MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition - Memory Overload

Memory Overload

When it comes to graphics cards, MSI has established quite a reputation with its Hawk and Lightning series. The Twin Frozr cooler on these cards particularly has caught our eye for being quiet and efficient at its task. It's exactly why we have high hopes for MSI's latest twist on its highest end GeForce GTX 580 card, the Lightning Xtreme. 

Physically, the card isn't too different from MSI's N580GTX Lightning. It has the same Twin Frozr III cooler with dual 90mm fans that takes up two expansion slots. Except that the fins on the Xtreme's cooler start off as blue but gradually changes to white as the graphics card heats up. It's intended to be a instant visual indicator of the graphics card's operating temperature.

These two fans also have a dust removal technique - the fans will spin up opposite of its usual rotational direction during startup for around 30 seconds before resuming its normal direction. Apparently this will help the fins shake off any accumulated dust. 

The other major change is the presence of 3GB of DDR5 memory, twice that found on the typical GeForce GTX 580. We aren't sure if that's the right move given that the amount of memory seems excessive at this moment. However, we'll be testing that later in the performance benchmarks.

Befitting its high-end 'Extreme' status, this graphics card also includes features that will find favor with enthusiasts, like voltage check points and special switches that will allow overclockers armed with liquid nitrogen to go beyond the safe voltage limits. Of course, the 16-phase power delivery system will help with the overclocking, aided by NEC's Proadlizers that stabilize the power signal, which is something that we have seen on other high-end graphics cards.

As for the clock speeds on the Lightning Xtreme, the core comes in clocked at 832MHz, with the 3GB of memory running at 4200MHz DDR. These are the same clocks as the Lightning GTX 580 from MSI. In short, the Xtreme has doubled the memory on MSI's original Lightning, while introducing a tweaked version of its excellent Twin Frozr III cooler. But will that be enough for MSI to fend off the competition, like ASUS' recent ? 

Test Setup

Since the basic performance of an has been established in our very first article of it,  we've decided to cutback on the number of tests for this card rather than running the usual suite of benchmarking tests. The MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme was tested on our usual graphics testbed, which consisted of the following components:

• Intel Core i7-975 (3.33GHz)
• Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard
• 3 x 1GB DDR3-1333 G.Skill memory in triple channel mode
• Seagate 7200.10 200GB SATA hard drive
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

We had recently tested the, so we'll be adding to the list of cards tested in that review along with the and the results from the MSI Lightning Xtreme. The list of cards tested and driver versions used:

• MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition 3GB DDR5 (ForceWare 275.33)
• ASUS Matrix GTX580 Platinum (ForceWare 275.33)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1560MB GDDR5 (ForceWare 266.58)
• Sparkle Calibre X580 (ForceWare 262.99)
• MSI R6970 Lighting 2GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 11.2)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 3GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 267.71)
• AMD Radeon HD 5970 2GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 11.2)

The list of benchmarks used:

• Futuremark 3DMark Vantage
• Futuremark 3DMark 11
• Crysis Warhead
• Far Cry 2
• Battlefield Bad Company 2

Benchmark Results

With its slightly higher clocks out of the box, it was no surprise that the MSI Lightning Xtreme had the lead over the other overclocked GTX 580 cards from ASUS and Sparkle. The differences were marginal though and translated to a couple of frames at best.

When it came to the GPU core temperature, we found that the MSI Lightning recorded an identical 58.0 degrees Celsius as the ASUS Matrix. This was pretty impressive and coupled with the almost-silent Twin Frozr III cooler, this MSI card certainly matched up to our expectations. The power draw of this MSI card was also mostly on par with the other GTX 580 cards, though the ASUS Matrix had a slight advantage here when idling.

Finally, the overclocking potential of this card was very decent. We managed to hit a higher core frequency than the ASUS Matrix, though the Matrix had the higher memory clock. Nevertheless, it was sufficient to help the MSI beat the ASUS in our overclocking test. Obviously, those who use more exotic cooling solutions may have better luck with pushing for higher clocks. We were moderately pleased with the 13% increase in 3DMark Vantage performance with our attempt.

That 3GB of GDDR5

To find out if the 3GB of memory on the MSI Lightning Xtreme actually does anything (and a valid reason for us to test our new 30-inch display, which has a native resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels), we tested the MSI Lightning Xtreme and the ASUS Matrix GTX580 Platinum at the same clock speeds. That meant bringing down the faster core and memory clocks of the MSI to the same 816MHz (core) and 4008MHz DDR (memory) as the ASUS Matrix.

We then tested the two cards at three benchmarks utilizing the highest settings at 2560 x 1600 to find out the effects of the larger frame buffer on the MSI card, if any. As you can see below, the gaming performance was not favorable for the 3GB card. With both cards at the same clocks, the MSI was in fact fractionally behind the ASUS. While the difference is minor enough to chalk it down to the expected variance, it effectively dispels any notion that more memory is better, even at such ultra-high settings.

Perhaps there are certain workloads that will really use the extra memory, such as surround gaming with higher resolutions or 3D gaming. But for the majority of the users, we believe the extra memory won't come in handy.

Conclusion

The specifications of the MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme are no doubt impressive. Clock speeds out of the box are among the highest we have seen and that 3GB of GDDR5 memory will surely catch the attention of any enthusiast. Throw in that unique, temperature-sensitive color changing fans and the various enthusiast-oriented touches, like voltage check points and one gets a premium graphics card.

It's just a pity then that we couldn't find any significant improvement in benchmark scores between the 3GB and the standard 1.5GB GeForce GTX 580. The three benchmarks that we tested at 2560 x 1600 pixels resolution showed little difference between the two memory capacities and while there are probably some occasions that would benefit from the extra memory, it's certainly not going to help those buying a single graphics card. If anything, those working on SLI configurations, running multiple monitors and gaming on higher resolutions for surround gaming and 3D could see some assistance from the extra memory. This group however, is a small niche.

That just leaves the Xtreme with its special version of the Twin Frozr III cooler as its sole redeeming factor. And frankly, it's not really that important. Thanks to the excellent cooler which was very quiet and cool, we ironically didn't manage to get the fan to change to white, not even when we were overclocking it. For most users, we believe that should be the case. In any case, the performance of this MSI card cannot be doubted: it was the fastest GTX 580 we tested out of the box and the overclocking was a breeze with the included MSI Afterburner tool.

The price however is another story. Two local retail shops that we checked online had it listed at S$859, which is more than the S$789 for the MSI Lightning, which is effectively identical except  for the memory size. ASUS' new Matrix GTX580 Platinum is also less expensive at $809, which makes the Xtreme too pricey a proposition. Unless you can find a use for that 3GB GDDR5 memory, we recommend getting the standard MSI Lightning instead.

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