The MSI HD6970 Lightning is a stunning card when finally removed from its anti-static bag. The gun-metal grey finish with black and red accents on the metal shroud makes for a very attractive finish. MSI’s attention to detail is the highlight of the graphics card, from the Twin Frozr III emblem to the unique design of the cooler and most importantly the re-engineered PCB. Rather than opt for some tacky looking decal, MSI have kept the metal shroud clean of any such eyesores, resulting in a very professional end product. With its dual fan design, the Lightning certainly impresses on initial observations and its sheer size at 31cm begs the question as to what is housed beneath the cooler.


Turning to the back of the card, we can see that the PCB has been left bare unlike the reference cards which opt for a metal backplate. The PCB spans a lengthy 28.3cm but it is immediately clear that MSI make the most of the space available to fit as many components as possible for an improved power circuitry. Another noticeable feature of the PCB is its width at 12.7cm making it 1.7cm wider than the reference PCB. MSI use the extra width for additional features such as voltage check points and a unique BIOS switch. It also allows the card to sport a more robust power circuitry. We can also see that the cooler and metal support bracket are attached using spring loaded screws.


Instead of using numerous solid capacitors on the card, MSI have gone for the hybrid selection, thus using a mixture of solid aluminium cored capacitors, Hi-c CAPs and the more innovative NEC TOKIN Proadlizers. The Lightning favours the use of Hi-c CAPs of which we find quite a few both on the underside and top side of the PCB. With a rareTantalum core, the capacitor ensures greater efficiency and reliability ensuring 15x less leakage. The NEC Proadlizers feature incredible capacitance to optimise power delivery. The capacitors provide current capacity of up to 5000microFarads and extremely low ESL/ESR for super overclocking ability. Of the four chips, three are dedicated for the GPU and the last is reserved for the memory.


Another unique addition to the card are 4 DIP switches labelled Mem V-switch, GPU V-switch, PWM clock tuner and OCP unlocker (left to right). The first two switches increases the two voltages respectively while the PWM clock tuner allows the PWM clock frequency to be increased. The OCP unlocker removes the over-current protection. This is useful for extreme overclockers wanting to push the card to its limit but isn’t recommended for general users. At the end of the PCB are 14 LEDs that display the number of active phases.


The Lightning series of cards also feature a unique BIOS switch that differs in use to the standard BIOS switch found on reference cards. The two BIOS are labelled ‘Silence’ and ‘Performance’ but in reality, the switch doesn’t change fan speed profiles as it would suggest. Instead, ‘Silence’ is the default BIOS whereas switching to ‘Performance’ increases the GPU and memory headroom in AMD CCC overdrive. It also increases the PowerTune limit by 2.5 times allowing the overclocked card to perform optimally without throttling. For some reason, selecting ‘Performance’ mode would not display to my monitors when booting but that may be reserved to this particular sample. Retail versions of the card will hopefully have this fixed. The other purpose of the dual BIOS is to have a backup in case one fails or becomes affected by cold bugs under LN2 cooling. Unlike the reference board, this custom BIOS switch is located on the underside of the card instead.


The HD6970 sports two CrossFireX connectors allowing up to 4 cards to be used simultaneously. MSI has bundled 10cm long bridges implying that they recommend users to leave a gap between cards for improved airflow.


Since the card is targeting extreme overclockers, MSI have added voltage points in the form of small sockets on to the side of the board. They allowed the GPU, memory and PLL voltages to be monitored more accurately using a voltmeter, ideal not only for the precision but also to reduce the dependence on software solutions which are not always when trying to break world records.


MSI have bundled two small voltage probe adapters in similar fashion to that found on the ASUS Rampage III Extreme. These allows voltages to be measured without having to probe the PCB.