MSI R5870 Lightning Gets 2GB GDDR5

Now that the GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480 are, more or less, widely available, NVIDIA chose Computex as the site for the introduction of the GTX 465. This card moves the Fermi architecture closer to the mainstream. Meanwhile, ATI's partners aren't sitting idly by, of course. With the GTX 480 as the fastest single-GPU card on sale, they have been putting effort into raising the stakes on AMD's size. This has led to the planning and launching of better HD 5870 models.

Micro-Star International is one of the hardware makers that have completed their new offerings. The video board is an HD 5870 with a higher amount of memory and, most likely, the 40nm Cypress graphics processing unit factory overclocked. This model is now part of the MSI Lightning Series and is an upgraded version of the R5870 Lightning that started selling back in March.

Unfortunately, as it often happens at exhibitions, the manufacturer did not disclose all of the details that end-users may be interested in. Not only did the GPU, shader and memory clocks remain shrouded in mystery, but there is also no way of knowing exactly how long it will take for the unpriced device to enter mass production. Naturally, being a Lightning card, the GPU may run at 900MHz and the memory at 4,800MHz. This is pure speculation, however. On the other hand, most of the features were disclosed.

The newcomer, a 2GB R5870 Lightning, will be similar, in design and feature set, to its predecessor. The PCB with LPL (Lightning Power Layer) carries a 15-phase PWM (13 phase for the GPU, 2 for the memory), an NEC Proadlizer capacitor and V-check points, gold-plated connectors, 100% SSC (Solid State Choke) and Hi-c CAPs for GPU power. Finally, the adapter is kept cool and stable by the dual-fan (8mm) Twin Frozr II cooler, which draws heat away from the GPU through four heatpipes.