7950's On Sale - Please chime in with your experience on these cards

Hey all, looking for some input from folks who’ve run these cards down below. Looking for, obviously, the best bang for the buck. Power cost isn’t as much of an issue for me as others, mine is discounted. Looking for best hashrate with stability, for the money.

I’m currently mining FTC/LTC with a Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X HD 7950 OC w/ Boost, and it runs ~620kh, ~62C, very stable, and with 0 errors to date. I’ve pushed it to 650 and 700 but the stability wasn’t there, so I’m happy with 620kh, and this card has done me well so far.

Amazon dropped their price on several 7950’s, and there are rebates for all of them. Can anyone recommend one of these over the other, or vice/versa? I’m probably going to buy one of each to compare, but would love to hear feedback from folks who’ve used these before.

Also, if you have had really good hashrates with a particular card (620 or higher), please post your setup so we can all benefit. Many thanks!

[b]Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X HD 7950 OC w/Boost (current setup)[/b] - Amazon $279 + $20 rebate - http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-11196-09-40G/dp/B009MML1UA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376482294&sr=8-1&keywords=sapphire+7950

[b]Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 w/Boost[/b] - Amazon $249 + $20 rebate - http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-Graphics-21196-00-20G/dp/B00BXVFM3K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1376482294&sr=8-3&keywords=sapphire+7950

[b]Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950[/b] - Amazon $264 + $25 rebate - http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Mini-Displayport-PCI-Express-Graphic-GV-R795WF3-3GD/dp/B007581QHG/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1376482294&sr=8-7&keywords=sapphire+7950

[b]MSI Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr[/b] - Amazon $259 + $20 rebate - http://www.amazon.com/MSI-R7950-TWIN-FROZR-3GD5/dp/B007NG3WR2/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1376482294&sr=8-10&keywords=sapphire+7950

[b][u]Updates/Summary[/u][/b]

This way you don’t have to read the whole thread, but you can if you want. [b]I went with the MSI TF, loving it. Won’t try another 7950.[/b] Here’s 2 groups of settings which have worked well for me:

[b]Averages 670-675k[/b]
Clock / memory 1163/1500
Thread concurrency: 24000
Power: 20
Intensity: 20
Work size: 256

[b]Averages 688-692k (peaks into the 700s)[/b]
Clock / memory 1163/1500
Thread concurrency: 40960
Power: 20
Intensity: 20
Work size: 256

For the Sapphire Radeon 7950 Boost I have, these settings have been useful (it’s not as easy to get above 630 reliably with this card, hence my love for the MSI):

Clock / memory: 1090 / 1500
Power: 20
Intensity: 20
Work size: 256
Thread concurrency: 24000 yields 620-625k averages
Thread concurrency: 40960 yields 665-670k averages

capriciousmike

Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X HD 7950 OC are great. I’d say get more of those since you are familiar with how they run.

Thanks for the feedback! I’ve got the MSI coming, I will compare the two and see how it goes. I’ll post up my results.

Nutnut

I tend to stick with 1 type of card which for me is the gigabyte 7970s. At least that way you can add more cards easily without having to muck around tuning it all. Just copy the settings form the others.

Unfortunately i don’t have any 7950s so cant really comment but what i will say is once you have something that works, stick to it. ;)

I totally agree. I’m building multiple rigs, so seeing what cards I like the most, and then buy a bunch of them lol.

Hey guys, just wanting to help the community out, so here’s an announcement: [b]The MSI card just dropped even more, $244 from Amazon plus the rebate![/b]

Buy, buy, buy! Great price.

As I posted on forum.litecoin.net, the MSI TFIII gets my vote, undervolts very well, cooler is very good giving low temperatures and the MSI warranty is great. I get ~640kH/s at 1.069v - 1.081v core (varies between cards) at ~70C with fans at 45%.

I won’t buy any other brand of 7950 any more.

Can ya’ll post up your MSI configs, or point me to some good ones? Trying different things out right now, seeing 630’s.

Avendoor

hey all, just thought I would chip in my config files, i am mining on asus D-CU 2 7950’s
i currently get 650-660 per card, please see below;

{
“pools” : [
{
“url” : “pool details : port”,
“user” : “worker username”,
“pass” : “password”
}
]
,
“intensity” : “20,20”,
“vectors” : “1,1”,
“worksize” : “256,256”,
“kernel” : “scrypt,scrypt”,
“lookup-gap” : “2,2”,
“thread-concurrency” : “24000,24000”,
“shaders” : “1792,1792”,
“gpu-engine” : “1100-1100,1100-1100”,
“gpu-fan” : “100-100,100-100”,
“gpu-memclock” : “1550,1550”,
“gpu-memdiff” : “0,0”,
“gpu-powertune” : “-10,-10”,
“gpu-vddc” : “0.000,0.000”,
“temp-cutoff” : “95,95”,
“temp-overheat” : “85,85”,
“temp-target” : “55,55”,
“api-port” : “4028”,
“expiry” : “120”,
“gpu-dyninterval” : “7”,
“gpu-platform” : “0”,
“gpu-threads” : “1”,
“hotplug” : “5”,
“log” : “5”,
“no-pool-disable” : true,
“no-submit-stale” : true,
“queue” : “1”,
“scan-time” : “60”,
“scrypt” : true,
“temp-hysteresis” : “3”,
“shares” : “0”,
“kernel-path” : “/usr/local/bin”
}

the above pool / username / password just replace with your desired details.

hope this helps anyone…

ps this is my 1st post here…

if this has helped anyone, feel free to donate :)

6sMG44F57LZKpH9ztcMRq59k1dUfBCDW8e

Here’s what I’ve got so far with the MSI 7950 TF:

Clock / memory 1163/1500
Thread concurrency: 24000
Power: 20
Intensity: 20
Work size: 256

I’m averaging 670’s with less than 1% reject and no HW errors. Temps 72-74, but the room it’s in is having vent issues. I suspect temperature would be 5* cooler otherwise.

Will play with the numbers more, but I’m really happy so far with the MSI reaching 670’s with ease. Especially for the price paid. Will likely batch order some now for multiple rigs.

I bought 2 Gigabyte 7950s one brand new and one used. The thing is that the new one has 14 power pins and the used one only has 12. The used one actually is working better for some reason. Here is what I have:

New one

585 kh/s
75 temp
Fan running at 94% (on auto)

Used one

605 kh/s
62 temp
Fan running at 47% (on auto)

Both cards are set at 1000/1250.
cgminer 3.3.1
Thread concurrency: 21712
Intensity: 19
Work size: 256

Any Ideas on how I can make the new one run as fast (and as quiet) as the used one?

Thanks

Try undervolting it?

corather

I have 3 twin frozr cards. All of them are voltage locked and I’m running in linux. :'(

Well I can powertune them down and they run fairly cool. I had to stick mine in a case because I have carpeting. Didn’t want static shock to make me sick with grief. They run 71, 77, and 78 and pull around 505k each after voiding the warranty and cleaning the mess of thermal grease the manufacturer left behind. Very stable and almost no rejects. If I move to windows I’ll be able to unlock them and get them to run around 600k+ each but I’m happy it’s even running at all. ;D

I do need to add another fan and probably drill some holes in the side panel to really push some air down on the other 2 cards. Just been broke lately. I’ve been trying to put an order into KnCMiner for one of their ASIC machines, so much of my time and resources are going into that.

What are your settings? Look at mine up above, I have the MSI running at 670-675 with those.

Just tonight I fiddled with some more settings with even higher speed:

Clock / memory 1163/1500
Thread concurrency: 40960
Power: 20
Intensity: 20
Work size: 256

Averaging 688-692 now (yes, average). The peaks are into the 700’s. Temp is 77 in a large warm room.