November 21st, 2013 
CryptoBadger Many of you have contacted me recently asking for my opinion of x brand/model of 7950 GPU, given that some of the top choices from my mining hardware guide are sold out everywhere. Thought I’d throw up a quick post with some of the best alternatives for those of you that are looking to build a rig.
Yes, the Radeon 7950 is still the best GPU mining platform (and probably will be for quite some time), assuming you don’t have access to free electricity. Click “read more” for the list.
Top Tier cards
If you can find an MSI TF3 in stock anywhere at a price that isn’t outrageous (a lot of people are trying to sell them for $400-500 given the latest mining rush), absolutely grab it—it’s still the best option. Note that the “BE” (“Boost Edition”) models are not the same cards and will likely result in slightly lower mining speeds than their non-BE counterparts (update: I didn’t mean to give the impression that the BE model is necessarily a bad choice for mining—it’s a fine performer, but given the choice, grab the non-BE model if possible).
The Gigabyte WF3 cards are on par with the MSI cards speed-wise, although there are quite a few reports of blown VRMs on these cards (I experienced one myself, but I’ve also used quite a few of them). Gigabyte does offer a 3-year warranty on the card, and the RMA process is relatively painless, so don’t let that stop you if you’re looking for a top-tier mining card (assuming you can find any in stock).
The Sapphire Vapor-X is what I’ve been using in the mining rigs that I build for customers lately, given that Amazon seems to get new stock in daily. It offers 99% of the speed of the MSI and Gigabyte cards, while offering near silence (at least in comparison to other top mining GPUs). The extremely low noise of these cards is really nice if your rig will be located within earshot. The Vapor-X cards are also constructed like tanks—they’re significantly heavier than other brands—and it’s the only brand of card that I’ve used that I’ve never had to RMA for any reason.
The Sapphire HD 7950 offers the performance of the Vapor-X card without the superior acoustic qualities. It’s also a bit cheaper, so if your rig will be located someplace that you won’t be able to hear it anyway, this might be your best choice.
Edit: If you’re looking for cgminer settings for any of these cards, check out my FAQ entry on the subject.
Other good options
I’ve had several comments from people that are running HIS IceQ cards at 640+ Kh/sec while undervolted without issues, although I haven’t used one myself. The single fan would appear to be a disadvantage when compared to the top tier choices, but the performance of the card seems solid.
I’ve also heard favorable things about the PowerColor HD7950, especially given it’s (typically) low price.
Avoid
Anything by XFX, if you trust the general consensus of the internet mining community. I haven’t used XFX’s cards personally, but there seem to be quite a few people that are unhappy with them.
Non-7950 Options
Perhaps you have access to free (or extremely cheap) electricity, or mining isn’t your primary concern. Here are some options that aren’t based on the Radeon 7950 GPU.
The Radeon R9 280X is probably the best “next generation” GPU choice, although it’s essentially a re-badged 7970. Properly configured, you should see hashrates that are about 10% higher than the 7950 (may improve over time as the drivers mature). You’ll pay for the increased speed with significantly higher power consumption, however. Models from Gigabyte, Sapphire, and MSI should all be good choices.
The Radeon 7970, like the 280X, hashes only slightly faster than a well-configured 7950, but it consumes far more power—generally making it a sub-optimal mining GPU. However, for those of you with free electric, there have been some good deals on these cards recently, with some examples selling for as low as ~$220. At similar prices points, there is probably no reason to choose the 7970 over the 280X.
I’ll also mention the Radeon 7990, although I’m not a huge fan of it for mining (some people do swear by it, though). This is essentially two 7970 GPUs in a single card package, so you can expect 1300+ Kh/sec per card. Sounds great, until you consider the downsides: the massive levels of heat that these things throw around, the extremely high power consumption, and the high up-front cost of the cards. However, if you’re trying to build a rig with the absolute highest GPU density possible, without regard with other considerations, then this is probably your card. The MSI or Sapphire are good choices here.
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Hi there,
I must say, yes wonderful Facts!! I have a question for you and I hope you can answer this. I’m trying to buy 3 Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 I’m just wondering if this a good start. I am more than like to pick them up for 200 to 300 bucks for 3 used ones. Please let me know what you think. I am trying to go under 1000 bucks for my rig when I build them. Please and thank you.
I bought the MSI R7950-2PMD3GD5/OC bu it seems to run very hot. I have been mining some FTC and LTC and I have set the core clock to 970MHz and memory to 1300MHz. I have clocked down the volts to 1.020V. I am only hasing around 575KH/s at intensity 19. I can’t get the core clock any higher or it crashes. I have even tried 1GHz core @ 1.2v and it still didn’t work…. any ideas? The cards run at 79c… I didn’t put in any of the thread concurrency instruction as I am not sure how to do that or if that would do anything.
Ace:
I have many of these MSI cards (14). I have found that the optimal numbers for these cards are as follows in CgMiner 1115 Engine and 1250 Memory try it. I use 24000 for TC, and use I 20. I get a consistent 670-680 K/H with no hardware errors, low rejects and the temp usually never goes above 73.
Hope this helps. Crypto I owe everything I know to you. You were the teacher and I have been experimentin ever since. Thanks Bro
Hi. Would there be any negative side effects of mixing and matching some of the cards you mention?
e.g. 1x Saphire HD7950, 1x Vapor-X and 1x Toxic?
Maybe this is an obvious question but complete noob here!
Thanks.
(great info here btw – thank you)
sorry – in 1 rig I’m talking about 🙂
or more likely; an MSI TF3, a Saphire HD7950 and 1x Vapor-X
I’m running 1 Saphire HD7950 and 1x 7950 Vapor-X in one rig with no problem. I think they will work smoothly for you.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Unbelievable. Amazon had 10 MSI R9 280X Gaming (not sure what that is) for $300 each. I went out to read ONE review to see if it’s suitable for mining. When I return to the site 5 minutes later, every one is GONE. Crap. 🙂 Does anyone have advice on the MSI gaming 280x for future reference?
I have one coming (from tigerdirect), so will let you know how it works out. What are you doing in the meantime for cards? I’m starting with one and trying to decide how to add more GPU as I get money. Im thinking the giga R9 290x.
Currently I’m running one Sapphire 290x with an arctic xtreme III, 2 Sapphire Dual-x 7950s and one Sapphire Vapor-x 7950. Can’t under volt the 290x yet. The 7950s are undervolted to 1093. Can’t seem to get better than 615 kh/s with them, but getting 981 with the 290x. It runs WAY cooler with the xtreme III aftermarket cooler. And MUCH quieter.
Nice, I’m itching to get a 290x. The gaming 280x is pretty slick, quiet, running 74-76C and pumping out upwards of 750kH/s. It obviously comes down to configs, but I think it also heavily depends on the drivers you use b/c the configs people swear by are getting me 600kH/s, but an ‘older’ config is getting me 750. I just made the rig on the 23rd, so unless the instructions installed old drivers I’m a little confused. What I’m using:
-I 20 -g 2 -w 256 –shaders 2048 –gpu-engine 1125 –gpu-memclock 1800 –thread-concurrency 22272 –temp-target 76 –auto-fan –lookup-gap 2 –expiry 1 –scan-time 1 –queue 0 –no-submit-stale -o
I have a rig similar to yours with 2x Sapphire 280x and one from Powercolor. I am experiencing overheating issues with the Powercolor card although same settings like the Sapphire ones. Sapphires are always under 75 degrees while Powercolor used to stay at around 86 deg and now 90 deg with crash due to overheating. All 3 cards are mining at about 700 kH/s, no undervolting yet.
Power consumption seems to be higher for powercolor too (could be due to different voltage?)
I have read somewhere that Powercolor have a more simple heating system and would recommend miners to stay away from Powercolor r9 280x as long as they dont live in arctic regions…