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- Date:
- Tuesday , October 26, 2010
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Share:
MSI N480GTX Lightning Video Card Review
MSI has launched its flagship custom GeForce GTX 480 video card! The MSI N480GTX Lightning is here to give Fermi fans their Extreme Overclocking fix with its special LN2 features and military class hardware. Does it stand above the average GeForce GTX 480? How far does it outperform the now more than a year old ATI Radeon HD 5870? We'll find out with the help of five of today's hottest games!
Introduction
Microstar International (MSI) is a Taiwan-based computer hardware manufacturer founded in 1986. Primarily a designer and manufacturer of PC motherboards, MSI has expanded its business into barebones PCs, servers and workstations, communications devices, consumer electronics, Notebooks, Netbooks, graphics cards, and other various electronic products. Its company motto, "Quality Products Create Faithful Customer," belies its underlying corporate strategy of designing and manufacturing quality devices for various markets and letting its high-quality reputation earn it the trust and respect of electronics consumers worldwide.
On the test bench today is the new MSI N480GTX Lightning video card. This video card features NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 480 GPU paired with 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory on an advanced, custom PCB with a custom designed cooling device and custom features.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480
Launched on March 25, 2010, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 is NVIDIA’s first DirectX 11 GPU. Known as Fermi, the GTX 480 is built on a 40nm process and boasts 480 CUDA cores. It also packs 60 Texture units and 48 Raster Operators (ROPs.) The reference Graphics Clock is 700MHz, while the CUDA cores are supposed to operate at 1401MHz. The GTX 480 utilizes GDDR5 memory, and NVIDIA’s reference design calls for 1536MB of it to be configured at 3.696GHz on a 384-bit bus. This gives the GeForce GTX 480 a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 177.4GB per second. The GTX 480 is rated to run at a maximum of 250 Watts, and the GPU’s thermal threshold is 105 degrees Celsius.
Since its launch, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 has been roundly criticized for its immense power draw and high thermal output. As true as those points are, the GeForce GTX 480 is still the fastest single-GPU video card on the market.
The GeForce GTX 480 launched with an MSRP of $499 USD. Since then, etail prices have fallen only about $50 with rebates.
MSI N480GTX Lightning
The MSI N480GTX Lightning is a special video card. Coming from MSI with an MSRP of $549, it commands a $100 price premium over its reference design cousins, but packs a serious set of enhancements to justify that cost. Out of the box, its clock speeds are only barely above NVIDIA’s reference specification. The Graphics Clock is at 750MHz, the CUDA cores are configured at 1.5GHz, and the memory comes out at 4.0GHz. So as far as being a factory-overclocked video card goes, the MSI N480GTX Lightning is not that special in that regard.
But there is more to this video card than simple high clock speeds. This video card is built to last, or if you take MSI’s word for it, it is "Designed to be Perfect." It boasts high end components, advanced power management features, and a mammoth dual-fan custom cooler.
The following slides are from MSI’s marketing presentation for the N480GTX Lightning.
The N480GTX Lightning is the fourth product in the Lightning line. MSI claims to have overclocked it to 1.425GHz under LN2, for a 3DMark Vantage score of 34795. The N480GTX Lightning’s key features are its cooling device, its triple-overvoltage adjustments, its "Extreme OC" functions" and its military class components. It has double the PWM phase capabilities as the reference GTX 480, which allows a little more than 3X as much current to flow to the GPU. It features two 8-pin auxiliary power supply connectors to power the GPU, and a single 6-pin power connector for the memory.
The N480GTX Lightning features copper heat spreaders on the MOSFET devices, allowing better cooling for the power management components. It also features the "Proadlizer", which is an advanced type of capacitor featuring very high capacitance ratings and very low impedance ratings. The cooler has two 9CM PWM powered fans, which cool a bonded aluminum heat-sink featuring five 8mm heat pipes, embedded into a large, nickel-plated copper base. Under the large HS/F unit is also a two-piece heat spreader which aids cooling for the memory and power devices on the front and back of the PCB. Its triple-overvoltage technology allows for the tweaking of GPU voltage, memory voltage, and PLL voltage independently.
The N480GTX Lightning features two BIOS’s on board: one for regular users, and a second to overcome a GTX 480 bug related to LN2 cooling. It also features three voltage checking terminals for overclockers who want to use a multimeter to verify voltage settings. There is a small toggle switch to increase the PWM clock from 260MHz to 350MHz to smooth PWM power to the GPU. There are switches to allow "instant" voltage adjustments on the GPU, Memory, and PLL. There is another switch to enable ultra-high current for extreme overclocking, and another to solve the GTX 480 "cold bug."
The N480GTX Lightning’s Hi-c Capacitors utilize a rare metal, Tantalum, to improve conductivity and reduce current leakage in this video card’s capacitors. It uses "Super Ferrite Chokes" to allow more current to flow with less power loss for better stability. The video card’s aluminum core solid capacitors supposedly last longer, are not prone to explosion as paper capacitors are, and operate at a lower temperature. The Lightning PCB features 10 layers, four of which are dedicated to providing independent pathways for GPU power, memory power, and ground.
The video card has four output ports: two dual-link DVI-I, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort.
These last three slides summarize the preceding 14 and give a basic features and specifications list and comparison to a reference GeForce GTX 480.
Video Card Pictures
The MSI N480GTX Lightning came in a very large box featuring a stylized rendition of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jet. The front of the box is endowed with all of the information a gamer would need to make a purchasing decision if he or she found this video card on a shelf somewhere. The back of the box shows a cursory features list, a system requirements list, and a very small features box in many different languages. The inside front panel of the box has much of the same graphics and marketing materials we covered above.
This video card’s soft bundle includes a Driver and Afterburner utility CD-ROM disc, an installation guide, and a user’s guide. The accessory bundle includes two 6-pin to 8-pin auxiliary power supply adaptors, a dual-Molex to single 6-pin auxiliary power adaptor, three v-check terminal dongles, a DVI to VGA adaptor, a DVI to HDMI adaptor, and a two meter HDMI cable.
The video card itself is very large and covered in a black and red cooling device. The two 9cm fans are surrounded by translucent red plastic shrouds and a large black, brushed aluminum shroud covers the rest of the PCB. The cooling device actually extends slightly beyond the dimensions of the PCB, making it slightly thicker than two expansion slots.
The power supply connectors are along the rear end of the top edge of the video card, which is a familiar spot. There are two 8-pin connectors and one 6-pin connectors. This video card does support SLI, and the bridge connectors can be found just behind the cooling shroud, toward the front of top edge of the PCB. The gold-plated output connectors include two DVI-I connectors, a single HDMI connector, and a DisplayPort connector.
Under the Cooler
Of course, we couldn’t resist the urge to take off the cooler and see what’s under the hood.
As it turns out it isn‘t very exciting under the hood. The HS/F assembly easily comes off after removing four spring-loaded screws on the back of the video card. The bulk of the PCB, however, is still concealed by a large black metal heat spreader. This heat spreader is mirrored on the back side of the video card and held on by a large number of small steel screws. We aborted our attempt to remove the heat spreader when it became apparent that it was not coming off without a fight. After we got the screws out, the video card began to bend in unappetizing ways when we attempted to remove the heat spreader. As much as we wanted to see the raw PCB, it wasn’t worth snapping the video card in half to do it. Thankfully, our video card did still work after we put it all back together!
The Competition
For this evaluation, we will be comparing the MSI N480GTX Lightning to its primary competitors: The standard NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 and the ATI Radeon HD 5870 for comparisons sake.