[HardOCP] 7970 Lightning Review

[Subyman]

http://hardocp.com/article/2012/03/20/msi_r7970_lightning_video_card_review

Looks good.

1070mhz stock clock. They were able to get it to 1190 with a vcore bump.

 

[ocre]

the factory overclock is fantastic. But it didnt even overclock to 1200mhz???? we are consistently hearing 1300mhz overclocks like this is every day.

All overclocks vary from card to card, i know. But i think its starting to seem that 1200mhz is more realistic to expect when it comes to the hd7970. anything more is the elite.

 

[Madcatatlas]

Hardocp is probably the only site that will include an oc 7970 in their review of 680. Just like they did with an oc 580 when reviewing 7970.

I doubt Ryan Smith would include an oc 7970, even when the regular 7970 are all 1000+ mhz in daily use. Would probably be a nono in nvidias review guide

 

[FragKrag]

hardocp is also the most amd biased site out there....

 

[tviceman]

Hardocp is probably the only site that will include an oc 7970 in their review of 680. Just like they did with an oc 580 when reviewing 7970.

I doubt Ryan Smith would include an oc 7970, even when the regular 7970 are all 1000+ mhz in daily use. Would probably be a nono in nvidias review guide

Wouldn't it make sense to compare stock vs. stock though? You are implying that reviews should overclock an hd7970 and not a gtx680.

 

[tviceman]

So somewhere between 1150-1200mhz are the best realistic expectations on air cooling with the hd7970, right?

 

[aaksheytalwar]

1100+ is sure shot I guess
1150 is almost certain, like 90% of the times
1200 is certain like 70% of the times perhaps
Chance of 1250 is probably 50-50

However anything above 1150 will probably need aftermarket cooling and anything above 1220-1230 will probably be better with water cooling

 

[Chiropteran]

I haven't thoroughly tested, but my 7970 seemed fine at 1200mhz with the stock cooler and a small voltage bump. An anecdote of one isn't terribly useful, but there it is.

 

[tviceman]

1100+ is sure shot I guess
1150 is almost certain, like 90% of the times
1200 is certain like 70% of the times perhaps
Chance of 1250 is probably 50-50

However anything above 1150 will probably need aftermarket cooling and anything above 1220-1230 will probably be better with water cooling

But this particular card is the best of the best among AIB custom solutions and couldn't hit 1200????

 

[notty22]

This site keeps a database of reviews. Most of these are stock voltage, but are fairly relevant to what I'm seeing in forums. AMD left 20% o/c headroom which is a good margin.
http://www.gpureview.com/archives.php?month=12-2011

 

[thilanliyan]

But this particular card is the best of the best among AIB custom solutions and couldn't hit 1200????

My TwinFrozr III 6950 can't hit as high speeds as my reference 6950. I prefer reference cards myself...they're somewhat overengineered I think (except for the cooling). I think the non-reference cards usually use cheaper components (even though they say they are made for OCIng, etc) to make the AIBs more money.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Wouldn't it make sense to compare stock vs. stock though? You are implying that reviews should overclock an hd7970 and not a gtx680.

It's great to review a stock card, but comparing OC results is a good datapoint. But comparing a stock card soley to an OCed one IS unfair.

 

[Tempered81]

My TwinFrozr III 6950 can't hit as high speeds as my reference 6950. I prefer reference cards myself...they're somewhat overengineered I think (except for the cooling). I think the non-reference cards usually use cheaper components (even though they say they are made for OCIng, etc) to make the AIBs more money.

Same here, reference all the way (except gtx590)

 

[chimaxi83]

My TwinFrozr III 6950 can't hit as high speeds as my reference 6950. I prefer reference cards myself...they're somewhat overengineered I think (except for the cooling). I think the non-reference cards usually use cheaper components (even though they say they are made for OCIng, etc) to make the AIBs more money.

MSI's cards don't use cheaper components. On the Twin Frozr cooler I was hitting 1005MHz, bench loop and gaming stable. After I water cooled it I could bump it up to 1045MHz, stable. Of course most of us know that 6900 series overclocks didn't return as much results as we'd like, but still. I had it up there

 

[tviceman]

It's great to review a stock card, but comparing OC results is a good datapoint. But comparing a stock card soley to an OCed one IS unfair.

Agreed completely. In a head-to-head match up, if you are going to overclock one then it only makes sense to overclock the other.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Agreed completely. In a head-to-head match up, if you are going to overclock one then it only makes sense to overclock the other.

Where I draw issue with reviews OCing though, is that either they may have a bad sample that is not indicative of what you or I could get...or more likely they'll have a golden sample that can OC tons, and is still not very indicative of what you or I will see with it.

 

[thilanliyan]

^Yep, OCing in reviews is a bit of a double-edged sword. However, ones that do both a stock volt OC and an overvolted OC are pretty useful IMO.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'd be happy with the stock-overclocked performance, especially given this:

"MSI has had a great track record with their Twin Frozr cooling systems. The Twin Frozr IV cooling system that debuted on this video card did not disappoint. Out-of-Box it was far quieter than the reference Radeon HD 7970. It was also 16c cooler than the reference Radeon HD 7970."

Fast, cool, and quiet. The only things stopping me from buying one today are:
- $600 price
- waiting to see nvidia's 6xx price / performance

(that, and not in stock at newegg yet )

 

[RampantAndroid]

I'd be happy with the stock-overclocked performance, especially given this:

"MSI has had a great track record with their Twin Frozr cooling systems. The Twin Frozr IV cooling system that debuted on this video card did not disappoint. Out-of-Box it was far quieter than the reference Radeon HD 7970. It was also 16c cooler than the reference Radeon HD 7970."

Fast, cool, and quiet. The only things stopping me from buying one today are:
- $600 price
- waiting to see nvidia's 6xx price / performance

(that, and not in stock at newegg yet )

How is MSI's service these days? Last I dealt with them on getting a motherboard RMAed, it was pretty nasty, though that was 5-6 years ago.

 

[mak360]

Wow, think i found my next upgrade depending on price

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162729

 

[chimaxi83]

How is MSI's service these days? Last I dealt with them on getting a motherboard RMAed, it was pretty nasty, though that was 5-6 years ago.

Sent in a TFIII 6950 that I over abused. It was watercooled. Replaced all the thermal tape for VRM/VRAM cooling, thermal paste for GPU, threw on the TF heatsink. You can tell I messed with it, but I just got a new one back last week. ~10 day turnaround time.

 

[mak360]

wrong post

 

[SlowSpyder]

So somewhere between 1150-1200mhz are the best realistic expectations on air cooling with the hd7970, right?

I think getting over 1200MHz on a 7970 happens pretty regularly if you're not afraid to bump the voltage. But, ugh... the noise...

 

[Nintendesert]

Hardocp is probably the only site that will include an oc 7970 in their review of 680. Just like they did with an oc 580 when reviewing 7970.

I doubt Ryan Smith would include an oc 7970, even when the regular 7970 are all 1000+ mhz in daily use. Would probably be a nono in nvidias review guide

Are you serious???

The reason Anandtech won't use OC cards in their reviews is because they did use an OC Nvidia card when testing new AMD cards and it skewed the results and readers cried foul.

Unbelievable. D:

 

[Silverforce11]

There's nothing wrong with including OC vs OC performance, but its a lot of extra work. What's wrong is taking exceptions and include an OC product as representative of stock performance.