Final Words & Conclusion

The Verdict

From ground up the design of the MSI N275GTX Lightning is absolutely amazing. It is the most dynamic and versatile design GTX 275 we have seen and tested to date. MSI literally thought through everything they could and implemented it. The 10 layer PCB, 10 phase Voltage design, active phase switching which can be monitored with little led lights in the card, voltage monitor points, standard overclock, all new TwinFrz II cooler, nearly 2 GB of memory, wide connectivity in the form of VGA, DVI and even HDMI connectors, the list is nearly endless.

Combine all these things with a very high quality build and you'll quickly realize that this card is among the best of the best in the GTX 275 series. Now I expected the product to be much more expensive and really that's not the case. This 1792 MB version will cost you just under 300 EUR, and sure, that is a premium price difference over the regular GTX 275 alright, but just look at what you are receiving.  Granted though, the additional 896MB of memory I'm afraid does not help out a lot. Frame-buffer demand might change and though, I mean if history learned us one lesson, it's that the demand for frame-buffer (graphics memory) doubles up roughly every two years. So in the long run the extra frame-buffer will show some advantages, but by that time you probably upgraded to something DX11 class already. If you are a hardcore GTA4 player though, well that one title actually makes use of it.
Extra frame-buffer aside, the GeForce GTX 275 is a kickass card to own of course. A card like this oozes with unadulterated gaming performance and we feel is priced fair for what you get. The overclock we achieved today with this card was quite nice as well. The afterburner overclocking software is a must as you can increase GPU voltage achieving an overclock like presented today. The software however at this stage is not exactly final, so we ended with overvolting through MSI's afterburner software and overclocking with our good old Rivatuner. I do have this weird vision that MSI soon will have new software that works 100% fine though.

With the extra voltage available you'll have no issue squeezing 10%~15% maybe more performance out of the card, which makes it interesting alright as we pass GeForce GTX 285 performance and also have more memory available.

Being a GTX 275, the card comes with full PhysX support and obviously also is CUDA ready, meaning that 3rd party software can actually utilize your GPU for other things than gaming. But sure, you purchase a card in this genre for gaming, and not the other way around.

So yeah, we are truly and honestly impressed. Nice design, quality components and a very silent yet high performing product that is pretty much performing close the GTX 285. As such we feel the MSI N275GTX Lightning is a tweakers essential. This card is also going to be used at the yearly MSI Masters of Overclocking competition, can't wait to see where the overclockers will take a product like this with some liquid nitrogen and overvoltaging :)

Bottom line: You know if you go to Mc Donalds and order a Big mac meal, yet want it super-sized? That's what this product is. If the budget suits you, this is a top of the line highly recommended product for the PC gaming aficionado and tweaker.

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