MSI GeForce GTX 780 Lightning Pictured

btarunr · Aug 20, 2013

Ahead of its launch, pictures of MSI's GeForce GTX 780 Lightning graphics cards were leaked to the web by HardwareZone (now redacted), and reposted by WCCFTech. Pictures reveal never before seen PCB and cooler designs. To begin with, MSI is using a brand new cooling solution called TriFrozr. It combines a large compound dual fin-stack heatsink, to which heat is fed by seven 8 mm-thick heat pipes, with an array of three fans, two larger 100 mm ones on the edges, and a smaller 70 mm one in the center. The fans feature independent control system, which lets you tweak speeds of individual fans, over software. An LED-lit badge doubles up as a GPU load indicator. A swanky back-plate lines the reverse side.

Under this elaborate cooling solution is a brute of a PCB. Drawing power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors, the custom-design PCB by MSI features a 20-phase digital PWM voltage regulation, which use a combination of high current chokes, International Rectifier PowIRstage, DirectFET chips, tantalum capacitors, and MSI's GPU Reactor module that cuts out electrical noise. The GPU is wired to 7 GT/s rated Elpida-branded memory chips, and three (that's right, three) GPU BIOS ROMs. One stores a failsafe reference BIOS, another factory-OC air BIOS, and one that primes the GPU for liquid-nitrogen cooling-assisted overclocking. MSI is expected to launch the GTX 780 Lightning on August 28, 2013, priced around $800.

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Jetster · Aug 20, 2013

Beautiful

buggalugs · Aug 20, 2013

Looks like it could be the best performing cooler on the market with the 7x8mm heat pipes. Could be awesome.....

FreedomEclipse · Aug 20, 2013

these coolers seem a little more generic.

Nordic · Aug 20, 2013

I wish there were aftermarket 2 slot coolers like this.

dj-electric · Aug 20, 2013

Just one thing - Elpida and not Samsung = :\

neliz · Aug 20, 2013

Dj-ElectriC said:
Just one thing - Elpida and not Samsung = :\

I also have pics with Samsung memory, if that makes you happy, but Samsung is in short supply right now.

Yeoman · Aug 20, 2013

Looks like a nice card. Be interesting to see reviews. I just hope that the 70mm fan isn't too whinny/load compared to the 100mm ones.

The Terrible Puddle · Aug 20, 2013

The smaller middle fan and the yellow accent ruins everything. The teaser photos made me hope there would be a custom cooler on pair with the reference cooler in aesthetics.
- Also a $150 price increase is too much.

d1nky · Aug 20, 2013

Dj-ElectriC said:
Just one thing - Elpida and not Samsung = :\

aren't Hynix better than elpida but not as good as sammie?!

is the principle with memory on NVidia cards the same as AMD. elpida maxes at around 1600mhz where Hynix/Samsung maxes at around 1800+ (2000mhz was topped on lightning I believe)

and I think I prefer the evga or asus 780 for looks.

Animalpak · Aug 20, 2013

Best 780 with custom PCB and coole ever no doubt.

MSi often releases its lightning series cards when all other companies have already submitted their top notch products.

I am confident, I hope to find it on sale here too.

Hayder_Master · Aug 20, 2013

new design is cool

the54thvoid · Aug 20, 2013

$800 plus 20% for UK tax is around £610. It would be nice to see it appear at about that price. If it's nice to play with, I may be tempted to buy that and the new EK block coming for it and sell on my Titan to cover costs.

That being said, I'd only buy it if it easily beats what my current card does at 1.1GHz. Note for W1zzard, can we have an overclocked Titan thrown into the mix for any comparisons on it's review? It's a pain in the tits when stock Titan faces overclocked 780 models. Main issue is wanting to know how the clocks differ to get the same performance.

Xero717 · Aug 20, 2013

At first glance aesthetically, this seems like a step backwards from their previous cooling shrouds. Hopefully it performs as well or better. Price is kind of off the charts though, think I'd prefer the Galaxy 780 HOF to this if i needed a GPU right now.

theonedub · Aug 20, 2013

Is it just me, or does this look like a 2+ slot cooler?

Dextar · Aug 20, 2013

Another high end card using Elpida VRAM, ugh.

Dextar · Aug 20, 2013

neliz said:
I also have pics with Samsung memory, if that makes you happy, but Samsung is in short supply right now.

It would be great if there would be an option to buy one with the Samsung memory not just a random, hope you get one situation.

MxPhenom 216 · Aug 20, 2013

Jesus that is ugly! *flamesuit on*

erocker · Aug 20, 2013

MxPhenom 216 said:
Jesus that is ugly! *flamesuit on*

No suit needed. It is ugly. I'm thinking painting that fan black will make a large difference.

Fluffmeister · Aug 20, 2013

Frankly every card is ugly compared to the reference GTX 690/Titan.

Yeoman · Aug 20, 2013

The nividia titan ref cooler is the ugliest one I've seen to date. I do not understand the fascination with it. It looks like cheap plastic and has never made me think "oh, that looks like a powerful cooler". Admittedly the MSI cooler above is pretty standard, and the lightning colour scheme hasn't transferred very gracefully, but I've yet to see a 780/titan cooler that looked worse than the nvidia, and as they all excel when it comes to cooling performance anyway...

HumanSmoke · Aug 20, 2013

Dextar said:
Another high end card using Elpida VRAM, ugh.

I believe Neliz- the MSI rep- has already made the reason pretty clear in one of the earlier posts. You can't have what isn't available.
Most people in the market for these or similar cards are already aware that the Samsung modules are in very short supply (EVGA's Jacob Freeman has previously explained the situation regarding the Lightning's principle competitor).

Fluffmeister · Aug 20, 2013

Yeoman said:
The nividia titan ref cooler is the ugliest one I've seen to date. I do not understand the fascination with it. It looks like cheap plastic and has never made me think "oh, that looks like a powerful cooler". Admittedly the MSI cooler above is pretty standard, and the lightning colour scheme hasn't transferred very gracefully, but I've yet to see a 780/titan cooler that looked worse than the nvidia, and as they all excel when it comes to cooling performance anyway...

I think you're in the minority, but hey there is no accounting for taste.

Yeoman · Aug 20, 2013

Evidently there isn't. I think people just get accustomed to average aesthetics and expect more of the same (and clearly the more things change, the more they stay the same). In my opinion, the aesthetics & branding relating to the pc enthusiast market is generally far beneath that of other technology sectors. I think there's a bit of a "make it cool and futuristic" mentality, which is probably impossible to escape from.

Just my opinion of course. As a designer, I'm naturally very critical of things like that, particularly when its in an area I'm personally interested in.

Fluffmeister · Aug 20, 2013

Yeoman said:
Evidently there isn't. I think people just get accustomed to average aesthetics and expect more of the same (and clearly the more things change, the more they stay the same). In my opinion, the aesthetics & branding relating to the pc enthusiast market is generally far beneath that of other technology sectors. I think there's a bit of a "make it cool and futuristic" mentality, which is probably impossible to escape from.

Just my opinion of course. As a designer, I'm naturally very critical of things like that, particularly when its in an area I'm personally interested in.

And that's fine, and you know what floats my boat. Do you have any examples of cards you find particularly aesthetically pleasing? I'd be interested to see.

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MSI GeForce GTX 780 Lightning Pictured

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Jetster

buggalugs

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dj-electric

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habe fidem

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