GTX 680 Lightning Spotted

[Xed]

Add me to the lightning club. No point waiting for a 4gb one since I'll just upgrade to whatever they call big kepler anyway.

 

[dawp]

I want that 9700 pro!!!!!!

I still have my hercules 9700 pro, tho it's not in use.

 

[blackened23]

kram, if I bench it, it hits 70C pretty easy and throttles...I'm thinking it's a TIM problem, honestly...air movement in my 800D isn't an issue....and my ambient room temp is about 74F...

I'd like to see how to remove the fan assembly and stuff before I attempt it though..I'd hate to break it.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1654736

Another great thing about the lightning -- if you use BIOS2 (LN2 BIOS) the card does not throttle at 70c/80c like other cards do. Heck, I doubt most lightnings even HIT 70c unless you really pump a ton of juice into it.

Above a classified owner discusses how his classified GTX 680 card throttles at 70C and hits 70C often. Yep, classified is/was a ripoff, lightning is a better card period. Perhaps EVGA can think of a reasonable solution like MSI did for overvoltage instead of shoving EVGA wares (EV BOT) down peoples throats for a 760$ card.

 

[Xed]

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1654736

Perhaps EVGA can think of a reasonable solution like MSI did for overvoltage instead of shoving EVGA wares (EV BOT) down peoples throats for a 760$ card.

Hopefully they'll learn from the classified fiasco. I think they should also invest in designing some better non-blower cooling solutions. Signature 2 was a start but it's louder than it should be imo and can't keep up with other vendors top tier cards.

 

[Sable]

Ok, here is an out of the box test run to see if it was stable and I hooked everything up correctly.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3755849

More testing and pictures coming later. I want to reformat the PC soon before I get too serious.

Here is one quick test before dinner and yard work... I launched Diablo 3 and turned off vertical sync. Just standing in town the clock holds at 1202 MHz without me adjusting anything or doing any overclocking.

Needs moar overclock. My reference evga 680 with a 100mhz bump in core clock and power raised to 132% gets 9832 total and 10714 for graphics.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2252600&page=4

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Overclock it like crazy

 

[Don Karnage]

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1654736

Another great thing about the lightning -- if you use BIOS2 (LN2 BIOS) the card does not throttle at 70c/80c like other cards do. Heck, I doubt most lightnings even HIT 70c unless you really pump a ton of juice into it.

Above a classified owner discusses how his classified GTX 680 card throttles at 70C and hits 70C often. Yep, classified is/was a ripoff, lightning is a better card period. Perhaps EVGA can think of a reasonable solution like MSI did for overvoltage instead of shoving EVGA wares (EV BOT) down peoples throats for a 760$ card.

I got warned today over at the EVGA forums for talking crap on EVGA products. My reply was stop making overpriced products and ripping off customers. Needless to say i doubt i'll be back over there anytime soon. :whiste:

 

[chimaxi83]

I got warned today over at the EVGA forums for talking crap on EVGA products. My reply was stop making overpriced products and ripping off customers. Needless to say i doubt i'll be back over there anytime soon. :whiste:

Nice! It's the truth. I don't understand the EVGA fanboyism and nerds creaming their pants over a company that isn't what it used to be.

 

[Xed]

Anyone read the posts by Jacob over at Evga today? He claims Msi broke the rules nvidia set forth regarding voltage and the 6xx series and that's why they had to go the ev bot route.

Anyways..my lightning arrived today. Won't have time to install it till tomorrow however.

 

[blackened23]

Anyone read the posts by Jacob over at Evga today? He claims Msi broke the rules nvidia set forth regarding voltage and the 6xx series.

Anyways..my lightning arrived today. Won't have time to install it till tomorrow however.

lol....sounds like he's upset that MSI is taking a piece of their pie. These occt protections are only disabled in LN2 mode, the lightning (from what i've read everywhere) follows the same throttle rules that all 680s follow while in standard configuration. No rules are broken - but all protections are disabled while using liquid nitrogen on the lightning.

Perhaps EVGA can try to give their customers more value instead of serving up excuses or accusing other manufacturers of cheating. This is what they get for shoveling overpriced EVGA wares down everyones throat. Nobody would complain if EVbot cost 20$ (which is still more than it costs to produce)

 

[blackened23]

Also I find this highly amusing:

EVGA thinks other manufacturers should follow their rules so they can sell more 99$ EV bots. I mean ripping customers off for voltage control is totally within the rules right? Whatever EVGA, whatever

 

[utahraptor]

All I can add is that I am 100% certain now that purchasing the Lightning over the Classified was the right choice for me!

 

[Don Karnage]

Anyone read the posts by Jacob over at Evga today? He claims Msi broke the rules nvidia set forth regarding voltage and the 6xx series and that's why they had to go the ev bot route.

Anyways..my lightning arrived today. Won't have time to install it till tomorrow however.

No one ever got ahead following the rules. You think bill gates would be where he was today if he asked steve jobs to use the apple os to make his own instead of just stealing it and copying it behind his back?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Anyone read the posts by Jacob over at Evga today? He claims Msi broke the rules nvidia set forth regarding voltage and the 6xx series and that's why they had to go the ev bot route.

Anyways..my lightning arrived today. Won't have time to install it till tomorrow however.

rules? I wasn't aware that buying a GPU to use on a card you design came with rules.

 

[Xed]

Just re-posting what Jacob claimed over there regarding Classified vs Lightning.

I've also been afflicted by Don Karnage-itis and ordered a second lightning and a 3820 + rampage IV board. Next week should be fun lol

(actual quotes below)

Just a quick note on voltage control.

There are several rules you must follow to sell NVIDIA GTX 600 cards for various reasons.

EVGA choose to follow the rules, and maintain the great relationship that we have with NVIDIA.

(2nd quote)

It is possible if you break the rules, why wouldn't it be? An external VRM can be controlled by many different ways.

But since we choose not to break the rules, therefore it is not possible and you will not see software control on EVGA 680 Classified unless the rules change. The details of why it was not possible just weren't mentioned previously.

 

[blackened23]

This can be summed up in:

EVGA employees upset that MSI is taking their pie with a better cheaper product, that doesn't require a POS EV Bot, time to do damage control :thumbsdown:

A 99$ addon EV Bot is totally within the rules right? Any guesses on what it actually costs to make? I'm betting 10-15 at most. Scumbags.

 

[cmdrdredd]

nice...very nice.

I like EVGA's service if you need it but beyond that I don't really pay attention. I mean, it's cool and all to offer cards with water blocks installed or something, but I do think that anyone who has a water setup could install their own block and not pay them for it.

I also don't understand why there can't be a bios for the cards that unlock voltage. What is different about the GTX 600 series vs another type of GPU that prevents this from the software side?

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

I'm glad MSI is growing their fan base by continually improving their products. I remembered when I first bought a twinfrzr2 460 from them how shockingly cool it ran. IIRC their warranty also only requires the serial # on the card regardless of how many "owners" it may have had. I just got a friend to pick up an MSI 570 because I knew it was a solid product, and it fit his price range. I will certainly pick up MSI's video cards in the future.

 

[Xed]

My first Lightning is stable at 1300/7000. I can pass benchmarks with ram at 7200 but will get some visual artifacts. Looking forward to voltage control. Idle is 26c and max temp looping heaven was 59c with fan on auto. I'll add a side by side pic of it vs the Asus 670 in a minute.

 

[chimaxi83]

I also don't understand why there can't be a bios for the cards that unlock voltage. What is different about the GTX 600 series vs another type of GPU that prevents this from the software side?

What's different with reference cards versus any other type of GPU is the reference card has a voltage controller that doesn't have software controller support. The cards that DO have a capable controller though, like my DC II or a Lightning, just need the right software. The Lightning will get it with Afterburner 2.2.3. Not sure about the DC II cards, but they use the same controller (CHiL 8318).

 

[blackened23]

What's different with reference cards versus any other type of GPU is the reference card has a voltage controller that doesn't have software controller support. The cards that DO have a capable controller though, like my DC II or a Lightning, just need the right software. The Lightning will get it with Afterburner 2.2.3. Not sure about the DC II cards, but they use the same controller (CHiL 8318).

Yeah, hopefully all of these cards will benefit from software voltage. So far i'm gathering the lightning, DC2, DC2T, and galaxy SOC all use this new CHIL8318 IC so software voltage support for it will be a beautiful thing for customers. :thumbsup:

 

[blackened23]

My first Lightning is stable at 1300/7000. I can pass benchmarks with ram at 7200 but will get some visual artifacts. Looking forward to voltage control. Idle is 26c and max temp looping heaven was 59c with fan on auto. I'll add a side by side pic of it vs the Asus 670 in a minute.

Thats a great out of box overclock without the additional voltage, great temps as well! Get some 3dmark numbers up! :thumbsup:

 

[Don Karnage]

If they all use the same voltage regulator couldn't you just flash the LN2 Lightning bios to an Asus 680 and enable control?

 

[YBS1]

Updated for DRBoss, your card clocks a little better than my Lightning. Core is stable at about 1270-1275 and memory somewhere between 3300 and 3400 (not tried 3350). This is at stock voltages, still haven't bothered to flip the switch yet.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

My first Lightning is stable at 1300/7000. I can pass benchmarks with ram at 7200 but will get some visual artifacts. Looking forward to voltage control. Idle is 26c and max temp looping heaven was 59c with fan on auto. I'll add a side by side pic of it vs the Asus 670 in a minute.

Wow! That is one huge card! ASUS GTX 670 DC II looks like a tiny little card in comparison