Some details/pics of the MSI 7970 Lightning

When someone gets this up can someone please post the bios to TechPowerup?
Thanks.
 
aandea said:
so, since I have to use an adapter for my 30" monitor, I figured that I might as well go with MSI.
Maybe I got a dud, but my MSI has the following issues
a) the Accell DP to DL-DVI adapter does not work. When I activate the monitor, all my monitors will flash continuously.
b) it is considerably louder than the Asus card (not measured, just perception).
c) the GPU does get to 78C and the VRM temps are not exposed.

Thus, the MSI is going back to newgg.
Click to expand...

My 7970 Lightning just came in and I've been playing around with it for the last couple hours.

My initial impressions as soon as I fired up 3Dmark11 is that this card is very loud. Coming from a Sapphire 6970 Dual Fan edition, that thing was inaudible even with a 120mhz overclock. The Sapphire 7970 Dual-X version is supposed to be even more quiet than the 6970 with the same cooler.

Thus I began to play with the fan controls. The stock voltage and just barely audible fan speeds (55%) results in an unstable temperature profile 95C+.
With a custom fan profile, and a slight undervolt (1.112v to 1050v), I'm running at a stock 1070core/1400vram with 55% fan stable at 89C with Kombuster running in the background. Given, Kombuster is the worst case scenario, I'm fairly confident this thing wont overheat while gaming.

I bought this card thinking the cooler would be very efficient and thus would allow me to run much more quiet than the reference 7970s.
Personally, the factory overclock is more than sufficient for my needs, max settings on a 1920x1200, so I'd rather take a quiet/silent video card over 1-2 more fps.


Other thoughts: The blue LED that show GPU load is wickedly cool. I am slightly disappointed at how inefficient these 10cm dual fans are compared to the sapphire's Dual fans. The Sapphire 7970 cooler are more efficient/quiet for whatever reason, but I just can't say no to these LEDs. I shall keep this Lightning and maybe pick up a sapphire dual-x 7970 for CF if I ever need to in the future.

EDIT: Core clock speeds pretty much don't affect temperatures by much. A 925mhz core tops out at 88C while a 1070core is only 89/90. It seems like power/core voltage to heat dissipation is more of a factor than clock speeds.
 
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Syab48306 that card is made for overclocking and the powerful fans will help it stay cool when doing some insane over clocks. This is my favorite 28nm card right now. If the numbers worked out for my budget I would get one and get a EK water block for it and over clock it like crazy. Lucky you. :)

Your temps do seem hot though. I'd try reapplying a decent aftermarket thermal paste like IC Diamond. If that doesn't help then RMA the card.
 
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@Syan48306

RMA your card, if your ambient temps aren't too hot (i.e in the <25 Celsius range) and got decent case airflow, your card's main temp at max load shouldn't exceed 70, it's supposed to be in the 60s range.

I myself bought an MSI 6970 Lightning that had very high temp issues (my third temp in GPU-Z would reach 105 degrees!) even though the twin frozr 3 is supposed to be top notch, after many trial and error turned out the issue was with the paste, replaced it with antec formula 7 and temps dropped by 30 degrees (no joke). My max temps are now in the 60s/70s range with sub 50% fan speed (it's very quiet, my case fans are louder!).

In my case RMA-ing the card was very difficult because I bought it internationally and returning it would have been a total bitch, since I doubt that's your situation as well, I say save yourself the headache and RMA the card, you're supposed to get the premium performance and cooling that you paid for.
 
metallicaband said:
@Syan48306

RMA your card, if your ambient temps aren't too hot (i.e in the <25 Celsius range) and got decent case airflow, your card's main temp at max load shouldn't exceed 70, it's supposed to be in the 60s range.

I myself bought an MSI 6970 Lightning that had very high temp issues (my third temp in GPU-Z would reach 105 degrees!) even though the twin frozr 3 is supposed to be top notch, after many trial and error turned out the issue was with the paste, replaced it with antec formula 7 and temps dropped by 30 degrees (no joke). My max temps are now in the 60s/70s range with sub 50% fan speed (it's very quiet, my case fans are louder!).

In my case RMA-ing the card was very difficult because I bought it internationally and returning it would have been a total bitch, since I doubt that's your situation as well, I say save yourself the headache and RMA the card, you're supposed to get the premium performance and cooling that you paid for.
Click to expand...

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm having the same problem you're having with the thermal paste.

I understand that furmark produces much more heat than games but at 1920x1080 burn in with only the default dynamic background and burn-in checked, the automatic thermal protection kicks in at 97C, otherwise it'd continue to heat up. This is with a stock 1070/1400 mind you. I'll take a look at the thermal paste but I can't imagine AC5 making that big of a difference :/


59703599.png
 
Can anyone else with a 7970 lightning run Furmark @ 1920x1080 @ default factory clock speeds to check their cards and report back?

Thanks!
 
@Syan48306

I've heard mixed stuff about whether changing the paste will void your warranty or not, most say that it doesn't as long as you're not breaking any seals when removing the heatsink, I still think you shouldn't try that though, just RMA if it's simple in your case.

I wouldn't use AS5 with exposed GPU cores since it's electrically conductive. Also, try to run GPU-Z and check the temps of all the sensors under 100% load, when I had the heat problem my main temp would only reach the 70s temp, while the 2nd and 3rd temps would get crazy at 100+.
 
metallicaband said:
@Syan48306

I've heard mixed stuff about whether changing the paste will void your warranty or not, most say that it doesn't as long as you're not breaking any seals when removing the heatsink, I still think you shouldn't try that though, just RMA if it's simple in your case.

I wouldn't use AS5 with exposed GPU cores since it's electrically conductive. Also, try to run GPU-Z and check the temps of all the sensors under 100% load, when I had the heat problem my main temp would only reach the 70s temp, while the 2nd and 3rd temps would get crazy at 100+.
Click to expand...

Well I went ahead and slapped some AS5 on the 7970. It looks like it did improve temps but its still not at a point where I'm satisfied with it. IT took much longer to hit 97C and I can expect it to get slightly better as the AS5 is broken in. If anything, an undervolt of the card seems to produce the best results.

Default everything.
46368313.png



Slight undervolt from 1112 to1049
11910963.png



As you can see, with a small undervolt, it can run steady at ~76C. Many of the original reference cards run at 1.05v core. The lightning runs at a stock overclock of 1.112v. Its the extra voltage that is really heating up the core.
 
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Post a pic of your temps at 10 mins into furmark, and 10 mins into crysis 2 or unigine looped. I think furmark is a big waste of time. However, your temps do look pretty bad so it may be worth the time investigating some crysis/heaven temps
 
Ok, finally got a chance to check out the Lightning this weekend. Much to my disappointment, out of the box it was crazy loud. Way louder than stock. I was ready to declare it a complete failure until I looked into a bit more.

Turns out my card was set to 1.187v out of the box. This was producing a lot of excess heat. Coupled with MSI's very aggressive fan profile and no wonder it was a cranking like a dustbuster.

Once I set the core voltage back to something sane, 1.118v for this particular card to maintain stability at 1070Mhz, things were improved. I set a less aggressive fan profile and that really helped quiet it down.

All said though, I'm really disappointed. No reason someone should have to go through all this to make something work decently. Makes me wonder if something's not right with the cooler mounting or thermal paste.

So now I have to RMA it back to Newegg and fight with them over not sticking me with a restocking fee, since the card isn't obviously busted. <sigh>
 
Here are the SPL measurements I promised. dBA is higher frequency noise (air rush, fan whirring), dBC is lower frequency (humming, vibration). Anything lower than 40dBA/45dBC I perceive as quiet.

Background noise 31.8dBA/41.9dBC
Ambient temp is 23C

MSI Lightning 7970
1.187v (what it was set to out of box)
1070/1400 P8909 72C 72% (2572rpm) Skyrim 78C 85% (3130rpm) 47.8dBA 50.2dBC
1.118v + manual fan capped at 60%
1070/1400 P8897 72C 60% (2000rpm) Skyrim 79C 60% (2000rpm) 38.3dBA 44.1dBC

Asus DCUII 7970 (before it died after 4 hours of use)
1.112v
1070/1400 P8894 67C 32% (1200rpm) Skyrim 73C 39% (1500rpm) 37.1dBA 45.3dBC

Sapphire 7970 reference
1.112v
1070/1700 P9061 74C 39% (????rpm) Skyrim 79C 45% (????rpm) 43.7dBA 47.8dBC
 
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