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MSI lightning GTX 680 testing

I'm kinda surprised you would switch from FTW to lightning...seems kinda crazy to be honest...not sure what you're expecting but if you want 1400 out of the box or something probably not gonna happen. (not directed at you really, some people have ridiculous expectations of 1350mhz+ without additional voltage, and voltage isn't implemented yet).

Don't have expectations that are crazy high, and don't RMA because of an overclock. Just because someone else gets 1350 doesn't mean another card will, there is a lot of hype about these cards but people need to ground their expectations IMO, some people are ridiculous! I've seen others mention they want to RMA because of an overclock of "only" 1320 which I think is ridiculous. Anything 1300 or higher is a monster overclock, IMO.
 
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xoleras said:
I'm kinda surprised you would switch from FTW to lightning...seems kinda crazy to be honest...not sure what you're expecting but if you want 1400 out of the box or something probably not gonna happen. (not directed at you really, some people have ridiculous expectations of 1350mhz+ without additional voltage, and voltage isn't implemented yet)

Just don't be a scumbag who RMAs because they can't overclock as high as they want -- just because timmy at hardocp can get 1350 and someone else can't. If thats is anyones expectation they shouldn't fucking buy the cards
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If you're talking to me - I'm not. I'm selling my 7970s. Giving up on AMD (again) - need to learn my lesson. Ha. Not selling my FTWs for anything. Took me a lot of effort to get them. Heh.

I just love MSI and I've been having issues with my 7970s. I already refreshed my 2GB 680s so the timing was right to refresh my 7970s.
 
Sorry sketch, it wasn't directed at you ;) The second sentence didn't come out right, I didn't mean it that way. I guess it sounded that way, I just think many have really too high expectations of the lightning. I'm seeing people complain about 1300+mhz overclocks which I think is kinda crazy.

That said, I have gotten great OCs of around 1350 on my lightnings but overclocking is a very YMMV type of thing of course ;)
 
I stated in one of the other 680 Lightning threads that most people are going to see GPU limits long before voltage becomes an issue. I just don't think these cards, or even the AMD 79xx cards have a lot left in them after 1200MHz, no matter what voltage is used but we'll see soon enough.
 
Blkout said:
I stated in one of the other 680 Lightning threads that most people are going to see GPU limits long before voltage becomes an issue. I just don't think these cards, or even the AMD 79xx cards have a lot left in them after 1200MHz, no matter what voltage is used but we'll see soon enough.
Click to expand...

I disagree completely, i've overclocked a ton of cards-- i've owned 7970s, 480s, 580s and now the 680 and absolutely without exception higher voltage helped.. Heck,..My former MSI lightning 580s would bsod at 850 but with more voltage I could get smooth sailing 950 or higher.

EDIT: I see you're referring specifically to the 680 and 7970, I guess it will be seen like you said. Disregard above I guess. I do have to disagree on the 7970, but once you get past 1200 thermals become a much bigger issue. Absolutely a huge number of people have OC'ed 7970s to 1300 and higher with the added voltage, but like said thermals become a much bigger issue -- you can't just do this kind of thing on a crap reference blower fan. You need better thermals for super high overclocks, and on water 1300-1400 becomes trivial on the 7970. On LN2 it clocks ridiculously high, so obviously voltage helps. Obviously voltage adds more heat and this is why I said you can't do this on any reference piece of junk cooler -- Consider that WC 7970s currently hold most world records on HWbot, because the added voltage allows ridiculously high clocks under LN2 / WC, but whether the 680 benefits as much remains to be seen like you said.
 
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I posted this all over at Anandtech, but I figured some of you might want to see it as well.

Ok, this is the best score I have managed:

Note that I have not replaced the rest of the system yet so the score is being held back by my Intel i5 750.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3786813

I am using the following settings:

GPU Core: 1300 MHz
Memory Clock: 6500 MHz
Power: 200%

settings.png


Here is a video of the run and some statistics on the other monitor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5lANWx6CFQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 
Go in your afterburner settings and enable "unlock voltage control". this should allow you to add +100mV to your vDroop, which may help your overclock (although again -- manual fan will very very likely be required at that high of a clockspeed. Auto fan will give you artifacts at super high overclocks)
 
xoleras said:
I disagree completely, i've overclocked a ton of cards-- i've owned 7970s, 480s, 580s and now the 680 and absolutely without exception higher voltage helped.. Heck,..My former MSI lightning 580s would bsod at 850 but with more voltage I could get smooth sailing 950 or higher.

EDIT: I see you're referring specifically to the 680 and 7970, I guess it will be seen like you said. Disregard above I guess. I do have to disagree on the 7970, but once you get past 1200 thermals become a much bigger issue. Absolutely a huge number of people have OC'ed 7970s to 1300 and higher with the added voltage, but like said thermals become a much bigger issue -- you can't just do this kind of thing on a crap reference blower fan. You need better thermals for super high overclocks, and on water 1300-1400 becomes trivial on the 7970. On LN2 it clocks ridiculously high, so obviously voltage helps. Obviously voltage adds more heat and this is why I said you can't do this on any reference piece of junk cooler -- Consider that WC 7970s currently hold most world records on HWbot, because the added voltage allows ridiculously high clocks under LN2 / WC, but whether the 680 benefits as much remains to be seen like you said.
Click to expand...

I understand the differences between LN2 overclocking and water/air. The vast majority of people buying these cards will not be using LN2 and while those are great for show, don't really mean much to me. In the end, even on water, you will reach the limits of the chip before thermals and voltage is a factor. Its been that way for years with every other GPU and CPU, no reason why this time will be different. How far someone will get on water at higher voltage remains to be seen, but I'm betting not a lot above air and default voltage. I think we're just seeing the manufacturing limits of this generation of chips, voltage just isn't going to do a lot more beyond what the chip itself can do unless you find a really special golden sample that responds really well, but again, that's not the vast majority.
 
only been toying with mine for a bit, but it appears core maxes out on 1300, i know mem is stable at +410 but haven't tried higher.
 
It seems I may have a pair of dud cards. They were not stable together until the default BIOS with default clock speeds/settings - and even when I maxed out the power target and voltage (in Afterburner 2.2.2) stability was suspect. One card just kept dropping out. I thought it was just one bad card, but I've been using each one individually through some benches and it appears that they both cannot complete a single run of 3DMark 11 under their stock settings. Really frustrating. I'm not looking for crazy OC capability (although it would be nice) I just want the card to perform out of the box as it was advertised.

Temps are fine (actually quite good) - so it's maddening! Ugh.
 
Sounds very strange but when someone tells me they received two bad cards, I have to think something else is causing the issue. The defect rate would be through the roof if that was any sort of indication of the quality given the sample size.
 
Blkout said:
Sounds very strange but when someone tells me they received two bad cards, I have to think something else is causing the issue. The defect rate would be through the roof if that was any sort of indication of the quality given the sample size.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm definitely going to be doing some more troubleshooting. My 7970s were fine...the system is known-good. I've tried two different SLI cables, re-seating, maxed fan...just keep getting video drop outs. I'm using two monitors (1x 60hz and 1x 120hz) so maybe I'll just use the 120hz and see if all is well, then.
 
sk3tch said:
Yeah, I'm definitely going to be doing some more troubleshooting. My 7970s were fine...the system is known-good. I've tried two different SLI cables, re-seating, maxed fan...just keep getting video drop outs. I'm using two monitors (1x 60hz and 1x 120hz) so maybe I'll just use the 120hz and see if all is well, then.
Click to expand...

Any chance you got a spare hard drive you can install Windows 7 fresh and load just the Nvidia drivers to test them? Just to make sure its not a Windows/driver conflict.
 
Blkout said:
Any chance you got a spare hard drive you can install Windows 7 fresh and load just the Nvidia drivers to test them? Just to make sure its not a Windows/driver conflict.
Click to expand...

Yeah, forgot to mention it was a fresh install since I went AMD -> NVIDIA (well, for that matter I pretty much always do fresh installs for new GPUs). Straight to 304.48. Thanks for the tip I will be futzing with it today (working from home).
 
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sk3tch said:
Yeah, forgot to mention it was a fresh install since I went AMD -> NVIDIA (well, for that matter I pretty much always do fresh installs for new GPUs). Straight to 304.48. Thanks for the tip I will be futzing with it today (working from home).
Click to expand...

Have you tried the official 301.42 drivers? That's what I'm using on both of my 670's.
 
Blkout said:
Have you tried the official 301.42 drivers? That's what I'm using on both of my 670's.
Click to expand...

I have not. I will keep that in mind as a future step. I've got both cards back in and only connected to my 120hz monitor. With the LN2 BIOS enabled I was able to complete a 3DMark 11 run with default settings. However, when I run Kombustor I get crazy flickering in the first test...that can't be normal? It did not occur in 3DMark 11 so it's strange but maybe nothing to worry about.
 
I don't use Kombuster but I guess I could try it today to see if there's any flickering issues that may be driver related.
 
sk3tch said:
Yeah, I'm definitely going to be doing some more troubleshooting. My 7970s were fine...the system is known-good. I've tried two different SLI cables, re-seating, maxed fan...just keep getting video drop outs. I'm using two monitors (1x 60hz and 1x 120hz) so maybe I'll just use the 120hz and see if all is well, then.
Click to expand...

Sounds like they may have addressed this in the latest beta 304.79.
 
geraltofrivia said:
Sounds like they may have addressed this in the latest beta 304.79.
Click to expand...

Interesting - that may be it. Because I've been having a great morning with the cards now that I have them exclusively on my 120hz panel. LN2 BIOS + OC'd by 98 at CPU clock (1300 MHz) and +350 on mem - solid through a 3DMark 11 run. BTW - thanks for the help Blkout. Sometimes you just need someone to tell you to F'n keep at it. :)

P18874...requires 100% fan, though. If I leave it at "auto" - crash. Although I need to setup a fan profile that may do the trick.
 
Ya know I have a second reference 680 on the coach I am trying to sell, maybe I should throw it into the case and see these grand scores people get :D
 
I can't say enough positive things about these MSI Lightning GTX 680s. They are literally the PC gaming equivalent of a fine wine...lol. BF3 MP tonight was just ridiculous. 1080p/120hz multi-player with these beasts cranked to 1250MHz boost clock (1300 is stable for 3DMark but not BF3)...unreal. Night and day difference from my prior cards (MSI Radeon 7970s). AMD really blows this gen, IMO - mobile and desktop (sent back a 7970M CFX M18x R2 last month!).

They perform 75.9% of the speed of my quad-SLI rig (P19163 versus P25257 - based on 3DMark 11 P score - granted, not the best test to take advantage of high-resolution eating quad-SLI)...just nuts. I can't recommend them enough.

And to think - this AM I thought they were dud cards haha. Stupid NVIDIA multi-monitor support. :)
 
Unwinder isn't the only programmer, MSI works on afterburner as well. It is their custom version of the riva tuner core, just like EVGA with precision X. Asus GPU tweak, Galaxy OC, Precision x, and afterburner are all based on riva tuner core, every AIB maker creates their own custom version of it. Afterburner is MSI's custom version and they do have people working on it from what i'm told.

MSI Germany posted that a new BIOS and revision of afterburner is coming soon, they hinted monday but did not confirm. It should be coming soon in any case.
 
xoleras said:
Unwinder isn't the only programmer, MSI works on afterburner as well. It is their custom version of the riva tuner core, just like EVGA with precision X. Asus GPU tweak, Galaxy OC, Precision x, and afterburner are all based on riva tuner core, every AIB maker creates their own custom version of it. Afterburner is MSI's custom version and they do have people working on it from what i'm told.

MSI Germany posted that a new BIOS and revision of afterburner is coming soon, they hinted monday but did not confirm. It should be coming soon in any case.
Click to expand...

Hope u r right but he does specifically say that msi reps claiming 2.2.3 is due out soon are spreading misinformation.
 
I hope MSI gets on the stick. Hell, I'd be tempted to send him one of mine.
 
I'm stable through games and synthetics at 1305 core, 6550 memory in SLI. I never clocked the individual cards, just ran the Afterburner up until it'd run stable. I can probably get more mem clock, but it's really pretty good right now.

In the crapshoot of buying two cards and hoping for the best, I think these are a couple of good ones. I'd like to see what each card could do on its own, but then again I don't want to know. 1305 in SLI is right stout in the grand scheme of things.
 
Dullard said:
I'm stable through games and synthetics at 1305 core, 6550 memory in SLI. I never clocked the individual cards, just ran the Afterburner up until it'd run stable. I can probably get more mem clock, but it's really pretty good right now.

In the crapshoot of buying two cards and hoping for the best, I think these are a couple of good ones. I'd like to see what each card could do on its own, but then again I don't want to know. 1305 in SLI is right stout in the grand scheme of things.
Click to expand...

That's crazy good - and you have the future voltage unlock to look forward to on top of that!
 
Dullard said:
I'm stable through games and synthetics at 1305 core, 6550 memory in SLI. I never clocked the individual cards, just ran the Afterburner up until it'd run stable. I can probably get more mem clock, but it's really pretty good right now.

In the crapshoot of buying two cards and hoping for the best, I think these are a couple of good ones. I'd like to see what each card could do on its own, but then again I don't want to know. 1305 in SLI is right stout in the grand scheme of things.
Click to expand...

is that on the LN2 bios?
 
if u check back to link i posted earlier unwinder clarifies that he IS the only programmer and there will be no update on monday. still waiting for a card. msi is trying, the first was an engineering sample that he couldn't get working properly
 
until we get voltage control in software, looks like mine tops out at 1300/1877 (+750) on the LN2 bios. looks like some pretty good memory chips.
 
wadec22 said:
if u check back to link i posted earlier unwinder clarifies that he IS the only programmer and there will be no update on monday. still waiting for a card. msi is trying, the first was an engineering sample that he couldn't get working properly
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I figured this to be the case also. I believe Unwinder has always been the programmer and other companies such as MSI just pay for his software. Same with Wizzard and Asus Tweak.
 
sk3tch said:
That's crazy good - and you have the future voltage unlock to look forward to on top of that!
Click to expand...

What about unlocking the "Voltage Control" in "Settings" and raising the Core Voltage slider in Afterburner? I tried it up to +50mv and seemed to squeeze a few more Mhz out of the cards, but it wasn't an extremely significant increase.
 
Dullard said:
What about unlocking the "Voltage Control" in "Settings" and raising the Core Voltage slider in Afterburner? I tried it up to +50mv and seemed to squeeze a few more Mhz out of the cards, but it wasn't an extremely significant increase.
Click to expand...

that slider does nothing as far as I know.
 
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