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There have been some incredible HD6970's released to market recently, most noticeably the Asus HD6970 Direct CU II which was an overclocking ‘tour de force'. The MSI R6970 Lightning Twin Frozr III didn't quite overclock to the same heady heights, but it is supplied with higher ‘out of the box' clocks and runs even cooler than the Asus variant.
It is incredible to think how much effort companies such as MSI put into their graphics card development. The reference HD6970 can hit close to 80c when gaming, but the Twin Frozr III design keeps the GPU core running at under 60c at all times. A reduction of 20c is nothing short of an engineering miracle and the MSI engineers really do deserve a pat on the back for coming up with such a monumental design.
The card is supplied with a core speed of 940mhz, and in our case this could be increased to 1040mhz with some voltage increases. Results will vary from card to card, but there is clearly still quite a bit of headroom if you experiment with the Afterburner software settings, just be sure to unlock the voltage options as highlighted on our overclocking page.
The Twin Frozr III cooler is one of the most proficient coolers we have tested, but it is also one of the quietest. The angular blade design ensure that all of the components receive air flow, but the noise levels peak around 32 dBa, which is a record for a flagship, high end graphics card.
Gaming performance is as good as we would expect, and like all AMD HD6970's, the MSI R6970 Lightning can deliver great frame rates in many of the modern gaming engines across three 24 inch screens. If you are looking for a new HD6970 then we suggest you shortlist the Asus HD6970 Direct CU II and the MSI R6970 Lightning Twin Frozr III, they are without a doubt two of the finest AMD solutions on the market.
This card will be available from Overclockers UK for £339.99.
Pros
- Class leading cooler
- low noise levels
- efficient power consumption for the performance
- great build quality
- two fan settings
- overclocking is easy with Afterburner
Cons
- more expensive than reference card
KitGuru says: High clock speeds, low noise, great temperatures, excellent performance.
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, thats a hell of a card again from MSI
That cooler design just keeps getting better. the V2 of the frozr was one of the best, but they have really overhauled the heatpipes on this one. wasnt expecting a 6970 to be loaded when gaming under 60c!
MSI get overlooked for graphics cards, but its like ASUS and GIgabyte. when these boys want to play, no one can compete. its all the motherboard engineering teams they have on hand to create the custom designs. wicked.
A metal cooler, you dont often get that. I was reading the HIS review last night and it looks thin plastic. both work, but very different design concepts.
Never bought an MSI graphics card before, I take it their warranty would be good?
Its expensive, but they have certainly done the ‘full monty’ with the design. no stone left unturned !
The fan design is unusual. I noticed also that there are voltage options on the PCB. that is one sick friggin card.
Wow thats a nice card..
Real reason for commenting: That stone giant benchmark… Wasnt kitguru the one that posted an article about two months ago now that talked about biased benchmarks? One of them happened to be stone giant yet youre still running it in all the GPU reviews?
Hi. Yeah we had an interview with Richard Huddy in AMD who said that they are running a very high level of tessellation in Stone Giant which isnt indicative of a ‘real world’ situation.
We use it sometimes out of curiosity, but I wouldn’t think many people rely on it as a buying decision….
keep watching the stores, this will go up soon and it will sell out too. loads of people waiting on this monster board.
Thats a fucking serious gfx. hopefully they do the same for the 590 🙂
Frozer iii ftw !
Considering the extras it’s worth the extra 45 quid. The cooler is what AMD should do for the reference boards!
Apparently this card is discontinued due to too many problems. Just read through the Feedback on NewEgg’s page:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-127-581&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo
Shame on you for giving a misleading positive review. Did MSI pay you off?
Our sample was great. Loads of positive reviews around, even on the link you sent.
You expect us to review hundreds of cards to find a problem? We only get a single sample for a handful of days, we arent a retailer.
Newegg.com is still selling this product and it is hard to get one. I just got mine today and it is beautiful!