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7970 Lightning, worth the premium?

fendR said:
Anyone know how to get this card working in 120hz. I have a dual link cable and It used to work fine on my 6950.

Edit: Wow, I'm a retard. Single Link only, DOH!
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If you bare with me until I finish the loop and get my system back up and running I'll talk you through squeezing 120hz out of the single link ;)

It IS possible as its what I use.

I should be about another 2 hours with the loop, just need to re-seat the CPU block and tube up and bleed. Rest assured OC'ing and benchmarking will be done this evening before I start playing Borderlands 2.
 
DAMNIT!!!

EK or OcUK have had a monumental **** up, the compressions they sent me (black EK PSC) only one of them is actually 7/16, the others are 1/2 despite the product code being the same on them all. NOT happy.
 
The knurling on the compression is different, you'll also notice the **** will tighten all the way up on the fitting with very little hassle i.e. you won't feel it pinch the tubing.

Just requested a return for refund on them, Fortunately I still have some silver bitspower compressions kicking about, its going to look odd but it'll have to do for now. Really poor QC on EK/OcUK's part I have to say.
 
So I won't be able to tell really until I start my build?

I feel your pain, I've just discovered today that a cable is missing from my Lamptron FC5 and the XSPC RAYSTORM is corroded internally (the copper can be seen through the open fitting hole) so it's RMA for them too for me :(
 
If you have the tubing and have the fittings you can have a quick test, pop the compression on and tighten it up, a correct size EK PSC won't tighten all the way down, only 2/3 of the way, you will feel/hear it pinching the tube as you go down if its the correct size, if its the wrong size the **** will screw on all the way with ease.

You can also check the pattern on the knurling of the fitting, 1/2" and 7/16" have a slightly different pattern, I took a pic on my phone that I'll upload later tonight to show you the pattern difference.

Just about to start the bleed now I've raked together enough fittings to finish the loop.
 
pgi947 said:
All my bits and bobs have just arrived :D

All going well I should be up and running by early evening, so expect some high clocks, another member (stonerdude) I think has his Lightning already under water and managed 1336/1950, I'm fairly confident with the LN2* BIOS I should be able to better that, for 3dmark11 I may even manage close to 1400mhz on the core.

*I've been having a good read up on the LN2 BIOS as well as using some of my own logic, I've found some clocks at certain voltages that were not stable with the regular BIOS to be stable in LN2 mode, I'm guessing that despite the powertune limit still being +20%, the values are a lot higher while maintaining better power delivery.
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After playing with the LN2 bios the other day, I found it to be worse than the standard bios. According to afterburner osd, the max voltage with the LN2 bios was 1.350v but with the standard bios it went up to 1.365v when under full load. I also tried with a molex cable plugged into my mobo but it didn't help at all. I couldn't find my multi meter to read the voltages straight from the card, but I was not able to overclock near 1336/1915 with the LN2 bios.
 
Thats odd, it shows a max of 1.350v on both bios' for me, though I know from reading with a multimeter at an earlier date that projected voltage is actually around 0.020v higher (possibly due to the AUX feed).

I tried 1290/1800 @ 1.287/1.65v on the normal bios and got artifacts and eventual driver crash, the same with LN2 bios passed with ease...will investigate further this evening :)
 
Really you should be thanking vega (who found it) and the guys at 120hz.net who created the patch, its really simple to do but I'll do my best to draw up a guide complete with pictures and my own links (some of the provided ones require registration).

Basically it patches the driver, then you edit the resoltion/refresh profile and it should make 75/100/110/120hz all available to select.

Edit: Another hour tops, just getting the last of the air out of 1340 worth of radiators.
 
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Up and running folks, GPU is idling at 29/25/29 over GPU/MEM/VRM, going to be a wee while sorting things out, I booted to find my CPU idling at 88c, that's now sorted so I can re-apply my CPU OC and get working first and foremost on 3dmark11.

3dmark11 load P run at stock temps of 37/32/39, the memory seems to be keeping nice and cool, I wouldn't be surprised to see the VRM's peak at 50c+ once I get going.
 
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That was a nice easy 1340/1800 :D

I'm bound to hit a wall on the core sooner or later though.

Edit: I'll be doing haven and some heavier clocked 3dmark11 runs tomorrow, didn't expect this to take so long, have Borderlands 2 calling me ;)

@fendR, A windows update restored some reg files so I have to re-apply the 120hz patch tomorrow, at which point I'll pull out some nice easy pics and guide to do so for you.
 
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pgi947 said:
That was a nice easy 1340/1800 :D

@fendR, A windows update restored some reg files so I have to re-apply the 120hz patch tomorrow, at which point I'll pull out some nice easy pics and guide to do so for you.
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Thank you, much appreciated.
 
i'm going to ask a couple of dumb questions:-

how do i check my cards temp whilst gaming, or is it possible to check what it was after i quit gaming

plus, should the cards fans be on auto, or manual/ custom, because right now they're on auto 30%

thanks
 
Mal X said:
i'm going to ask a couple of dumb questions:-

how do i check my cards temp whilst gaming, or is it possible to check what it was after i quit gaming

plus, should the cards fans be on auto, or manual/ custom, because right now they're on auto 30%

thanks
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I use Afterburner! Click the monitoring tab and Show in on-screen display.
 
pgi947 said:
That was a nice easy 1340/1800 :D

I'm bound to hit a wall on the core sooner or later though.

Edit: I'll be doing haven and some heavier clocked 3dmark11 runs tomorrow, didn't expect this to take so long, have Borderlands 2 calling me ;)

@fendR, A windows update restored some reg files so I have to re-apply the 120hz patch tomorrow, at which point I'll pull out some nice easy pics and guide to do so for you.
Click to expand...

Nice one! ;)

Might have to give my Lightning another run! It's not seen daylight since I got the 690!
 
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