I figured given that there are more of these cards available that I would do a write up of sorts. Firstly, let's get the important stuff out of the way.
There is no such thing as a 6970 TFIII. There is such a thing as a 6950 TFIII, so with the £269 bargain you are getting a Lightning card.
Here is what you get.
Be warned, they are enormous. The card measures in excess of 31cm. They are also very tall, which is down to the PCB (will cover that shortly). If you wanted a better idea of how big they are, here is a pic of the card sitting next to a 6970 stock card.
The size of the card is pretty much dictated by the PCB. This ain't no ordinary PCB, it's a completely custom PCB.
Every single last part of this card has been designed by MSI from the ground up. Even if you didn't want to overclock the card or push it above the 880mhz clock it arrives at it doesn't matter. The chokes, caps, and every other IC is military grade.
On the PCB there are three voltage probe sockets. Each of these can be accessed with the probes supplied in the box. To find them you need to remove the foam and there is a hidden compartment underneath. In there you will find them, a mini adapter and a Crossfire bridge. Also included is a Lightning manual and a Lightning install DVD.
Obviously as usual you want to ignore the drivers, but there is a very good version of Kombustor on there. It's different to any other one I have seen, because it alternates between about ten different tests to make sure you card is 100% stable. It also plays a really funny 1980s cheesy porn song as you go, which can alleviate the stress when your PC locks up because you didn't get the overclock right
If you wanted to know just how hard MSI had worked to change the 6970L into a whole new animal here is a stock 6970 PCB.
Looks a bit, well, poo doesn't it? Once you have fitted the card (and please make sure it will fit !) it looks a bit like this.
Overclocking.
I spent the evening overclocking and testing the stability of the card. Apparently in reviews of the "actual" Lightning the card will do around 1035mhz with 1.3v. I did manage to get mine there, and stable, but I needed 1.35v. I also noticed that in certain benchmarks (like 3DMark 11) the card was throttling.
Now on the back of the card there is a switch. MSI give it a funny name, but apparently it removes the throttle. Sadly my card is not a review unit and nor do I intend to blow it up playing with it, so in the end after hours of testing I worked out that the sweet spot for the card was 960mhz and 1.25v.
As I said, this won't be a typical review because this is my card and I intend to use it. It needs to be able to maintain the clocks I give it, and safely. You will note on there that the top temp of the card today was 70c. I have my case fans set to 2% (Deltas, very noisy) and my heating is on. The 70c occurred during a three hour Battlefield 3 session, with fans on the card set to acceptable levels.
Here is a 3Dmark 11 score with the above overclocks.
Battlefield 3 performance? Well, at stock 880mhz clocks (these are going to be actual real world figures) and with FRAPS running the lowest I saw them go to was 38 FPS. This was during the raid in Iran (night time one in single player). However, when the card was set to 960/1.25 which took mere seconds I never saw it dip below 44 FPS. And I haven't since either (I am now up to the stupid bit on the train platform where you play SIMON).
Which seems to disagree with scores taken from reviews of the 6970L, but they do not point out what level they are playing on nor if it is MP. So given that mine explains exactly what you can expect I would find it a tad more useful than a pile of charts.
Noise from the card is acceptable. I won't say that you can't hear them but it's a tolerable noise. It has a nice reassuring whoosh, unlike those horrid blower fans that sound hollow and annoying.
Performance of the card when overclocked is pretty much on par with a STOCK 580. It won't set the world alight, but it's more than man enough to play anything I have given it at 1080p. Obviously the card isn't going to be any good at any resolution over 1080p (well, aside from 1900x1200) so that puts it right in the same category as a 580, given that it too isn't man enough for 1600p. At those levels you are going to need a 590 or 6990.
The last bit.
Basically at the price OCUK are charging for this card it has no direct competition. Yes yes, a heavily overclocked 570 will beat it, as will a 580. However, what the Lightning does have is lots of Vram. The kind of levels of Vram that you would need to spend a pretty penny to get with either a 570 or 580. Three months ago if you'd told me that I needed 2gb of Vram I would have pointed at you and laughed, but alas, with the way gaming is headed now it is the most important part of any GPU purchase, AMD or Nvidia. It doesn't matter how much brute force your GPU itself has, without the Vram you are in trouble.
I am fully aware that you can get a 570 that would possibly even be cheaper than the 6970L, but the bottom line is the 6970L is not a normal card. It is, to all intents and purposes, a work of art.
You are getting a custom PCB that was designed specifically for this card. You are getting top quality top shelf components. You are getting every single overclocking tool and accessory you could throw a stick at. And that is what separates this card from every other card on the market.
Usually when MSI built Lightning cards they gave them a price to suit. And that pretty much priced normal people out of owning one, which is a shame.
I can't tell you how much drool accumulated on my carpet from staring at photos of the 480 Lightning fondly, but alas, it was just too expensive for me.
The deal OCUK have going on here is quite remarkable. Not only does it make owning a Lightning affordable, but it makes sense in other aspects too. When you cost in what comes with the card this actually works out cheaper than a stock 6970. So if you were in the market for a 6970? this really ought to be a no brainer.
So yes. It's not the fastest card in the world. It is ideal for 1080p and nothing more, but it will last you for years.
There is no such thing as a 6970 TFIII. There is such a thing as a 6950 TFIII, so with the £269 bargain you are getting a Lightning card.
Here is what you get.
Be warned, they are enormous. The card measures in excess of 31cm. They are also very tall, which is down to the PCB (will cover that shortly). If you wanted a better idea of how big they are, here is a pic of the card sitting next to a 6970 stock card.
The size of the card is pretty much dictated by the PCB. This ain't no ordinary PCB, it's a completely custom PCB.
Every single last part of this card has been designed by MSI from the ground up. Even if you didn't want to overclock the card or push it above the 880mhz clock it arrives at it doesn't matter. The chokes, caps, and every other IC is military grade.
On the PCB there are three voltage probe sockets. Each of these can be accessed with the probes supplied in the box. To find them you need to remove the foam and there is a hidden compartment underneath. In there you will find them, a mini adapter and a Crossfire bridge. Also included is a Lightning manual and a Lightning install DVD.
Obviously as usual you want to ignore the drivers, but there is a very good version of Kombustor on there. It's different to any other one I have seen, because it alternates between about ten different tests to make sure you card is 100% stable. It also plays a really funny 1980s cheesy porn song as you go, which can alleviate the stress when your PC locks up because you didn't get the overclock right
If you wanted to know just how hard MSI had worked to change the 6970L into a whole new animal here is a stock 6970 PCB.
Looks a bit, well, poo doesn't it? Once you have fitted the card (and please make sure it will fit !) it looks a bit like this.
Overclocking.
I spent the evening overclocking and testing the stability of the card. Apparently in reviews of the "actual" Lightning the card will do around 1035mhz with 1.3v. I did manage to get mine there, and stable, but I needed 1.35v. I also noticed that in certain benchmarks (like 3DMark 11) the card was throttling.
Now on the back of the card there is a switch. MSI give it a funny name, but apparently it removes the throttle. Sadly my card is not a review unit and nor do I intend to blow it up playing with it, so in the end after hours of testing I worked out that the sweet spot for the card was 960mhz and 1.25v.
As I said, this won't be a typical review because this is my card and I intend to use it. It needs to be able to maintain the clocks I give it, and safely. You will note on there that the top temp of the card today was 70c. I have my case fans set to 2% (Deltas, very noisy) and my heating is on. The 70c occurred during a three hour Battlefield 3 session, with fans on the card set to acceptable levels.
Here is a 3Dmark 11 score with the above overclocks.
Battlefield 3 performance? Well, at stock 880mhz clocks (these are going to be actual real world figures) and with FRAPS running the lowest I saw them go to was 38 FPS. This was during the raid in Iran (night time one in single player). However, when the card was set to 960/1.25 which took mere seconds I never saw it dip below 44 FPS. And I haven't since either (I am now up to the stupid bit on the train platform where you play SIMON).
Which seems to disagree with scores taken from reviews of the 6970L, but they do not point out what level they are playing on nor if it is MP. So given that mine explains exactly what you can expect I would find it a tad more useful than a pile of charts.
Noise from the card is acceptable. I won't say that you can't hear them but it's a tolerable noise. It has a nice reassuring whoosh, unlike those horrid blower fans that sound hollow and annoying.
Performance of the card when overclocked is pretty much on par with a STOCK 580. It won't set the world alight, but it's more than man enough to play anything I have given it at 1080p. Obviously the card isn't going to be any good at any resolution over 1080p (well, aside from 1900x1200) so that puts it right in the same category as a 580, given that it too isn't man enough for 1600p. At those levels you are going to need a 590 or 6990.
The last bit.
Basically at the price OCUK are charging for this card it has no direct competition. Yes yes, a heavily overclocked 570 will beat it, as will a 580. However, what the Lightning does have is lots of Vram. The kind of levels of Vram that you would need to spend a pretty penny to get with either a 570 or 580. Three months ago if you'd told me that I needed 2gb of Vram I would have pointed at you and laughed, but alas, with the way gaming is headed now it is the most important part of any GPU purchase, AMD or Nvidia. It doesn't matter how much brute force your GPU itself has, without the Vram you are in trouble.
I am fully aware that you can get a 570 that would possibly even be cheaper than the 6970L, but the bottom line is the 6970L is not a normal card. It is, to all intents and purposes, a work of art.
You are getting a custom PCB that was designed specifically for this card. You are getting top quality top shelf components. You are getting every single overclocking tool and accessory you could throw a stick at. And that is what separates this card from every other card on the market.
Usually when MSI built Lightning cards they gave them a price to suit. And that pretty much priced normal people out of owning one, which is a shame.
I can't tell you how much drool accumulated on my carpet from staring at photos of the 480 Lightning fondly, but alas, it was just too expensive for me.
The deal OCUK have going on here is quite remarkable. Not only does it make owning a Lightning affordable, but it makes sense in other aspects too. When you cost in what comes with the card this actually works out cheaper than a stock 6970. So if you were in the market for a 6970? this really ought to be a no brainer.
So yes. It's not the fastest card in the world. It is ideal for 1080p and nothing more, but it will last you for years.
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