MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning

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The gang at techPowerUP! just put the finishing touches on their review of the MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning. You can see our evaluation here for comparison purposes.

MSI's Radeon HD 7970 Lightning is a heavily customized implementation of the HD 7970 with focus on performance and overclocking. The card uses a beefed up voltage regulation circuitry and massive dual-fan heatsink to ensure stable operation at MSI's clocks of 1070 MHz core and 1400 MHz memory.
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woot! 1280x800 resolution benchmarks!!

all the more serious side.. the battlefield 3 looks to respond well to the o/c

i also wonder if there is something odd going on with their GTX680 Surround setup.. in more than one of the benchmarks it shows the GTX680 Surround (5760x1080) not working

eg.. in Skyrim the GTX80 is getting 4fps at the 5760x180

IMO that is the real problem with these benchmark index reviews.. they build a library of benchmark numbers and just plug new cards into the system without really figuring out what isgoing on.

from their conclusion

techpowerup said:
This review introduces multi-monitor testing at 5760x1080, here the HD 7970 Lightning makes short shrift of the GTX 680 thanks to AMD's flawless Eyefinity implementation. NVIDIA's Surround failed in many of our games and delivers lower performance in most of the cases where it works.
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to be honest though, from their review it paints the 7970 is a very good light.. especially if you plan on gaming at the higher resolutions
 
I wouldn't say that either Eyefinity or NV Surround are flawless. They both have some issues especially with some slightly older games.
 
cheers, just stuck that in my system, seems great so far.

£405 well spent.
 
The card looks great, performance seem good, and I like that it has 4 x miniDP, but I'm kind of disappointed at how loud it is. I was hoping the aftermarket cooler would be near the same noise level as reference or lower while providing better performance.
 
What's funny is that guru3d got some much quieter results under load. I wonder if they (or TPU) did or didn't alter the fan profiles?
 
I love TPU's video card reviews. Clean, easy to read and to the point. I also love that they compare modern video cards to cards from 2-3 generations before as well so you can get an idea of what kind of upgrade you're looking at.
 
JohnleMVP said:
The card looks great, performance seem good, and I like that it has 4 x miniDP, but I'm kind of disappointed at how loud it is. I was hoping the aftermarket cooler would be near the same noise level as reference or lower while providing better performance.
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http://hardocp.com/article/2012/03/20/msi_r7970_lightning_video_card_review/9

[H] praised the cooling system and did not give negative comments.

" MSI has had a great track record with their Twin Frozr cooling systems. The Twin Frozr IV cooling system that debuted on this video card did not disappoint. Out-of-Box it was far quieter than the reference Radeon HD 7970. It was also 16c cooler than the reference Radeon HD 7970. "

the reviews on newegg have been very positive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127670
 
raghu78 said:
http://hardocp.com/article/2012/03/20/msi_r7970_lightning_video_card_review/9

[H] praised the cooling system and did not give negative comments.

" MSI has had a great track record with their Twin Frozr cooling systems. The Twin Frozr IV cooling system that debuted on this video card did not disappoint. Out-of-Box it was far quieter than the reference Radeon HD 7970. It was also 16c cooler than the reference Radeon HD 7970. "

the reviews on newegg have been very positive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127670
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Hmm that's interesting. I checked some more reviews and it seems like TechPowerUp is the only one that measured the card higher than the stock card.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_7970_Lightning/27.html

http://www./forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/53263-msi-hd-7970-lightning-3gb-review-20.html

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-radeon-hd-7970-lightning-review/12
 
JohnleMVP said:
Hmm that's interesting. I checked some more reviews and it seems like TechPowerUp is the only one that measured the card higher than the stock card.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_7970_Lightning/27.html

http://www./forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/53263-msi-hd-7970-lightning-3gb-review-20.html

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-radeon-hd-7970-lightning-review/12
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I have the 7970 lightning, the noise level is very loud not silent at all (when loaded). Some review say it is silent i wonder how loud is loud. I will not get this card if i know it is so loud at the first place. Hopefully this will help as a reference when people trying to search for an answer because most reviews on this card is naming it silent. Cheers!
 
mine is pretty loud at load.

but an easy to ignore hum rather than a whine.
 
Mine was so loud at load I had to send it back. If you check the other Lightning thread I posted dB readings on it, the Asus DCUII, and stock.
 
I have mine in, fired up Metro 2033 with everything set to max, the fan hit 75% speed and was fine. No coil whine, just a hum that blends right in with the other fans in my case. I removed the side of my case to listen to the card, and it's very quiet. With a desk between me and the machine, the noise is not an issue. My wife was a few feet away from my computer, in direct line of sight, and she barely noticed it.
 
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