The well-known in IT-maker Company MSI announced about appearance of new videoadapter based on GPU Tahiti XT chipset. Its diversity from the other Radeon HD 7970 can be seen with the naked eye, instead of an air cooler practically the entire surface of the PCB is covered with waterblock brand EK. It differs markedly from the original version, since it is designed specifically for the MSI R7970 Lightning model. Relation of adapter to the Lightning series is easily determined by the inscription at the interface connector PCI-E 3.0 x16, as well as non-standard set of video outputs (2x DVI, 4x Mini DisplayPort) and configuration of additional power connectors (2x PCI-E Power 8-pin).



Obviously, the accelerator is positioned as the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and has a nominal frequency of at least 1050 MHz. Will MSI risk, like Sapphire did, and provide the card with 6 GB of memory? Probably not. The «advanced» composition of the printed circuit board and water block of full coverage …

Military-class motherboards elaborated by MSI have been always distinguished by the implementation of all high-end components within supply circuits, by extended overclocking facilities, and by corresponding exterior design. FM2-A85XA-G65A model corroborates such outstanding descriptions, being a worthy representative of products branded as ‘Military’. Moreover, the integration of high-quality and solid hardware elements enhances its overclocking potential that can’t but gladden PC enthusiasts.



Design and Layout


MSI FM2-A85XA-G65A is developed in ATX form-factor. It is notable by a fanciful, spacious layout, taking into account the full-fledged options integrated within a single chipset. Thus, there is no need in additional controllers. The distance between two graphics slots has been doubled to organize even the most powerful CrossFire configurations. The integrated heatsinks feature 31 mm height; one of them is located only 5 mm far from CPU socket. This implies …

The most favourable method of attracting customers is offering products with the best functionality, overclocking potential and the retail price. This approach was used in the design of the motherboard MSI Z77A-GD80, designed to work with processors Intel LGA1155. The apparent competitive advantage of the new interface is the support of the newest Thunderbolt.



MSI Z77A-GD80 comes in a large cardboard box on the front side of which, in addition to the model name and logos of many compatible technologies, there is information about the support of the latest high-speed standard Thunderbolt. Logo Military Class III indicates using the design of the motherboard of electronic components with a high level of reliability.


The back of the pack contains detailed information about original features of MSI Z77A-GD80, such as automatic overclocking OC Genie II, the OSD firmware Click BIOS II and Support Multi BIOS II, which allows switching between the primary and backup chips with the …