Introduction
ATI have been owning the high end segment quite a lot for quite some time until Nvidia introduces the GTX 480. However the HD5000 series shouldnt be forgotten because the power consumption of the 5870 is definitely impressive.
Got my hands on the MSI HD 5870 Lightning so i went to test it out.
Put it against my GTX 275 because that's the only card i have currently so just take it as a reference.

MSI has definitely improved a lot since the P45 era.
Lightning Cards, Hawk Cards, Twin Frozr II, OC Genie, Big Bang Series.
It seems to me that MSI is going to rebuild their reputation with such a drastic change in such a short time.

Test Setup
C2Q Q9400 @ 3.4Ghz
Kingston 2 x 2GB ram @ 850mhz
Raid 0 WD 640GB Black
Corsair HX850W
Evga GTX 275 SC, MSI HD 5870 Lightning

Driver Version
Nvidia 191.07
ATI 10.3b Preview driver

I used the preview driver because i heard theres performance increase in this driver.
As for Nvidia, i found that 191.07 worked best for my gtx 275 thus i did not upgrade to the newest version. Will do a review on the newest Nvidia driver shortly.

Temperature
Idle Temperature was recorded after the computer booted and idled for approximately 5minutes.
Load Temperature was recorded after completing 3 loops of the Crysis benchmark at Enthusiast settings 1920x1080 resolution 4x AA.

Idle: 41 Degrees
Load: 74 Degrees

The temperature of the card is amazing. Considering the fact that my case is at the bottom right corner of my desk, thus not as good air flow, the temperature is darn good.
As a reference,my GTX275 reference card had an idle temperature of 51 to 54 degrees and load temperature of 91 when playing the same Crysis benchmark with same settings.

One thing i noticed about the fan speed is that it is dependent on the gpu load. The idle fan speed was at 40percent and at 40percent, the fan was audible. Slightly louder than the reference card. Once turned down the fan speed using Afterburner, the noise was not as loud. So for people who are concern about the fan speed, you probably have to turn it down slightly or even create your own fan profile using the afterburner which i highly recommend you do so.

Overclocking
I used both MSI Afterburner and MSI Kombustor to overclock the card.
Was able to overclock it to around 940mhz clock speed with stock voltage.
This card needs to be served LN2 with extreme voltages which unfortunately i don't have.

Conclusion
I am impressed by the twin frozr II cooler. It is a petty i was not able to make the best out of this card because i don't have the equipment. This card is definitely targeted towards the hardcore group of people.
This card is definitely a good buy. SRP would most probably be out early next month.
My experience with this card is amazing.

Hopefully i would be able to get hold of a gtx 480 to test it out too and see how it fares with this card.
Now going write another review for the new Nvidia driver. Hopefully the newer driver is good.

Pros:
Amazing Performance
Full of features
Low temperature
Pretty aluminium finish

Con:
Fan speed is slightly audible and a user created fan profile is highly recommended.
Power consumption was slightly higher than reference 5870 which should be due to the number of added features.

PS: This feature(User Reviews) is pretty cool.

Original Thread: http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=2712797