With the weapons down on the ground time for a verdict.

Better GPU good or not ? Performance wise comparing this card to the R5870 however makes my eye frown sometimes. Even with a completely new designed PCB and the new fan and heatsink, the Hawk isn't just another simple upgrade. The new Twin Frozr III design kept this card very well cooled. All credits go to the propeller blade fans and beefy heatpipes, which do an excellent job. MSI has got all type of cards covered with their Twin Frozr design, being it version II or III. This trademark warrants better cooling, yet keeping the noise at a very acceptable level.

For the fan speed adjustment :  the standard mode is working really good out of the box. With the Afterburner Software you can fine tune the fans to a desired level by manaully adjusting fan speeds and creating profiles.

In an overclocking session you will experience the real potential of this cooling design. Mostly we boost the fans at 100%, which makes them loud and very audible. Or for maximum cooling performance in high FPS games, mostly we have the game sound overruling the sound level of the fans.

Small warning though : Please don't use high overclock settings, like flipping the OCP the switch on a daily basis ! A little overclock can't hurt ofcourse :p As the Hawk will not let you down due to it's PCB redesign and choice of components. This card is on the market for months and proved to be a very reliable and decently performing mid semi high end range video card. 

I was really pleased with the performance, but sadly the time has come to stop the cooperation between us. A new contender is waiting.

Spending hours racing online with the F1 2011 and 2010 games, the 6870 Hawk never let me down. Even testing shooters at high detail and res was never an issue for the card.

Also we have matched it up with another MSI Hawk but somehow this combination wasn't working at all.

PRO's 

+ Very Cool Performance

+ Newly designed Twin Frozr III cooler

+ 8+2 phase PWM components

+ Solid caps etc

+ OCP switch, fanspeed switch, 

+ options to measure volts external

Con's

- Loud on full speeds, though ahrdly reached when gaming

- Still a bit behind in performance  vs simular priced fermi's

- we need to say goodbye

However not really big Con's. Some people will always buy ATI cards no matter the results. And in all honestly the FPS between the cards aren't that big a deal. 

I have to say thanks to MSI's Niels for his patience. Patriot's Sabine for a quick test sample. Madshrimps Leeghoofd for his co-work.

Be sure to check in again on a new MSI video cards.

This time under extreme cooling. Using chilled water and LN2 on a R6970 Lightspeed.