MSI GTX780 Gaming Review

Test Setup

MSI GTX780 Gaming
Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4.6GHz
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
Corsair Dominator Platinum
Corsair AX1200i
Corsair Neutron GTX
Corsair H100i
Windows 7 x64  

Overclocking

MSI have applied an already swift overclock to the GTX780 Gaming, and yet we found it had plenty more to give. The GPU clock hit a sturdy 1067MHz, but the boost clock was the real star at 1119MHz. It isn’t only the GK110 that accepted a good overclock either, as we obtained another 1GHz effective from the GDDR5. This should provide a big boost in stern gaming tests.

In case anyone wondered whether the 3GB would be enough, the maximum usage we managed to obtain using Metro Last Light with maximum settings on our 2560×1440 monitor was 2GB. So there is plenty of overhead for multi-monitor setups.

       

Temperatures

The Twin Frozr cooler is good at keeping the temperatures down, although the Gigabyte Windforce, with its three fans, just edges it. The real benefit is that this is, to all intents and purposes, silent. Manually increasing the fan until it was audible saw us hit 70% fan speed before we could hear them, and that was when we were listening intently with no sound playing. So it’s fair to say that when gaming on auto fans you’ll never hear it.