The MSI Lightning series of graphics cards continues to be one of the best high end enthusiast lines available as we have seen with our reviews of the MSI GeForce GTX 780 Lightning and the R7970 Lightning. At CES this week in Las Vegas the company was showcasing the upcoming card in the series based on the latest AMD Hawaii GPU.
The MSI R9 290X Lightning features an updated triple cooler design and heat pipe cooler that appears to be truly impressive. If the weight of the card is any indication, this GPU should be running considerably cooler than most of the competition.
MSI has included a dual BIOS option, updated Military Class 4 components and hardware but be prepared to sacrifice three slots of your motherboard to this monster. Power requirements are interesting with a pair of 8-pin power connectors and a single 6-pin connector, though the 6-pin is going to optional.
The power of the card still comes from AMD's latest R9 290X Hawaii GPU, so you can be sure you'll have enough gaming power for just about any situation. We implored MSI to make sure that the overclocks of this card, probably in the 1050-1100 MHz range, are maintained consistently through extended game play to avoid any awkward variance discussions.
PC Perspective's CES 2014 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at https://pcper.com/ces!
What a Beast!!!
What a Beast!!!
Ill take 3 plox… My
Ill take 3 plox… My watercooling setup is waiting
WHEN? I too am waiting for a
WHEN? I too am waiting for a couple of these plus waterblocks.
if you guys are buying
if you guys are buying waterblocks why would you even buy this version of the r9?? lol
Better PCB, better design but
Better PCB, better design but most importantly the third power cable!
Anyone want two r9 290 reference cards when this is released :/ lol
Same reason people modify
Same reason people modify already high performance vehicles, you can modify a regular Subaru impreza, and you can modify the wrx sti. The latter having better components and further along, providing a better starting point.
If the reference design 290x scores a theoretical base of 100, then with a waterblock maybe 125. Now the lightning might score a 115 out of the box, but with a waterblock might be capable of 135?
So yes, ditching the huge heatsink and fans for a waterblock is a bit out of the ordinary, but the rest of the card’s design improvements mean it will be even better then a refrence design under water….
hello guys i have MSI R7970
hello guys i have MSI R7970 Lightning
should i buy MSI R290X lightning?
your comments would be helpful for me 🙂
thank you
MuhaMMAD