerging your miner in mineral oil?

[dikidera]

tl;dr (I'll get around to it )

The 5850 can be unlocked to a 5870 with a simple bios upgrade. and I think they have a dual bios so you can't brick them either. best Mh/$ card for sure. if my cheap 5870 supplier sells out before I get my fiat sorted out I'll be getting a 5850 for sure.

The reference 5850 cannot be unlocked and doesnt feature a dual bios.

[chungenhung]

unxetas: thanks ... I was also thinking it might be the card has some microdamage because it was running at 79C all night one night because I thought that leaving the side of the case on would make it quieter and thus easier for me to sleep... if i leave the side of the case off it stays at a good temp.. but I would like to play around with this card and try more overclocking settings and a green coolant setup. The other thing is that it may be possible to get a high hash rate but how do you know your hash accuracy?

79C should not kill your card, not even a reference card.  It may reduce the MTBF some, but you should still be taking years on average.

I would have no problem running a card at 95 or 100c 24/7.  The safety features for clocking the card down don't even kick in until 110 or 120c, and I've never heard of anyone killing a card due to temps below that.

Totally agree.
I ran my 9800GX2 at 105C 24/7 for over 1 yr, and nothing happens.

[de4l]

so the price difference on tigerdirect for an xfx 5850 and a sapphire 5850 extreme is within $30, which one do you guys recommend for overclocking to near 400mh/s speeds? It sounds like xfx is better warranty, but some people are unable to raise voltage for core overclocks?

[chungenhung]

so the price difference on tigerdirect for an xfx 5850 and a sapphire 5850 extreme is within $30, which one do you guys recommend for overclocking to near 400mh/s speeds? It sounds like xfx is better warranty, but some people are unable to raise voltage for core overclocks?

U can't change voltage on the XFX either.
You can only change voltage on reference design 5850s.

[de4l]

I thought you could change the voltage on the sapphires using trixx?

[Veldy]

Pushing the cards too hard just might cost you the card before it has paid you back in BTC.  Maybe I am a little more risk averse than some of you    Anyway, I just overclocked the core clock to 775MHz (also an XFX card ... I see pipes inside, but basically a reference board) and I use a custom fan profile for each card to keep the card under 80C (is running about 75C in an unconditioned basement) and I am getting 290MH/s out of mine using Phoenix 1.47 (-k poclbm DEVICE=0 VECTORS BFI_INT WORKSIZE=128 AGGRESSION=11) using latest drive on Win7 x64.  My next rig to come up will have Ubuntu on it [unless I can get Microsoft to activate my old Vista 64 Ultimate license [bought it OEM for the machine that I built .. I am sure most of build our own] on the new machine since my old one died due to a short in the case that blew the power supply [and the attempted replacement] and the first motherboard.   I am rather partial to XFX and MSI cards.  I am a huge ASUS fan when it comes to mother boards, but not graphics cards [they are not as stable as XFX and MSI in my opinion].

So, in my opinion, I am not sure pushing for the last 50MH/s is worth it unless you really want to risk the card.  The cost of these things has gone through the roof since bitcoin mining has started to catch on.  I got one for $139 (no rebate) a week ago and my next one coming was $189 [with a $40 mail in rebate] and most are WELL OVER $200.

[chungenhung]

I thought you could change the voltage on the sapphires using trixx?

yes, if using the latest Trixx.
I mean no voltage change in the BIOS flashing level.

[de4l]

I thought you could change the voltage on the sapphires using trixx?

yes, if using the latest Trixx.
I mean no voltage change in the BIOS flashing level.

can you use trixx on the xfx cards too or is it locked to only the sapphires?

[chungenhung]

I have a NON-reference XFX 5830, Trixx can't change it.
Don't know about XFX 5850

I thought you could change the voltage on the sapphires using trixx?

yes, if using the latest Trixx.
I mean no voltage change in the BIOS flashing level.

can you use trixx on the xfx cards too or is it locked to only the sapphires?

[minerX]

My 6990 is running @ 1000 MHz right now at stock voltage.

I'm getting 410-30 MH/s per GPU with deepbit showing 923 MH/s.

My 6950 is also running between 400-410 MH/s.  Not sure how you guys are getting so low numbers.

I'm also running in windows 7 64 bit.

[ElectroGeek007]

I bought a reference VisionTek 5850 refurbished for $144 a couple weeks ago, and I have already paid it off. It is currently running at 1.20v, 1000/180, around 75 C, and getting about 360-377 MH/s. I'd say I got a good deal. 

[jasonk]

I bought a reference VisionTek 5850 refurbished for $144 a couple weeks ago, and I have already paid it off. It is currently running at 1.20v, 1000/180, around 75 C, and getting about 360-377 MH/s. I'd say I got a good deal. 

Is that the one from tigerdirect?

[shat]

Getting 365MH/s stable out of 5850s.  All in all there are currently 11 5850s in operating on my pool at this rate.  They can do 375-380 no problem too, if you wish to run them at 74C all day.

[ElectroGeek007]

I bought a reference VisionTek 5850 refurbished for $144 a couple weeks ago, and I have already paid it off. It is currently running at 1.20v, 1000/180, around 75 C, and getting about 360-377 MH/s. I'd say I got a good deal. 

Is that the one from tigerdirect?

Yes indeed, bought via their Ebay auction.

[shivansps]

The most i getting is 354mhash/s at 950/300, 11.5a and SDK 2.4... i cant use lower driver or sdk...

[Kluge]

@ Minerx, we're talking about 5850s, not 6950s.... 

Pushing the cards too hard just might cost you the card before it has paid you back in BTC.  Maybe I am a little more risk averse than some of you    Anyway, I just overclocked the core clock to 775MHz (... an XFX card ...)

... I am rather partial to XFX and MSI cards.  I am a huge ASUS fan when it comes to mother boards, but not graphics cards [they are not as stable as XFX and MSI in my opinion].

I have 8 ASUS 5850 cards running and not a single one is unstable until it goes past 910MHz (a couple reach 940 MHz). They aren't over-volted and run under 60*C, much of that due to a smaller form factor and otherwise good thermal design -- there's virtually no risk of any dying due to OCing.

They also run 2x per board with just a 550w power supply. The systems draw around 480w total continuously at full load.

[Transisto]

I have 8 ASUS 5850 cards running and not a single one is unstable until it goes past 910MHz (a couple reach 940 MHz). They aren't over-volted and run under 60*C, much of that due to a smaller form factor and otherwise good thermal design -- there's virtually no risk of any dying due to OCing.

Have you had a look at what's their default volatages ?

Sapphire's one are at 1.088,  I have a hard time pushing them beyond 840 stable (at that voltage)

[Gladiator]

Got myself Sapphire 5850 Extreme. Used money from mining on my old 8800GTX. I wanted 5870, but all reasonably priced ones were out of stock and I was lucky to get my hands on this one because they are mostly out of stock too. Or too pricey.
OCed, overvolted. Now around 970 MHz core, 300 mem, 1,25V(thank you Sapphire for new version of Trixx). At first I was getting only around 300 Mhashes/s with guiminer so I tried phoenix. pocblm core gave me around 350 Mhashes, phatk jumped between 377 and 406. But it is kind of unstable. Once I run my IM client(qip, Infium and 2005), Chrome or Flash video in firefox speed drops to 350 Mhashes. If I try to play a video system freezes. Sometimes system froze for no apparent reason, judging from the fact that freezes stopped after I stopped runing IM client there was some connection. I doesn't seem that OC is the problem. I left my PC alone for the night and it didn't crash.
Now running guiminer with -v which increased speed but now it hangs the system too when I try to open the video.
OS - Win7x64, Driver - 11.5 with SDK 2.4, Browser - Firefox with HW acceleration turned off. The bios on the videocard is untouched.

Short observation. Vectors make my system unstable.