MSI N480GTX Lightning Review EXCLUSIVE
The Lightning
Published: 21st October 2010 | Source: MSI | Price: £425est |
N480GTX Lightning
Following on from the normal Lightning packaging we have a military jet on the front of the box. It suits for both the Lightning moniker and also the "Military Class" hardware on the card.
Inside the box the card is well protected with a lot of well cut, dense, foam. The accessories package is fairly standard although the eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted three odd little cables. These are voltage probes and we'll show you where they go in a moment.
Here is the Lightning in all its Twin Frozr III glory. Very similar to the excellent Twin Frozr II, containing a huge amount of heatsink and two 90mm PWM fans.
In keeping with the modern trend for extreme products to be in black and red, the MSI is no exception. There is no denying its attractiveness, although perhaps if we were really picky we'd have liked to see it in the deep blue and gun-metal colour scheme that the latest MSI motherboards come in. Considering that the MSI mobos should be high on anyones purchase list it might be nice to see a holistic colour scheme. However we can understand why black and red was chosen because it's much more common.
To assist with consistent heat dispersion across the full width of the card the Lightning comes replete with a very nice back-plate/brace. The slots for venting and MSI logo really show the thought that has gone into the whole design.
To aid with extreme overclocking the Lightning has a 16 phase power design which well get into more on the next page, but this does mean that the MSI has 2 8pin PCIe power inputs for the GPU and a 6pin one dedicated for the Memory as well. It's a hungry beast, but then the GTX480 isn't exactly enviromentally friendly anyway.
One of the big selling points of the MSI over the reference card is the inclusion of a DisplayPort output alongside the standard dual DVI and HDMI outputs. Gold plated too so you know that corrosion wont become an issue with providing your monitor with the clearest signal possible.
Here is where the N480GTX Lightning really separates itself from the pack. Just to the right of the screw on the backplate you can see two small dip switches. Flip them to switch the card from the default BIOS into an extreme one. This enables increased GPU and memory voltage whilst also upping the over-current protection threshhold from the already hefty 320 Amps to 600 Amps.
If you're one of those people who dabble in the sub-zero arts, the extreme BIOS also helps fix any issues with LN2 based cooling freezes.
Returning to the voltage probes we saw above, just above the MSI logo are the inputs to connect your voltage probing equipment.
Most Recent Comments
Pricey though.
Really strange to see cool, quiet, and 480 in the same review
.Good to see that someone finally tamed the beast of the 480. Sales for that sucker should go up.
it looks like its a 2 slot card , can you confirm .
How is the cooling working , are the fans pulling in and venting out the back or is it dumping all the hot air into the case .
Presuming the above is good news , would this be much better or about the same as my current setup of 2*gtx280's in sli .
Thanx .
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Originally Posted by andyvee
Couple of questions for you it looks like its a 2 slot card , can you confirm . How is the cooling working , are the fans pulling in and venting out the back or is it dumping all the hot air into the case . Presuming the above is good news , would this be much better or about the same as my current setup of 2*gtx280's in sli . Thanx . |
but still cooler than 2 280's
luvly looking card their mate, but with the 6000 nearing they probably wont get much of a look in, price depending.
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Originally Posted by ZodiarK
is it weird i can listen to another guy talking for 12mins+? lol luvly looking card their mate, but with the 6000 nearing they probably wont get much of a look in, price depending. |
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Originally Posted by ZodiarK
is it weird i can listen to another guy talking for 12mins+? lol luvly looking card their mate, but with the 6000 nearing they probably wont get much of a look in, price depending. |
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Originally Posted by ZodiarK
is it weird i can listen to another guy talking for 12mins+? lol |
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Originally Posted by AMDFTW
it will port some out the back but most of it will be in the case but still cooler than 2 280's |
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Originally Posted by Heebs
lol I love how people are assuming the 6000 series will destroy the 400 gtx series without so much as seeing a real benchmark or price. |
PRICE!
Release prices would have been like 700 Euros, not 500 Euros!
Now, was that so difficult to figure out?
Of course NV would have been able to design such a cooler and pcb, but they had to watch the total costs too.
MSI just built an extreme enthusiasts card with practically no price limit- EASY
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Originally Posted by tombman
Release prices would have been like 700 Euros, not 500 Euros! |
Where are you getting an extra 200 euros from? because that would pretty much buy a GPU water cooling system.
Also the Lightning isnt that expensive either even though its cram packed with better kit than the reference 480.
The actual radiator and pipes on a stock 470 cooler look pretty good. I reakon it's nothing more than a fan problem tbh. I'm very tempted to remove the shroud (as it comes off in a few parts, very nice and modular) and strap a 120mm fan to the actual cooler and see what happens. If it's good I can easily make a shroud out of alu sheeting and possibly put twin 92mm fans in it. It's got to be better than the crappy blower.
Centrifugal fans only work well when -
There is enough pressure to boost air through. This means that the shroud would need to be 100% sealed and the fan seriously powerful.. Not possible on 12v. Maybe a blower from a car heating system yes lmao. It isn't, not by a long shot.
Looking at the heatsink on this wonderful MSI card the sink itself it's that much larger than a stock 470 cooler (the actual metal part).
Oh and FWIW I think this card here on review is actually very cheap. It would be one thing to whack a cooler on a 480 and over charge for it, but this one has had a complete bloody revamp, new board, new layout.
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Originally Posted by AlienALX
TBH Tom and I have thought about this hard.. The actual radiator and pipes on a stock 470 cooler look pretty good. I reakon it's nothing more than a fan problem tbh. I'm very tempted to remove the shroud (as it comes off in a few parts, very nice and modular) and strap a 120mm fan to the actual cooler and see what happens. If it's good I can easily make a shroud out of alu sheeting and possibly put twin 92mm fans in it. It's got to be better than the crappy blower. Centrifugal fans only work well when - There is enough pressure to boost air through. This means that the shroud would need to be 100% sealed and the fan seriously powerful.. Not possible on 12v. Maybe a blower from a car heating system yes lmao. It isn't, not by a long shot. Looking at the heatsink on this wonderful MSI card the sink itself it's that much larger than a stock 470 cooler (the actual metal part). Oh and FWIW I think this card here on review is actually very cheap. It would be one thing to whack a cooler on a 480 and over charge for it, but this one has had a complete bloody revamp, new board, new layout. |
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Originally Posted by tinytomlogan
That will look like such a bodge. At the end of the day it should have been better from stock, thats kinda the point. |
I'll see how temps go but trust me when I say it wouldn't look bodged. I have a mate close by (same county) with a press break haha.
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Originally Posted by AlienALX
I totally agree about the better from the start comment. The fan is absolutely bloody lousy. I'll see how temps go but trust me when I say it wouldn't look bodged. I have a mate close by (same county) with a press break haha. |
As in triple monitors, 2 in DVI and 1 with the display port using one of those active display port adapters
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