5970's worth buying?
#1
I'm putting together a build, and I've been reading some benchmarks on different cards.
It appears that the ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB can crack at ~160000 h/s, and the GTX 970 gets around ~150000 h/s.
it also appears that I can purchase 5970's at $120 per, where the 970 costs ~$300.

I'm wondering if it's worth it to purchase 3+ 5970's. I know the power consumption would be much higher, and heat would be difficult to dissipate, but cooling shouldn't be an issue.

Also, if anyone has suggestions on a motherboard and psu, I would be interested in advice on that as well.

EDIT: I'm also considering a 7990, but they're hard to find and not very cheap.

EDIT 2: I'm also purchasing this piece by piece, which adds some appeal to the 5970's, as they're cheap and I can buy multiple.
#2
which algorithms are you comparing there? I am pretty sure the 5970 should *not* have a higher rate (apples to apples) than the GTX 970.
#3
(05-20-2016, 09:08 PM)unix-ninja Wrote: which algorithms are you comparing there? I am pretty sure the 5970 should *not* have a higher rate (apples to apples) than the GTX 970.

I read on this site: 
http://www.crackingservice.com/?q=node/20

It did seem very odd to me that a card as old as the 5970 would perform better than a 970..
Maybe I misread? Or the website could just be wrong. I did some more research on the 970, and it looks like the website might be wrong. Either way, I can still get 3 5970's for close to the price of 1 970. Is there any value to that?

EDIT: Also it might be useful to point out that I'm primarily cracking WPA, but I'd like something with a little room to grow, if I need it to crack anything else.

EDIT 2: Looking at that site again, there's actually a disclaimer saying that the numbers might be wrong due to oclHashcat getting better.
#4
AMD gpu's are not pci compliant. If I were you I would only stick with Nvidia. On that note, get a 970 or newer. The newer nvidia cards have the best $$$/perf.

We, Sagitta HPC, have a public list of all of our benchmarks if you would like to take a gander: https://gist.github.com/epixoip
#5
(05-20-2016, 10:07 PM)darkseid4nk Wrote: AMD gpu's are not pci compliant. If I were you I would only stick with Nvidia. On that note, get a 970 or newer. The newer nvidia cards have the best $$$/perf.

We, Sagitta HPC, have a public list of all of our benchmarks if you would like to take a gander: https://gist.github.com/epixoip

Can you explain what you mean by 'not pci compliant'? Sorry, I'm kind of new to this.
#6
They pull too much power and fry motherboards...
#7
Haha, to clarify what darkseid means is that they do not adhere to the PCI-e specification. With that wording it makes it sound like the GPUs are not compliant with the PCI DSS Tongue But actually the 5970 wasn't too terrible on power consumption, especially for a dual-GPU card. But they are difficult to cool. But what darkseid said absolutely applies to the HD 7990, you should be avoiding that card like the plague.

The big problem with the HD 5970 is that AMD no longer makes a driver for VLIW cards, so HD 5000 & HD 6000 series cards are all but worthless at this point.