Update - Only 12 samples of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning were manufactured by MSI and the card will never go retail. More pictures of this beautiful graphics card have been posted by BenchBros (Facebook), a few of which you can see at the end of this article.

MSI is preparing to launch their latest flagship GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning graphics card which brings Tri-Frozr cooling to NVIDIA's flagship GK110 core. The MSI Lightning Tri-Frozr has recently been adopted by the GeForce GTX 780 and Radeon R9 290X graphics cards.

MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning Tri-Frozr Strikes Thunder

Comptoir-Hardware had received a sample of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning, unfortunately the pictures were removed from the source. Videocardz managed to gather information from the source before the link went down unveiling the performance benchmarks and pictures.

The MSI GeForce GTX 780 Lightning TI features the GK110-425-B1 GPU which comes with 2880 Cuda cores, 240 TMUs and 48 ROPs. The card is clocked at factory overclocked specs of 993 MHz stock and 1058 MHz boost while the memory comes at a clock speed of 1750 MHz which trump the GeForce GTX 780 Lightning in terms of clock frequencies. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning comes with the standard 3 GB GDDR5 memory running along a 384-bit interface.

Those clocks and memory would be factory overclocked and would obviously be good enough to run all of the current and upcoming games cranked up to the highest resolutions. The memory might be an issue for those gaming on 4K monitors but a 6 GB GTX 780 Ti is expected in the future. The overclock design makes up for it allowing users to push pastthe barriersrestricted by weaker PWM designs on reference and other custom models. Not to mention the cooling that’s offered by the latest Tri-Frozr cooler.

As for overclocking, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning comes with mighty strong PWM supply. The GeForce GTX 780 Lightning Ti features an 16+3+1 phase VRM along with the new DrMOS 4 being thenext-gen MOSFET which is used to deliver the power for the CPU. MSI DrMOS 4 does not waste much power, stays cool and is morepower efficientthan otherpower savingsolutions. Because DrMOS 4 is a 3-in-1 chip it delivers much more power with less components needed. The card is powered through Dual 8-Pinconnectors.

MSI has implemented their new Triple force architecture onthe cardwhich has three basic features. First is the Triple Level Signals which is basically a on-board LED that shows real-time load onthe cardby displaying three colors, Green for Light Load, Blue for medium load and Red forHeavy Load. Then comes with Pure Digital PWM control which offers more precise voltage, power/voltage control viaMSI afterburnerapplication and faster V response time. Last of all comes the most anticipated feature ofthe card, the TriFrozr Cooler.

The cooling on MSI’s GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning is handled by the latest TriFrozr cooler which is making an debut with the new Lightninggraphics card. It looks amazing boasting three fans, two black colored while one 80mm yellow themed fan sits in the middle. The shroud looks fantastic with a large Lightning logo on one side and a massive aluminum fin array sitting beneath it which cools the GPU under massive overclocked loads. The heatsink is equipped with seven 8mm heatpipes that offer superior direct contact and heat dissipation off the GPU base.The interesting part is that the fan in the middle dissipates heat off the PWM supply while the other two fans cool the GPU andMemory chips. The card is powered through Dual 8-Pinconnectorswhile Display outputs include Dual DVI, HDMI and a display port.

Pricing and launch date aren't yet known but it will cost a hefty premium over the reference GeForce GTX 780 Ti which retails at $699 US.

MSI GeForce GTX 780 Lightning Specifications:

Technical Specifications:

Model name: GTX 780 Ti LightningGPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (GK110-425)Base Clock: 993 MHzBoost Clock: 1058 MHzMemory Clock / Type: 1750 MHz / GDDR5Memory Size / Bus Width: 3072 MB / 384 bitThermal Design: MSI TriFrozr (2x9cm, 1x8cm)GPU Reactor: YesAverage Power Consumption Load: 250WCard Dimensions: 295 x 128.6 x 51.35 mm

MSI Geforce GTX 780 Ti Lightning Performance/Pictures: