A Closer Look

The MSI cooler is a relatively simple piece of engineering - a central metal core is connected to two heatpipes that revolve around the heatsink to distribute heat.


The card requires a single 6-pin PCI-Express power cable for operation. This power configuration is good for up to 150 W of power draw.


For voltage control, the card uses an OnSemi NCP5395. We've seen this controller on many recent lower-end graphics cards from NVIDIA.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Hynix and carry the model number H5GQ2H24AFR-R0C. They are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


NVIDIA's GK106 processor is produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC, Taiwan. The transistor count is 2.54 billion. Compared to the GK106 on the GTX 660, the package size (green stuff) is reduced. The only explanation for this is that the pin count has been lowered, most probably for a narrower memory interface, and possibly due to reduced power requirements.