MSI N580GTX Lightning Review

We have always been massively impressed with MSI's custom high end video cards and in our opinion they are just as good as the best, most expensive solutions from ASUS. The Twin Frozr III design in particular is a showcase of exactly how companies should design a cooler. The metal shroud is heavy, looks great, and ensures that temperatures are kept as low as possible. Dual fans with 5 thick heatpipes all connected to finely tuned custom power regulation ensure that even the most demanding of enthusiast users will have nothing to complain about.

On a performance level, Nvidia's GTX580 is still a stunning showcase of frame rate brute force. The card in reference form is a formidable weapon for a high resolution gamer, but in overclocked mode it can produce some staggering results. Over 7,000 points in 3DMark 11, and almost 75fps in the Tessellation heavy Unigine heaven benchmark are early indicators of the potential.

While MSI's N580GTX Lightning is already supplied in a highly overclocked state, our particular core had massive headroom, thanks in part to the voltage tuning options on offer via the MSI Afterburner software. We managed to break the 950mhz barrier from this particular sample which is one of the best results we have ever achieved. Obviously, overclocking can be very hit and miss, with even different samples from the same batch delivering mixed results.

The MSI N580GTX Lightning can be bought in the UK for around £440 inc vat.

Pros:

• the fastest single GPU card on the market.
• MSI's implementation is even faster
• Twin Frozr III cooler is one of the best available
• Voltage tuning options really help with overclocking
• Better value for money than the GTX590

Cons:

• It is expensive.

KitGuru says: Another showcase product from MSI and an ideal partner for a performance freak.

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