MSI R5870 Lightning Review

1. Introduction2. The Bundle3. Test System and Configuration4. Aliens V Predator5. Metro 20336. Grand Theft Auto 4: EFLC7. Colin McRae: Dirt 28. Napoleon: Total War9. Far Cry 210. Overclocking11. Temperatures12. Acoustics13. Power Consumption14. Closing Thoughts15. View All Pages

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.

1GB GDDR5 memory

ATI Eyefinity technology with support for up to six displays

ATI Stream technology

Designed for DirectCompute 5.0 and OpenCL

Accelerated Video Transcoding (AVT)

Compliant with DirectX 11 and earlier revisions

Supports OpenGL 3.1

ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU support for highly scalable performance

ATI Avivo™ HD video and display technology

Dynamic power management with ATI PowerPlay technology

DL-DVI, DL-DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI

PCI Express® 2.0 support

‘Built to be perfect' – there really is no better one liner to catch people's attention. We like the use of a plane on the artwork as it makes a change from moody semi naked women and pissed off dragons.

The box opens into a glorious gatefold presentation with a plethora of detailed specifications. It is so impressive I would assume many an enthusiast has seen this in a store, bought it then walked away to worry about the credit card bill later.

The bundle consists of two 6 pin to 8 pin convertors, an HDMI cable, manual, crossfire cable, Driver disc and manual.

The card itself is extremely heavy as the cooler is made entirely out of metal with a twin fan design. Underneath the cooler we have ATIs 40nm Cypress core which has 32 ROPS and 1600 Unified Shaders. The card uses a 256-bit memory bus with 1GB of GDDR5 and like all 5870s it is compatible with PCI-Express 2.1. All standard ATI 5000 series features are present including support for DirectX 11, Shader Model 5, Direct Compute, HDMI 1.3a (DTS Master Audio/Dolby True-HD) and Blu-Ray acceleration.

The Twin 8mm Superpipes transfer heat much faster to the fins compared to a conventional design. MSI rate this as having ‘90% better cooling' than the reference card.

I honestly think this is one of the most beautifully designed cards on the market.

The heatsink is made from ultra density aluminum with a large overall circumference for heat disssipation. MSI claim the heat of the GPU core will be transfered to each fin equally.

The card takes two eight pin PCI express connectors, each delivering 150W each, for a total of 375W. This should ensure maximum overclockability later in our testing.

The board incorporates a 15 phase VRM (13 phase GPU and 2 phase memory) and it is built on a 10 layer PCB which is slightly broader than a normal card. MSI calls this PCB a LPL, or ‘Lightning Power Layer' and the card also uses Hi-c Caps, 100% Solid State Chokes, Gold plated connectors, V Check points and a Proadilizer capacitor with 1000uF capacitance and low ESR to 1 m.

MSI adhere to the US Department of Defense MIL-PRF-39003L guidelines in regards to the heat levels and build ethic. They are keen to point out it has ‘military grade components' which are the Hi-C (Tantalum core) caps and Solid Core Chokes. This should not only help temperatures but increase overclocking ability later.

The card is slightly shorter than a reference design but ‘taller'.

Connectivity is covered by dual DVI link connectors with HDMI and Displayport.

Phew, this is as far removed from a reference HD5870 as we have seen. What a hell of a design from MSI, I am sure you will agree!

When testing the R5870 Lightning we ensured the partnering equipment was as closely matched to the relevant target audience as possible. As we don’t like to see CPU limiting on the high end graphics card results we used one of the fastest processors on the market – Intel’s 980X. Asus were also kind enough to let us use their stunning Rampage III Extreme motherboard and if you missed our previous review check it out over here.

Test System:

MSI R5870 Lightning
Radeon HD 5870 1GB
Intel Core i7 980x
6GB Corsair Dominator GT
Coolit ECO A.L.C. (Review)
Enermax 1250W Revolution PSU
160GB Intel SSD
LaCie 730 30 Inch Display (max supported 2560×1600)
Silverstone Raven 02 Chassis

Thermal Diodes
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Keithley Integra 2700

Windows 7 64bit Ultimate Edition – all latest patches/updates
Catalyst 10.6 Driver
Fraps Professional

Aliens V Predator
Metro 2033
Grand Theft Auto 4: Episodes from Liberty City
Dirt 2
Napoleon: Total War
Far Cry 2

The system was built from scratch and all drivers updated – all our results are gathered from five individual runs to analyze and remove any possible result abnormalities.

Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.

The game was tested at 1920×1200 and 2560×1600 which are the resolutions which the high end target audience will utilise. All in game settings were maximised – which is exactly how high end gamers will want their HD5870 gaming experience to be.

As expected, with the increased speed on the core of the card, the performance is noticeably improved. At 2560×1600 this actually means the difference between some sections juddering and others perfectly smooth.

These frame rates are solid throughout and while we are quite close to the danger zone, the card maintains a playable frame rate throughout. If you are sensitive to sub 30fps, then we would suggest removing AA at this resolution, to be honest with it off the game basically looks the same.

Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror, and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. In March 2009, 4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game. The game was announced a few months later at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig;a first trailer came along with the announcement.

The game is founded around the 4A Engine which features complex artificial intelligence as well as enhanced lighting and environmental algorithms. The game also supports DX11 with Tessellation.

Testing was performed with maximum settings (all enabled including full volumetric texturing and soft particles) as well as triple AAA antialiasing and 16x texture filtering for the ultimate experience. This game is extremely demanding so higher resolutions are possible, however with the reduction of image quality – which the target audience will not be happy with.

The sizeable increase on the core means this game is a lot smoother at our choosen settings when compared with the reference board.

Our worst case scenario run is impressive as the Lightning is showing a significant improvement when compared to the reference edition. Generally performance would be higher throughout, but we select the most stressful locations for our testing.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City is a standalone compilation of the DLC episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV, containing both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disc. It was released alongside the DLC release of The Ballad of Gay Tony on 29 October 2009 for the Xbox 360 and released on 13 April 2010 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 3. It does not require a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV to play, nor is an Xbox Live or PSN account necessary (except for multiplayer). The content is also played straight from the disc, and does not need to be downloaded to a hard drive to play, like various other disc-based expansions for other Xbox 360 games that have been released in the past.

The engine is still extremely demanding for this game – even months later for the newest hardware. The latest version changes some of the rendering calls and is used partially within the latest Max Payne engine.

In a similar fashion to the Black Edition we reviewed a while ago, the MSI card rarely dips under 30fps which is impressive to see. This translates to a really smooth in game experience and it is hard to move down to a lesser card after enjoying this game at such high settings.

Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (known as Dirt 2 outside Europe and stylised, DiRT) is a racing game released in September 2009, and is the sequel to Colin McRae: Dirt. This is the first game in the McRae series since McRae’s death in 2007. It was announced on 19 November 2008 and features Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Tanner Foust, and Dave Mirra. The game includes many new race-events, including stadium events. Along with the player, an RV travels from one event to another, and serves as ‘headquarters’ for the player. It features a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to diverse and challenging real-world environments. The game takes place across four continents: Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The game includes five different event types: Rally, Rallycross, ‘Trailblazer,’ ‘Land Rush’ and ‘Raid.’ The World Tour mode sees players competing in multi-car and solo races at new locations, and also includes a new multiplayer mode.

This engine support DX11 and was one of the integral releases for ATI when they launched the 5xxx series cards a while ago. Hardware tessellation is used on the crowd, as well as water and cloth objects. DirectCompute 11 accelerated high definition ambient occulsion is also integrated with full floating point high dynamic range lighting.

We enabled maximum settings, including hardware tessellated animated crowds and dynamic water via ULTRA settings.

Dirt 2 on a HD5870 is an amazing experience and on the MSI Lightning its even better. Settings are maxed for the native resolution of our 30 inch panel and the end result is fantastic. Super smooth and it looks beautiful.

Napoleon: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game released for the PC, developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Napoleon was released in North America on 23 February 2010, and in Europe on 26 February. The game is the sixth stand-alone installment in the Total War series, and focuses on the politics and major military campaigns at the beginning of the 19th century. Players assume the role of Napoleon Bonaparte, or one of his major rivals, on a turn-based campaign map and engage in the subsequent battles in real-time. As with its predecessor, Empire: Total War, which included a special United States storyline, Napoleon features a separate campaign that follows the general’s early career.

The game features several significant improvements compared to previous titles in the franchise. There is improved multi core support which helps improve overall performance and there is a new unit rendering algorithm in place which offers a wider range of individual personas. Particle effects also get a makeover with a 500% increase and post processing is taken to the next level in regards to weather effects.

Creative Assembly have also added features such as camera vignette to the lighting models and recoded some aspects of their SSAO which now can be used as a light attenuator as well as a full screen implementation device. Parallax mapped high terrain detail and heat haze are featuresets also recently added.

We performed testing with settings maxed at 1920×1200 with 2aa and 16 texture filtering applied.

This is a positive result for the MSI R5870, this game is extremely demanding and this shows the power of the HD5870 series in all its glory.

Far Cry 2 (commonly abbreviated as “FC2 or “fc2″) is an open-ended first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2.

Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day East African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate “The Jackal,” a notorious arms dealer.

Far Cry 2 is still a popular game and the open world environment can be taxing on even the latest hardware available today. We set the game to 8xAA and 16 texture filtering and maxed all the other settings in game.

At the highest settings possible, Far Cry 2 still manages to look great on the MSI R5870 Lightning. The frame rate only hovers around the FPS danger zone for a short while in the most intensive action sequences. Another fantastic result for the flagship solution.

Even though the MSI Lightning is supplied pre-overclocked we always like to see how far we can push the technology. This card is built for overclocking from the ground up so we have high hopes we will see decent headroom.

	Reference	Lightning ‘Reference'	Lightning Manual OC
Core Clock	850mhz	900mhz	1010mhz
Memory Clock	1200mhz (4800 effective)	1200mhz (4800 effective)	1465mhz (5860 effective)

Impressed? Yeah, I thought you might be.

Let us have a look at how these overclocks affect performance in a few games.

Thanks to a 110mhz increase on the core as well as a staggering 265mhz increase with the memory these figures are literally through the roof. 6fps gained in the demanding Aliens V Predator and 8fps with Far Cry 2 at 2560×1600. Wozzers.

The cooler on this card seems substantial and with a dual fan configuration we would like to see good temperatures even with the overclock. We measure temperatures with diodes and our Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp gun for verification. Room ambience in our labs is kept to 25c with air conditioning to ensure accurate results.

To stress test we run Crysis at Enthusiast settings at 2560×1600 and then use Furmark. Furmark is a synthetic test and not really indicative of ‘real world' conditions but it is interesting nontheless.

We also checked out temperatures with our massive manual overclocks from the previous page.

When we manually overclock the card to its limits we notice around 7-8c increases to the temperatures as well as a 15% increase on the fan speeds. The cooler is clearly doing a very good job.

To record the audible output of the card we use our TES Sound Meter and measure about 12-15 inches from the Raven 02 Chassis, which is closed (just as it would be when people are using it). There is no point us laying a sound meter down next to a graphics card on a test bench, its not indicative of a real world environment and gives false (high) readings.

We measured noise by playing Crysis Warhead at Enthusiast settings.

The MSI cooler is clearly doing a very good job and the heatpipes do get hot (we measured 90c with a diode), so they are clearly moving heat from the core to the fins, which is then displaced into the air. Unfortunately due to the cooler design we did notice ambient case temperatures would rise in a standard tower case, however our Silverstone Raven 02 expelled the warm air directly upwards almost immediately. It really is a testiment to the Silverstone design crew, we never fail to be impressed with this chassis even over a year later.

To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. The best way to get maximum load results is by using Furmark, and even though it is not indicative of a real world situation it shows the limits the card can theoretically demand.

The MSI R5870 is consuming significantly more power at load than a reference HD5870. When we manually overclock the card further we hit a whopping 248watts drain. While this sounds a lot of power, bear in mind that a GTX480 can suck 320w under the same conditions.

I think I have tested almost every HD5870 card on the market in the last six months and the MSI R5870 is without a doubt my favourite. I even prefer it when compared to the excellent XFX HD5870 Black Edition and the HIS HD5870 Icooler V Turbo which we reviewed a while ago.

I don't fall for marketing gimmicks and before I used the MSI R5870 I was sceptical about all the buzz words they have been using in their advertising campaigns. I am big enough and ugly enough to hold up my hand and admit I was totally wrong. The VRM phase design, voltage monitor points, TwinFrz II Cooler, Active phase switching all combine to create the most potent HD5870 card on the market.

While overclocking is always going to vary from card to card, we were stunned to achieve over 1ghz on the core and a 5860mhz effective clock on the memory. I have never achieved anything close to this on air with a HD5870 before.

So with all this attention to detail and custom PCB design we were expecting to pay about a £40 premium, this seemed reasonable and is what we are used to with other manufacturers ‘special editions'. Heading online we found it for £370 inc vat, which is only £20 more than a reference design.

Everything considered, if money was no object and I was buying a graphics card myself, this would be right at the top of the list. In our manual ‘enhanced' overclocked state, performance was right up there with a GTX480 and the card was running cooler, and quieter than the nVidia solution. MSI also offer a two year warranty with the R5870 Lightning.

KitGuru says: Goodness gracious, great balls of lightning.

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