Currently solution for all those who are having 2G cards will be to move to Zcash which has almost exactly same profitability as ETH. Sell ZEC and buy ETH for the same price

I am sorry this is not a technical advice from any point of view but a crappy solution to unfortunate miner buddies.
Those cards will be more profitable to mine the ZCash anyway. I have all my 7970, 7950 running the ZCash.