MSI R6970 Lightning

VGA Reviews by petervandamned @ 2011-12-20

On the market from april 2011. Still ATI's fasted single GPU card. Before the new 7000 serie hits the market, we will have a look and tests on MSI's R6970 Lighting. Fast enough with the normal air Twin Frozr III as we can see in the tests.

Let's introduce the card

First of all i need to say thank you to MSI for giving us a change to test this card, and for beeing patience.

First of all we want to show some MSI product specs:

The MSI Lightning serie compared to the Ref. ATI serie

And MSI's comparing with another videocard builder. ( Not a Madshrimp test!)

Here is some more MSI's media talk:

Very interesting? Not really time for some real life work now.

The box and his content

So time to pull out the box and card.

containing the video card

The box comes with loads of information about this product and a nice window. But let's open it and take out the card. Besides the actual card what's included ?

First of all the DVD with drivers tools

one mini display cable:

So we can measure the volts on memory GPU and VDDCI with provided cables:

What else can we see in a quick look. One small switch for Performance mode and silent fan mode

The new twin frozr III cooler fans slightly stick out side the housing! For better cooling:

On the back there we find a few small switches. What do they do?

Well for extreme overclocking you can unlock the OCP (Over Current Protection).

PWM Clock tuner from 300 to 350 Mhz for riple elimination.

A V-switch for instant adjusting voltages on GPU, memory and PLL

A MSI 580 Lightning also has a cold bug switch. We will check later if this ATI version really didn't need it

Left to the OCP switches we see the leds on control for the VRMs. Let's first remove the massive cooler and see what underneath it

What's under your cap?

Before we remove the Twin Frozr III cooler. One word of advice. Be very carefull and take your time !

Normally it's an easy job to remove the cooler, but one wrong handling and you could damage the card.

Removing 4 springed screws gives a look at the Cayman XT GPU. Covered in cooling paste.

I cleaned the GPU core. Just a 5 mins job removing and another 15 mins of drying the purifier.

Now we can have a good look at the almost naked video card.

They can't be overlooked, them big ass SFCs Wait what did you say ? SFCs?

Super Ferrite Choke's

Simply explained, these allow for 10% better power efficiency and 30% higher current capacity. Also they run far cooler in reards to regular ones on the referenc design cards. These can help to increase the overclocking capabilities big time. And don't they look great?

After removing the other screws for the big one piece heatsink, we get 3 parts:

Left from the SFC we see in the above picture the Copper Mos (Right if you hold the card normaly)

Time to assemble a complete system and start testing this video card ->

Lightning speeds

We set up a normal system like you probably will use at home:

Intel 2500K overclocked at 5gig 1.425 volt WC cooled by an

Antec Kühler H2O 920

MSI P67A-GD65

Patriot 4GB DDR3 Viper Xtreme 2133 Mhz

MSI R6970 Lighting

Intel SSD 80 gig 320 serie x 2 in raid 0

Energy power meter

Some volt meters and all mounted on a Dimastech bench table

Everthing powered by a

Antec High Current Pro 1200 watt Power Supply

We need some benching software, already used in the MSI's R6870 Hawk review.

First new comer is a Formula 1 test. Codemaster F1 2011 is the logical follow up of the 2010 version:

Let me show you how we do the benchmark test:

With the Ultra profile loaded and the 1920 * 1080 resolution selected this game looks like the real deal.

This one is blasting big holes and truely looking amazing.

Second one in the line of fire is an oldy but still a goody. Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 made in 2008, 2012 will be the launch of FC3. This is a very reliable benchmark, mostly scaling very well with extra GPU, CPU and/or ram power.

Third in line will be Electronic Arts Crysis 2 game

And for the last game test we picked Mafia 2 :

Ending with 3Dmark's Vantage :

Results on the next page ->

Running stock settings

Time for some results at standard speeds of 940Mhz GPU and 1375Mhz of memory clocks, using the 11.12 catalyst driver:

Running at idle speeds at 250 Mhz and 150Mhz only:

However on testing the setting will level up to the standard clocks. Like I did in my previous review we start with the F1 2011 game benchmark. Setting at ultra and the GP circuit of Monaco at place 24 and last.

Next in line was the Far Cry2 benchmark:

Crysis 2 Hardcore :

Mafia 2 :

And ending the standard out of the box tests with some 3dmark 06 and Vantage action:

All these results are run without any system tweaks. Just a straight forward and fresh installed ATI driver. The 2500k will still be the bothleneck for real high score but what the heck,how can the 6970 be overclocked ?

Running standard cooling Overclocking

Time for some fun now !

Remember the switches on the PCB?

With those set to the ON position I was able to go from 940Mhz GPU and 1375Mhz to a nice 1000Mhz and wicked 1580Mhz ram speed by just adjusting the clocks in MSIs Afterburner software .