MSI has brought a sleek and sexy video card to the market with the N275GTX Lightning. But with its high MSRP and its late release into this generation of video cards, what kind of value can it actually give us moving forward? We'll compare it with a stock NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 and AMD Radeon HD 4890 to find out what this technical masterpiece has to offer.
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 their business into barebones PCs, servers and workstations, communications devices, consumer electronics, Notebooks, Netbooks, graphics cards, and other various electronic products. Their company motto "Quality Products Create Faithful Customer" belies their underlying corporate strategy of designing and manufacturing quality devices for various markets and letting their high-quality reputation earn them the trust and respect of electronics consumers worldwide. In fact, their Intel P55 chipset based P55-GD80 motherboard recently won an Editor's Choice Gold award here at HardOCP.
Today, we are going to be examining one of their new line of "Lightning" video cards, featuring elevated clock speeds and custom cooling devices. The video card in question today is the MSI N275GTX Lightning, featuring an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 GPU and 1792MB of GDDR3 memory.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 GPU
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 launched on April 1st of 2009, parallel to launch of the AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4890. The GTX 275 features one GPU, and that processor is very closely related to the silicon that powers the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295. The GeForce GTX 275 GPU features 240 streaming processors, the same count as the more expensive GeForce GTX 285. The standard design features a 448-bit memory bus equipped with 896MB of GDDR3 memory chips, which is the same as what we find on the less-expensive GeForce GTX 260 video card.
NVIDIA's reference specification calls for the clock rate of graphics core (including the render backend, featuring 80 texture units) to be configured at 633MHz, while the shader core (the streaming processors) is to be clocked at 1.404GHz. This gives the GTX 275 a texture fill rate of 50.6 billion texels per second. Meanwhile, the standard memory specification calls for a memory clock of 2.268GHz DDR (or 1.134GHz actual clock speed), giving the video card a peak theoretical memory bandwidth of 127GB per second.
The GPU launched as a natural competitor to the Radeon HD 4890, and it has succeeded in that role. In game after game, the two GPUs trade blows, with neither video card able to claim victory on performance alone. As expected with ~$200 USD video cards, the true victor is decided by street price, not absolute performance.
MSI N275GTX Lightning
The MSI N275GTX Lightning is part of MSI's new Lightning branded series of video cards which feature an after-market video card cooling device and above-specification clock rates. In addition, for the N275 GTX Lightning at least, there is twice the amount of memory installed. Currently, the Lightning series of MSI video cards consists of a GeForce GTX 260, GTX 260 "Black", and this new GTX 275.
The graphics core of the N275GTX Lightning is clocked at 700MHz, which is 67MHz above NVIDIA's specification. The memory is clocked at 2.3GHz, which is only 32MHz beyond the reference. The shader core's clock rate is unchanged from the original design, and comes in at 1.404GHz. The non-standard cooling device features two large and quiet fans, and must truly be seen to be appreciated.
The packaging arrived somewhat abused, but with the contents secure and well-protected. The front of the outer cardboard carton features a front-view image of a Lockheed-Martin F35 Lightning II fighter jet, which could be what inspired the Lightning name for this series of video cards. The front of the box shows very little information regarding the contents of the package, other than the fact that the video card has 1792MB of memory and is apparently a "Military Class" product. That specification refers to the quality of some of the components on the PCB, namely the voltage regulation circuitry.
The back of the box goes into greater detail about the components on the PCB, as well as the features of the cooling device. The chokes used in the voltage regulation circuitry are listed as Solid State Chokes with a pure iron core. This feature is supposed to eliminate the buzzing sound that can result from copper coil based chokes when placed under load. Also listed is a "Hi-c CAP", or "highly conductive capacitor" with a rare tantalum core, boasting 15x less leakage than standard capacitors, which should reduce wasted power consumption. There are also solid state capacitors with an aluminum core, which allegedly offer lower operating temperatures and higher efficiency.
This video card features and Active Phase Switching (APS) power module that actively switches parts of the video card on and off depending on the load. There are 3 LEDs on the video card (red, blue, and green) which indicate what level of power, from 3-phase to 10-phase is being supplied to the video card. During operation, these lights do go on and off, apparently indicating that the APS is indeed active.
Lastly, there are 4 small jumpers that are actually meant to be used with a multi-meter so that overclockers can check the voltage of the video card’s memory and GPU.
For more information on all of these features present, please check out MSI’s announcement.
Bundled with the MSI N275GTX Lightning, we found a 6-foot HDMI cable, a DVI to VGA adaptor, a DVI to HDMI adaptor, a dual-Molex to single 6-pin auxiliary power adaptor, and an S/PDIF cable used to connect the computer’s digital audio output device to the video card for full HDMI capabilities.
Also inside the box, we found a driver CD-ROM disc and an MSI Lightning Afterburner disc containing the overclocking utility that MSI designed for this video card. There is also a detailed user’s manual (bottom right) and there are two quick start guides (bottom and top left).
The Hardware
This video card doesn’t look like any GeForce GTX 275 we’ve seen to date. It has a large aftermarket cooling device featuring two 80mm fans and five big heat-pipes bonded to a heavy base plate with a large amount of very thin heat-sink fins. The aluminum shroud does not completely contain the heat-sink, and is anodized with a stylish titanium color. The shroud is completely open on the bottom and back end of the video card, and folds slightly over the top edge.
The MSI N275GTX Lightning is the same size as all other GTX 200 series video cards we have seen. It is 10.5" long, 4.25" tall, and 1.5" thick, making it a dual-slot video card.
For ports, the MSI N275GTX Lightning is a little different. There is a single DVI connector, a single VGA connector, and a single HDMI connector. Missing is the hitherto standard component video 720p HDTV DIN connector and the second DVI port. Gamers with two DVI-only monitors will want to think twice about this video card.
The backside of the video card is very normal, featuring rather a lot of very small surface-mount electronic components, a clutch of stickers, and 18 small steel screws that keep the heat-sink firmly affixed to the front of the video card.
Shown here are the three colored LEDs that indicate the video card's power status. In the photo on the left, the test system is sitting at the Windows 7 desktop and only the green LED is lit, meaning that the three-phase power circuit is active. In the photo on the right, the test system is running Furmark, and all three LEDs are lit. That means that the ten-phase circuit is running.
Under the Cover
Of course we know that everyone wants to know what this thing looks like under the hood, so after we completed testing, we took it all apart to see how it all goes together.
After removing the ten large spring-loaded screws from the back of the video card, the bulk of the cooling device including the fans, heat-sink, heat-pipes, and base plate comes off with a squelchy twist thanks to the liberal amount of thermal paste applied to the top of the GPU. Interestingly, the ONLY part of the video card that the heat-sink actually touches is directly on top of the GPU. The GPU on our video card is labeled "G200-105-B3."
Under the large heat-sink assembly, there is a smaller aluminum plate that covers the memory and some power circuitry. Removing the remaining eight screws releases this plate, which is also attached to the memory and power chips by a greenish thermal tape.
The first photograph above primarily features the solid-state chokes advertised on the back of the box and described above. There are eight of these devices installed on this video card. Just on the other side of the SSC devices is a line of eight of the tantalum capacitors also described above.
In the middle photograph above, you can see the four pins for checking voltages. The two lower pins labeled "Vmem" are for checking voltage of the video memory, and the two upper pins are for checking the voltage of the GPU itself.
The last photograph details the memory devices used on this video card. The thermal tape left an oily residue on the chips which made photographing the things directly nearly impossible. However, we were able to discover that the memory chips in question are Hynix H58STH23MFP, which we cannot seem to locate on the Hynix website.
The Competition
The MSI N275GTX Lightning comes with an MSRP of $289.99 USD. Currently, the only online retailer to list this video card is ZipZoomFly, but it is listed as out of stock. Of course, the natural competitors to this video card are going to be the regular GeForce GTX 275 and the Radeon HD 4890. Its price-tag puts it squarely against the GeForce GTX 285, but we found that it was not competitive at that level out of the box. So, for this evaluation, we will compare the MSI N275GTX Lightning with a reference design NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 and an AMD Radeon HD 4890.
Test System Setup
For our test system platform we are using an ASUS Blitz Extreme motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processor at 3.66GHz, and 4GB of OCZ Platinum series DDR3-1600. For the power supply, we will be using a CoolerMaster Real Power Pro 1250W .
While it might be a bit "overkill," we use the 3.6GHz overclocked quad-core processor in an attempt to keep from putting our evaluation into a position of being CPU limited. Obviously, we make every effort to not use CPU limited games for video card evaluations, but the 3.6GHz processor seems to put many peoples’ minds at ease when it comes to that subject.
Driver Setup
With both the NVIDIA and AMD video cards we will be using the latest drivers. For the MSI N275GTX Lightning and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275, we will be using the ForceWare 190.62 WHQL driver. For the AMD Radeon HD 4890, we will be using the Catalyst 9.8 WHQL driver.
Below is the GPU-Z screenshot of the MSI N275GTX Lightning after we installed the drivers.
Evaluation Method
We evaluate what each video card configuration can supply us in terms of a playable gaming experience while supplying the best culmination of resolution and "eye candy" graphical settings. We focus on quality and immersion of the gameplay experience rather than how many frames per second the card can get in a canned benchmark or prerecorded timedemo situation that often do not represent real gameplay like you would experience at home. Then we will follow with apples-to-apples testing based on real gameplay as well.
We are using the full Steam version of ARMA II with latest patches. For our testing procedure, we are playing the first five minutes of the single-player scenario entitled "Counterattack", in which Russian forces are tasked with retaking control of a city from rebel forces. We begin our FRAPS recording immediately following that ejection, while we work our way into the outskirts and eventually into the city heart.
Highest Playable Settings
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In ARMA II, the MSI N275GTX Lightning gave us a small gameplay advantage over the standard GeForce GTX 275 by allowing us to use a higher visibility range. The GeForce GTX 275 topped out with the visibility slider set to 1000, while the N275GTX Lightning allowed us to increase that option to 1200. Of course, we couldn’t exactly celebrate for very long. After all, the Radeon HD 4890 knocked both of the GeForce GTX 275 video cards out of the game. Not only did the HD 4890 allow us to use a much higher visibility setting of 2400, but it also allowed Very High Object detail, Shadow detail, and Postprocess effects.
The higher clock speeds on the MSI N275GTX Lightning did materialize into a quantifiable advantage over the standard GeForce GTX 275, but the strength of the Radeon HD 4890 in ARMA II far outweighed that achievement.
After playing through Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood we found that the first chapter to be the most demanding. Therefore, for our testing we are playing the first 5 minutes of this scenario. Here Ray makes his way through the trenches fending off union soldiers and then makes his way out to hunt snipers in a forested area.
Highest Playable Settings
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Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is an extremely efficient game. As we found in our first look at the game, it just doesn’t require much of an investment in a GPU to play with maximum settings at high resolutions. As we fully expected, none of the three video cards in this evaluation met any serious resistance in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.
The very fastest video card for this game in this evaluation was in fact the MSI N275GTX Lightning, but only by a narrow margin. On average, it was three frames per second faster than the standard GeForce GTX 275 and only 2.2 frames per second faster than the Radeon HD 4890. Of course, this is all at 2560x1600 with 16X AF, no AA (because the game does not support it), and the highest possible in-game graphics options.
We are using the full version of Crysis: Warhead. We will be playing Warhead in DX10 via the 64-bit executable thanks to the latest patch. We are playing the entire "Train" level. Our run-through starts off with us getting on the train, manning the gun turrets, and blowing up everything along the way as the train progresses down the tracks. We stop at the tower, perform the mission there, and continue on until the end. This run-through features plenty of explosions, shader effects, dense swamps and vegetation, explosions, gun fire, enemy combat, and did we say explosions?
Highest Playable Settings
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In Warhead, the MSI N275GTX Lightning exhibited a gameplay advantage over both the GeForce GTX 275 and the Radeon HD 4890. At 1920x1200 with no AA and 16X AF, the N275GTX Lightning was able to use Enthusiast level physics while the other two video cards were not. The Radeon HD 4890 was on the bleeding edge of being able to do it, but the input lag proved to be too much for us to tolerate. The effect of this setting was that explosions created more particles and some of the trees and other vegetation were affected by the wind. However, given the amount of gunfire and explosions and everything else going on in the game, the motion of the flora was completely unnoticeable.
Of course, changing the physics setting from Gamer to Enthusiast doesn’t make a persistently noticeable difference in gameplay. In fact, gamers would be hard-pressed to notice it in motion while playing. The particle effects in question mostly happen when tearing down a tree. With the setting at Enthusiast, there are more splinters than with the setting at Gamer. It’s really just not a big deal at all.
During our play-testing, we found that the "Mandala" arena presented the most challenge to our graphics cards. It is a large arena, capable of supporting five on five player games. For our evaluation procedure, we loaded up the "Mandala" arena with ourselves plus five AI players. We chose the Rook player for our use, and on our team added the Queen of Thorns and Unclean Beast demigods. For the opposing team, we selected the Sedna, Regulus, and Oak demigods. We disabled the Fog of War, because we found that added load of all the demigods, opposing minions, and their buildings to be more demanding than the fog effect. For the game mode, we chose Conquest, which required that we destroy the opposing team’s citadel for victory. Our test play lasts about five minutes; since performance does not diminish the longer we played any given arena.
Highest Playable Settings
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In Demigod, all three of these video cards were easily able to max the game out completely with the highest graphics options. Both the MSI N275GTX Lightning and the GeForce GTX 275 were able to play with the anti-aliasing option at 8X MSAA, which is listed as 8xQ in the game’s options interface when using video cards with NVIDIA processors onboard. The AMD Radeon HD 4890 was also able to use 8X MSAA, and with a higher level of performance than the two GeForce products in this evaluation.
So overall, these three products will each deliver a fantastic experience in Demigod, each running at 2560x1600 with 8X MSAA, 16X AF, and the highest available in-game options.
We are using the full version of Fallout 3 , patched to v1.7. Since the Gamebryo engine is relatively old and doesn’t support the DX10 API we will be using the DX9 API. In smaller game zones, such as Rivet City, the Sewers, and Megaton, Fallout 3 performs extremely well. It is the exterior zone, the wasteland and downtown Washington D.C. where performance is most challenged. Therefore, we devised a testing procedure which takes us from Rivet City, the aircraft carrier-turned settlement parked in the Potomac, to Megaton, which is the first settlement you encounter after leaving the introductory sequence in Vault 101. The trip takes about 7 minutes, and takes us through some very densely detailed ruins of downtown DC, out into the wide and sprawling wasteland outside the city.
Highest Playable Settings
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In Fallout 3 the MSI N275GTX Lightning was again able to provide a real advantage over the standard GTX 275, but not over the Radeon HD 4890. The higher clock rates on the N275GTX Lightning allowed it to be able to run 8X AA at 2560x1600 with 16X AF and maximum in-game graphics options, whereas the GTX 275 was only able to cope with 4X AA. The GeForce GTX 275 was really on the verge of being able to run with 8X AA, but there was a jittery and jerky quality to the gameplay at that setting, which really took away from the quality of experience we were after, so we lowered it down to 4X AA. It is a minor complaint, however, as the practical and observable difference between 4X AA and 8X AA is quite slim and probably won’t be noticed by a good portion of players.
As nicely as the MSI N275GTX Lightning performed at 2560x1600 with 8X AA in Fallout 3, the Radeon HD 4890 performed better. It was also able to play with 8X AA, and it did so with much higher performance, averaging 50.4 frames per second compared to the 36.6 frames per second produced by the N275GTX Lightning.
For Ghostbusters: The Video Game we picked a level that allows us to show a wide variety of the games scenery. While there are specific spots in the game that drag our framerates down no matter what we do we find this to be a fairer representation of the game. Our mission starts outside while we shoot our way into a hedge maze. Once setting a switch, we then head inside and find ourselves in a cut scene, then in a battle, another cut scene, and then in deep dungeons of the castle fighting our way towards saving our companions.
Highest Playable Settings
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In our first look at Ghostbusters: The Video Game, we found that neither NVIDIA’s nor AMD’s video cards supported any kind of anti-aliasing beyond the blurry shader-based option buried in the game’s INI file. Since then, however, NVIDIA has fixed their side of the issue in ForceWare 190.62 WHQL, and AMD fixed their side as of the Catalyst 9.8 HOTFIX. We are glad to report that we tested both driver sets, and AA works just fine in Ghostbusters now.
At 2560x1600, all three of these video cards were able to handle 2X MSAA, along with 16X AF and maximum in-game graphics options. The MSI N275GTX Lightning was technically the fastest, but again the margin was slim. The GeForce GTX 275 ended up 2.3 frames per second slower, and the Radeon HD 4890 was a mere 1 frame per second behind.
Overclocking with NVIDIA System Tools
Overclocking the MSI N275GTX Lightning can be accomplished in a number of ways. You can use NVIDIA System Tools, or any given 3rd party software package like RivaTuner. We started our overclocking adventure with the MSI N275GTX Lightning by using the NVIDIA System Tools version 6.05 to see what the out-of-box experience was with the video card.
One interesting note about NVIDIA System Tools version 6.05 is that there are two drop-down selectors in a box labeled "Voltages" for potential voltage modification within NVIDIA's utility. One drop-down is labeled "GeForce GPU", and the other is labeled "GeForce GPU memory." Unfortunately, these boxes were disabled for us, so whatever condition needs to be met to enable that option is apparently not met by the MSI N275GTX Lightning. Thankfully though, MSI offers their own utility for overclocking we will evaluate below as well.
Out of the Box
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Out of the box, the MSI N275GTX Lightning has its shader core (streaming processors) clock set to 1.404GHz, which is the NVIDIA reference specification for that clock domain. The graphics core (ROPs, etc.) was clocked at 700MHz out of the box, which is 67MHz beyond NVIDIA's design. The memory clock was set to 2.3GHz DDR (or 1.15GHz actual clock) which is only 32MHz DDR (16MHz actual) above the reference design.
Overclocked
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Using NVIDIA's System Tools, the highest overclock we were able to achieve on the MSI N275GTX was 729MHz on the graphics core, 1.482GHz on the shader core, and 2.358GHz DDR (1.179GHz actual) on the memory.
On the graphics core, that is an increase of 29MHz above the out of the box setting and 96MHz above NVIDIA's reference design. On the shader core, that is 78MHz above the out of the box condition, which happens to be the same as the reference specification for the streaming processor clock rate. Finally, that overclock is 29MHz faster than the out of the box experience on the memory, or 45MHz faster than NVIDIA's reference specification.
So, using the NVIDIA System Tools, the overclock was modest, to say the least. The shader core saw the most increase, but that is only really because the shaders were not clocked at a rate higher than NVIDIA's specification to begin with. We were thus hopeful that we could achieve some better results with voltage modification using a utility supplied by MSI.
MSI Lightning Afterburner
The MSI "Afterburner" software is supplied on the bundled CD-ROM disc labeled "Lightning Afterburner", but the version we used was a newer version supplied to us by MSI which is version 1.0.010. Upon starting the software (every time), we were greeted with the following warning dialog box:
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Note that MSI's warranty does not cover damage from excessive overclocking, nor does it cover third-party cooling devices. MSI seems to have chosen a great cooling device for this video card, but you must still be careful when overclocking so that you do not damage the hardware. Almost all video cards produced in the past few years have overvoltage or overcurrent protection built-in, so the likelihood of actually destroying one of these modern video cards is pretty slim. It is not impossible, however, so as usual, our readers should exercise caution when modifying standard voltages.
So, after you click OK on the above warning disclaimer, you will be greeted with the actual Afterburner interface:
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The three gauges located on the upper middle part of the UI display the current clock speeds, GPU voltage, and fan speed. Note that only the graphics core and memory clock speeds are shown. The shader core speed is not shown in this interface, nor is there a slider to adjust it. The shader core speed is automatically adjusted as you adjust the clock rate on the graphics core. We verified this by checking NVIDIA’s system tools after we tweak the clock rates in the Afterburner software. Greater control of the shader core as an individual slider would be welcomed in this software.
Preset Modes
To the left of the three gauges, there are three buttons labeled "Game", "Power Saving", and "Default." These three buttons set one of three factory presets. Clicking the "Game" button sets the graphics core to 700MHz and the memory to 2.3GHz (the out-of-the-box settings). Clicking the "Power Saving" button sets the GPU to 300 MHz and the memory to 200MHz. Finally, clicking the "Default" button sets the GPU to 633MHz and the memory to 2.268GHz, which is NVIDIA’s reference specification. These preset values are not modifiable in this software. NOTE: The Afterburner software automatically loads the "Game" preset when starting the application.
Voltage and Clock Speed Options
The bottom half of the interface contains the controls we are actually interested in. The far left control group is a slider for adjusting GPU voltage. The middle control group allows the adjustment of the GPU and Memory clock speeds. The far right control group allows for the modification of fan speed, including an "Automatic Mode" button which automatically adjusts the fan speed based on GPU temperature, which is standard behavior these days.
NOTE: from left to right, the voltage slider only has a range of 0.1 volts. The GPU clock slider goes from 622MHz to 1000MHz, and the memory slider goes from 2.268GHz to 2.6GHz. Finally, the fan speed slider goes from 40% to 100%.
Profiles
Under the Voltage control group is a user profile control group. These controls allow users to set and retrieve up to three custom profiles. The profiles include voltage, clock rates, and fan speed. To set a profile, first click on the number, and then adjust your voltage, speed, and fan settings, then click on the "Save" button in the User Profiles control group. To load a profile, simply click on the number of the profile you want to load and click the "Load" button. Please be advised that these settings are applied immediately when they are adjusted. There are no "OK", "Apply", or "Cancel" buttons in this interface.
Overclocking With Voltage Modification
Alright, so now that we know what these options do, let’s see what we can achieve. For this phase of overclocking, we started at the same overclock we achieved with the NVIDIA System Tools.
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We approached this process with a certain degree of care. We started out by first setting the fan to run at 100% all of the time. We then slowly incremented the clock speed sliders until the system was rendered unstable. We then increased the voltage slider until it stabilized again. Then we increased the clock speed sliders again until it became unstable again. Then we increased the voltage, and so on and so forth.
Eventually, we wound up with the voltage slider all the way to the right and the clock speed sliders as shown above. The GPU speed slider was at 745MHz, the memory slider was at 2.38GHz, and the voltage was at 1.665 volts.
NOTE: When gaming, the voltage indicator increased to 1.1998 volts before modification, with the slider all the way to the left. With the slider all the way to the right, the indicator changed to 1.2998 volts. This is simply due to the power management techniques employed when the video card is not actively rendering games.
Unfortunately, this is where our overclocking adventures ended. Incrementing either slider by so much as one more click caused the test system’s display to turn completely black after about 30 seconds of running any game or benchmark.
Overclocking Summary
Overclocking the N275GTX Lightning, either with the NVIDIA System Tools or with the MSI Lightning Afterburner software, was a breeze. It was a simple point and click process mixed in with some trial and error. While we did not achieve the overclock we were looking for, we were impressed by the ease of use and simple execution of the MSI Lightning Afterburner software.
The only question that remains is: What does this overclocking do for us?
The answer, sadly, is not much. Fallout 3 and Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood were already maxed out by the MSI N275GTX Lightning, so we were unable to increase settings in those games because there was nowhere further to go.
Demigod had further 16X and 16xQ CSAA anti-aliasing options, but our maximum overclock was not enough to push the game over the 8X MSAA line.
Now that the drivers allow it, Ghostbuster likewise had some further AA options to explore, but the overclock did not gain us enough additional headroom to go up to 4X MSAA from 2X MSAA.
With our highest playable settings, Crysis: Warhead was already at the limit of what the GTX 275 could do, and unfortunately increasing the clock speeds as far as we were able to did not improve performance in that game enough to allow us to set any more options to Enthusiast, or to enable 2X MSAA or anything. It did smooth out some of the rougher patches of the game, though.
Finally, in ARMA II we were actually able to increase our visibility slider a bit. From our earlier highest playable setting of 1200, we increased it to 1800 after overclocking and found that the game was still playable. Of course, the AMD Radeon HD 4890 still slaughtered the N275GTX Lightning in ARMA II, even with the increased settings.
Power Consumption
We tested the power utilization of our test system using a P3 International Kill-A-Watt device at the wall first without a video card, and then with each video card at idle and at full load. Since we tweaked the voltages while overclocking the MSI N275GTX Lightning, we also measured power consumption for that video card after overclocking.
For full load power testing we used FurMark version 1.7.0 to stress each video card at the highest load. We found 2560x1600 with 2X AA to be the sweet spot for stressing the GPUs without bottlenecking them and thereby reducing power consumption. The power supply used in testing is a Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1250W. Our system is very lean with only one optical drive and one hard drive being powered.
With the improvements to the power circuitry outlined by the box, the MSI website, and the product documentation, we expected to see some improved power usage with the MSI N275GTX Lightning. Of course, by that we mean that we expected to see it use less power at least at idle, and hopefully under load conditions as well.
Well this is certainly impressive! At idle, the system with the MSI N275GTX Lightning uses 26 Watts less power than the reference NVIDIA design of the GeForce GTX 275. In fact, the system uses only 27 Watts more power than the test computer consumed without a video card installed. Then, compared to the Radeon HD 4890, it used 53 Watts less when idling.
Even when fully loaded, the system with the MSI N275GTX Lightning uses 32 Watts less power than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275, and 35 Watts less than the Radeon HD 4890. When we overclocked it without modifying the voltages, we saw it use only 6 Watts more power; still far less than its competitor.
Of course, when we increased the voltage to the GPU and overclocked it, the situation changed somewhat. When idling, it used about the same amount of power as it did before overclocking. But when we put a load on the video card, power consumption shot up to 406 Watts, an increase of 241 Watts more than idle and an increase of 46 Watts over what the same video card consumed before overclocking.
Temperature
For temperature testing on the NVIDIA video cards we used the NVIDIA System Tools monitor to look at the GPU core temperature. On the AMD video cards, we used the built in Overdrive utility in the Catalyst Control Center to monitor the temperature. We also used FurMark 1.7.0 to stress the GPUs for full load testing. We used an infra-red temperature gun to sample the temperature of the PCB on the backside of the GPU as well as the air exhausted from the ventilation slots on all of the video cards’ PCI brackets.
NOTE: The heat-sink shroud on the MSI N275GTX Lightning does not extend all the way to the PCI expansion slot bracket. Thus, some heat is lost to the surrounding air before it is expelled out of the ventilation slots on the PCI bracket.
Not surprisingly, the MSI N275GTX Lightning produced less heat at idle than both of the other video cards. This makes sense for two reasons: First, it has a cooling device with two 8cm fans on it. Second: as we saw earlier, it consumes less power.
The N275GTX Lightning warmed up to only 79 degrees Celsius under load, and rose to the same temperature when overclocked without voltage adjustment. This is because the GPU van was being controlled automatically and spun faster when the GPU got hotter.
The reference GTX 275 rose to a very hot 92 degrees, which is only 8 degrees shy of the boiling temperature of water. That is 13 degrees Celsius higher than the N275GTX Lightning on the GPU, 10 degrees hotter on the backside of the PCB, and 19 degrees hotter where the air would exit the case.
The Radeon HD 4890’s GPU was 6 degrees hotter at idle, and 2 degrees cooler under load. However, both the back of the GPU and the exhausted air were warmer on the HD 4890 than on the N275GTX Lightning.
Finally, after we adjusted the voltage, set the fan to run at 100%, and overclocked the GPU and memory on the MSI N275GTX Lightning, we saw some interesting behavior. Firstly, the entire video card ran cooler when idling. This, obviously, is because the fan was running at 100%, which was a LOT faster than it was running when it was being automatically controlled. Under load conditions, the overclocked and voltage-tweaked N275GTX Lightning ran slightly hotter than it did before overclocking, but still cooler than the reference designed NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275. It was, in fact, a good deal cooler: 8 degrees on the GPU.
Gameplay Summary
ARMA II
The Radeon HD 4890 stole the show in ARMA II. By allowing us to use far higher in-game graphics options compared to both the MSI N275GTX Lightning and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275, it set itself apart as a superior value. All three video cards were able to play ARMA II with high graphics settings at 1920x1200 with 16X AF and no AA, but the Radeon HD 4890 allowed Very High Object and Shadow detail settings, the Very High Postprocess effects setting, and a far higher visibility range setting.
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
In Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, there was no performance victory in this evaluation. All three of these video cards were very easily able to handle the game at 2560x1600 with 16X AF and maximum in-game graphics options, and they all delivered a surprisingly even level of performance.
Crysis: Warhead
In Crysis: Warhead, the MSI N275GTX Lightning took a technical lead by allowing us to use Enthusiast level physics quality, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 and AMD Radeon HD 4890 could handle that setting at Gamer. The Radeon HD 4890 was on the verge of being able to increase that option, but doing so caused undesirable performance problems such as jerky mouse movement. Overall, though, it is a shallow victory. The Physics Quality setting just doesn’t change that much between the Gamer and Enthusiast settings.
Demigod
At 2560x1600 with 8X MSAA, 16X AF, and maximum in-game settings, our video cards were again tied in Demigod. With the same settings, the Radeon HD 4890 gave us higher framerates, but an identical gameplay experience.
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 performed beautifully on all three of these video cards. The MSI N275GTX Lightning exhibited a clear advantage over the standard GeForce GTX 275 by being able to use 8X AA at 2560x1600, compared to the 4X AA that was usable on the GTX 275. However, that victory was overshadowed by the fact that the Radeon HD 4890 was also able to play Fallout 3 with 8X AA at 2560x1600, and did so with a much higher average framerate.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Like with Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, these video cards performed almost dead even in Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Thanks to newly minted drivers from AMD and NVIDIA, all three video cards were capable of playing with 2X MSAA at 2560x1600, and of course with 16X AF and the highest possible in-game options.
More Is Not Always More
The MSI N275GTX Lightning comes out of the box equipped with 1792MB of video memory. The standard NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 features "only" 896MB, half that found on this MSI card. It could be argued that, under the right circumstances, with the right games, the "extra" 896MB could be of some use. Indeed, MSI’s own marketing materials claim that GTA IV is such a game. That might be the case, but it is really advisable to invest in that extra memory for a single game? In the six games we did examine today, the doubled memory capacity counted for naught.
One does wonder precisely how much of the price premium the MSI N275GTX Lightning commands is due to the doubled video memory.
Value
MSI has placed a rather high MSRP of $289.99 USD on the N275GTX Lightning. ZipZoomFly currently lists this video card, and it is right at the MSRP, but it is currently out of stock. The upside is that they do offer a $15 mail-in rebate when it does come in stock. You can buy a standard NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 for $209.99 USD though, with free shipping, or you can buy one with a lifetime warranty and a free copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum for $224.99 after MIR, also with free shipping. If your preferences lean toward AMD/ATI, you can get a Radeon HD 4890 with a lifetime warranty and free shipping for $194.99, no rebate required.
Or, if you are actually looking to spend something closer to the $289.99 MSRP of the MSI N275GTX Lightning, you can spend $297.99 USD for a GeForce GTX 285 with a lifetime warranty and a free copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum.
The Bottom Line
The simple fact is that the MSI N275GTX Lightning is overpriced. Don’t take us the wrong way here: it is a fabulous product, and it is clear that a great deal of care and attention to detail went into the design and construction of this video card. The power savings this video card exhibits compared to the standard GeForce GTX 275 are considerable, and the fact that it manages to save power while delivering a higher level of performance is a notable feat. The design of this video card and choice of components is absolutely first-rate, without a doubt. The cooling device is tremendously effective, and during normal operation it is inaudible.
There’s just the one problem with its price tag. A GeForce GTX 275 simply has no business costing as much as a GeForce GTX 285, no matter how souped up. For the entry price of the MSI N275GTX Lightning, there is just no reason to buy it or even short-list it. While the technical execution of the video card is top-notch, the timing of its release is dubious and its actual value is virtually nonexistent compared to the price and performance levels of its competitors. If you are willing to spend the money, it really is the best GeForce GTX 275 based video card out there, it is also one of the most expensive. Perhaps as more come into stock, prices will fall over time, but right now it is both hard to find, and expensive.
When it is all said and done, we feel this video card deserves our Editor’s Choice Silver Award for the work put into it, the components used, and MSI Lightning Afterburner software. The value and lack of stock of it keep it from earning our Gold Editor's Choice Award. We really love the product in terms of features and build, but the value is going to leave most of us flat.
MSI N275GTX Lightning
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