MSI R5870 Lightning Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: Aesthetically pleasing
Quiet Fans
HIGH QUALITY
Ships running at 900 MHz

Cons: Can't connect it directly to my fan controller.
Pretty pricey (even though I was willing to pay)

Other Thoughts: Let me say that I can't say enough how awesome this card is.

It shipped with 900 MHz, and with ATI OC software, I got this baby up to 985. I turned it down because it was showing graphical artifacts, but the fact that it got that high without dying on me is impressive.

All MSI took was the core 5870 GPU, and they added their own chip architecture, their own heatsync, and their own memory.

This baby is worth every penny, and I've been EAGER to review it for weeks, but it wasn't available on Newegg anymore (yeah, she's popular with ALL the guys).

Who cares about benchmarks? This is probably the best Single GPU component you can buy for $500. The cooling system alone is worth it. Bumped it up to 70% and still couldn't hear it.

The best part is, in a year and a half when it's FINALLY obsolete, I can buy another one and Crossfire.

Two words: Buy it.

Pros: First and foremost, NEWEGG!! Yes that is a pro!! Dual fans, quiet too. Speed is fast and stable. So far handles everything i have thrown at it with the greatest of ease. Smooth operation. HIGH framerates. Execellent software once you know how to use it.

Cons: The only gripe i have is with MSI corporation. I contacted them twice about questions a month ago and have yet to recieve a response, not even a automated response. I have been a MSI customer for a very long time and push msi products every chance i get. Not sure if I will be doing that anymore.

Other Thoughts: Update: i gave this a 4 egg rating originaly cause the first card i purchased was a bit "heavy on the backend" and as a result the card seemed to pulled downward in the back once seated in the pcie 0 slot(1st pcie slot) . however after crossfirex setup and swapping out cards I noticed that it wasnt infact the cards. Anycard in the first PCIE slot had that look. Place the same cards in diffrent PCIE slots and they were inline and straight.

if you got the money to spare, BUY this card over the MSI5850-OC version. Its well worth the the little extra money. My experience thus far, i got better operations, quieter fans and cooler temps than whats being reported on the msi5850-OC cards.

One final note, BUY FROM NEWEGG!! Excellent customer service, fast shipping and best prices! I have had only one issue with a product so far. Newegg took care of it the same day and i had my replacement almost as equally as fast(next day shipping)!!!!

Pros: Warner Kuo of MSI sent me an e-mail with the new bios and the instructions for flashing the card to fix the voltage issue. I will send to any who need it.

Cons: None:

Other Thoughts: Thanks to Warner Kuo of MSI, I no longer have the 5870 Lightning but I hope this helps anyone who wants to adjust voltage and over-clock their card.

Pros: Bought it from Newegg, YES that is a PRO!!
Runs great! Looks GREAT! have this card in a crossfirex config and WOW is all i can say. Alot quieter than I thought given that it has two fans.

Cons: Only one so far and not really a con. I bought a couple of these cards from newegg. My latest purchase of this card died shortly after purchase. The reason i say its not really a con is because, lets face it, *this* happens.
Not Neweggs fault. Infact Newegg promptly RMA'ed this card.

Other Thoughts: 2 things, 1: if you got the money to spare, buy this card over the MSI R5850 OC version. Its worth it. The MSI 5850 OC version runs at 765mhz. The MSI R5870 Lighting runs stock at 900mhz. Trust me, if your like me and dont want to void the waranty by overclocking but you want that extra speed, GET THIS CARD! You'll be glad you did. 2: BUY IT FROM NEWEGG! I can honestly say from experience, they are by far the best customer support I have ever had to deal with. Very professional. I am new to newegg. I recently built a rig and im glad to say I purchased 95% of my products from newegg. Items I purchased else where was due to the fact that newegg didnt offer that particular brand. This is one rock solid company. If I can get it from newegg I will before I go anywhere else.

Pros: It works - looks cool.

Cons: After a lot of looking around this is what I found:

The MSI Lightning is voltage locked and voltages can not be adjusted with afterburner without a bios flash and doing so will void the warranty.

Other Thoughts: Drop the price and sell this product for what it is a non overclocking card that looks pretty, all show no go. And stop advertising this product as being able to adjust voltages, that's deceptive advertising pure and simple.

Pros: Seems to be a good card, great temps but that should be expected with a card running at stock settings.

Cons: Afterburner does not work with this card tried everything up to and including 1.6 beta, had t uninstall afterburner because all it did was crash my system. Didn't plan on overclocking the card right away but this was a selling point and MSI dropped the ball.

Other Thoughts: All I want is for the thing to WORK AS ADVERTISED! Nothing more! A "overclocking card" that cant overclock is nothing more than duplicity on the part of MSI!

Manufacturer Response:

For any technical related inquiry, please kindly get in touch with MSI technical support team, thanks.

External Link(s):

MSI|

Pros: NONE! Would be great card if it worked!

Cons: Everything! Had 13, yes 13 of these 5870's andalso the gigabyte 5870's i went through 4 of and ALL were DOA's! I don't know if AMD is releasing bad chips or what but stay away! I love AMD to death but I went and bought 4 GTX 470s and all worked!

Manufacturer Response:

If you still have the cards then please kindly get in touch with our technical support team which they will be able to help you figure our the problem, thanks.

External Link(s):

MSI Tech Support Contact|

Pros: 7.8 in the windows 7 exp index, runs cool at 20 - 30 C. fired up without a problem, used a driver cleaner after uninstalling old drivers have the fans set at 100%, cant hear them over my CPU cooler anyhow.. The washer mod was not needed for the card I had temps are great!!!

Cons: Expensive..

Other Thoughts: Bought this because it was built to last a few years.

Pros: This card is clearly for gaming and that is what it does VERY well. I mostly play Bad Company 2 on a 24'' LCD and the card easily masters the game; enable vsync and it is always a smooth 60FPS. ATI isn't known for its drivers, but the current ones are very good. The MSI afterburn program is also really nice.

Overall it is a great card that will last for a good while. It has everything you could want from a high end card. Aftermarket cooling, overclockability, quiet, good company (my second MSI card) and amazing performance.

IDK what everyone's problem with the card is. It is what it is and I believe most of the lower egg ratings are due to people's misconceptions about the card. It is a premium card so you'll pay the price.

Cons: Not one so far.

Other Thoughts: Q9550 @ 3.66
4GB OCZ
Win 7 64bit
eVGA 780i SLI

current BIOS and drivers

Pros: These cards are fast. With the latest Bios and newest afterburner software, you have very good control over the voltage and clocks. There is even a nice Windows7 gadget that interfaces with the afterburner software to give you temp/speed readings on the desktop.

I haven't messed with the overclocks too much, because I have them in crossfire which degrades stability when overclocking. They get out of sync very easily when overclocking in x-fire, but luckily they are so fast it doesn't even matter.

I bought 2 of these Open box for 360. Awesome deal.

The fan/heatpipe system on this is brilliant. Gpu1 idles at 31 and gpu2 idles at 39.

Gpu2 hit 79c on furmark, but what do you expect? They max at about 72c running Crysis at full.

Cons: With all the hullabaloo made about the military grade specs and Vrm's etc. (which is nice), the card does not lend itself well to aftermarket water-cooling. I should have thought about this before I bought them, but I decided to water-cool after the fact. This card uses an extremely unique PCB design that will not allow a full water block that covers the vrm's and memory.

I ended up having to go with a Swiftech MCW80 GPU core water block. I will have to use copper ramsinks to cover the mem and vrm's. Not too big of a deal, but something to consider.

Other Thoughts: In all honesty, I would not pay full retail for these cards. Even a single MSI only overclocks to about 1000 on the core. But so do most of the reference design 5870's. The cooler/heatpipe does work nice, but do you want to pay 100 more for that? I wouldn't. At 360 open box, it was a no brainer though.