I scored me an open box MSI HD 6970 Lightning on Newegg!

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Serradifalco

Serradifalco

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May 27, 2007
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I was able to buy an open box MSI HD 6970 Lightning on Newegg for $225 shipped. I plan on buying a second for crossfire. I game at 1080p on a 46" monitor. How much of a performance increase can I expect over my GTX 460 SLI setup? Thanks.
 
Serradifalco

Serradifalco

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May 27, 2007
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Skurge said:
the lightning is clocked quite a bit higher. 940mhz I think.
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Correct. All the review sites have reached 1000 MHz +. I think at that speed you are pretty close to GTX 580 performance. I figured for $225 I couldn't go wrong. It was $235 + $8.50 shipping. I had a 10% off ($20 max) coupon for new account holders.
 
Serradifalco

Serradifalco

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May 27, 2007
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Will the power supply in my sig be enough to power the HD 6970 CF plus all the other listed components?
 
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Kevmanw430

Senior member
Mar 11, 2011
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850w should work great. I dont think it'll pull that much more power than the 460, being a more efficient architechture.
 
notty22

notty22

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Jan 1, 2010
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850 is about perfect for 6970 crossfire. A o/c 6970 can start using a good bit more watts than a 6950 at its stock frequency. Its a fairly 'big' gpu transistor wise.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/24
34663.png
 
Serradifalco

Serradifalco

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May 27, 2007
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Serradifalco

Serradifalco

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May 27, 2007
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I just checked the UPS tracking info. The card will be here Wednesday. I will post my first impressions here. What is a good gpu benchmarking tool?
 
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Wag

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Jul 21, 2000
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Don't be surprised if on day 91 the card dies. That's generally what happened to me with all newegg OB hardware. That's why I stopped buying them.
 
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digitaldurandal

Golden Member
Dec 3, 2009
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Wag said:
Don't be surprised if on day 91 the card dies. That's generally what happened to me with all newegg OB hardware. That's why I stopped buying them.
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So you think there is a timer set to detonate the hardware exactly at 91 days? Sorry you got unlucky with your OB.
 
Serradifalco

Serradifalco

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May 27, 2007
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I have had the card for a few days now. It came in the original box with all the accessories. The card is in excellent condition. I registered it with MSI. It has 2 years 10 months left on the warranty. I am very pleased. It does perform smoother than my GTX 460 SLI setup did. I noticed it right away in 3DMark Vantage. The card is very large. It fits easily in my HAF X case. It takes 2 X 8-pin power connectors. I have it oc'd to 1GHz with a little voltage bump. I will definitely buy a second one for crossfire. I now have 2 GTX 460s for sale. I will list them on Ebay.
 
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BababooeyHTJ

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Nov 25, 2009
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RussianSensation said:
Even if true, a stock $225 HD6970 Lightning is within 17-20% of a $525 GTX580 version at 1080P, and within 10% at 2560x1600. Let that sink in for a second :p
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Thats on average. For every Crysis (which artifacts, probably due to driver optimizations) or Metro 2033 where the 6970 performs about as well as the GTX580 there is a GTA4 or Sims 3 that is just unplayable on the AMD card. You will also see better minimum framerates on the 580. Either way I think that the 6970 is more comparable to the GTX570 which costs about the same anyways.

You did get a good deal though, I'm sure that you'll be happy with the card.
 
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tommy2q

Member
Mar 6, 2005
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i bought the same card and replaced my 7800gt. using my old opteron 165 at 2.4ghz, the new card made some of my games (street fight 4, starcraft 2, gears of war tested so far) play alot smoother and at max resolution (1920 x 1200) with all settings high. it is also very quiet. i would recommend card for a gaming htpc. had to remove my floppy cage for install because card is so long. waiting on bulldozer now...
 
RussianSensation

RussianSensation

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Sep 5, 2003
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BababooeyHTJ said:
Thats on average. For every Crysis (which artifacts, probably due to driver optimizations) or Metro 2033 where the 6970 performs about as well as the GTX580 there is a GTA4 or Sims 3 that is just unplayable on the AMD card. You will also see better minimum framerates on the 580. Either way I think that the 6970 is more comparable to the GTX570 which costs about the same anyways.

You did get a good deal though, I'm sure that you'll be happy with the card.
Click to expand...

Why are AMD cards unplayable in GTAIV? HD6870 is faster than an overclocked GTX560 Ti in that game! HD6950/70 also have 2GBs of ram; so technically speaking they should do even better than the 580 1.5GB wrt draw distance.

I don't play Sims. I am pretty sure once BF3 ships we'll want GTX680/HD7970 anyway. :D
 
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drizek

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2005
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I wish you could do TriLI with the GTX 460.

I'm wondering what it is that you are doing though where SLI 460s isn't fast enough? It just seems like a bad time to "upgrade" when 28nm and next gen architectures are just around the corner.
 
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