MSI N480GTX Lightning Review EXCLUSIVE

MSI N480GTX Lightning Review

Introduction

You may have noticed that the Internet is awash this morning with reviews of the latest ATI series of graphics cards, the 68 series. You might also be wondering therefore why we here at Overclock3D aren’t doing the same.

The answer is simple. The 6870 and 6850 are as good as re-branded (and my heavens do we hate to hear that word) versions of the 58xx, youll hear much more from us on this subject over the coming weeks but for now its the turn of MSI’s green team flagship card.

So given the choice between reviewing a rehash of an older product that isn’t as good as the model on which it’s based, or giving you a review a genuine game-changing piece of hardware that really drops a nuclear-sized chunk of power, it’s no surprise that we’d much rather deal with the new, than try and get excited about the old.

Enter the MSI N480GTX Lightning.

We’ve reviewed a few Twin Frozr II equipped cards and always found it to be about the greatest cooling solution this side of moving our offices to an igloo. However if you cast your mind back to when we reviewed the GTX480 we discovered that it probably contributes more to global warming than any field of cows ever could. The Lightning has the updated variant, namely the Twin Frozr III to hand though.

So is this the irresistible force meeting the immovable object, or can MSIs Twin Frozr III really tame nVidias monster?

MSI clearly think so because besides being a Twin Frozr III card, this is branded as one of their Lightning series. The Lightning really is the top of the MSI technical tree being the equivalent to their Big Bang motherboards or similar. It has more bells and whistles than a troop of Morris dancers.

Technical Specifications

The basic technical specifications follow. We’ll cover the more unique elements of the N480GTX Lightning on the next couple of pages.

MSI N480GTX Lightning Review