• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

MSI GTX580 Twin Frozr II vs Lightning

Associate
Joined
15 Oct 2009
Posts
560
Hey,

I'm looking to get one of these cards but cannot decide on which.

There isnt really much difference in price between them so no worries there the thing im interested in are the noise levels.

I have read all the reviews I can find around the net and tbh there is some conflicting info, some reviews say they are both really quiet and others say the lightning is loud.

Does anyone have a Lightning that would mind chipping in a sentence to give me your thoughts? Ideally comparing it against any other cards that you have heard under load.

I currently have an aftermarket Palit GTX470 (the two orange fans version) and would really like to know whether I'm going to notice a difference in noise compared to that.

Plus what kind of overclocks can you get out of each card, I know the Lightning is a pure overclocking card but it seems a lot of the fuctions are for LN2 cooling and I would only be using the stock air cooler.

tyvm :)
 
Associate
Joined
21 Sep 2010
Posts
359
I have a 580 Lightning

Great card, very quiet in desktop and starts off very quiet in game, after a while the fan kicks in as it heats up but I still find it quieter than my old 5870 at 50% fan.

The card never gets above 65 degrees for me in game, I have Coolermaster cosmos case though so that may have an effect on the temp.

Overclocking wise I have read somewhere (one of the top reveiws, could be Tom's) that you can get up to 1100 clock on air, however they could only get upto 950, all depends on how lucky you are.

I have not tried OC yet as don't need to becuase its fast enough on 1680x1050.

My friend actually has the Twin Frozr II 580 and that is very quiet all the time but I don't think it OC as well as the Lightning.

Depends if you want quietness or increased fps, personally for extra £25 it is increased fps for me
 
Associate
OP
Joined
15 Oct 2009
Posts
560
Cheers for the reply,

Coming from a GTX470 which still at 80c in game with a custom fan profile which is pretty loud I'm hoping it will be on a similar level just not louder.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
15 Oct 2009
Posts
560
Well I paid the extra and got the Lightning and I'm very happy with it.

I have it sat at 900mhz without any voltage increase and it idles at 37c.

Under heavy load I cant get it above 65c, general gaming rarely does it hit 60c with my custom fan profile which is quieter than my previous GTX470.

Overall well happy.

Cheers for your input :)
 
Permabanned
Joined
15 Feb 2011
Posts
250
If you don't ever bother any overclocking/underclocking, then check the default load voltage out of factory - if they are the same, then the noise level should be almost identical. The Lightning series is MSI's top-end product line using better components (e.g. better capacitors to provide better reserve to smooth out current) so it can overclock better. Also you can adjust the vram voltage of the Lightning series using MSI Afterburner software. Check some reviews if you are an enthusiast. However for casual users one might want to go for the TF2 version.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2006
Posts
5,536
Location
Earth
I see there is a lightning extreme 3GB version out now as well... hit 980 core in a review i read.



Fans turn white if the card is getting too hot. :)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom