Card Layout and Photos

We have seen a few of MSI’s Twin Frozr cards in the past and technically this is another one, but this time things are a little different. For one, you only see the Twin Frozr name in the official model name of the card, not on the cover of the box or in its friendlier name GTX 780 Gaming. That is because this card is designed to do with MSI’s Gaming Series, much like the Z87 Gaming motherboard we recently took a look at. Other than the obvious Gaming Series badge in the middle of the card, you can also tell just by the use of red and black.

Even so, the GTX 780 Gaming still does have the Twin Frozr cooling design meaning it has two large cooling fans that blow over an extremely large heatsink that runs the length of the card. On top of that there are heatpipes running from the GPU itself pulling the heat out and over the heatsink for the dual fans to cool down. If you look at the top and bottom of the card you will see those heatpipes and frankly they are very large, but I also love that MSI made a point to give them a nice chrome like finish.

On the top edge of the GTX 780 Gaming, aka the only part of the card you will see when it is installed in your PC, you will see the MSI logo but oddly enough there isn’t a badge showing off what model this is. I think that this is a missed opportunity for MSI, a sharp GTX 780 Gaming badge right on top would really draw attention to the card and get people even more interested in getting a card just like it for their PC.

Also along the top edge, MSI did have to include a bracket that goes from the top of the card to the PCI bracket on the back to keep the whole card secure. The heatsink on this card is large than normal so keeping everything in place was very important. That bracket runs along the edge of the PCB as well preventing any sagging. MSI did make sure that this bracket won’t block your SLI bridges, although the bracket will go over top of them.

The other important thing to keep in mind with this design is that it is an open air cooling design. Because of the size of the heatsink, there isn’t a way for the GTX 780 Gaming to vent solely out the back of the card. Because of this, you will have to keep it in mind when picking this card. If your case doesn’t do a very good job cooling you would be adding additional heat into your case that could heat up other components. This is rarely an issue for any enthusiasts, but I do like to remind everyone.

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The GTX 780 Gaming’s two power connections are tucked away behind one of the cards heatpipes but you can still get to them. Once you do, you will need an 8 pin connection and a 6 pin connection to power this monster of a card.

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For connections, the GTX 780 Gaming isn’t any difference than a reference card. As you can see, you have two DVI connections as well as a full sized DisplayPort and a full sized HDMI port. There is also basically the same ventilation that we saw with the reference card, but as I already mentioned the Twin Frozr cooling vents mostly into the case making these vents fairly un-needed.

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For such an amazing looking card, I was a little surprised they didn’t go with a fully black PCB on the GTX 780 Gaming. It is close, but it ends up having that brown finish when you can see the copper traces, and they are basically all over the card.

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I mentioned before that this is a large card. Here are a few pictures of the GTX 780 Gaming up next to the GTX 780 reference card. The reference design is very attractive, but if I had to pick between the two I would have to go with the MSI, the Twin Frozr design looks great. I would miss the light up logo on top, but I suspect that the GTX 780 Gaming’s cooling will help me forget that soon enough. Overall length wise the cards are the same,  but there is almost an inch extra in height for the Twin Frozr cooler, luckily most cases have plenty of room there.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31618 03 Jul 2013 00:06
MSI's Gaming version of the GTX 780 with a healthy overclock!

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