MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition 3GB OC�ed Video Card Review

Introduction

If you didn't think the MSI could make a GTX 580 more exciting than the Lightning version, you're wrong! As Computex begins to get up and running, MSI is kicking the show off with the brand new MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition; because the Lightning wasn't already Xtreme enough?!?!

So, what's so Xtreme about the Xtreme Edition? Well, it's everything you love about the MSI GTX 580 Lightning, but with double the memory. The thing is, to be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan when it comes to these huge memory cards because they do tend to carry a decent bump in price, but extra performance tends to be limited.

If you're going to get a 3GB GTX 580, though, you may as well do it right with the GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition. Before I even throw this card into my testbed here, I find myself already so excited about it. I'm a massive fan of the Lightning series. By adding one word to the end of a model, we know that it's going to be epic in the best kind of way.

The Lightning series hasn't disappointed us before and while unfortunately our original Lightning max overclock was less flattering than what we've seen on other peoples, we've got high hopes for the Xtreme Edition today, even though we know that double the amount of memory on the card could and should limit our memory overclock.

Before we get into to the overclocking side of things and then the performance we're able to get, we first need to check out the package that MSI is offering. Once that's done we'll take a closer look at the card itself before covering the default clocks, the overclock and then the performance.

Package

The package in typical fashion is pretty big with some extra bits and pieces that we tend to only see with the Lightning and HAWK series from MSI. We've got the standard stuff like Quick User Guide, Manual and driver CD. Across the bottom we've got two extra-long SLI connectors, above that two 6-Pin to 8-Pin PCI connectors, a DVI to VGA connector and another three cables which let us measure the voltage of the card via a multi meter.

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