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MSI Shows off R6970 and N580GTX Lightning Graphics Cards

btarunr

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MSI did a lot more than showing off its AMD Fusion "Brazos" Wind U270 notebook at today's press-meet in Taiwan. The company seems to have spilled its entire load for CES, just days ahead of it. Today's exposé included two new ultra-high end graphics cards under the company's Lightning series. The R6970 Lightning is based on AMD Radeon HD 6970, and the N580GTX Lightning, of course, on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580.

Both cards look nearly identical because their most peculiar part, the cooling assembly, is mostly the same. The Twin Frozr III from MSI combines slick looks with certain enhancements with the fan blade design (to improve noise to airflow ratio). Under the shroud is what looks to be a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed using several heat-pipes, including 8 mm thick ones. While the cooler more or less respects the 2-slot width, it increases the height of the cards by a good inch.



The PCBs of both the R6970 and N580GTX are surprisingly similar in component layout. The N580GTX uses a 16-phase VRM with power drawn from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, while the R6970 uses a beefier 18-phase VRM. Both cards seem to be making use of high-grade components such as high-C capacitors and proadlizers to condition power, there's a good chance that they're using MSI's solid-state chokes that don't whine on load.

The N580GTX Lightning features display connectivity that includes two DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort, while the R6970 Lightning uses an AMD standard loadout of two DVI, one HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPort. Both cards might feature factory-overclocked speeds with large overclocking headroom, including voltage control to help you out. More can be learned at CES. MSI's pre-preview is getting exciting so far.

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The R6970 Lightning has a sticker "Broken" on it. Someone must have dropped it on the floor or something:laugh:
I would like to know how it performs/overclocks with that yummy cooler.
 
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MSI's Lightning series has provided mixed levels of performance in the past. It will be interesting to see if this version is a must have or a do not want.
 

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The R6970 Lightning has a sticker "Broken" on it. Someone must have dropped it on the floor or something:laugh:
I would like to know how it performs/overclocks with that yummy cooler.

That 'someone' must be looking for a new job right about now
 
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Do want. Hope they go on sale in UK soon.
 

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MSI always has sexy ass cards.
 

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the MSi 580 might just be my next card next year when bf3 comes out
 
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Well at least it looks better than the tfIII 480 version, but still not quite as glorious as the twinfrozr II.
 

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Like to see what Asus has up their sleeves for the 6970. I do like MSIs Twin Frozr III cooling design and I also want to see what Gigabyte comes up with as well as HIS.
 
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YES FINALLY, Been waiting for MSI to do this, now I just gotta save up abit more, fuken SWEET :)
 
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so is THIS the card for the next givaway w1z
 
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The R6970 Lightning has a sticker "Broken" on it. Someone must have dropped it on the floor or something:laugh:
I would like to know how it performs/overclocks with that yummy cooler.

Or they could be commenting on the drivers.:roll:
 
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looks good..
 
T

TAViX

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Those cards looks sexy indeed. The fans reminds me about a Corvette.....;)
 
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Nice cards indeed. Batcard lol
 
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