1 00:00:06,799 --> 00:00:14,000 Buy an unlocked Intel 4th gen Core i7 or Core i5 processor and get a free copy of 2 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:20,160 Rome 2: Total War. Click now to learn more. It's lightning time again, folks. 3 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:22,240 MSI has their regular cards. Then their 4 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:27,199 gaming cards, both of which are pretty sweet, but they're truly flagship 5 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:32,719 graphics cards are branded lightning, presumably because they are so flashy 6 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:37,399 looking. Or wait, no, hold on. It's probably because they're powerful and 7 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:42,840 lightning is made of electricity and clouds. Wait, hold on. Ju just 8 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:46,879 electricity? How does it even m So, the first thing you're going to 9 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:53,360 notice about this graphics card is the weight. Holy balls. It comes in an 10 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:58,640 awesome carrying case style box with a full set of accessories, including PCI 11 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:04,640 Express six pin to 8 pin adapters and even an alternate back plate for the 12 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:09,920 card if you swap decide to swap out the full length one for just a smaller short 13 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:16,000 one. Once the box is open, the next obvious thing is the fact that this is 14 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:18,240 not a reference card. I mean, here's a 15 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:23,680 picture of a reference card for context. It is smaller and punier in every 16 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:28,000 possible way. Because of this, you will need to make sure that your system is 17 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:32,640 capable of containing the greatness of the GTX 780 Lightning. side panel fans 18 00:01:30,799 --> 00:01:37,119 could interfere with its increased height and you'll need to make sure that 19 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:43,439 you have enough expansion slots free because due to its two plus slot cooler, 20 00:01:40,079 --> 00:01:46,000 it will take up one, two, three PCI 21 00:01:43,439 --> 00:01:51,600 slots. Now, because the card is based on the GeForce GTX 780 GPU, there are no 22 00:01:48,799 --> 00:01:57,680 real surprises in terms of normal NVIDIA graphics card features. You got support 23 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:59,920 for SLI, 3D Vision, Fizzax, CUDA, 24 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:03,439 G-Sync, and of course, GeForce Experience, which has now added game 25 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:07,920 streaming to compatible devices like NVIDIA Shield. Low overhead gameplay 26 00:02:05,759 --> 00:02:12,160 recording, and Twitch live streaming to its ability to optimize your game 27 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:16,160 settings and keep your graphics drivers all up to date and all of that good 28 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:20,480 stuff. But that's not why you were shopping for a Lightning. Let's talk 29 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:24,959 about what makes this card special. First up is the fact that this is a very 30 00:02:22,959 --> 00:02:30,640 non-reference PCB. It utilizes components with MSI's military class 31 00:02:27,599 --> 00:02:32,959 concept, including Dr. Moss 4, copper 32 00:02:30,640 --> 00:02:37,599 moss, high caps, new super ferite chokes, and their dark solid capacitors. 33 00:02:35,519 --> 00:02:40,480 So, unless you've got some electrical engineering under your belt, most of 34 00:02:38,879 --> 00:02:45,760 that probably sounded like gibberish. But the point is that even though the 35 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:50,720 mil standard 810G compliance doesn't really mean much, a lightning card is 36 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:55,280 capable of running faster, cooler, and longer than a typical reference card. 37 00:02:53,440 --> 00:03:00,000 Second is their triple force architecture. So the lightning logo on 38 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:05,200 the top illuminates green, blue, or red depending on the load. Their twin Frozer 39 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:10,560 cooler design has been updated to triozer with three PWM controlled 40 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:15,680 propeller blade fans rather than two. And their power delivery system for the 41 00:03:13,519 --> 00:03:22,959 card itself has been decked out with an all digital design. Core, memory, and 42 00:03:19,599 --> 00:03:25,040 auxiliary voltage are all digital. Next 43 00:03:22,959 --> 00:03:30,959 up is the GPU reactor, which is basically like an extra PCB strapped to 44 00:03:28,239 --> 00:03:35,920 the back of a card to reduce ripple and increase power delivery to the GPU core. 45 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:40,720 In practice, this will be way beyond irrelevant unless you're using exotic 46 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:45,360 cooling methods, but hey, it's there. To go along with it, their V checkpoints 47 00:03:42,879 --> 00:03:49,599 allow you to easily monitor key card voltages if you're performing mods and 48 00:03:47,599 --> 00:03:54,560 want to use a dedicated multimedia rather than multimedia multimeter rather 49 00:03:52,239 --> 00:03:58,560 than software to find out how much juice you're giving to key components on the 50 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:04,560 card. particularly when you're extreme overclocking. Their twin BIOS feature 51 00:04:00,959 --> 00:04:07,519 gives you two separate BIOS chips, which 52 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:13,959 is good because if you can find your way to get your hands on the non-nerfed LN2 53 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:16,639 BIOS that allows a power limit over 54 00:04:13,959 --> 00:04:21,280 109%, then uh that might be pretty useful. Now, to be clear, guys, we 55 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:26,160 benchmarked our card assuming that end users will have to just deal with the 56 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:29,199 stock BIOS, but trust me, there is more potential in this card if you're willing 57 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:34,160 to get a little bit crazy. And that dual BIOS implementation means that there's 58 00:04:31,199 --> 00:04:39,840 an easy bailout switch if something goes wrong during a BIOS flash. Triple over 59 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:44,880 voltage that is cranking up the volts to the GPU memory and PLLL is all handled 60 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:49,160 separately because of that feature and it is fully supported by MSI's 61 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:53,759 afterburner software. But again, it will have limited 62 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:58,560 relevance unless you perform the BIOS flash that I was talking about a moment 63 00:04:55,280 --> 00:05:01,600 ago because that is going to hold back 64 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:04,400 the true raw potential of this graphics 65 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:10,400 card in a very meaningful way. So the conclusion is this. The GTX 780 66 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:14,320 Lightning is, how you say, uh, lightning fast. We threw a few games at it from 67 00:05:12,639 --> 00:05:18,320 our usual suite of benchmarks, and while it doesn't really stand out from the 68 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:22,000 crowd in terms of its performance, just as a reminder, guys, all of our cards 69 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:26,639 are overclocked as high as they can go, in my opinion, it's really very 70 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:31,440 reasonably priced. For $50 more than a reference 780 running at reference 71 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:36,240 clocks and as little as 20 to $30 more than a normal non-reference card, if 72 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:40,080 nothing else, you're getting better build quality and cooler operation for 73 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:44,800 your graphics card throughout its lifetime. It's also aggressively 74 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:49,919 overclocked out of the box at a full 133 MHz faster max boost clock than a 75 00:05:47,199 --> 00:05:53,440 reference GTX 780. and it has no difficulty hitting those numbers 76 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:57,759 consistently while running cooler and still being satisfyingly quiet. My only 77 00:05:55,919 --> 00:06:01,680 issue with the 780 Lightning actually has nothing to do with MSI, but rather 78 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:06,880 to do with NVIDIA. Since it was released, the 780 Lightning has been 79 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:08,639 nerfed with that 109% power limit BIOS 80 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:12,880 that I was talking about before versus the aggressive one that it had available 81 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:18,000 to it at launch. This practice of NVIDIA's where non-approved card designs 82 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:22,720 are limited puts some restraints on their partners' ability to deliver the 83 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:27,680 best possible performance. And while I understand NVIDIA's perspective, um, and 84 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:30,880 you know, I agree that maintaining a brand image of reliability is more 85 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:36,639 important than three more FPS in Battlefield in general. I wish that the 86 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:38,960 card partners and endusers were allowed 87 00:06:36,639 --> 00:06:42,479 to make their own choice and forego warranty coverage if they really want to 88 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:46,639 push things to the limit. I mean, I guess the really extreme guys still can 89 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:51,520 if they go and find BIOS mods, but I just wish it was a little bit easier. 90 00:06:48,319 --> 00:06:55,440 Anyway, guys, thanks for watching this 91 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:57,039 review of the MSI GeForce GTX 780 92 00:06:55,440 --> 00:07:01,360 Lightning. Don't forget to like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you 93 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:06,720 disliked it. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Would you spend an 94 00:07:03,840 --> 00:07:11,280 extra 20 to $50 knowing that your card's going to run cooler and it's going to 95 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:14,479 look better and it's going to last longer, or is that not worth it to you? 96 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:17,599 Do you upgrade so often that it doesn't really matter? And then finally, guys, 97 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:32,739 as always, don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos.