World Exclusive: MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition

Lightning Storm

Not all graphics cards are equal, they are reference ones and then there are factory-overclocked ones. And even among factory-overclocked ones, not all are equal. There are normal factory-overclocked cards and then there is the biggest and meanest of them all � such as the MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition (which we'll be referring to it as the MSI N260 Lightning). The MSI N260 Lightning is the Taiwanese hardware giant's most hardcore card yet, and once you take a look at its feature list and specifications, you'll know why.

Based on the existing GeForce GTX 260 216-core, the MSI N260 Lightning is one of the most focused graphics card we've seen yet. MSI says the N260 Lightning uses only high-end 'military grade' components, which includes ultra long lifespan solid state capacitors, which are claimed to last 20% longer; and top grade high durability Hi-C Caps, which can tolerate 20% higher temperatures. It also features a 10-phase PWM, for better power delivery. In addition to all this, it also comes with what MSI calls the Twin Frozr cooler, a twin-fan cooler featuring five heat pipes. All this means that the card can overclock to a greater extent and can do so more safely and with greater stability.

Out of the box, the MSI N260 Lightning is clocked at a staggering 655MHz at the core, 2000 MHz DDR at the memory and 1404MHz at the shaders. This represents a significant improvement over a bog standard GeForce GTX 260's equivalent clock speeds of 576MHz, 1998MHz DDR and 1242MHz. Furthermore, it comes with a staggering 1792MB of GDDR3 memory, twice that of other GTX 260 graphics cards. This amount of memory is typically found on only on the GTX 295 dual-GPU graphics card. If you ask us, this MSI N260GTX Lightning is over-engineered. But would it over-deliver? That we'll find out shortly.

The MSI N260 Lightning also comes with an "AirForce Panel" that allows for even greater overclocking by giving users the freedom to tweak and adjust clock speeds and voltage settings on-the-fly. All in all, the MSI N260 Lightning is a serious piece of extreme, hardcore gaming kit.

The MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition

Following in the footsteps of Palit's GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP, the first GTX 200 class graphics card to utilize a custom cooler, the MSI N260 Lightning also has a custom cooler stamped on top of it, aptly named "Twin Frozr". The Twin Frozr sports dual-fans and has five heat pipes, which ensures faster dissipation of heat away from the GPU. And in true military tradition, MSI says that even if one fan breaks down, the other will continue to work. Though we didn't try this feature, to add on, the cooler is quiet at low loads. However, once the card is seriously taxed, it can momentarily work itself into frantic spin, at which point it becomes fairly loud and distracting.

The AirForce Panel can be used on your desk or installed onto your system's 5.25-inch bay and it works in tandem with the Lightning software that must be installed. With the Lightning software installed, the AirForce Panel will allow you to make adjustments to your card's voltage and clock speeds by the mere press of a button. It sounds easy on paper, but it is actually harder in practice. The Lightning software seemed a bit buggy and slow to respond. While it is easy to increase the clock speeds and voltage by means of the AirForce Panel, there's no real way of knowing what the new exact values are. Furthermore, you can only adjust these settings by fixed steps, thus depriving overclockers the ability to fine tune their setup. If it's any consolation, this Lightning software utility is still in its early phases, and the folks at MSI have said that they will be fine tuning it further to get the best out of it. But this still does not detract from the fact that the AirForce Panel comes across as more gimmicky than useful.

Here's a whole list of what the card came with:

• Driver CD
• Quick installation guide
• User Manual
• AirForce Panel
• 1 x DVI to HDMI adapter
• 1 x VGA to DVI adapter
• 1 x S/PDIF connector

Test Setup

As per normal, the MSI N260GTX Lightning will be put through its paces using our Vista system which sports the following specifications:

Windows Vista SP1 Test System

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (3.00GHz)
• Gigabyte X38T-DQ6 motherboard
• 2 x 1GB DDR3-1333 Aeneon memory in dual channel mode
• Seagate 7200.10 200GB SATA hard drive
• Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1

Our key consideration is to see how the MSI N260GTX Lightning matches up to the Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP - our last reviewed GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 card. The Palit card is clocked 625MHz at the core, 2200MHz DDR at the memory and 1348MHz at the shaders, so it should be close. We'll also see how it matches up to the competition from ATI by throwing in their new Radeon HD 4890 as well as a factory-overclocked Sapphire HD 4870 1GB Toxic Edition, one of the faster Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards around.

Here the complete list of cards tested and their driver versions:

• MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition (ForceWare 182.50)
• Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP (ForceWare 181.20)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 (ForceWare 181.20)
• ATI Radeon HD 4890 (8.592.1RC1 - provided by ATI)
• Sapphire HD 4870 1GB Toxic Edition (Catalyst 8.12)

Also, the cards were tested using the following benchmarks:

• Futuremark 3DMark06
• Futuremark 3DMark Vantage
• Crysis Warhead
• Far Cry 2
• Unreal Tournament 3

Windows Vista Results - 3DMark06

Beginning with 3DMark06, we can immediately see that the MSI N260 Lightning is as fast as the factory-overclocked Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP, which is not surprisingly given that its clock speeds are only marginally faster. We also noted the cards from the red camp were the better performing cards for this round, if only by a little bit.

Windows Vista Results - 3DMark Vantage

The MSN N260 Lightning once again performed as fast as the Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP, and it was significantly faster even than a reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. It was also a smidge faster than ATI's newest Radeon HD 4890.

Windows Vista Results - Crysis Warhead & Far Cry 2

Moving on to Crysis Warhead and it was still nip and tuck between the MSI N260GTX Lightning and the Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP, with less than one FPS difference between the two - in fact it could just be driver version differences. However, there was no denying that the best performer here is ATI's Radeon HD 4890, who was markedly faster especially with 4x anti-aliasing enabled.

On Far Cry 2, the situation is reversed with the NVIDIA cards being the superior bunch. And not unsurprisingly, the MSI N260GTX Lightning continued to keep pace with the Palit card, with the difference between the two was as little as 0.09 FPS.

Windows Vista Results - Unreal Tournament 3

Not unsurprisingly, the two cards' performance remained equal up till our last benchmark, Unreal Tournament 3. All in all, it seems that the higher core clock speeds of the MSI N260GTX Lightning have been nullified by the faster memory clock speeds of the Palit card. And here on Unreal Tournament 3, we noticed that the Radeon HD 4890 is the fastest of the lot.

Temperature

With the MSI N260 Lightning and Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP both performing similarly in terms of sheer frame rates, this is where it gets interesting. Which is the cooler card? Thankfully, it's a no contest. The MSI N260GTX Lightning's Twin Frozr managed to keep things at a cool 59 degrees Celsius, which is impressive for a card bearing this GPU; whereas the Palit card could only manage 70 degrees Celsius. That's a remarkable difference of 11 degrees Celsius.

Power Consumption

The MSI N260 Lightning recorded a peak power draw of 282W, similar to the Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP and not too far off the Radeon HD 4890. It just goes to show that despite driver optimization, a powerful card will still draw bucket loads of power. Fortunately, at idle, the system was recording a power draw of 146W, which is the lowest here.

Overclocking

MSI touts this card as an overclocker's dream and they are not kidding. Even without intervention, it is already running some impressive clock speeds, and by means of the AirForce Panel, we can easily set it to Lightning mode, where the clock speeds will be further bumped up to 680MHz at the core and 2100MHz DDR at the memory. However, by means of the AirForce Panel and some voltage tweaking, we were able to push the card to a maximum of 750MHz at the core and 2200MHz DDR at the memory. This is truly astonishing. We ran Vantage on the Extreme preset and were presented with a final score of 5587, a healthy 12% improvement over its initial score of 4946. At those numbers it's practically as fast as a GeForce GTX 275.

A Sign of Better Things to Come?

As far as hardware components go, this is one of the most hardcore and focused products that we've ever seen. It is truly built with the overclocker in mind, with nothing spared. Everything about this card is about achieving maximum performance, from the ultra long lifespan solid state capacitors down to the Twin Frozr cooler. As things stand now, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 is almost at the bottom of NVIDIA's GTX 200 hierarchy. Surely a greater level of performance could be achieved with one of NVIDIA's more powerful SKUs.

However, having said that, let us not forget that the MSI N260GTX Lightning was still capable of challenging its more powerful siblings. In our tests, we found it to be as quick as Palit's GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP, one of the fastest GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 cards that we've ever tested. Furthermore, its Twin Frozr cooler does a better job and its overclocking potential is one of the best that we've ever seen. The 750MHz core clock we achieved is a staggering 174MHz more than the GeForce GTX 260's reference clock speed of 576MHz!

Of course, the MSI N260GTX Lightning is not perfect. The AirForce Panel, though an excellent idea on paper, wasn't well executed in our trials. Overclocking on the AirForce Panel can only be done in predetermined steps, and there was no way of telling what are the exact clock speeds and voltage reading of the card from the panel. To make things worse, the Lightning software that is supposed to pop up to inform users of the card's settings does so for only a very brief few moments, and there was no way to make it stay on screen so that you can examine the card's settings. Overall, the AirForce Panel feels a little on the gimmicky side of things, but we don't doubt its cool factor.

Speaking of price, the MSI N260GTX Lightning is set to retail at about US$259 (about S$380+), which is just a tad pricey for a card based on the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 edition. However, let's not forget that it was made using top quality components, performance which is definitely not inferior to any factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, a massive 1792MB of frame buffer, great overclocking potential and of course, its super cool Twin Frozr cooler. This might not be the fastest graphics card around, but it is certainly one of the most unique and overclocker-centric card at this point of time.

Also worthy to note is that they are two variants of this card - the Black Edition and the regular version. The difference between the two is that the Black Edition comes with special military style packaging and the AirForce Panel. Its default clock speeds are also lower at 655MHz/2000MHz DDR/1404MHz, but that can be easily rectified by switching profiles on the supplied AirForce Panel. The non-Black Edition actually comes clocked at 680MHz for the core.

To end, we can't wait to see if MSI will extend its "Lightning" brand name to other SKUs as well. Perhaps this is a first step to greater things?

** Updated on 6th May 2009, 3.30pm **

We just received an updated version of the Lightning software from MSI and we are happy to report that the frustrating problem of the interface automatically fading away whenever we call it up has been solved. Now, pressing the Lightning button on the AirForce Panel calls up the interface on screen and it stays there until you toggle the Lightning button again. A nifty thing about the Lightning interface is that it is mildy translucent, so it does not get in the way even if you call it up in the middle of the game. This greatly improves the usability of the AirForce Panel.

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