MSI's GeForce GTX 780 GAMING is a great custom-designed GTX 780. It comes overclocked out of the box, giving it a 4% performance advantage over the NVIDIA reference board. This leaves the card just 3% behind the much more expensive GTX Titan, a difference too small to notice during typical gaming.
MSI also made sure that the card does not crack the 80°C barrier during gaming, because NVIDIA's Boost 2.0 algorithm will throttle the card some more beyond that point, resulting in reduced performance. Overall, I really like the cooler. It runs cool, looks nice, and is very quiet. The card is also almost inaudible in idle, which is great if you work a lot and game rarely. When gaming, fan speed will increase to keep the card cool, but the card is still really quiet. It is much quieter than any other GTX 780 we tested so far. It seems as though MSI really focused on low noise with their GAMING Series, which users will certainly love.
Overclocking worked well, but ended up a bit lower than on other GTX 780 cards we previously reviewed. While luck of the draw might have played a role with our overclock, it could also be indicative of a GTX 780 Lightning for overclockers in the near future. That said, I'd personally pick lower noise over a 20 MHz higher overclock any day.
With just a $10 price premium over the reference design bringing the total to $660, pricing of the MSI GTX 780 GAMING is extremely reasonable. The GTX 780 is of course not cheap, but that's the price you'll have to pay for the high-end. If you have that much money to spend, the GTX 780 is definitely a great choice, and you should definitely consider the MSI GTX 780 GAMING.