MSI R7970 Lightning Review

[siopao1984]

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First unveiled at CeBIT 2012, the heavily souped up MSI R7970 Lightning is one of the best looking cards we ever had in our labs. If you still don't know what a Radeon HD 7970 is or how it performs, read this article first.

At the back of the card, we get a large black metal backplate with a plastic blue orb-like cap placed behind the GPU core (more on that later)

Unlike the reference design, we actually get six physical display outputs for an immersive Eyefinity setup - 4 x mini-DP and 2 x DVI (single link) ports

Box, documentation and bundle - besides the mandatory manual and driver CD, we have a "Military Class MIL-STD-810G" certificate touting its durability, handy probe wires for the voltage check points, mini-DP to DP convertor, DVI to HDMI dongle and two 6-pin to 8-pin PCIe convertors (rare).

When the card is in operation, there are attractive blue LEDs at the front and back, and 14+2+1 of them at the VRM area behind actually indicates how many power phases are in use.

By default, the core speed of the MSI R7970 Lightning is factory overclocked at 1070MHz, 16% higher than the reference design (925MHz). This is not surprising as most Radeon HD 7970s that we've played with can run at that frequency without a voltage bump.

Read more: MSI R7970 Lightning Review by VR-Zone.com

[siopao1984]

The mysterious blue orb reminds us of (Iron Man) Tony Stark's arc reactor embedded in his chest. MSI calls their contraption "GPU Reactor".



Covers off



This small PCB module purportedly helps overclockability with extra capacitors to increase current volume by 88% and reduce power supply noise by 13%





Backplate off



Heatsink off - another black heatspreader prevents the card from warping and conducts heat from the memory chips/MOSFETs which will get toasty during heavy overclocking.

[siopao1984]

Here we have the MSI R7970 Lightning in its full naked glory. As we can see, the PCB looks mostly identical to the reference design but it has been extended height wise to accomodate the additional power circuitry (14+2+1 phases of power, as compared to 6+2 phases on the typical HD 7970).



A familar 256MB Hynix GDDR5 BGA memory module widely used in cards released in 2012, with twelve of them placed in a 384bit ring bus configuration on this board.



The CHiL CHL8228G Digital PWM also appears on this board, providing i2c software control for voltages.



MSI has decked out the card with their trademark Military Class III components, featuring gold plated SSCs (solid state chokes), tantalum core Hi-c CAP and CopperMOS.



Like the ASUS HD7970 DirectCU II, the R7970 Lightning also features dual 8-pin PCIe connectors, which allows the board to draw up to 375W of power (150+150+75) in extreme scenarios. We are also pleased to report that the native PowerTune limits are raised to 180% and OCP limits relaxed, making this a better proposition than reference designs for overclockers.



At the middle of the board, we have multi-meter probe points for monitoring the card's active PLL/VDDCI, memory and core voltages.



MSI has preloaded two BIOS settings (normal and LN2), which can be selected from a DIP switch next to the CrossfireX connectors.



MSI's Twin Frozr IV cooler - 5 aluminum heatpipes connected to a dense array of fins over the card



MSI calls their fans "Propeller Blades", and they will run in reverse during startup for 30 seconds to remove dust from the heatsinks



The two 10cm fans are rated at 0.55A@12v

[lloyd_joy]

this is another monster card with a monster price... gggrrrr... priced at more than 5K rmb dri (roughly more than 32.5K php). pwerteng tulo-a sa akoang laway pag kita nko ani sa shop. akoa gyu'ng gi hikap... hehehe... pero, sakit man kaayo ang price nya... this is way better than the Asus DCU2 if mag compare sa specs nila... mas pas2x pud ni compared sa Asus then mas tweakable...

as of this time, mura'g mao ni ang pinaka kusog (pinaka OCed) na HD7970...

here's a captured screen shot sa online shops prices dri... tsk tsk tsk... mga member ni sila sa "Bunal Trading"... hehehehe...

[siopao1984]

Software and Overclocking

MSI Afterburner, developed by Unwinder of Rivatuner fame and currently at version 2.20 Beta 14, is the de-facto GPU overclocking utility that most enthusiasts turn to even with non MSI graphic cards. Besides offering the ability to monitor and adjust clock speeds and voltages, it features advanced screenshot and video recording functions (à la Fraps).



On the MSI R7970 Lightning, we have the ability to push the core voltage up to 1.35v (usually 1.3v or less) without encountering any screen blackouts caused by OCP (nanny state overclocking protection). We can also adjust the Aux Voltage (PLL) for an additional 30mV boost on the PCIe bus to stabilize high frequencies.



Temperature Testing

Methodology: We set the fans to 100% and looped Unigine Heaven 3.0 on extreme settings for 10 minutes and took the maximum temperature from the ondie sensor. Ambient temperature was 18 degrees.



Stock Voltage Load Temps: 33 degrees celsius (WTFBBQ?!!)

We rechecked this result over and over and even the classic finger test proves its accuracy - the latest Twin Frozr IV cooler has crazy levels of efficiencies





1.35v Voltage Load Temps: 70 degrees celsius (Very Good!)

At this level of voltage on our other cards, we would have gone deaf from the screaming fans and still wouldn't get such a good result. It is worth noting that at this point the card is pushing out over 300W++ of heat so this result exhibits the Twin Frozr IV's voodooish cooling performance





Test Setup



CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4817MHz 1.52v
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme (Bios 1103)
Memory: G.Skills ARES 2133Mhz DDR3 16GB Kit
Power Supply: Antec True Quattro Pro 1200W
Storage: Intel 520 series 250GB SSD
Graphics Cards / Drivers:
8.960 beta drivers:
MSI R7970 Lightning 3GB
AMD Reference Radeon HD 7970 3GB
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC Edition

296.10 WHQL drivers:
ASUS GTX580 DirectCU II 1.5GB

[siopao1984]

3DMark 11







Unigine Heaven 3.0



Shaders/Textures: High, Filter: Trilinear, Anisotropy: 4x, Occlusion/Refraction/Volumetric: Enabled, Tessellation: Extreme





Alien vs Predator



Resolution: 1920 x 1080, Texture/Shadow Quality: 3, Anisotropic Filtering: 16, SSAO: ON, Vertical Sync: OFF, DX11 Tessellation/Advanced Shadows: ON, DX11 MSAA Samples: 4




Batman Arkham City









Battlefield 3

[siopao1984]

Crysis 2



Resolution: 1920x1080 Map: Downtown, Quality: Ultra with Hi-res Textures, API: DX11, AA: Off





Left 4 Dead 2





Resolution: 1920x1080, AA: 8x MSAA, Filtering Mode: Anisotropic 16X, Vsync: Disabled, Shader: Very High, Effect/Model/Texture/Paged Pool: High, Multicore Rendering: Enabled





LuxMark 2.0



Scene: Room (2016K triangles)





oclHashcat-lite 0.09



CMD LINE: oclHashcat-lite64.exe 9b957cc6ab97cbf88c4f6f0f146adafe

[siopao1984]

Conclusion



There are a lot of things that we like about this card - namely the aptly placed blue LEDs which will look good in any rig, generous (six) display outputs, unreal cooling performance (100% fan speed at stock gets you 33 degrees celsius at full load), an (over)engineered power circuitry for extreme overclocking and the extended adjustable voltage range. If you are the kind of bloke who is looking for durability and longevity, the "Military Class III" MIL-STF-810G certification should insure that the card is built to last.

We were disappointed however that these niceties did not result in a better maximum core overclock (our sample only achieved 1250MHz, which is typical of most air cooled HD7970s out there). Also, the "GPU Reactor" power module takes up quite a lot of space behind the card, which is a problem if the adjacent slot is used for CrossFireX or other purposes. Alas, these flaws do not stop the MSI R7970 Lightning from putting on a very good show in our benchmarks and games

With an MSRP of US$599.99, we think that the enhancements put in by the MSI engineers are worth the $50 premium over reference HD 7970 designs.

[lloyd_joy]

available na'ng MSI Lightning HD7970 sa 360Buy.com... 15 units lang ang available as of this introduction time for the whole main land China (sa 360Buy online store lang nila. other shops are not included though. naa pud limited stocks ang uban shops for sure)... kaso, mahal man compared sa MSRP... hasta and 360Buy, nag pa member sa "Bunal Trading"... sige'g pamunal sa mga customers... hhhhaaaayyyy... samot na ni inig pagawas nila sa GTX680... atang pud ko sa price para comparison... hehehehe...

[jesse5648]

lamia ani master oi, lami sad kaayug presyo hehehehhe