MSI R6970 2GB Lightning Review

MSI are famed for their custom Lightning series of cards. Let’s see what it brings to AMD’s flagship single GPU graphics card, the HD6970.

Product on Review: MSI R6970 Lightning
Manufacturer and Sponsor: MSI
MSRP: Not listed
Street Price: £316.43

MSI’s company tagline is “Innovation with Style” and looking at their portfolio of custom engineered graphics on the market today, we can see that they have done their own philosophy justice. Currently, most graphics card manufacturers are trending towards using their own custom PCB and coolers to differentiate their products from the competition but the result is a market flooded with choice. This is no doubt beneficial to consumers as competitions drives innovation and most importantly leads to reduced pricing but choice can also cause confusion. Are custom cards worth the extra over reference designs? Which brand should I opt for? These are some of the questions that strike buyers when presented with a vast list of graphics cards on e-tailor websites.

A few weeks ago, we looked at ASUS’s custom solution at differentiating their high end graphics cards from the competition and this came in the form of the DirectCU II series which when teamed with AMD’s HD6950 produced very favourable results in both performance and noise. MSI have gone several steps further with their Lightning series and brings new meaning to the word innovation. To start, MSI have improved on their Twin Frozr concept and created the third rendition in the form of the aptly named Twin Frozr III cooler. Furthermore, they have taken AMD’s flagship Cayman GPU and teamed it with an unrivalled power circuitry using only the best selection of components to produce the fastest clocked version of the card on the market today. Our review sample comes clocked at a mighty 940MHz on the core, a 7% boost over the reference design and MSI state that the retail version will come clocked even higher at 970MHz! And to top it off, MSI have included a number of unique features such as voltage measuring points, triple overvoltage, a BIOS switch, dual 8 pin PCIe connectors and the popular Afterburner application.

The card we will be looking at today is the HD6970 and the specifications remain unchanged from the reference card. As such the same 1536 stream processors and 2GB framebuffer is present.

A bit about MSI

Established in August 1986, MSI has always focused on four core values: Producing meaningful products, ensuring high product quality, the best customer service and achieving customer satisfaction. MSI’s product portfolio includes designing and manufacturing a diverse range of mainboards, graphics cards, notebooks, all-in-one PCs, server/workstations, industrial computing, barebone systems, communication devices, consumer electronics, car infotainment products and others.

“Quality Products Lead to Faithful Customers” is a motto that guides all that we do at MSI. Everyone at MSI goes all out to be the best of the best in research and development. Currently, 2,000 experienced engineers staff our research and development department. This talented team carries out its work with the latest research equipment, continuing to raise the bar on product quality and innovative product features.

Graphics Card

MSI graphics card is designed for 3D effect, heat dissipation, power control, reliability etc. With stringent design optimization to create the most reliable high performance graphics card without compromising on quality. Global acclaim made it the undisputed number one choice for magazines, website editors and players alike. MSI’s accumulated customer base exceeded 100 million users globally in the graphics card market.

MSI’s brand leadership is well established in the mind of the customers. It is this driving force that propels MSI to constantly move forward.

More here…

Let’s see what this card has in store for us. Next page please.

Specifications

Cayman is the rightful heir to the successful Cypress core. For the most part, the architecture is much the same with some tweaks to increase efficiency and performance per die size. The GPU comes in two variants, Cayman Pro and Cayman XT, the former found on board the HD6950 and the latter on the HD6970. Originally, the Cayman core was poised to be manufactured on the 32nm manufacturing process which would have brought along many new features and possibly better performance in the same package. However, TSMC cancelled the process so Cayman had to resort to the more mature 40nm process, sacrificing many of the new features promised.

The biggest change to the architecture is the use of the VLIW4 design instead of the VLIW5 design used since DX9 graphics cards were first introduced. The main reason was to increase efficiency in newer DX10/11 titles and to put more emphasis on GPGPU computing. The VLIW4 architecture introduces a narrower Stream Processing Unit, in which the 5th stream processor named the “t-unit” has been removed leaving just 4. Despite the Unit only being able to process 4 operations instead of 5, the advantage is that the space saved allows the core to have more SIMD clusters. The end result is that Cayman can have up to 24 SIMD clusters (24 on the HD6970 and 22 on the HD6950) whereas Cypress only had up to 20 SIMDs (20 on the HD5870 and 18 on the HD5850), giving Cayman a 10% improvement per mm squared compared to previous VLIW5 architecture (as used on Barts also). The architecture is now more catered towards GPU Compute than before and the higher SIMD count also gives additional texturing performance. Each SIMD from both architectures contains 4 texture units so Cayman now benefits from up to 96 units rather than the 80 available on Cypress.

Cayman: VLIW4, 24 SIMD clusters, 96 texture units
Cypress: VLIW5, 20 SIMD clusters, 80 texture units

Another benefit of the new core is its improved dual 8th generation tessellator that bring up to 3 times the tessellation performance of the HD5870.

As mentioned, Cayman comes in two variants as found on the HD6950 and HD6970. The key difference is that the HD6950 has 22 SIMD clusters instead of 24 on the HD6970, leading to fewer texture units (88 vs. 96) and fewer stream processors (1408 vs. 1536). The GPU boasts an impressive 2.64 billion transistors on a die size 389mm squared. For reference, the mainstream Barts core sports 1.7 billion transistors on a 255mm squared package. A 256-bit GDDR5 memory bus is still supported but this time 2GB of VRAM is provided to compete with Nvidia’s offerings.

Cayman is a step ahead of Cypress and Nvidia when it comes to texturing performance but the stream processor deficit means that the pixel fill rate and shader operation can’t quite match up to the HD5870. The question is whether the more efficient design can give better performance in real gaming situations. One downside of the Cayman core is its maximum power consumption but that is always the risk with packing more transistors into ever larger cores. AMD have PowerTune to regulate the TDP so we don’t expect the power draw to exceed 250W. More will be revealed about PowerTune later on. However, the Lightning has a significantly higher maximum power draw than the reference card to cater for its overclocking requirements.

Product Specifications

Graphics Engine: MSI AMD Radeon HD6970
Model: R6970 Lightning
Bus Standard: PCI Express x16 2.1 (Compatible with 1.1)
Memory Size (MB): 2048 GDDR5
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Core Clock Speed (MHz): 940 (sample) / 970 (retail)
Stream Processors: 1536
Shader Clock (MHz): 940
Memory Clock Speed (MHz): 5500

3D API: Direct X 11 & OpenGL 4.0
DVI Output: 2 (DVI-I & 1 DVI-D)
HDMI: 1 (HDMI 1.4a w/audio (8 channel LPCM & bitstream))
DisplayPort: 2 mini DPs 1.2 (1 DP-to-mini DP adapter supplied)
VGA: Supported using DVI-to-VGA adapter
Display Output (Max Resolution): 2560 x 1600
Crossfire Support: Yes
Card Dimension (mm): 310 x 127 x 40

The lightning boasts very impressive specifications. Those who have read the previous ASUS HD6970 will know that it required a high voltage to achieve a final core clock speed of 949MHz and yet the MSI card comes pre-overclocked at 940MHz. MSI have stated that retail versions of the card will come with an even more impressive 970MHz core clock speed!

Features

Get Immersed with AMD Eyefinity Technology
•Enable ultra-high resolution multi-monitor gaming with 2GB of high speed GDDR5 memory.
•Expand your favourite games across up to 4 displays with AMD Eyefinity technology for an expansive field of view.
•See more of the battle than ever before with up to 4 simultaneous displays.
•Get the freedom and flexibility to upgrade. This modular solution enables you to add additional displays.
•Put your productivity into overdrive and let up to 4 displays put all the information you need right before your eyes.
•Don’t choose between play and work. Let up to 4 displays help you enjoy games, movies and the web at the same time.

Get Amazing EyeDefinition Graphics with DirectX 11 Technology
•New and advanced architecture featuring full DirectX® 11 support and scalable geometry processing.
•Featuring a new and advanced architecture with scalable geometry processing, the AMD Radeon HD™ 6900 Series is purpose-built to dominate your games.
•Maximum efficiency & performance. AMD PowerTune technology puts exceptionally intelligent power management under your control.
•Raise the bar for beautifully smooth image quality with Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing (EQAA).
•Dual advanced programmable tessellation engines for twice the geometry processing performance of previous generations.
•Play your favorite games in full stereo 3D, and get incredibly rich and interactive gameplay with AMD HD3D technology.

Speed Up Applications and Enjoy Brilliant Video with AMD EyeSpeed Technology
•Unleash the most demanding applications with AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) technology.
•Supports double precision floating point arithmetic to handle computationally intense workloads.
•Smooth visual quality with AMD EyeSpeed visual acceleration technology.
•Experience Blu-ray 3D as it was intended with AMD HD3D technology.
•Take advantage of AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series graphics’ Dolby TrueHD and 3D HDTV support.

Put out Stunning Visual and Unrivalled Audio Experience with HD3D Technology
•Stereo 3D display/glasses support
•Stereo 3D gaming
•Blu-ray™ 3D support
•3rd Party stereo 3D middleware software support
•Launching with AMD Radeon™ 6900 Series GPUs

Microsoft DirectX 11
Enable PC users to enjoy an advanced computing experience and to do more with their PC

AMD Eyefinity Multi-Display Technology
Unlocks the power of GPU’s processor cores to accelerate the most demanding system tasks

AMD CrossFireX™ Technology
Gets up to 1.8X of a graphics performance boost in dual mode.

3rd Generation TeraScale Engine
Provides increased processing power for the latest games and accelerated applications

40nm Process Technology
Provides enhanced processor performance while using less power and better transistor efficiency than previous generation technology

Dolly®TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Support
Get a fully immersive high-definition audio experience with the latest Blu-ray movies

AMD PowerPlay™ Technology
Power draw scales according to activity so when GPU activity is low, the power draw is minimal

Enhanced Unified Video Decoder (UVD) 3
Watch the hottest Blu-ray movies, online video and other HD content beyond 1080p with low power and low noise with GPU acceleration and enhanced Unified Video Decoder (UVD) 3 features

MSI Exclusive Innovations

Power4 Architecture
– World’s first 18 phase PWM on HD 6970.
– Independent Memory Power support.
– Copper MOS with 2x high current capacity.
– Proadlizer*4 to optimized power supply.
Propeller Blade on Twin Frozr III
– Twin Frozr III Thermal Design with 26℃ cooler & 12 dB quieter.
– Propeller Blade technology for 20% more airflow.
– Dual 9cm fans with dual 8mm SuperPipes for best heat dissipation.
– Form-in-one heatsink covers memory and modules to dissipate heat efficiency.
Triple Overvoltage by Afterburner
– Support voltage adjustment of GPU/Memory/VDDCI
– The oc capability can be boosted 20% up!!
Top Quality Components
– Military Class II Components for longer product lifespan.
– LPL (Lightning Power Layer) for the stable power supply.

Afterburner
Afterburner co-development by MSI and Rivatuner, MSI releases the ultimate graphics card utility “Afterburner”. This utility enables all MSI graphics cards users to boost performance and to monitor all kinds of critical information in real-time. Afterburner is a completely free utility which is compatible with almost all MSI graphics cards.

MSI Solid Capacitor Graphic cards
MSI Solid Capacitor Graphic Card MSI Graphics Card products utilities high quality solid capacitor. For the gamers and high-end users, this feature not only means that product has better quality components within, but also provide much stronger support while users want to engage in hard-core tuning.

Packaging and Content

The front of the box
When first presented with the MSI HD6970 Lightning box, the most remarkable observation is its sheer size. It is by far the biggest graphics card box I have come across measuring a mighty 46cm x 31cm x 8cm, hinting at the beast that resides inside. The packaging is certainly very striking and attractive, using a red (for AMD) and grey colour scheme with illustrations of a fighter jet and Lightning in allusion to its name. The Lightning series of graphics cards represent MSI’s most innovative and feature rich rendition of high end cards and the features displayed are testament to their quality. The HD6970 Lightning, as boldly printed across the base, uses MSI’s newly designed Twin Frozr III cooler and features an 18 phase PWM VRM circuitry along with triple overvoltage to make the most of it. As standard, MSI also advertises their use of military class components which altogether aims to target serious overclockers.

The back of the box
The back of the box carries on the same theme and background as the front. This is also where the features, minimum system requirements and product specifications are listed. More impressively, MSI have listed some of the key specifications in 30 different languages.

The features and system requirements
A closer look at the features and we can see that the card supports a range of AMD specific features such as AVIVO HD, Eyefinity and HD3D technology, accelerated video transcoding which programs such as Cyberlink’s Mediaespresso supports, and of course CrossfireX. The graphics card uses demands a 650W power supply minimum, 100W more than what a reference HD6970 demands.

Window into the box
The box uses a front Velcro attached flap which when opened, reveals more of the features specific to the MSI card. Here, we can see a plastic covered cut out that showcases the graphics card below. Surrounding the cut out are the Twin Frozr III cooler’s key features. The custom MSI cooler, which has become revered amongst enthusiasts, uses dual 9cm PWM fans for 40% more airflow and the unique propeller blades are contributory factors. The heatsink uses a high density fin array and nickel plated copper base for optimal heat transfer and dissipation. And to aid the process, the cooler uses 2 8mm and 3 6mm heat pipes to transfer heat more efficiently. The end result is 26C cooler and 12dB quieter operation compared to the reference cooler.

MSI unique features
The flap displays more information on the highly engineered power circuitry that the Lightning card boasts. Unlike many other manufacturers, MSI are not simply adding a custom cooler in the bid of attracting potential buyers, but instead they have gone to the length of arming their card with some of the best components available to ensure stability and durability, or as an enthusiast would see it; more room for overclocking. Building the foundations of the card is the Power 4 Architecture, Military Class II Components, improved PCB design and Triple Over-Voltage.

Military Class II components
As well as the inclusion of MSI afterburner, the card comes with military class components in the form of highly conductive capacitors (Hi-c Caps), solid ferite chokes (SFCs) with super permeable ferrite cores, and solid capacitors with aluminium cores. These aim to deliver cleaner power delivery, a longer lifespan and better overclocking headroom. Lightning Power Layer is a unique MSI PCB design for the GPU, memory and power circuitry to reduce noise and increase stability.

MSI Power 4 Architecture
The Power 4 Architecture incorporates an 18 phase PWM design instead of the 8 phase design found on the reference card. The Lightning also uses NEC Proadlizers which were first featured on Gigabyte’s SOC cards. The capacitors provide current capacity of up to 5000microFarads and extremely low ESL/ESR for super overclocking ability and the Lightning features 4 of those chips in place of regular capacitors. The CopperMOS feature refers to the small built in heatspreaders present on the high current MOSFETs for additional cooling. And finally, the Lightning has dedicated memory power for superior overclocking and as such features dual 8 pin power connectors rather than 1 6 pin and 1 8 pin connectors.

Opening the box
Finally going inside packaging is another box covered by a tough plastic shroud. The box houses the graphics card and all the accessories within a foam enclosure for additional protection. The card itself is wrapped in an anti-static bag but the sheer size of the card is apparent since it spans nearly the whole length of the box. Below the foam are the utility CDs and leaflets.

The bundle
The bundle is fairly healthy with some unique additions. Included in the package are:
-1x Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter
-2x 6pin to 8pin connectors
-2x voltage probe cables
-1x 10cm CrossFireX bridge
-1x DVI to VGA adapter
-1x Driver Disc
-1x Quick User guide
-1x Lightning information leaflet
-1x HD6970

Very interestingly, the 8 pin cable adapters don’t require 2 6 pin cables making it very unique. The voltage probe cables allows enthusiast to use their voltmeter to easily take voltage readings off the board at the specified check points. The Lightning user guide provides further information of the AMD reference features and specifications. More importantly, it provides a diagram of the PCB and illustrates the card’s specific features.

Closer Look

The R6970 Lightning

The MSI HD6970 Lightning is a stunning card when finally removed from its anti-static bag. The gun-metal grey finish with black and red accents on the metal shroud makes for a very attractive finish. MSI’s attention to detail is the highlight of the graphics card, from the Twin Frozr III emblem to the unique design of the cooler and most importantly the re-engineered PCB. Rather than opt for some tacky looking decal, MSI have kept the metal shroud clean of any such eyesores, resulting in a very professional end product. With its dual fan design, the Lightning certainly impresses on initial observations and its sheer size at 31cm begs the question as to what is housed beneath the cooler.

The back of the card

Turning to the back of the card, we can see that the PCB has been left bare unlike the reference cards which opt for a metal backplate. The PCB spans a lengthy 28.3cm but it is immediately clear that MSI make the most of the space available to fit as many components as possible for an improved power circuitry. Another noticeable feature of the PCB is its width at 12.7cm making it 1.7cm wider than the reference PCB. MSI use the extra width for additional features such as voltage check points and a unique BIOS switch. It also allows the card to sport a more robust power circuitry. We can also see that the cooler and metal support bracket are attached using spring loaded screws.

The NEC Proadlizers

Instead of using numerous solid capacitors on the card, MSI have gone for the hybrid selection, thus using a mixture of solid aluminium cored capacitors, Hi-c CAPs and the more innovative NEC TOKIN Proadlizers. The Lightning favours the use of Hi-c CAPs of which we find quite a few both on the underside and top side of the PCB. With a rareTantalum core, the capacitor ensures greater efficiency and reliability ensuring 15x less leakage. The NEC Proadlizers feature incredible capacitance to optimise power delivery. The capacitors provide current capacity of up to 5000microFarads and extremely low ESL/ESR for super overclocking ability. Of the four chips, three are dedicated for the GPU and the last is reserved for the memory.

The DIP switches and phase LEDs.

Another unique addition to the card are 4 DIP switches labelled Mem V-switch, GPU V-switch, PWM clock tuner and OCP unlocker (left to right). The first two switches increases the two voltages respectively while the PWM clock tuner allows the PWM clock frequency to be increased. The OCP unlocker removes the over-current protection. This is useful for extreme overclockers wanting to push the card to its limit but isn’t recommended for general users. At the end of the PCB are 14 LEDs that display the number of active phases.

The BIOS switch

The Lightning series of cards also feature a unique BIOS switch that differs in use to the standard BIOS switch found on reference cards. The two BIOS are labelled ‘Silence’ and ‘Performance’ but in reality, the switch doesn’t change fan speed profiles as it would suggest. Instead, ‘Silence’ is the default BIOS whereas switching to ‘Performance’ increases the GPU and memory headroom in AMD CCC overdrive. It also increases the PowerTune limit by 2.5 times allowing the overclocked card to perform optimally without throttling. For some reason, selecting ‘Performance’ mode would not display to my monitors when booting but that may be reserved to this particular sample. Retail versions of the card will hopefully have this fixed. The other purpose of the dual BIOS is to have a backup in case one fails or becomes affected by cold bugs under LN2 cooling. Unlike the reference board, this custom BIOS switch is located on the underside of the card instead.

The CrossFireX connectors

The HD6970 sports two CrossFireX connectors allowing up to 4 cards to be used simultaneously. MSI has bundled 10cm long bridges implying that they recommend users to leave a gap between cards for improved airflow.

Voltage points

Since the card is targeting extreme overclockers, MSI have added voltage points in the form of small sockets on to the side of the board. They allowed the GPU, memory and PLL voltages to be monitored more accurately using a voltmeter, ideal not only for the precision but also to reduce the dependence on software solutions which are not always when trying to break world records.

Voltage probe adapters

MSI have bundled two small voltage probe adapters in similar fashion to that found on the ASUS Rampage III Extreme. These allows voltages to be measured without having to probe the PCB.

Closer Look (Continued)

The dual 9cm PWM fans

The Twin Frozr III cooler uses dual 9cm PWM fans for optimal airflow. Compared to the 8cm fans on the Twin Frozr II, they generate 40% more airflow and the propeller blades enlarge the angle of the airflow to cool the GPU, memory and power modules at once. There is even a small arrow on the centre to indicate the rotation direction. The fans protrude slightly above the heatsink shroud to draw in more air.

MSI SuperPipe Technology

Here we can see 3 heat pipes, two of which are 8mm ‘Super Pipes’ and the third being 6mm in diameter. These spread out across the length of the heatsink to dissipate heat over a larger surface area. The middle of the heatsink stands higher to increase surface area and to house the two 90mm PWM fans on either side.

More heat pipes

On the other side, we can see two more 6mm heat pipes and the ends of the 3 other heat pipes. MSI have opted for the heat pipe design over the standard vapour chamber to dissipate heat over a much larger surface area.

The two 8 pin power connectors

The card boasts two 8 pin PCIe power connectors each delivering 150W. Along with the PCIe interface, the card can consume up to 375W of power, which when teamed with the superior circuitry makes the card ideal for extreme overclocking. Two adapters are provided for good measure. The extra 2 pin in this case power the three dedicated memory phases whereas AMD PowerTune is based on the GPU’s TDP.

Twin Frozr III

The Twin Frozr III emblem is neatly printed in the corner of the heatsink shroud.

The IO panel

The rear I/O panel has a wide selection of connectors, same as reference HD6970 cards. On the right are two traditional DVI-I connectors, the top being single link and the bottom one being dual link supporting HDMI and HDCP. For those still using VGA outputs, an adapter is provided. Furthermore, a single HDMI 1.4a port is built in and two mini DisplayPorts supporting the latest 1.2 standard. The ports are an example of AMD’s evolution on their display and video decoding features over the HD5XXX series. The main advantage of the new DisplayPort standard is the double bandwidth over the previous 1.1 ports, taking it from 10.8Gbps to 21.6Gbps. In real world applications, it means that a single port can support up to 2 2560×1600 monitors and 4 1920×1200 monitors through daisy chaining or by using an MST hub. The hub means that the card itself no longer has to sport up to 6 individual ports as was found on the Eyefinity6 special edition cards. As such, the two provided ports can easily drive 6 monitors at 1920×1200. If a hub isn’t available and daisy chaining not feasible, the 5 ports can still support up to 4 displays in Eyefinity as illustrated at the back of the box. The higher bandwidth of the DP is also relied on for AMD’s new 3D stereoscopy initiative. Unlike other vendors, MSI have bundled a mini DP to DisplayPort adapter. The small vents allow air to be exhausted at the back of the card.

MSI R6970 Lightning VS reference HD6970

To get a better perspective of the size, I put MSI HD6970 lightning next to a reference card from ASUS. At 31.0cm, it is 3.6cm longer than the latter and the added width makes the Lightning one of the biggest cards on the market. It is important to take this into consideration when purchasing the card as it may not fit in certain cases.

Closer Look (Continued part 2)

The support metal bracket

Removing the cooler, we find that a metal bracket supports the card and is screwed to the IO plate. The bracket keeps the lengthy graphics card rigid so that it doesn’t flex under the weight of the Twin Frozr III cooler. The card still sagged when installed but the much of the strain was removed. The metal plate also provides additional cooling to the components and come pre-installed with thermal pads.

Dismantling the Lightning

Taking the card apart leaves us with the bare PCB, the metal bracket, the heatsink and fans, and the shroud.

The heatsink and fans

The Twin Frozr III cooler uses a lower profile heatsink made up of 58 densely packed aluminium fins and two 9cm fans. These provide enough surface area for efficient heat dissipation. The fans have PWM functionality and both are connected via a single 4 pin header on the PCB. One downside of the cooling system is that cool air is pushed towards the PCB rather than directed to the back of the case, as with the reference design.

The dense fin array

From the underside, we can see that the fins are laminar and the 5 copper heat pipes are distributed across the heatsink to transfer heat over a larger area.

The copper base and heat pipes

The base uses a nickel plated copper construction for better heat conductivity from the GPU core. All 5 heat pipes originate from the base.

The Cayman GPU

The Cayman core seen here has a die size of 389 mm squared, significantly larger than the 255mm squared Barts core and the 334mm squared Cypress core. This is the largest AMD core since the notorious R600 core design which came at 420 mm squared. The fabrication is still on the 40nm process due to the lack of readily available 32nm or 28nm manufacturing.

The memory modules

The memory modules are once again GDDR5 chips sourced from Hynix rather than Samsung. The H5GQ 2H24MFR RoC 047A chips operate at 1.5V. The R0 denotes that the memory is rated at 6GHz, superior to the modules used on the HD6950. The same modules are used on the reference HD6970 boards. Each module is 256MB to give a total of 2GB of VRAM.

The power circuitry

The MSI HD6970 Lightning features an 18 phase PWM power circuitry as signified by the 18 super ferrite chokes. That’s 10 more than the reference design. Furthermore, the chokes are superior to standard ones and provide greater current capacity and efficiency. The three chokes near the end of the PCB are reserved for the memory. The MOSFETs linked to the chokes have built in copper heatspreaders for additional cooling compared to standard designs. The metal bracket is still used for good measure and to dissipate the heat away.

The integrated voltage controllers

The card uses two voltage controllers to allow software voltage adjustments. As expected, MSI’s own Afterburner program has support for voltage tweaking and more uniquely, the memory voltage and auxiliary voltages can also be controlled.

MSI R6970 Lightning PCB VS reference HD6970 PCB

The actual PCB doesn’t span the whole 31cm length of the card. Instead it measures 28.3, nearly a centimetre longer than the reference PCB placed next to it. The extra length of the card is due to the cooler shroud overhanging the PCB. The layouts of both boards are very similar but the more robust circuitry of the Lightning doesn’t have to be pointed out.

Test Setup

CPU – Intel Core i7 920
RAM – 6GB (3x2GB) OCZ Platinum DDR3 1333MHz
Motherboard – ASUS Rampage III Extreme
Power Supply – Enermax Revolution 85+ 850W
Hard Drive – OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB
Samsung F3 1TB
Samsung F1 320GB
Cooler – Noctua NH-C14

Graphics Cards:

MSI R6970 2048MB Lightning @ 940/5500MHz Pre-overclocked & 1010/6000MHz Overclocked – ATI Catalyst 11.4 (8.840.3.0)

Inno3D GTX560Ti 1024MB @ 820/4008MHz & 950/4300MHz Pre-overclocked –Forceware 266.66
Inno3D GTX570 1280MB @ 732/3800MHz, 800/4000MHz Pre-overclocked & 901/4220MHz Overclocked – Forceware 263.09
ASUS GTX580 1536MB @ 782/4000MHz & 903/4220MHz Overclocked – Forceware 262.99
ASUS HD6970 2048MB @ 890/5500MHz & 949/5896MHz Overclocked – ATI Catalyst 11.4 (8.840.3.0)
HIS HD6950 2048MB @ 800/5000MHz & 865/5500MHz Overclocked – ATI Catalyst 10.11 (8.790.6.0, 8.790.6.2 & 8.800)
Nvidia GTX480 1536MB @ 700/3696MHz & 799/3906MHz Overclocked – Forceware 260.99
MSI R6870 2PM2D1GD5 1024MB @ 900/4200MHz – ATI Catalyst 10.10
XFX HD5870 1024MB @ 850/4800MHz & 942/5200MHz Overclocked – ATI Catalyst 10.10

Benchmark Suite
MSI Afterburner & Kombustor
ASUS SmartDoctor
GPU-z
Crysis Warhead using the FRAMEBUFFER Crysis benchmark tool
Far Cry 2
Metro 2033
Resident Evil 5
Street Fighter IV
Unreal Tournament 3 using the HOC Bench tool
Colin McRae DIRT 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Mafia II Demo
Colin McRae DIRT 2
Alien VS Predator
H.A.W.X 2
3DMark 11
3DMark Vantage
Unigine V2.1 DX 11 Benchmark

Software Bundle

The bundled DVD contains a range of utilities as well the as drivers. I would recommend using the AMD website for the latest drivers. The window interface is very basic but it’s functional with each tab linking to a utility. Included applications include AIWI, Norton Security and a Cyberlink PowerDVD trial.

One of MSI’s most notable application in recent times has been the Afterburner overclocking utility which is bundled with their graphics cards. For those who have previously used the popular Rivatuner overclocking tool, Afterburner will be very familiar, the former providing the foundation for the software. One key difference is its ability to adjust voltages on compatible cards without any hardware modifications. For the latest released version, check out MSI’s website.

MSI Live Update 4 is a unique tool that allows users to view their installed components and update their motherboard or video card BIOS. Unfortunately, the former wasn’t functional due to an ASUS motherboard being used.

The Live Update tab searches for the most up to date BIOS, drivers and utilities online and presents users the opportunity to painless update their systems without having to trawl the internet themselves.

The MSI Afterburner application is heavily based on the Rivatuner engine developed by Unwinder from Guru3D. The major difference is the intuitive GUI that makes it easy to overclock, and its voltage control ability, although this does not apply to all graphics cards. The main screen gives users the ability to alter core clock speeds, memory clock speeds and the shader clock speeds for those cards that have the shader clock unlinked to the core clock. The fan speed can also be controlled manually but if left on auto, it will follow a fan profile. The latter can be adjusted in the settings with regards to temperature thanks to the Lightning’s PWM fans. The greatest feature of the Afterburner application is the core voltage tweak which isn’t limited to the MSI HD6970. Most reference cards from both Nvidia and AMD eventually receive voltage tweaking support thanks to the regular updates done to the software.

On the right, different aspects of the card can be monitored including the temperature. Users can select which options to be displayed in the hardware monitor window. After all the settings have been applied, overclocks can be saved as profiles to be loaded up whenever the user wants. There is even a hotkey application to quickly load profiles.

The Lightning has the unique Triple Overvoltage feature allowing users to not only tweak the Core voltage but also the Memory and Auxiliary voltages. The support comes from the second on-board voltage controller and the improved dedicated memory circuitry that gives the memory modules more power and overclocking headroom.

Going into the application properties reveals even more options for users to delve into. Here, the application can be configured to suit the user’s needs.

AMD PowerTune

Overclocking is nothing without stability and for most enthusiasts; applications such as Furmark, OCCT or MSI Kombustor have been the stress test of choice to truly load graphics cards. However, both AMD and Nvidia have voiced their concerns against the use of such applications due to the number of cards killed as a result of high temperatures and unforgiving load. They believe that stress tests are not representative of gaming loads and should therefore not be used as an indicator for stability.

This is where PowerTune comes in. The basic concept is that it locks the GPU’s thermal design power (TDP) to a pre-determined value such that when it is exceeded, the GPU will try to lower power usage. This is achieved by simply lowering the clock speed when the pre-determined TDP is attained under load. On the HD6950, the PowerTune Maximum Power is set to 200W whilst on the HD6970, it is set to 250W. AMD claim that typical gaming loads would draw 140W using the HD6950 and up to 200W using the HD6970, meaning that in typical scenarios, gamers shouldn’t worry about their cards reaching the maximum TDP and throttling. The main situation where it PowerTune would kick in is under heavy loads from programs such as the stress test applications mentioned above. This particular HD6950 by ASUS most likely has its maximum TDP set to 250W to make better use of the power connectors on-board.

Overclocking presents another scenario where throttling might occur. Not surprisingly, overclocking will increase the power draw both in game and in stress tests closer to 200W/250W. This means that the card will be more susceptible to throttling as they exceed the PowerTune maximum TDP. AMD realise that PowerTune may not appeal overclockers but rather than giving them the option to disable the feature, they provide power control settings in Overdrive. Raising the limit to 20% sets the new maximum TDP to 240W on the HD6950 and 300W on the HD6970, still within ATX specifications. This gives overclockers additional headroom before throttling occurs. It also means that at stock clocks, the chance of getting reduced performance is much less. Conversely, to increase power efficiency, the power control settings can be reduced by 20%, making it ideal in situations where higher clock speeds are not needed.

In some ways, the system is akin to Turbo mode on both AMD and Intel CPUs. In the latter case, if power draw is within the TDP, the CPUs will have their speed boosted. Therefore, under light load, the CPUs will operate faster and simply clock to default speeds when the TDP is reached. In the HD69XX’s case, the core works at its default clocks and throttles when the TDP is reached. Nvidia have employed a similar feature on their GTX580/570 for the same reasons as AMD.

In the case of the Lightning, the maximum power draw is significantly higher due to the two 8 pin power connectors delivering up to 375W of power along with the PCIe interface. However, since the two extra pins provide power to the three memory phases rather than the GPU, the TDP of the latter should be similar to reference boards and as such PowerTune will work as normal. In ‘Performance’ mode, the PowerTune limit is increased by 2.5 times to cater for overclockers overvolting further and pushing the core beyond its default limit in ‘Silent’ mode.

Temperature & Overclocking

The Lightning’s purpose in life is to be overclocked and despite it arriving with a factory overclock, it would be a crime to not push it further given that it is equipped with the best components available. Long story short, the Lightning lived up to its name and MSI’s claims. Even when looking at the factory default clocks, our expectations grew. At 940MHz on the GPU, the clock speed already represents a healthy 7% boost over the reference clock speed of 880MHz. Unlike ASUS’s bold claims of providing pre-overclocked cards that turn out to only have a measly 10MHz overclock applied, MSI’s do not disappoint and moreover, their factory set clock is close to the final speed we managed to achieve on the reference card. Best of all, the pre-overclock of 940/5500MHz was done on the stock voltage of 1.175V rather than at 1.25V as was the case with the reference card. This demonstrates the confidence MSI have in their product and the custom card’s ability to sustain greater stress. If that wasn’t enough, MSI have also reported to us that retail versions of the R6970 Lightning will boast an even more impressive 970/5500MHz factory set speed. Unfortunately, the memory was left untouched despite being rated for 6Gbps. At idle, the card operates at 1.0V and clocks down to 500/5500MHz when using dual screens. Otherwise it clocks down further to 175/300MHz to save even more power.

Stock

Overclocking as expected was fairly easy despite the initial factory clock already taking a lot of the headroom on the Cayman GPU. Using MSI’s own brilliant Afterburner application, the GPU core voltage was set to 1.3V and additionally, the software allowed the memory and auxiliary voltages to be altered. The former was increased by 10mV and the latter set to 1.179V to further increase the card’s headroom. In the end, an impressive 1010/6000MHz clock speed was achieved! Breaking the 1GHz barrier is no easy feat on any graphics cards and given my previous experience with reference HD6970s, I secretly doubted whether the Lightning could pull it off but it did. The core clock represents a 7.4% increase over the factory set 940MHz and a 14.8% increase over reference AMD clocks. It is also possible to go further using the on-board dip switches or the BIOS switch to remove the memory headroom limit but unfortunately the switch on our sample didn’t function properly. The downside of overclocking the Lightning is its power consumption which we will investigate later. When overclocked, the GPU still idles at 500MHz but the voltage doesn’t decrease.

Overclocked

The pre-overclocked Lightning has some very impressive specifications above the reference card and the fully overclocked card takes the HD6970 to new levels of performance, on paper at least. The overclock translates to the same percentage gains in fill rate and shader operations while the memory bandwidth has also increased by 9% to reflect the 500MHz overclock.

The 7.4% overclock on the Lightning translates to an overall 5.23% performance gain in the real world. This isn’t a linear as I would have hoped but the result is more favourable than that of the ASUS DirectCU II HD6950, suggesting that PowerTune was not throttling the card’s potential as much.

Temperature

Another highlight of the MSI R6970 Lightning is of course the Twin Frozr III cooler. At stock factory speeds, it yields very impressive temperature deltas, in this case only bested by ASUS’s DirectCU cooler. However, it is important to remember that the Cayman based HD6970 runs much hotter than the GPUs being cooled by ASUS’s cooler and the fact that the Lightning sports a much higher relative overclock is testament to the Twin Frozr’s cooling ability. Compared to the reference AMD vapour chamber cooler, the Twin Frozr III ran 13C cooler. This does not match MSI’s claims of their card running 26C cooler but it was compensated by quieter operation. At idle the fans operated at a mere 39%, ramping up to 58% under load. The fans were inaudible under 55% where they produced a gentle hum. They only became intrusive at 70% but the low pitch made it very bearable and easily drowned by games.

When overclocked with 1.3V coursing through the GPU’s circuitry, the load delta temperature increased to 66C, still a few degrees below the reference cooler. Bizarrely, the fans went into overdrive and reached 95% rotational speed but thankfully the noise was still bearable. The extra performance comes at the cost of noise but not enough to detract it from its quality. As a dual slot cooling solution, there’s no doubting that the Twin Frozr III is amongst the best custom coolers available.

Crysis Warhead

Following the success of Crysis, the stand alone expansion “Warhead” was hotly anticipated to bring more game play, more weapons, improved visuals whilst maintaining better performance, the latter being what gamers wanted most. After all how many people upgraded their rigs just to play this game… In the game, you play as the upbeat Brit Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes, chasing down a Korean nuclear warhead. Throw in some ice shooting aliens and we’re bound to have a great game. It sure delivered.

Testing was done using Framebuffer’s Crysis Warhead benchmarking tool. The tests were configured to DirectX 10 at Enthusiast levels. Each test on the Ambush map was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Far Cry 2

One of the most hyped games of 2008, Far Cry 2 had some big shoes to fill. It was built to be the next best thing since well… Far Cry I suppose. Combining an open-world game play with highly detailed graphics, physics and AI, what more could we possibly want? The game puts us in the body of a malaria inflicted mercenary hunting down the “Jackal” in the heart of Africa, in a bid to stop an on-going conflict between two rival factions. The storyline can be hard to follow sometimes but I’m no game reviewer, so let’s concentrate on the graphics and performance. After all, we all need to know if our hardware will be able to handle the scorching savannah burning at the hands of our flamethrowers.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Far Cry 2, configuring the settings to Ultra and DX10. The small ranch level was chosen and each configuration was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Metro 2033

Based on Novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Metro 2033, configuring the settings to Very High and making use of DirectX 11. The frontline scene was looped 3 times for each configuration. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5 is the sequel to the Resident Evil series, exploring the life of main protagonist, Chris Redfield. You play as either Chris Redfield or Sheva Alomar in an African desert area in Kijuju. In true Resident Evil fashion, your main objective is to investigate a terrorist bio-organic weapon threat whilst killing infected “Majinis” on your way.

The Resident Evil 5 benchmark tool was used to test performance. All settings were set to the maximum possible and the average FPS was recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter is back in its 4th iteration and it’s bigger and better than ever. Combining fluid, fast based sparring with stunning artistic visuals, the game delivers tremendous game play. Be reacquainted with some of the most popular characters in video game history while you battle your way to the top, be it with Ryu or the mighty Bison. The game might be frustratingly hard in some cases but there’s nothing like the satisfaction of K.O’ing your opponent with a well stringed death bringing combo.

The Street Fighter IV benchmark tool was used to test performance. All settings were set to the maximum possible and the average FPS was recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Unreal Tournament 3 & Batman Arkham Asylum

Unreal Tournament 3

Built around the unreal 3 engine, Unreal Tournament is all about mindless fast paced shooting, decapitation with a plethora of game modes to so in. Not much else can be said really except that it promises hours of enjoyment on multiplier whether it be against bots, your friends at a LAN or online. It was one of the more popular games out there to adopt PhysX in the form of partially destructible maps, tornadoes and hail.

The Hardware OC UT3 benchmarking tool was used to test the game. The maximum in game settings were used including motion blur. Anistropic filtering was set to 16x and no Anti-Aliasing was used. The Containment was benchmarked and the average FPS recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Batman Arkham Asylum

The Dark Knight takes on his greatest challenge yet when he becomes trapped with all of his most dangerous villains inside the insane asylum of Gotham City – Arkham Asylum. The game exposes you to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes you to the depths of Arkham Asylum, Gotham’s psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.

The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to very high. No AA was used and PhsyX was only enabled if specified in the charts. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Colin McRae DIRT 2

DIRT is back and it’s bigger than ever. With an onslaught of famous X-Games competitors such as Ken Block and Dave Mirra, extreme is being brought back to rally. The game not only delivers outstanding gameplay in lush environments but also stunning visuals in the form of Direct X 11 implementation. If you want some fast paced, arcade style racing, then look no further than Colin McRae DIRT 2.

The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to the maximum available and DirectX 11 was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the new rendition of the widely successful Battlefield series of game. Having more in common with the console release of Bad Company, the sequel hopes to inject the DNA of the timeless Battlefield 2 online experience with the witty action packed single player shooting adventure of the original. As Private Preston Marlowe, your goal as a member of Bad Company is to once again save the world by securing a scalar weapon device.

Fraps was used to test performance. Each test was conducted at the start of the ‘Upriver’ level ensuring that the same actions and paths were taken during the 2 minute sample. All settings were set to the highest available in game with AF set to 16x and HBAO turned on. The average FPS was recorded by FRAPS at the end of each walk through.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Mafia II Demo

Following the success of Mafia back in 2002, the third person action adventure game is back with a new grittier and darker world. As Vito Scaletta, an aspiring made man, your job is to work through the twist and turns of Mafia lifestyle. The more blood spilt, the more you get in return but the lifestyle was never meant to be an ideal one. Set in the visually stunning Empire City, the wartime references provide the ever present back drop to a rife period in America’s history, in which potential for exploitation becomes Vito’s key focus.

The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to the maximum available in-game. PhsyX was only enabled if specified in the charts. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Alien VS Predator

Spawned from the popular Alien and Predator franchises, Rebellion have collaborated to bring the legendary war to us through the medium of a first-person shooter. The game forces you to hunt, prey and most importantly survive in the swamp colony of Freya’s prospect as a Predator, Alien or Marine. The stunning visuals add to the sense of dread and terror that we have become so accustomed to seeing with the series.

The stand-alone Alien VS Predator benchmark tool was used for testing here. All the settings were set to very high and Tessellation was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

H.A.W.X 2

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game from Ubisoft. H.A.W.X.2 is DX11 ready and therefore like other simulators such as DIRT2 has stunning scenery and a truly breath-taking visual experience. Using hardware terrain tessellation, H.A.W.X.2 relies on raw GPU power because a series of detailed triangles are required to be rendered. This surely has to be one of the most taxing benchmarks all our featured games, H.A.W.X.2 presents some of the best tessellation execution in any title to date.

The in-game benchmark from the demo was used fort testing. All the maximum settings were used throughout testing. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

3DMark 11 & Vantage

3DMark Vantage

This Vantage benchmark suite from Futuremark introduces DX 10 & PhysX support. Despite being on the verge of DX 11 games arriving, Vantage still proves a popular testing ground for enthusiasts.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

3DMark 11

Finally here is the latest Futuremark benchmark suite, bringing DX11 and tessellation to benchmarkers. Will it bring your computers to their knees?

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Unigine V2.1 Benchmark

Unigine’s benchmark is to showcase the benefits of DX 11 and the use of tessellation as opposed to normal rendering techniques. The demo has impressive visuals that give an insight into what we can expect from gaming in the future.

Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings and resolutions used in-game.

Overall Performance Analysis

The overall performance analysis looks at the relative performance between all the cards on test across all the settings used in our benchmark suite. For an explanation of our benchmarking procedure, have a look at the descriptions on each test page.

MSI’s Lightning has a clear advantage over the reference HD6970 thanks to its 60MHz overclock and the 4.7% performance benefit is enough to take it above the GTX570, the card’s closest competitor from the green team.

After overclocking all the cards, the Lightning is still unmatched by the reference card, producing an overall 5.1% better performance thanks to its 6.5% higher overclock. Although not quite linear, it is welcoming to see such a performance advantage from the Lightning’s superior overclocking headroom and it further suggests that PowerTune only had a very minimal impact on performance. Where the reference design failed in matching Nvidia’s offerings in the form of the GTX480 and GTX570, the R6970 lightning proves to be more competitive and unlike the former, the thermal dissipation was under control. The overclock was still not enough to match the sheer headroom available on Nvidia GF110 GPU and was thus unable to outperform the GTX570. On closer analysis of the results, we find that the 2GB framebuffer on the AMD card diminishes the performance gap at higher resolutions and with higher levels of AA but the GTX570 delivers the raw performance to compensate for this disadvantage.

Power Consumption

With its 2 eight pin PCIe power connectors and 18 phase VRM circuitry, the Lightning is far from the epitome of power efficiency. The factory clocked R6970 consumes a hefty 427.7W of power, which is slightly more efficient than the similarly clocked reference HD6970 OC. It also compares favourably to the GTX480. Once overclocked and overvolted, power consumption rises sharply, dwarfing all other graphics cards.

Conclusion

I began the review by mentioning MSI’s tagline, “Innovation with Style” and it became very apparent throughout my experience testing the R6970 Lightning that MSI had a very special product on their hands. Let’s start by looking at what the card offers. The first thing that struck me on receiving the graphics card was it sheer size and my first impression was that it was merely style over substance, with its obtrusive cooler and marketing spiel dominating the packaging. But in reality, the MSI Lightning offers much more. On closer inspection, I quickly realised that the entire board was etched with high quality components every square centimetre of the way across its PCB, from the NEC Proadlizer, Hi-c capacitors, 18 phase PWM design, super ferrite chokes, Copper heatsinked MOSFETs to the inclusion of extra voltage controllers and dedicated memory power delivery. Teamed with the mighty dual fanned Twin Frozr III cooler, the Lightning is a card to behold not just for its aesthetics but for its real world benefits. Such is their confidence with the board’s design that MSI have applied a 60MHz pre-overclock to the card and are looking at bumping the core by another 30MHz, a testament to their engineering and innovation. The most important thing to note is that the Lightning isn’t a limited edition exclusive card and is actually available to all consumers at a reasonable price, appealing to those simply wanting a reliable but powerful card to extreme enthusiasts looking to push their graphics card to the limit. In my opinion, the Lightning is an excellent accomplishment by MSI and the fact that it allowed the HD6970 to be pushed beyond the 1GHz barrier demonstrates that.

In terms of performance, the R6970 Lightning produced very good results, outperforming the GTX570 prior to overclocking but falling slightly short afterwards. This is mostly due to the overclocking headroom available on Nvidia revised Fermi based GF110 cores. A fair few games were in favour of the AMD card such as Crysis Warhead, Metro 2033, Resident Evil 5, Alien VS Predator, Batman Arkham Asylum, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Mafia II, 3DMark and Unigine’s DX10 benchmark. At stock speed, the MSI card even came close to matching the GTX580 in those games. The problem is that games that favour Nvidia tend to extend the performance gap and overclocking yields relatively better performance scaling. Ignoring games such as H.A.W.X 2, Street Fighter IV and DIRT 2 could easily give the HD6970 the performance crown at £300. This is why at Vortez we test a plethora of games to minimise the chance of our results from being skewed. The HD6970’s 2GB framebuffer comes handy in a number of situations, especially at high resolutions and with high levels of anti-aliasing applied. One such example is Far Cry 2 where despite the GTX570 outperformed the HD6970, the performance gap reduced progressively with higher graphical settings. This makes the HD6970, more specifically the MSI Lightning, ideal for Eyefinity setups and high resolution gaming.

The card isn’t without its flaws. Its 31cm length makes it unsuitable for a vast majority of mid tower chassis. Power consumption was also a major downfall but enthusiasts will no doubt shrug those issues off as they push the Lightning to its limit on a test bench. Cooling was more than adequate and coped well with the 1GHz core, remaining quiet throughout operation. The ability to increase the PowerTune limit by 2.5 times contributes to the increased power consumption but on the other hand, it is a welcoming addition for overclockers. Overall, the slight compromises are small prices to pay for the benefits that the Lightning bring to the HD6970.

Pros
+Very Good performance
+Excellent AA performance
+Very cool and quiet operation
+Dual slot cooling solution
+Eyefinity support
+Very Well packaged
+Excellent bundle & software (inc. mini DP to DisplayPort adapter)
+Substantial factory overclock
+Very good build quality
+Aesthetically pleasing
+Excellent overclocking headroom
+18 phase PWM design
+Vast selection of connectivity and voltage points
+Voltage tweaking support
+Highly Innovative and durable

Cons
-AMD GPU still falls slightly short of Nvidia rivals
-Power consumption
-Size

For the innovation and engineering that MSI have brought to AMD’s HD6970, I award the R6970 Lightning the Vortez Gold Award.