MSI N770 Lightning Overclocking Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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MSI N770 Lightning Overclocking Review - We take the new MSI N770 Lightning and overclock it to its maximum potential. We will compare it with a highly overclocked MSI GeForce GTX 680 Lightning and GIGABYTE Radeon HD 7970. Each GPU is getting its best chance to show us how well it can perform, as all of these GPUs are highly overclocked.
 
Sad that this card has A LOT more potential. But due to the voltage lock its no better than a reference. I guess the only thing it has going for it is the heatsink/fan.
 
Voltage lock has everything to do with NVIDIA and RMA costs back to it.
 
Not trying to start an argument here. However wow I'm quite impressed with the 7970 here. Also, there may be little difference between a 680 and a 770, moreover the lower price more than makes up for it.
 
Rizen said:
I wish they would offer a BIOS flash or something that would allow voltage tweaking at the expense of your warranty.
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The "expense of your warranty" is the problem because people overvolt the card, burn it up, then decide that it is the card builder's problem after they have signed off on it being their personal responsibility. The card goes back to MSI, then goes back to NV, and costs both companies. RMA procedures get expensive.

Maybe card builders need to look into putting a "warranty void if this sticker broken" strategy? ;)
 
It would be interesting......but very time consuming, to see if putting these cards under waterblocks would increase their performance any?

It seems that these new cards are all about power and voltage control though and not necessarily about temperature.....as the Frozr coolers do keep the cards pretty cool, taking the temperature limit out of the picture.:D

I just got two GTX 780s and they are watercooled, but I haven't had enough time to see if I can push them to the 1200 MHz category yet.:cool:

Very nice review, BTW.
 
magoo said:
It would be interesting......but very time consuming, to see if putting these cards under waterblocks would increase their performance any?

It seems that these new cards are all about power and voltage control though and not necessarily about temperature.....as the Frozr coolers do keep the cards pretty cool, taking the temperature limit out of the picture.:D

I just got two GTX 780s and they are watercooled, but I haven't had enough time to see if I can push them to the 1200 MHz category yet.:cool:

Very nice review, BTW.
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I would GUESS that yes, watercooling would get you some extra MHz. How many I do not know, but am looking forward to seeing what your results are.
 
Excellent review.
Can these overclocked cards catch a stock GTX 780? I couldn't tell if the settings in the 780 review were identical to this one.
 
higher voltage and that is all it can do? seems pretty lame to me as its really no better than many 680 and 670 cards can already do with a wee bit lower voltage. I don't understand why its impressive that a card like this that boasts improved components over the standard 770 is already basically maxed out of the box. and for 450 bucks and a year after the 680 launched that is hardly impressive at all IMO.
 
cannondale06 said:
higher voltage and that is all it can do? seems pretty lame to me as its really no better than many 680 and 670 cards can already do with a wee bit lower voltage. I don't understand why its impressive that a card like this that boasts improved components over the standard 770 is already basically maxed out of the box. and for 450 bucks and a year after the 680 launched that is hardly impressive at all IMO.
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I dunno. Stock boost on a 680 was 1050MHz, this is 1202MHz out of the box. Some people had great overclocking 680s (mine are excellent) but other people were not so lucky. I think this is a pretty solid product when you consider the out-of-box experience. And it's still cheaper than 680s were selling for prior to the 7-series launch.
 
martinmsj said:
Not trying to start an argument here. However wow I'm quite impressed with the 7970 here. Also, there may be little difference between a 680 and a 770, moreover the lower price more than makes up for it.
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I agree, came within a few frames in each benchmark, did better at one, and costs $399 and comes with FARCRY3 Blood Dragon, CRYSIS3, BIOSHOCK, and Tomb Raider. Also 3GB ram helps when you do crossfire.
 
semiconductorslave said:
I agree, came within a few frames in each benchmark, did better at one, and costs $399 and comes with FARCRY3 Blood Dragon, CRYSIS3, BIOSHOCK, and Tomb Raider. Also 3GB ram helps when you do crossfire.
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I'm starting to think that maybe a good used 7970 to tide me over is the best choice.
 
Talk about a great review. In terms of overclock comparison reviews, [H] has been completely dominating other review sites :D Good job Kyle & [H] crew.

Now I want to get my hands on a 1300+ 7970 Matrix.
 
DeadSkull said:
Talk about a great review. In terms of overclock comparison reviews, [H] has been completely dominating other review sites :D Good job Kyle & [H] crew.

Now I want to get my hands on a 1300+ 7970 Matrix.
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I gather 1150-1175 is what is by far and away the most common for 7970 cards nowadays, with 1200 being considered a "high" overclock. Finding a 1275-1300+ card for 24/7 gaming is going to be tough... the cards don't really cost anything different from eachother and performance except for tomb raider was identical even with the sky-high 7970 OC, but if you plan on staying single card you might get lucky with it.
 
semiconductorslave said:
I agree, came within a few frames in each benchmark, did better at one, and costs $399 and comes with FARCRY3 Blood Dragon, CRYSIS3, BIOSHOCK, and Tomb Raider. Also 3GB ram helps when you do crossfire.
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All positives except the crossfire bit. That is until they release the frame latency driver.
 
Good OC review.

I'm also surprised at how well the 7970 is holding up.
 
IMO having the power target go to just 109% is pretty reasonable, considering the base card is already at 250W TDP. 109% takes it to 272W. There is actually more power available to work with than the old 680 Lightning's 133% of 195W, which is just 252W.
 
GoldenTiger said:
I gather 1150-1175 is what is by far and away the most common for 7970 cards nowadays, with 1200 being considered a "high" overclock. Finding a 1275-1300+ card for 24/7 gaming is going to be tough... the cards don't really cost anything different from eachother and performance except for tomb raider was identical even with the sky-high 7970 OC, but if you plan on staying single card you might get lucky with it.
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All newer 7970s are voltage locked to 1.25V, even the Asus Matrix cards despite their software voltage control capabilities. You just have to look for older cards going FS on forums.
 
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