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OCUK 6970 TFIII (Lightning) review.

might have to pick one of these up instead of a 7900 series. Can't seem ot find them in the USA yet though
 
bhavv said:
Wow, so basically these are lightening edition PCBs, but with unbinned GPUs at a normal price.
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That's quite amazing actually. Even if the chip you get isn't a great clocker you still get the improved efficiency of the beefed up power delivery system AND you get that badass TFIII cooler, all for the price of a bog-standard 6970.

ALXAndy said:
Yeah doesn't surprise me really. It's a poor engine. Well, it looks nice, but it needs work. See also - Crysis. No point throwing money at it because you're really just pouring perfume on a pig.
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Can you speak a little more about your multiplayer experience in BF3? I'm ideally looking to play on ultra @1080 with MSAA, but slade only getting 45fps on high doesn't sound too encouraging (especially when my gtx470soc was rendering 52 frames most of the time at the same settings) :confused:.
 
tobsmonster2 said:
That's quite amazing actually. Even if the chip you get isn't a great clocker you still get the improved efficiency of the beefed up power delivery system AND you get that badass TFIII cooler, all for the price of a bog-standard 6970.


Can you speak a little more about your multiplayer experience in BF3? I'm ideally looking to play on ultra @1080 with MSAA, but slade only getting 45fps on high doesn't sound too encouraging (especially when my gtx470soc was rendering 52 frames most of the time at the same settings) :confused:.
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This is why I've decided not to buy this card, tempted as I was, not a big jump from my 470GTX. :(
 
Yea its not going to do anything for me over my TF2 GTX 560 tis.

The funny thing is, that even MSI non lightening Twin Frozr cards are better built than anything else out there, and then the lightening PCB on top is just extra cake.

So basically, the current GPU desin heirachy:

5) Reference Design - If you knowingly buy these anymore, lolnub (except for watercooling)

4) Custom manufacturer designs - These are mostly solid, and you have a wide range of aesthetic options available to fully customise your PC

3) MSI Twinfrozr II / III - Still the king of custom designs, never yet been beaten for temperatures and max OCs.

2) MSI Lightening PCB - Now MSI are sticking these together with unbinned GPUs and charging the same cost as 4 and 3 above.

1) MSI Lightening PCB + cherry picked GPU / Asus ROG series cards / EVGA *** Epic ultra editions ..... Price wise the MSI cards have the premium Asus and EVGA beat but a longshot, plus Asus / EVGA rarely make such a better PCB, these cards are much more equal to 3), but charge crazy prices.

Oh wait, I forgot one more from above:

5.5 / 6) Zotac and Palit Custom designs - If anyone can actually build a custom card thats stonkingly worse than the reference design, you can always count on Zotac or Palit.
 
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Yeah sorry man, I forgot the pitfalls of having warm air in space :D

So long as it doesn't affect what's important (CPU temp, NB temp) then how is it a problem? What exactly is the horrible downfall from having warm air being in your case?

And of course, no one has exhaust fans on their PC :D

Sorry man, not being sarcy, but I just don't see any basis for the "But it dumps hot air in your case !". It hasn't affected my Noctua NH at all and I have been using those coolers for years now as I can't stand that horrible noise blower coolers make.
 
ALXAndy said:
Yeah sorry man, I forgot the pitfalls of having warm air in space :D

So long as it doesn't affect what's important (CPU temp, NB temp) then how is it a problem? What exactly is the horrible downfall from having warm air being in your case?

And of course, no one has exhaust fans on their PC :D

Sorry man, not being sarcy, but I just don't see any basis for the "But it dumps hot air in your case !". It hasn't affected my Noctua NH at all and I have been using those coolers for years now as I can't stand that horrible noise blower coolers make.
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Not pooping on the TFIII cooler (only heard good things about it), I was only correcting the man for making it sound like reference style coolers were near enough obsolete :p
In my SG05 (mini-ITX), when I "upgraded" my 4850 from stock cooling to a Zalman vf770 I was getting 80 degree load temps on my core i3 530! And I expect I'll experience the same when my Lian Li A05 turns up. In these situations a reference card that ports most of it's heat out the back of the case is ideal.
Having a cooler that doesn't exhaust air out the back probably isn't as much of a problem when you've got a case the size of an Antec 900/Corsair 650D; with enough fans to create a decent flow, but cases with weaker cooling characteristics are better off not having to deal with the extra heat.
 
Reference coolers are seriously bad, those blowers are so inefficient and loud if you want lower temps.

You'll never have any problems with a PC cases normal exhaust fans, hot air isnt dumped into the case, its exhausted.

You shouldnt use a bad PC case, thats the moral of your story :p

Im still using an ancient P182, two silent exhaust fans are more than enough and Ive been using crossfire / SLI for a long time with fansink design coolers.
 
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Nice review! Although unless I'm mistaken there's no mention of specs of the machine you tested it in? Would be interesting to know.
 
Gerard said:
Just an FYI to the op the reference 6970 pcb is this version:

http://hw-lab.com/_old/hardware/videocards/amd-cayman/amd-hd6900-pcb-v1_x800.jpg

The linked one appears to be the v2 which used "cheaper components" according to most .
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If you google the stock code it will take you to the stock 6970.

These are REBOXED Lightning cards. No one else has them apart from OCUK because it's a deal OCUK struck up with MSI.

So if you go to MSI's website all you will find is either a stock 6970 or the 6970 Lightning, which is what this card is.


beefybarn said:
Can anyone confirm which one i will receive as i want the twin frozr version as red will not match my build.
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It's a TF III because that is the cooler the Lightning uses.
 
Send it back not as described.

The pics on the listing show the lighting. You can clearly see it written on the PCB.
 
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