Out of the box, MSI's GTX 780 Lightning is faster than the much more expensive GTX Titan, thanks to its generous factory overclock. Compared to the reference design GTX 780, we see an eight percent performance improvement. While it is not the highest clocked GTX 780 on the market, it certainly sits at the upper end of the spectrum. I only wish MSI had overclocked the memory too, as there is plenty of headroom to do so.
MSI's new cooler design comes with three fans, two of which are dependent on GPU temperature. The fan in the middle is based on PWM temperature. This approach should provide additional flexibility in keeping the card cool. The cooler itself is quite powerful with seven heatpipes, but requires a little bit more than two slots. MSI's GPU reactor on the back of the card also adds to its thickness, so you must absolutely plan on three slots for SLI usage (a sufficiently long SLI bridge is included). The included backplate adds to the card's look and feel, and will provide additional protection during handling.
Temperatures and noise levels are decent but far from impressive. The MSI GTX 780 provides much better noise levels if you want low noise. I wonder why MSI didn't pick lower idle fan speeds given the powerful cooler and third independent fan. Under load, temperatures seem higher because of the large overclock, which increases the card's heat output. There is still plenty of headroom for overclocking before you reach the dreaded 80°C limit at which performance will drop down. Our card reached 78°C at stock voltage, but we had to bump the voltage up quite a bit to run into the temperature limit. While the card does support voltage control, it's far from easy to fully exploit its potential. NVIDIA's power- and temperature-limiting system will quickly put a stop to how much you can achieve with air cooling. Once you switch to water or LN2, the card will definitely shine. MSI has included a second BIOS on their card. it is easily accessible via a switch and comes with increased power limits, so your LN2 adventures won't halt as quickly. Another extreme cooling feature is the included heatsink: Installing it will free some space up around the GPU area for an LN2 pot or waterblock while still providing proper cooling to the VRM circuitry.
Manual overclocking of our card worked well and reached higher GPU clocks than any other GTX 780 we reviewed so far. Unfortunately, memory frequency ended up less than spectacular because MSI chose to use Elpida-made memory chips, which typically overclock 100 MHz lower than Samsung or SK Hynix chips. While memory overclocking doesn't make a huge difference on recent NVIDIA chips, it might still be a deal breaker for top-tier overclockers.
MSI's GTX 780 Lightning is currently listed online for $770, which is clearly too high and the primary reason I'm not giving this card our Editor's Choice. A reference design GTX 780 costs $650, and you can even find overclocked models at that price point. Two GTX 770s in SLI cost $800, which is not much of a price increase for loads of extra performance. I understand that MSI has put a lot of expensive stuff on their card, but it just feels like they are asking for too much money. Hardcore overclockers would certainly be willing to pay up, but might be turned off by the lack of Quad-SLI support and its Elpida memory. Normal overclockers on air won't be able to maximize the card's full potential anyway and could simply pick a cheaper GTX 780 to manually overclock, like MSI's GTX 780 Gaming.