Video Card Price vs Performance vs Watts Excel Doc

[Sukrim]

Problem 1:
You can't calculate the hardware and power together, because hadware is something you can sell again.

Problem 2:
where ist the 5870? (best w/h card in my calc)

1: As long as you're mining, you can't sell the hardware. In the end you'll have to mine (converted to EUR/USD/whatever) about as much as the "costs after x days" column says minus what you could sell your hardware for (as there is no predefined value, I didn't include that). I also didn't include difficulty increases + projected income, as this is far too speculative.
It would be up to you to guess how much a used card might be worth after x days.

2: Just add it yourself?! It's not rocket science and I did this sheet in ~15 minutes.
If you want to have it from me, I could also sell it - 1 work hour @ 20EUR means this sheet is worth 1 BTC. PM me for an address.

[1714042421]

1714042421

[carbonc]

Updated Today

[rgod14]

Awesome! Glad I just purchased some 5830's

Please keep this updated as this is an awesome reference!

[carbonc]

I will try.

Like an idiot, it bought 2 5830's on Thursday with 3 Day select shipping for free. 
I lost alot of potential BTC generation over the weekend because they are currently sitting in a terminal. 
Those lost 3 days would have paid for the next day air costs.  lol...

[Sukrim]

According to these numbers (and at ~20 cents/kWh) up to ~ 1 year 5830s are the best cards, if you want to mine longer, 5870s take over until ~1 1/2 years and if you want to mine even longer than that, 5970s are the best cards you can get.

I won't publish my sheet again unless someone really needs to see it though.

For shorter term mining up to one year btw. there is nothing even close to 5830s (if the prices, wattages and hashrates from the OP are correct!)

[Littleshop]

According to these numbers (and at ~20 cents/kWh) up to ~ 1 year 5830s are the best cards, if you want to mine longer, 5870s take over until ~1 1/2 years and if you want to mine even longer than that, 5970s are the best cards you can get.

I won't publish my sheet again unless someone really needs to see it though.

For shorter term mining up to one year btw. there is nothing even close to 5830s (if the prices, wattages and hashrates from the OP are correct!)

5970's are the best cards but now as of today they are going for $1000 USED on ebay.  I know people can sometimes find them on buyitnow auctions for less.  Those often last minutes before they are snapped up.

http://cgi.ebay.com/XFX-ATI-Radeon-HD-5970-HD597ACNF9-GDDR5-SDRAM-PCI-/150612846079?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item231139a5ff

[Sukrim]

At 1000USD/piece they are below average at best... and get beaten for more than a YEAR by 2/3 of the cards on that list! They just catch up with a 6870 after 3 years...

Even though eBay charges now a whopping 10% fee, this might be a good point now for some people to start selling 5970s and (if they want to continue mining) buying 5870s/5830s and BTC directly.
Most newies will not do these calculations and get trapped deeply and quickly in some VERY bad deals with this, as they most likely only look at "MAX HASHRATE = MAX INCOME!".

[rgod14]

According to these numbers (and at ~20 cents/kWh) up to ~ 1 year 5830s are the best cards, if you want to mine longer, 5870s take over until ~1 1/2 years and if you want to mine even longer than that, 5970s are the best cards you can get.

I won't publish my sheet again unless someone really needs to see it though.

For shorter term mining up to one year btw. there is nothing even close to 5830s (if the prices, wattages and hashrates from the OP are correct!)

I pay $.10/kwh so these cards are absolute steal at that price. Sadly, mine are also in transit. 

[Sukrim]

I pay $.10/kwh so these cards are absolute steal at that price. Sadly, mine are also in transit. 

This means your 5830 cards are better than any other card for ~570 days hashes solved per USD invested wise.

However this does not mean that you will mine the most BTC! If the system keeps growing, the higher initial burst you can get, the better. At nearly any price/cost.

[DarkKnightNomeD]

Are you going to Update this list sometime in the Future??

[Lambontae]

I like how the chart is setup however I see a couple problems


First... the 5970 w/ 800mhash?? You'd have to overclock a bit - or use flags That I dont know about because I have one and I get 600mhash at stock speeds w/ -v -w128. However - If there is a flag I should be running to get 800 mhash Id really like to know.

Secondly, the 6950s are a little fucked up, in a general sense. The older 6950s that were reference design could have their bios's flashed to unlock the shaders and perform as a 6970 does. This is technically buying a 6950 and turning it into a 6970. The new 6950s are not reference design - and only get 300 mhash because most of the cards cant unlock the extra shaders.

I'd also like to see the links to the specific cards, because there are many... are these manufacturer overclocked versions or what???