MSI’s Lightning series of graphics cards are well known among overclockers and enthusiasts. The cards are baked in MSI’s own ovens for maximal performance and overclocking potential, and have been present when many world records have been broken. When we first heard of the Lightning Edition of AMD’s flagship Radeon HD 5870 a month ago we were of course interested to learn more, but MSI hasn’t revealed much until now.
AMD’s Cypress GPU has been installed on a 10-layer PCB and with 15 digital PWM phases MSI has pushed the GPU clock frequency to 1GHz. This is quite a significant increase the reference frequency at 850MHz.
To achieve these speeds MSI has used what it calls “military grade” components such as high-quality capacitors. The cooler is the Twin Frozr II, which uses five heatpipes and two large 80mm fans for keeping the card cool at all times.
As previously revealed the card sports two 8-pin power connectors and we look forward to seeing some overclocking with MSI’s new Lightning card. The launch date hasn’t been set yet, but it shouldn’t be that far away.
