Posted on Friday, March 25 2011 @ 20:39 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
MSI introduces two new Lightning series graphics cards; the GeForce GTX 580 Lightning and the Radeon HD 6970 Lightning. The N580GTX Lightning offers a 832MHz core, 1747MHz shaders and 1536MB GDDR5 clocked at 4200MHz, while the R6970 Lightning has a 940MHz core and 2GB GDDR5 clocked at 5500MHz.
MSI, the leading Mainboard and Graphics Card manufacturer today unveils the latest additions to its flagship series; Lightning. With the N580GTX Lightning and R6970 Lightning MSI expands its line of pure-bred overclocking cards and continues to build on the legacy set by cards such as the N480GTX Lightning, world’s fastest GTX480 graphics card. MSI’s unceasing commitment to delivering “The Perfect Graphics Card” sees the new N580GTX Lightning and R6970 Lightning use features such as Power4 Overclocking Architecture, award winning Twin Frozr III cooler, Military Class II components. MSI’s gold-standard overclocking software, Afterburner MSI continues its tradition of world’s best overclocking Graphics Cards. MSI Lightning Graphics Cards are built to be perfect.
MSI’s Industry-leading Power4 Architecture
The MSI N580GTX and R6970 Lightning graphics cards inherit the impressive Power4 Architecture to provide the best design possible in four key areas. With its strengthened PWM area Lightning Graphics Cards have at least two times more power available compared to reference cards. Memory modules have its own independent power supply to ensure memory overclocking potential and minimize interference. Proadlizers greatly increase signal stability and available power while powerful and cool CopperMOS MOSFETs ensure plenty and stable power supply to the various components on the card.
Propeller Blade cooled Twin Frozr II Thermal Design
MSI’s new Twin Frozr III Thermal Design utilizes the innovative Propeller Blade technology that doubles the amount of airflow compared to conventional fan design greatly increasing the thermal and acoustic performance of MSI Lightning cards. Propeller Blade technology also ensures that airflow covers a larger part of the heat sink and radiator compared to a traditional fan. The Lightning cards are covered by a large, form-in one heat sink that cools all important components, like memory, PWM and CopperMOS MOSFETS. SuperPipe technology is used to quickly transfer heat away from the GPU to the dense aluminium fin array. This results in temperatures up to 26°C Lower than a reference card under full load. Acoustic performance is phenomenal with levels up to 11dB lower compared the reference cards.
Extreme Overclocking Champion
Any overclocker or gamer will love the new Lightning cards with extreme features designed especially for extreme overclockers. Triple Overvoltage is supplied by MSI’s gold-standard overclocking software Afterburner and the N580GTX and R6970 Lightning cards have a wide array of hardware features. V-Check Points allow you to accurately read voltages with a Voltage meter. V-Switch for real-time hardware voltage adjustment. A Dual BIOS Switch for flexibility and PWM clock tuner to help increase overclocking by providing more stable PWM frequencies and especially on the N580GTX Lightning the XtremeCool switch to prevent potential coldbug issues.
MSI Military Class II Components
The N580GTX Lightning and R6970 Lightning are built to be perfect and only use the highest quality components available. The well-known Solid CAPs are accompanied by high efficiency Hi-c CAPs, both Capacitors have a long lifetime and enhance stability during overclocking. The new Super Ferrite Chokes(SFC) have 30% higher current throughput and are 10% more efficient compared to normal chokes.
