2x5830 or 5850

[ItsASpork]

Which would be a better deal for mining with? Two 5830s will cost me $230, and one 5850 will cost me $185. Power consumption isn't an issue.

Alternatively I could get a 6950 2gb and flash it for $260, but it's a bit out of my price range.

[grue]

obviously 5830, in terms of MH/$, although the heat generated from the 5830, and the increased power consumption may be an issue.

[ItsASpork]

obviously 5830, in terms of MH/$, although the heat generated from the 5830, and the increased power consumption may be an issue.

Thanks. I was thinking the the 5830's would be good to leave on as dedicated miners, while I use my 460 for gaming and mining while not in use. Running at pci-e 8x shouldn't be a problem, right? Heat isn't an issue, I have a HAF 932, and I game with a headset on so having the fans running fast doesn't bother me.

[grue]

obviously 5830, in terms of MH/$, although the heat generated from the 5830, and the increased power consumption may be an issue.

Thanks. I was thinking the the 5830's would be good to leave on as dedicated miners, while I use my 460 for gaming and mining while not in use. Running at pci-e 8x shouldn't be a problem, right? Heat isn't an issue, I have a HAF 932, and I game with a headset on so having the fans running fast doesn't bother me.

you have to make sure that your power supply can handle 2 cards. 5830s (i think) use 175W (more if you're overclocking), whereas 5850 use 150 W. so if you're running 2x5830 (350 W), you're gonna have to get a hefty power supply.

as for pci-e connections, any pci-e slot will do.

5850:
Maximum board power: 151 Watts
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5850/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5850-overview.aspx#2

5830:
Maximum board power: 151 Watts
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5830/Pages/hd-5830-overview.aspx#2

[Basiley]

5870

[frozen]

I am running a 5830 and a 5850 for a total of 380W-ish. The 5830 runs at 272Mh/s and the 5850 runs at 308Mh/s. Considering paid $120 for the 5830, and $180 for the 5850, the 5830 seems like the better deal.

[Basiley]

I am running a 5830 and a 5850 for a total of 380W-ish. The 5830 runs at 272Mh/s and the 5850 runs at 308Mh/s. Considering paid $120 for the 5830, and $180 for the 5850, the 5830 seems like the better deal.

extra PCI-e slot also cost money. as well as less MH/w-per Watt perf in 5830 case.

[ItsASpork]

Just found a 5870 for $301 CDN. Is that a good deal?

[bcpokey]

Buying 5870s new is probably a bad idea. The price is very high for their performance. Expect about 400MHash/sec OC'd vs. maybe 285Mhash/sec for a 5830 OCd, then compare the price of ~$100 USD/CDN vs the proposed $290

[PcChip]

For whoever said they were going to use a GTX460 for gaming and the 5830 for mining:

I had a hell of a time trying to add a 4870 into my computer to use as a mining card because my main is a GTX570.  I actually created a thread about it where one person out of 3-4 said they got it working correctly, but the other people including me could never get them to play nice together.

Keep the NVidia cards in their own boxen, and the AMD cards in their own boxen.

[duffmanhb]

I have a question. How long do you think it would take before those cards pay off?

[jasonk]

I get 285 out of my 5830's and currently 320 out of my 5850's.  5830's are the best value ATM, but, make sure you downclock the memory or it uses a lot of power!

[namley]

I just purchased 2 of Sapphire 5830's and I'm getting 304MHash/s on each card.

Running POCLBM with flags -v -w128 -r2 -f1
Clock speeds 1000/300

Not bad for 100$ card.