• 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.

7970 Lightning, worth the premium?

Around the same cost as a retail 3820 and specs are identical to the 3960X (15mb cache, 6C12T, fully unlocked) apart from a lower stock clock of 2.3ghz. For simplicity and to avoid getting a slap on the legs from the mods I will just be referring to it as a 3960X ;)
 
1/4 of the cost :( I hope it doesn't affect gaming regardless of it being fully unlocked and I'm disgustingly jealous about your find. （╯°□°）╯ ︵ ┻━┻

ETA on it's arrival? Did you sort out that DSR query about whether it's void given the circumstances?
 
They will accept DSR, should be with me before next weekend, along with a Gigabyte X79-UD7. It shouldn't affect gaming once I ramp the clocks up, at stock clocks it may be an issue but seen a few of these hitting 5ghz+ for 3Dmark runs, I'll be aiming for ~4.5ghz for 24/7 use.

As I said I won't be showcasing much of it and I'll be referring to it as a 3960X to keep everyone interested happy, so any CPUZ screens etc... will be edited to remove cpu information.

Look forward to pairing it up with the Lightning and water though :D
 
I have some great news, using the modified .sys file that ToastyX has made, I can clock a 1080P 120 Hz monitor to over 100 Hz with single link DVI connection! :eek: All hope is not lost for the Lightning's...

Now I have my whole 5x1 setup running 100+ Hz (100 Hz now, can squeeze some more Hz out of it with some patience).
 
It's a good thing Tahiti has a monster pixel clock as I've found I am able to push some serious bandwidth over single link DVI and my monster 24 gauge DVI cable:

700D120HzSL-DVI.jpg


That took me a few hours of tweaking timing's. I am literally within .02 MHz of not being able to run 120 Hz on my 700D. (256 MHz seems to be the absolute pixel clock limit on SL-DVI). It was a real nail biter edging back and forth with getting those timings to work. So now my entire Eyefinity setups is rolling along nicely at a buttery smooth 5400x1920 @ 120 Hz. Look's like the four Lightning's just may be keepers!
 
Do share this sys file Vega! Being able to push 120hz over the single link could save me sooo many headaches from using dp.
 
Legend :D

Willgive it a try tonight, may need to get a new dvi cable, using the Asus cable that came with the monitor.
 
Cable quality is going to matter when you are running the much faster than spec. With my single link DVI overclock, I am only running half the cable to push all that bandwidth so it's important to have a good gauge/quality.

Trying to get more info out of EK on those Lightning blocks!
 
Let us know what they tell you, I was going to ask again but thought it might have annoyed them asking a second time :p

I'll look into a new cable depending how I get on with the one I have. Tbh I'd be over the moon with ~110hz direct over DVI, anything to save these blackouts over DP.
 
Just a single Asus VG236H, connected via an active MDP > DVI-DL adaptor. I didn't have any issues while just running single link @ 60hz.

The blackouts a quite spontaneous, occasionally it happens on boot to windows straight after the splash, some times its alt+tabbing in and out of games and others its just random. I average about 2 blackouts a day, I must stress that everything is still functional and pulling the MDP cable out and putting it back in fixes it.

Getting a higher refresh over the single link is ideal for me, a shame I've just spent in excess of £500 upgrading to X79 to see if it was a chipset related issue :p
 
Pretty sure that's an adapter issue, not the GPU. When you plug and unplug the adapter it resets it internally. Remember though running 1080P 120 Hz over single link DVI with the modded .sys file may or may not work since the timings are so tight. Definitely worth a try though as it's free.
 
I get those exact blackouts too but at 60hz with the same setup. Have to un plug and plug back in the mdp to get picture back.

For now I've decided to get either the Asus or the Samsung depending how well they perform. The Samsung is coming tomorrow, hopefully alongside this

http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=5410

Not sure if it's 24 AWG. Looks like it though and has a bandwidth of over 14.8Gbps so it should alleviate the possibility of any errors I guess.

I won't be able to play with it until a few days :( Have to RMA ssd.
 
Last edited:
Totally, for free I have nothing to loose :) I would try another adaptor, but they seem to be quite rare and very expensive, I've seen a club3D adaptor of the same type going for ~£125.

I also get random error pop ups from the AMD driver saying the DP has stopped working and may not be functioning at the desired resolution/refresh rate.
 
pgi947 said:
I also get random error pop ups from the AMD driver saying the DP has stopped working and may not be functioning at the desired resolution/refresh rate.
Click to expand...

I get that aswell but I have the adapter Vega recommended for OC'ing a Catleap which is £125 in the UK and the best quality DL DVI-D cables I could find. So i don't see what the problem is.
 
Must be either directly related to the card or buggy drivers. Everything is perfect in single link, as soon as DP enters the situation I get problems.

When it black screens the monitor doesn't actually enter stand by mode, it just displays a pure black screen.
 
well I'll be damned:

refresh%20rate.jpg


Set a refresh of 100hz via custom viewer and it defaulted to 120hz in windows.

rrate.jpg
 
Last edited:
theCrim said:
I get those exact blackouts too but at 60hz with the same setup. Have to un plug and plug back in the mdp to get picture back.

For now I've decided to get either the Asus or the Samsung depending how well they perform. The Samsung is coming tomorrow, hopefully alongside this

http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=5410

Not sure if it's 24 AWG. Looks like it though and has a bandwidth of over 14.8Gbps so it should alleviate the possibility of any errors I guess.

I won't be able to play with it until a few days :( Have to RMA ssd.
Click to expand...

No, that won't be 24 gauge. Look's like 28 gauge, maybe 26 depending on shielding thickness. But you don't need 24 gauge for anything less than 25 feet.

pgi947 said:
well I'll be damned:

Set a refresh of 100hz via custom viewer and it defaulted to 120hz in windows.
Click to expand...

Sweet, is that via Single Link DVI mod?
 
It is indeed :)

Followed the steps in the link you gave me, set custom resolution at 100hz (246khz) and everything just flicked straight to 120hz. Wish I'd known sooner, could have saved £74.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom