KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The ATI HD5870 video card redefined high end gaming when it was released many months ago, taking the performance crown as the fastest single core solution on the market. Even though nVidia have knocked it off the number one perch with the GTX480, many enthusiasts still prefer the HD5870 thanks to the lower power drain and cooler temperatures. This has left the market wide open for a variety of enhanced cards from many manufacturers and we recently looked at several, such as the XFX HD5870 Black Edition.
Today we get the chance to analyse a product with some jaw dropping specifications, the MSI R5870 Lightning. This card has a custom PCB design and incorporates the worlds first 15 phase PWM design to offer higher levels of overclocking and stability. This is why they cranked it to 900mhz on the core (+50mhz on reference design) and 1200mhz on the memory (4.8GBps effective).
To help deal with temperatures they have also included a twin fan ‘Twin Frozr II cooler' with nickel plated copper base and dual heatpipes. This card also offers 10 year life solid capacitor design with aluminum cores and solid state chokes with ‘no buzz noise' under load.
No only that but MSI have included V check points which overclockers can use to read voltages, direct from the card with a multimeter. We don't think we have ever seen such a loaded design, so lets list the specifications then take a closer look.
Good god man, its alive. that is a mental card, it appears to have been out for a while, how come ive never heard about it ! ME WANT!
That is stunning , simply stunning. Sapphire must be worried if MSI keep these up !
that overclock is insane, over 1ghz on the core? bloody hell man.
1ghz on the core and what the hell on the memory ! I need a silverstone raven 02 for my setup too!
£20 more than a reference design? ill have it. if I could afford it :p
Just ordered one, ill post a picture of my receipt on the forums 🙂
That is one mega mega board. I love all the work they put into the hardware rather than just slapping a crappy cooler on it.
Who the hell needs a GTX480 when you got one of these, or two in Crossfire. If anyone here as two of them in Crossfire, ill be green.
Power drain is quite high but what a card that is. well worth the money.
Wonder if I could get a deal on a Crossfire setup !
ITs a really nice design and normally these cards really dont appeal to me at all.
Bit out of my price league but great review, really enjoyed that one.
seems well priced considering. Ill get one when they drop to 200 quid.
MSI are seriously underrated at times, all the attention goes to Sapphire. some of their motherboards are wicked good.
Love lovely lovely. ill have one 🙂
What a design that is. nice to see other companies doing these apart from asus. its actually quite affordable too, considering.
temps seem good, power consumption is high, but nothing compared to GTX480
would have liked to see some compares with GTX480 🙂
ITs way out of my price range, but if I had money to buy a HD4870 id get this for sure, absolutely !
Great review man, I wonder how many people actually buy these cards. they seem way expensive.
Nice review, cheers. what a great card. shall discuss it with you on the forums
Impressive design from the ground up, dont often see that kind of attention to detail.
Right, ive been looking at all these cards this month and im getting sick of it, having a crappy old GTX250. just ordered this, time to warn the wife.
I still think the sapphire vapor is nicer.
Would like to buy one of these myself, but hey im poor 🙁
how cool is the LED strip on the back of the PCB? wicked man.
how cool is the LED strip on the back of the PCB? wicked man.
Love the cooler, wonder who made that for them? arctic cooling maybe?
Nah its not arctic cooling, they dont make metal coolers like that. maybe MSI internal one.
MSI make coolers? I thought all these companies farmed out jobs like that to specialists.
Nah arctic cooling only do that if their name stays on the cooler. this is not them for sure.
I really enjoyed that review. i always like reading about hardware I can’t afford 🙂
power consumption is high, but two 12 pin feeds would explain that. this card is sucking some serious wattage.
It is my dream to play GTA4 at 2560 on a HD5870. I shall have my dream in the next 2 months 🙂
Good temps, for the power intake. Love the board.
nice card indeed. great clocks too. I didnt think it was possible to hit 1ghz on core on air.
MSI FTW with this beast. love the cooler too. like the pictures, turned otu well.
very interesting indeed. the 8mm heatpipes are certainly good ideas. they are normally 6mm right?
Nvidia really are not making much ground on older tech hardware. HD5870 is still kicking n screaming.
They really should have overclocked this card more out of the box, dont you think?
its very interesting to see the 8mm pipes. those are much thicker than the normal design, id love to know who makes the cooler for MSI. thats not an internal design, specialist job.
wonder what the thermal limit on those cards is? 105c like nvidia GTX480?