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The MSI R6970 Lightning Twin Frozr III arrives in a large, colourful box with a picture of a stealth fighter on the front.
It is a gatefold design with a wealth of information on the product detailed inside.
The bundle is extensive, with video and power converter cables, crossfire adapter and literature on the product.
Regular readers of KitGuru will have seen earlier versions of the Twin Frozr cooler which is a metal design with Twin fans. The newest version of the cooler features dual 9cm PWM fans which provide 40% more airflow than previous versions.
A close up of the fan, showing the angular blades, with the edges tapered for maximum airflow. There are also two fan modes on the PCB, one for performance and one for silence, we will look at this more later.
The PCB is a custom MSI design and it features one of the most substantial heatpipe implementations we have seen. These heatpipes are 8mm thick and one of them runs almost the full length of the PCB, pushing heat across the full width of the aluminum fins. These are a high density design to ensure that all of the fins act equally to dissipate the heat.
The MSI R6970 Lightning utilises the world's first 18 phase PWM design, which is meant to help improve overclocking capability and aid general stability under load.
The R6970 Lightning has a dualDVI, 2 mini displayport and an HDMI port output configuration.
The card demands two 8 pin power connectors. The reference board is a 6 + 8 pin design so MSI have redesigned the power intake, potentially to offer more overclocking capability. This board design also incorporates the world's first independent memory power system to help with overclocking.
Removing the cooler is a straightforward process and now we can get a better look at the formidable cooling design. The large copper base is coated with nickel to provide improved heat dissipation. MSI are using Super Ferrite Chokes again, which offer 10% greater power efficiency and 30% higher current capacity. The HI-C CAP design uses Tantalum cores to improve stability while giving 15 times less leakage, they are apparently used on Space shuttles and satellites.
The card also is populated with Solid capacitors which give a 10 year life span with extremely low ESR and temperature output. The PCB design is called the ‘Lightning PCB Stack' which is formed around 10 individual layers. The inside four layers support GPU power, Memory and IO power and ground.
There are three V check points on the PCB, for C-GPU, V-MEM and V-PLL.
An overview of the card via GPU-Z, highlighting the core clock speed enhancements.
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!