MSI's Lightning series of graphics boards all started with the GeForce GTX 260 Lightning that built on a redesigned PCB with better components, custom cooling solution, overclocking software bundle and military theme. The second Lightning card is the GeForce GTX 275 Lightning that we have with us today. It features a new Twin Frozr cooler which uses two 80mm fans and five heatipes. The memory size has also been doubled up compared to the normal GeForce GTX 275. With this being an overclocker board it's to be expected that it doesn't come at stock clocks. What makes this board interesting is that it comes at an agressive price of $305 as well, while other manufacturers charge premiums. - techPowerUp

MSI GeForce GTX 275 Lightning Spipe Design Review

MSI's packaging is dominated by black, which makes it look stylish and elegant. The front has only the most basic product information and a large picture of the F22 Raptor. On the back you find a lot of detail about the unique features of this product. One other thing that we noticed is that the cardboard that makes up the package is rather thin which gives the whole box a quite flimsy feeling. MSI has completely revamped the looks of the GeForce GTX 275, one of our editors calls it the star trek cooler. Instead of a big black brick the board is now covered by a shiny though stylish metal cooler with accentuated straight lines.

The two fans look noisy, but they aren't as we will see later on. As expected, the board occupies two cooling slots, so no surprises there. The GeForce GTX 275 Lightning can be combined with other GeForce GTX 275 class boards in SLI for increased rendering power or better image quality options. And please note that clocks and memory size will be reduced to the lowest common denominator of all cards. So if you add an GeForce GTX 275 with rather 896MB for SLI, the driver will disable half the memory of the Lightning edition. The power is delivered to the card via two 6-pin power connectors, and both are required to run.

While MSI is really targeting their GeForce GTX 275 Lightning at the enthusiast overclocker crowd, our feeling is that a completely different group of people will fall in love with this board very quickly. If you can't stand the fan noise emitted by the PC, but you still want some decent gaming performance then this seems to be just the card to get. In idle there is barely any fan noise at all. And should you need some rendering power, these GT200 core is ready to fulfill all your needs. MSI's GeForce GTX 275 Lightning has plenty of steam to play all the latest and greatest games at the higher widescreen resolutions with full details and more.

Now what makes this graphics card stand out from the crowd is that it does so without ramping up the fan to sound like a leafblower. While we wouldn't describe the board as silent during gaming, it is still the quietest card in its performance class. While it is a fact that modern GPU's produce a lot of heat when stressed and that the cooling solution needs to deal with that somehow. You can't make the heat magically disappear. It seems that MSI has found an excellent balance between cooling performance and noise levels. One reason why this is possible is the significantly reduced power consumption.

Nevertheless, seeing MSI add such overclocking features it speaks for itself and shows that this company is willing to support the overclockers. Another unique overclocking feature on their GeForce GTX 275 Lightning are the voltage readout points. We find MSI's price of $305 competitive when compared to GeForce GTX 275 cards with 1792MB or when considering the silent aspects of the card. The included HDMI cable is also certainly worth a few bucks. If you are just looking for bang for the buck and don't care about noise and need a high-end card, then a GeForce GTX 275 with 896MB is certainly the better deal.