MSI GeForce GTX 680 Lightning review - Product Showcase

Alright, let's get this show on the road shall we?  Above is the packaging and below you can see the MSI GeForce GTX 680 Lightning with that new TwinFrozr IV cooler, the card is a 2GB model. We expect the product to retail for roughly 525 EUR/USD, we hope price will drop a bit in the next few weeks.

The Lightning is 28.5 cm in length by the way. Included in the bundle is a small manual, flexible SLI connector, power connector converters, manuals and a driver CD oh and one card. Also included are small connectors which you can use to monitor voltage with a digital multi-meter.

Alright, here we have the card with the TwiNFrozr IV cooler showing off. You can also see the heatpipes of the cooler a little better, five (!) nice tick 8mm pipes run from the core towards aluminum fins on top, where two fans will blow the heat away.

The GTX 680 card is quite good looking with the gold plated colored monitor connectors. The card is equipped with the GK104 GPU that harbors the new Kepler architecture. The GPU is placed on a fully customized PCB and has a 12 phase PWM design.

The GTX 680 Lightning is armed with MSI Military Class III components, so you'll spot some interesting things like nickel plated capacitors, Hi-c CAPs, Copper MOS and as shown above, Gold coated solid state chokes. This is all used to ensure longevity and better tweakability.