Best AMD GPU at around @$240-280 CAD

[China]

Has to be AMD since I need to mine litecoins and play games at 1080p

[Bluejay0]

280X but for mining i'd go for the 7970

[China]

280X but for mining i'd go for the 7970

how does the 7970 compare to the 7950 like how much of a boost in performance

[CoolBeans]

7950/7970/280x but mining isnt really profitible

[Ryan Leech]

You better have a good reason for litecoin mining, otherwise it's a bad investment.

[solarflare]

Well the 7970 definitely puts out more than the 7950.

 

Both overclock about the same usually 7970 has more cores obviously so it has more raw hp.

That doesn't always translate into a huge performance difference though because its close. 

 

If you can still find a 7950 for cheap "200 ish" i say go with that option. 

 

There are still some 7970's kicking around though for $275 area make sure they do well in reviews as some cards are poor clocker's i think some of the xfx cards did poor if i remember right.  

 

Other wise there are some good 280x on the market that have been clocking well. 

[kinkywink]

why is a 7970 better for mining then a r9 280x?

the r9 280x is meant to be a rebadged 7970 ghz which is better than  a 7970?

[TheGhostVII]

R9 270x or add some money to your budget and get a R9 280x.

[7850OC]

buy a 7950 

 

super cheap  :wub:

 

awesome 3GB of ram 

 

and is 384 bits power card  B)

 

(is a win win win friend)  :lol: (or a 7970 if you can)

[solarflare]

why is a 7970 better for mining then a r9 280x?

the r9 280x is meant to be a rebadged 7970 ghz which is better than  a 7970?

7970 is cheaper that is all.

 

they are identical re badge or not the ghz edition is just a factory overclocked card , A overclock that all 7970's are capable of anyways. so get what ever is cheapest - 7970 or 280x makes no difference in the end. 

[algoat]

The 280X and the 7970 are pretty much identical for mining, see here, but 7950s are the preferred card choice.  Because of the price difference, they'll pay off more quickly.

 

I wouldn't say LTC is a bad investment, but it is a hobby with a little profit.  The price of LTCs doubled in the last few days, it's $4/coin now.  I have 2 rigs which cost me about $1300 (half the cards are 2nd hand) total startup cost that produces 2600 kH/s at a total of 1200W.  My power cost in energy rich Canada is 8 cents/KwH.  Using this site, you can calculate your profit.  Here's my calculation for running my rigs 24/7.

 

Coins/month: 69.768 LTC

Value of coins produced in a month: $281.17 USD

power cost: $69.12 USD/month

profit: $212.05/month

 

Which means I can pay off the price of the investment in about 7 months starting from day one.  I'm already 4 months in with about 240 coins, so by February (if coin price and difficulty stays the same) I will have already paid off my hardware costs and it will be pure profit from then on.  The difficulty is increasing steadily, but not as fast as the coin value is.   It isn't February yet, so anything could happen and the price of the coins could tank.  However, if I just purchased $1300 worth of coins last week, the value would have been doubled by today. (facepalm)

 

 

 

 

[kinkywink]

The 280X and the 7970 are pretty much identical for mining, see here, but 7950s are the preferred card choice.  Because of the price difference, they'll pay off more quickly.

 

I wouldn't say LTC is a bad investment, but it is a hobby with a little profit.  The price of LTCs doubled in the last few days, it's $4/coin now.  I have 2 rigs which cost me about $1300 (half the cards are 2nd hand) total startup cost that produces 2600 kH/s at a total of 1200W.  My power cost in energy rich Canada is 8 cents/KwH.  Using this site, you can calculate your profit.  Here's my calculation for running my rigs 24/7.

 

Coins/month: 69.768 LTC

Value of coins produced in a month: $281.17 USD

power cost: $69.12 USD/month

profit: $212.05/month

 

Which means I can pay off the price of the investment in about 7 months starting from day one.  I'm already 4 months in with about 240 coins, so by February (if coin price and difficulty stays the same) I will have already paid off my hardware costs and it will be pure profit from then on.  The difficulty is increasing steadily, but not as fast as the coin value is.   It isn't February yet, so anything could happen and the price of the coins could tank.  However, if I just purchased $1300 worth of coins last week, the value would have been doubled by today. (facepalm)

hope it goes well for you ^^

[mgsstar]

how does the 7970 compare to the 7950 like how much of a boost in performance

The difference is around 10fps: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/his_radeon_7950_x_iceq_review,16.html

 

but if you have a great cooler on a 7950 you would be able to overclock it to beat the 7970. The coolers that I would recommend are MSI Twin Frozr 3/ HIS IceQ X2/ Sapphire Dual-X/Vapor-X.

[kinkywink]

The difference is around 10fps: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/his_radeon_7950_x_iceq_review,16.html

 

but if you have a great cooler on a 7950 you would be able to overclock it to beat the 7970. The coolers that I would recommend are MSI Twin Frozr 3/ HIS IceQ X2/ Sapphire Dual-X/Vapor-X.

what about a water block?

[mgsstar]

what about a water block?

Getting a water block should be able to cool your 7950 enough to overclock beat a 7970. Or you could get a 7970 and achieve better overclocks that are higher than the 7950 overclocks.

[kinkywink]

Getting a water block should be able to cool your 7950 enough to overclock beat a 7970. Or you could get a 7970 and achieve better overclocks that are higher than the 7950 overclocks.

or just get a second mortgage and go 4 way sli 780tis custom loop

 

no but seriously, any 7950 with a decent cooler should be able to overclock to atleast the same clocks as a 7970, ghz or not