MSI GTX 780Ti Gaming
RRP: $709.99 | Website: www.msi.com
Test Machine
• INTEL Core i7 4960X
• ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
(4802)
• CORSAIR Dominator
Platinum 4x4GB DDR
2666MHZ CL10
• Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD
• Cooler Master Silent Pro M2
1500W
• Windows 7 64-bit SP1
(FW 331.93)
W
e are all well and truly
familiar with the GTX
780Ti by now. It’s been
with us for the better part of
four month and is currently the
fastest GPU money can buy,
at least for gaming and for the
most part overclocking as well.
This however is, as the name
of the card suggests, a SKU
from MSI strictly made for the
gamers. How this is in any way
gaming orientated as opposed
to the regular card is puzzling.
It features the wonderful Twin
Fror IV cooler and MSI’s Miltary
Class-III components along with
30 The OverClocker Issue 28 | 2014
a factory overclock. However,
isn’t that what the regular cards
from MSI offer as well? This is
perhaps because, other than the
reference GTX 780Ti, MSI does
not have any other 780Ti. Sure
we’ve seen the lightening teased
over in Europe by two prolific
overclockers, but word on the
wire is that these are not going
to be in mass production or even
worse will likely not see the light
of day.
Thus, as it stands this is MSI’s
best offering, perhaps even their
only offering of the GTX 780 Ti
as the reference model doesn’t
truly count.
As mentioned above, there
are three parts to the gaming
card which distinguish it from
the normal model or at the very
least from other 780Ti cards
on the market. The Twin Frozr
Cooler keeps getting better
with each generation and now
in its fourth iteration it is able to
dissipate heat very effectively
and quietly. The latter being
the most impressive part as it’s
hardly audible even during load.
Second and probably most
relevant is the overclock that
the card ships with. There are
three modes which MSI defines
using their inspiringly named
MSI Gaming App. By default
and in the BIOS, the card ships
with a base clock of 980MHz
and a boost clock of 1084MHz.
The boost clock in reality is
higher but at the very least
these are the clock speeds and
subsequent performance levels
you should expect. There is
another OC mode as well which
you can select for the card which
takes the clock seed up a notch,
but once again it’s not something
you cannot do yourself with
Afterburner. It is also very
interesting that MSI chose not to
ship the card with the clocks set
to the OC mode. In our testing
there was no audible difference
in noise levels between the
three modes at all, but the OC
mode obviously yielded the best
results.
We did our own testing and
found that the GPU clock limits
were typical of other GTX 780Ti
cards we’ve seen. For the most