OCUK 6970 TFIII (Lightning) review.

[ALXAndy]

Hi,

Just picked up one of these from OCUK and a bit concerned with the temps. With case side off mines hitting 75C in the Kombustor test and around 80 C in BF3. With the side of the case on I hit 90 C in BF3. I'm idling at around 38 C.

Running BF3 at 1920x1200 on high settings, no MSAA if that makes any difference?

Any comments appreciated.

Cheers

1. Kombustor is evil, get used to it. Hence the name, it's a parody of

combust [kuhm-buhst]  
Origin
com·bust   [kuhm-buhst] Show IPA
verb (used without object), verb (used with object)
burn.
Origin:
1325–75; Middle English < Latin combūstus (past participle of combūrere to burn up, equivalent to com- com- + -ūs- variant stem of ūrere to burn +

2. BF3 is a torture test too. Thankfully it hates my GTX 295 Quad SLI, but NFS : The runs had my 295s hitting 104c and shutting down.

3. What case do you have and what cooling for the GPU? Pics will help.

 

[ALXAndy]

Well I've reseated the card tidied up some cabling and with the case side now back on got 76C max running 3dmark11 and after an hour playing bf3 was looking at temps averaging 79/80C with a max of 85C playing on a 64 man server. Now idling at 40C.

So looking a bit better but does anyone know what the max limit is on this card?

Cheers

You have created a fan profile, right?

NEVER rely on the drivers to do it for you. That's how Nvidia destroyed my GTX 280.

 

[ALXAndy]

I tried creating a custom profile with aggressive fan settings in Afterburner and it didn't seem to make much difference to temperatures but made quite a lot more noise. With the fans at 80% it was holding about 60/61C and on auto at about 60% it was 63/64C playing BF3. GPU load was 99% both times. What was your experience?

My card gets into the 70s when gaming and no more. But then it would do, it has a Delta fan about two inches in front of it feeding it air at a speed I choose.


You just want to keep it under 80c. At that temp ICs and so forth will stand the test of time (as well as the lead free solder). Going into the 90s is not good for a GPU.

 

[ALXAndy]

Yeah it tackles 1080p no worries mate. BF3 hovers mostly in the mid 40s.

I actually bought Metro, and again, cranked it up and it was fine. Boring game though

Don't let people say buy the new 7*** series... they will cost wayyy too much over the odds. Get the 6970 or even 6950 if your an average gamer. Tbh, you havent told us the resolution of you monitor which has a big factor.

The new 7 series are x% faster than the 6970. However, they're also x% more expensive. Price to performance? they're spot on, but then so is the 6970. And if you game at 1080p the 6970 is just as capable as the 7970.

It seems to me that Nvidia and AMD are trying to convince people to shift to 1600p now on larger monitors. Mostly because that is where their cards become relevant and they actually have a point with all of their waffle.

Sadly 1600p monitors do not cost £140 or so like a 23" HDMI monitor does, and their cards don't cost what a 6970 and so on do.

I highly doubt they will succeed in their new attempt to make people upscale. I did a survey recently and 1080p was a complete and total landslide.

 

[ALXAndy]

However, your RevoDrive is the dogs!..

That's a joke yes?

How can something that doesn't support TRIM, nor ever will, be any good?

 

[ALXAndy]

It's not so easy tbh. The CCC tends to stop you overclocking. I only noticed that my clocks weren't actually doing anything the other day. When I enabled the overclocking in CCC it became very unstable.

I would be interested to know how to disable the TDP throttle if any one has figured it out. It's something to do with the CFG file in AB apparently !

 

[ALXAndy]

I hear others have reported that there cards run 70 while idle. Mine was running at 39c idle but seem to be unlucky with other faults on two cards!

Actually thinking i'm going to see if i can change to a GTX580. I really don't want to have send back another card.

On topic tho i would use Afterburn to OC the card. Really nice tool and easy

It doesnt matter what you use. Your overclocks are all fake unless you enable the overclocking in CCC. I found that out the other day. Look at the right, look at the max clock.

 

[ALXAndy]

Is the XFI a PCIE? if so what's wrong with the empty slot at the bottom?

The Lightning is a dual slot card dude. So it should have no issues going in where the card is now (if it's PCI).

 

[ALXAndy]

Personally i wouldn't bother buying one, worst mistake i have made for sometime. Given the amount of faulty ones and the hassle of trying to get them refunded /exchanged. Spend the extra and get the fully tested official lightening card or get something else.
OCUK advise due to me reseating the cooler i have voided warranty and am therefore left with a useless GPU that's cost a lot.

TBH the worst mistake you made was taking apart something and voiding the warranty. You should've just sent it back, man.

I had issues with my GTX 470 once. It was idling in the 60s. I emailed POV and asked them if I should try repasting it or, just sending it back. They said hey, repaste it. I kept the email and repasted it, no good.

Turns out it was the dual monitor problem, but I made sure I had permission before taking the card apart.

 

[ALXAndy]

I think it's been covered. It does fit, but you need to remove something?

Read over the thread, I'm sure a couple of 300 owners got them.

 

[ALXAndy]

Has anyone managed to clock this card to over 1ghz? I read something about disabling overdrive in CCC?

The two were really dogging my overclocks (AB and CCC).

If I disabled overdrive my clocks were not being applied properly (looking at the actual max mhz on the right just showed 880 regardless of what I did in AB) and when I enabled CCC the card was unstable even at 900 and was still throttling.

Apparently you can remove the limiter (TDP apparently) by doing something with the cfg file for AB. I also read that you shouldn't install the CCC at all if you intend to do any serious overclocking because again it limits the voltage.

In the end I just set the card back to the factory settings. No point in all honesty, was just wasted time as it tears through everything even @ 880.

 

[ALXAndy]

Well i don't see why it's voided the warranty, the cooler was not on properly to start with, there are no notes saying it cannot be done and i cannot see anything in the manual or on their website advising otherwise. (also adding to the fact that i have clearly not damaged it in anyway)
I'm yet to get dirt 3 either despite them *sending* it before xmas. I'll be taking this up with the credit card company as OCUK seem to fail somewhat when it comes to customer service.
(their forums good though)

If the cooler wasn't on properly then the card was clearly defective and thus, should have been returned. Infact, you are not obligated to even pay return postage for a defective item that comes down to the person who sold it to you. If they refuse to collect it you keep it and get a refund.

I found that out when I bought a GPU from Amazon and the pleb put it in a padded envelope with no AS bag or anything. It arrived with the PCI plate bent badly and a cap snapped off. I sent him pics, he said "Send it back and I will give you a refund". I refused, dug up the law, he ended up losing the card and I got a refund. Repaired it a week later..

But yes, due to the law being so heavily weighted in your favour taking the card apart and fiddling with it is just suicidal.

I really don't understand why you would do that

If you decide to try and change how the law operates you can't really expect it to rule in your favour.

Ed. What I mean is items damaged in transit. Which it obviously was.

 

[ALXAndy]

And please state where i have tried to change how the law operates? I've worked in retail for sometime and am fairly familiar with the basics of the law (not it anymore like)

The law states that if something arrives at your house that your ordered via the internet that is broken (distant selling) that you must inform the person who sent it to you that it is broken. Not defective, broken. If the cooler was seated incorrectly it is damage.

At that point they then have the option of collecting said item but must give you a refund either way. They can not demand that you send it back at your time and cost.

Therefore you should have simply done so, not taken it apart.

It has been shown that your warranty is made void by modifying or changing the item. If you took the cooler off then that is exactly what you were doing.

 

[ALXAndy]

Nah the game isn't down to MSI man, OCUK usually send a card/voucher or email.

My BF3 came by email and Deus Ex was on a card in the box. It's OCUK who bundles that stuff man get onto them about it.

I've been missing a game card a couple of times (Mafia II was one on my 470) and a Razer Tshirt that was bundled with my Boomslang. They sent both next day and apologised.. Send them a webnote.

 

[ALXAndy]

Heh, sweet

So after weeks of searching I finally managed to track down the stock Lightning 940 bios.

To be safe I switched to the performance bios (which was 880mhz also) and flashed it onto there. I wasn't expecting it to be stable, as strangely when I tried to overclock the card to 940mhz with standard volts it would just crash when benchmarking.

However, as bizarre as it seems for some reason the bios loaded on and the clocks appeared.

Note I have circled that the actual clocks are 940mhz (sometimes before that area would stay at 880)

And sure enough

The plot thickens

How come when in Silence mode (on a stock 880mhz bios) it wouldn't overclock to the stock lightning settings without extra voltage, yet, when switched to the performance bios and flashed to a stock proper Lightning bios it flew through with flying colours

I even managed an easy 970mhz on 1220mv but it bombed at 1050 with 1320.

Very strange !

I would upload the bios for you all, but I don't have the means sadly. Shame, 'cos it's a tiny file.

 

[ALXAndy]

O.K.

When my card was in its stock "Silence" setting I tried to clock it to "Normal" Lightning speeds. This means 940mhz with stock voltage (1174 or what not).

However, when I did it would crash during 3dm11 unless I pushed up the voltage to 1.2v (or 1200mv).

OK.

So today after spending ages looking I finally found a bios dump from an actual Lightning card. This means that at stock clock on the bios the core speed is 940mhz at stock volts.

On the back of your card is a switch. By default it is set to Silence. It has three stages. One click over from Silence is Performance. This, basically, is the second bios on the card for overclocking with and modifying ETC for LN2.

So. I found the bios for the actual lightning (940mhz 1174mv) and flashed it to the second bios that is labelled Performance. If you click to the third setting you will select no bios and the card will not post (mistake on MSI's behalf).

What's odd is that if I clocked the bios that is loaded onto the Silence setting to 940mhz with stock volts it would fail any benchmark or stress test. However, when the actual Lightning bios is loaded onto the card it works perfectly at that clock (940) with stock volts.

You can get the bios from here.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...-crap-on-me-when-i-put-load-on-it-570283.html

You need to create an account, but that's no biggie.

Then do the following.

Download something called Radeon Bios editor. The filename for it is RBE_128.exe and I got it from Techpowerup. This will allow you to verify the bios and show the clock speeds and so on.

Then download ATI Winflash. The latest version is 2.0.1.14. Again, that can be downloaded from Techpowerup.

Then download GPUZ.

O.K now shut down the PC.

Find the white switch, and carefully set it one place across. If you go both two places your GPU will not have a bios to load and your PC will just beep like a piggy.

So once you have set it to bios 2 (or Performance) boot your PC.

EDIT. Load GPUZ and back up the bios on there (880mhz)

Load Winflash, flash on the bios in the link I sent you. Reboot when it tells you to.

Load Afterburner, click "reset" at the bottom. Your AB screen should now look like this.

OK, when it looks like that you are now running an actual Lightning bios, stock clock of 940mhz with the stock voltage.

Run 3Dmark11, see if it passes. If it does compare your score comparatively with your rig vs an I7 950 stock clock w 6gb ram.

Pat yourself on the back, 'cos you just made your card worth £50 more

 

[ALXAndy]

Hasn't affected temps at all. Quite simply because it's on stock volts.

If it goes **** up then yes, just simply switch back to silence and you'll default back to the 880 bios (I think.. Let me try that now and I'll update).

 

[ALXAndy]

Right. If it goes boobs up simply shut down the PC. Throw the switch back to silence, reboot and click "Reset" in AB. AB stores your clock settings otherwise.

And yes, it goes back to the 880mhz bios

edit - forgot to ask, i presume as this is now the clocks set on the bios of the card the CCC isn't messing with anything ?

Exactly.

 

[ALXAndy]

would you really notice much difference going over 1ghz?

Nah not really. Maybe another 5% over 940. And for the power it consumes and so on it really isn't worth it.

Also, I found that 3DM11 will crash the card before anything else does tbh. It gets a bit blocky then just freezes.

And no, I wouldn't dare putting this firmware on a regular card. You have to remember this is not a stock PCB or card so could be laid out differently?

I don't know man but I wouldn't risk it.

 

[ALXAndy]

Well most 6950 2gb have dual bios for that purpose.

Basically the OEMs knew if they didn't do that people would brick the only bios it had and then just return the card lmao.