MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Lightning 6GB

[W1zzard]

MSI's new GTX 980 Ti Lightning is amazing. It's the fastest, quietest, and coolest GTX 980 Ti we ever tested. All at the same time! What a fantastic product; if only the price were lower. Clocking in at $780, it's over $150 more expensive than the cheapest GTX 980 Ti variants.

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[dwade]

Same typical clock limit at around 1500mhz. Might as well get a reference card and buy a 3rd party cooler.

 

[dj-electric]

Cmon wiz, share some over-voltage results.
Pretty please, this is an overclocking card.

 

[the54thvoid]

Cmon wiz, share some over-voltage results.
Pretty please, this is an overclocking card.

The 980ti doesn't over volt well unless under extreme cooling. There's no point cranking up the voltage, it's not the same as Kepler. This is why most 980ti's will hit up to the 1400's and a fair few will go past 1500. But if you add voltage, it adds instability and often the clocks become unstable. What is great about this card is the speed it can achieve with the low noise. Effectively 'better' than my Kingpin (before it went under water), but also, to be fair, a huge cooler.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

970SLi FTW

 

[Fluffmeister]

That's one beast of a card for sure, I too find the cheaper options like the Zotac AMP! and Palit JetStream more compelling options, but I can certainly appreciate what this card is all about.

There is a nice range of 980 Ti options out there regardless.

Liking the new graph format too!

 

[64K]

Very nice card. I'm still happy with my MSI 980 Ti Gaming for $100 less money though.

 

[SmokingCrop]

That's an amazing cooler on there, so silent and yet so cool. They've really done a great job in comparison to the other ti's.
You can definitely see it at the price :/

How much noise would two MSI GTX 970 Gaming's make when one does 30 dB(A)? Anyone know how you would calculate that correctly?

 

[trog100]

the card isnt aimed at normal users.. tis for record breaking attempts and priced accordingly..

trog

ps.. a pair of 970 cards are pretty quite under normal use but if the fan speed is cranked to maximum they start getting a bit noisy.. mine ran about 75 C with little noise..

the same applies to any of these cards.. the makers target low noise rather than low temps.. with a three slot cooler you get both.. the main gain is the fans can run slower with less noise..

running the fans at 90% will get one of my three slot Palit cards down to around 55 C.. out of the box the fans run much slower and tempts are around 70 C ish..

in sli mode (air cooled) i get a 20 C difference between the top and bottom card.. i have to "overcool" the bottom one to keep the top at reasonable temps.. mine are running at 55 and 75 C.. the fans speed has to be cranked up.. something i didnt have to do with a pair of dual slot 970 cards..

 

[cadaveca]

That's an amazing cooler on there, so silent and yet so cool. They've really done a great job in comparison to the other ti's.
You can definitely see it at the price :/

How much noise would two MSI GTX 970 Gaming's make when one does 30 dB(A)? Anyone know how you would calculate that correctly?

Yeah, there is a math problem for that. You need to use Log for it. I have the problem but I am sure you'll find an online calculator that 'll make it easier. True sound measurements should be using this sort of math regularly (you take ambient noise, measure noise of the source, so some math, remove the ambient, and you have a real noise value).

 

[Nokiron]

Cmon wiz, share some over-voltage results.
Pretty please, this is an overclocking card.

As mentioned above, there is no need for an increased voltage. You will probably get worse results doing so.

 

[apertotes]

How much noise would two MSI GTX 970 Gaming's make when one does 30 dB(A)? Anyone know how you would calculate that correctly?

If I remember correctly from my college years, adding two equal dB(A) figures increased the total by 3, so it should be 33 dB(A). I could be remembering incorrectly, of course.

 

[buildzoid]

Intresting MSI's core voltage VRM is the least powerful of the LN2 980 Tis. It's 720A the K|NGP|N is 840A and the HOF LN2 is 960A. Also the pros all swear by Samsung ICs. Looks like the only win that MSI scored with this card is that the HOF LN2 and the K|NGP|N are both limited editions of 1000pcs.

 

[the54thvoid]

Just for ref, that 1304 boost value in GPU-Z is the exact same as the Kingpin. The actual steady boost in 3D load is +126 on top, for both cards (1430Mhz). Must be the stepping maxwell uses natively? I've been trying to figure (for comparison) what my card gaming at 1500Mhz gives compared to the overclocked 980ti's and this shows pretty well. The Lightning runs at the Kingpin stock speeds.

 

[GC_PaNzerFIN]

Intresting MSI's core voltage VRM is the least powerful of the LN2 980 Tis. It's 720A the K|NGP|N is 840A and the HOF LN2 is 960A. Also the pros all swear by Samsung ICs. Looks like the only win that MSI scored with this card is that the HOF LN2 and the K|NGP|N are both limited editions of 1000pcs.

There is more to BUCK voltage regulators than maximum peak current.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Like the new charts.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I just bought the G1 gaming. And will get it tomorrow... yes I am switching camps... my 7970 kicked the bucket, need to change RAM IC at last... but that's another story.

I am now seeing useful to switch in between your earlier reviews of similar cards... there no hot shortcuts anywhere to compare with the same models form other OEM's.

And yes, the new charts look more pleasing to the eye. Thanks a lot Wizz

 

[Brusfantomet]

970SLi FTW

295X2 is overall better in my mind.

What is up with the CF scaling in Shadow of Mordor? a 290X gets 39,9 FPS and a 295X2 gets 108,6 FPS? that is 170 % more! is the 290X really throttling that badly?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

295X2 is overall better in my mind.

What is up with the CF scaling in Shadow of Mordor? a 290X gets 39,9 FPS and a 295X2 gets 108,6 FPS? that is 170 % more! is the 290X really throttling that badly?

as somebody who has been stung by shoddy CFX issues - No

 

[Joss]

970SLi FTW

yeap
I wonder how a couple of Asus Turbo would fare, particularly in terms of noise,
it's an interesting choice as well for blowing heat outside of the case
@W1zzard, any chance of a review ?

 

[buildzoid]

There is more to BUCK voltage regulators than maximum peak current.

Well it runs 6 PWM channels which is also less than the 7 of the K|NGP|N and the 8 of the HOF LN2. The maximum frequency on all 3 of these VRMs is 1MHz. They all use the same IR power stages.
The only difference left is the capacity of the capacitor banks which the HOF LN2 wins that hands down. The K|NGP|N looks to be a little better or equal. No idea about the chokes since there aren't any parts numbers for them.

 

[Brusfantomet]

as somebody who has been stung by shoddy CFX issues - No

I have had more problems with SLI than CF personally, since we are going on anecdotal evidence.

 

[qubit]

MSI have done it again. This card is epic and has a large performance boost over my MSI 780 Ti Gaming card while improving on that legendary quietness. If I wasn't waiting for Pascal, I would have considered it, even at a painful £650. I especially love the way it blows the Titan X out of the water at a much lower price, lol.

I wouldn't normally consider a three-slot card, but as I don't care for SLI and it's annoying niggles any more, I think I'd be ok with it here.

@W1zzard I like your new flat style bar graphs which look very smart and have a significant improvement in clarity.

 

[natr0n]

I like the updated fps charts/graphs.

 

[Enterprise24]

Off topic but now 280X beat 770 by 17.5% @ Full HD
Compare to R9 Nano review last month 280X = 770.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_Nano/30.html