MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning review - Product Showcase

Once we remove the cap we see a small PCB, it hosts a battery of 8 tantalum capacitors that are used to filter and stabilize GPU voltage much like like the NEC/Tokin Proadlizer film capacitors we all know.

It also features a few blue LEDs onboard, so when it is installed with the GPU Reactor cap in place, it has a nice blue glow emanating from it. The GPU Reactor can be removed completely if needed or preferred.

For the 7970 Lightning MSI implemented six monitor connector. Four DisplayPort connectors and two single link DVI connectors. That's right, SINGLE link meaning you can get only monitor support up-to 1920x1200 on DVI.

That's a miss in our opinion, if you have a DVI based 30" / 27" monitor for example at 2560x1440/1600 then you are out of luck -- your 1000 EUR investment will not get it's native resolution unless it has a proper DisplayLink port. The same goes for 3D Stereo Dual-Link DVI monitors. MSI's opponent ASUS solved this by adding a small switch on the PCB merging two links to DVI-Dual-link. We strongly suggest that MSI looks at that as well for future revisions of their VGA cards.

Is there a solve if you need dual-link DVI ? Well you can do two things, invest another 1000 EUR in a HR screen with DP connector, or spend another 150 EUR for an active DP to DVI-D converter. Either one of the options blows of course.

If you look to the lower side of the photo, AMD allows you to opt for the multi-GPU road with Crossfire(X) as an option. You can pair two, three or even four cards in one PC and have them do a decent workout. Crossfire is setting the same cards up in multi-GPU mode, and CrossfireX is mixing different cards say 6950 and 7970 and set them up in Crossfire mode.