14 DAY TRIAL // Unlike other times, NVIDIA did not issue a period of no tolerance for customizations when it launched the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970. That means that its OEMs unveiled custom-designed and overclocked versions of the adapters immediately.
Micro-Star International is one of the companies most passionate about high performance, and with the Maxwell-based video boards set on the high end, it had a lot of room to maneuver.
Still, while the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 Gaming graphics cards are pretty powerful, they are a fair bit more expensive than the reference boards.
We've now learned that the company is preparing a GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Lite video card, which should be slower than the GTX 970 Gaming but still better than the reference GTX 970.
The specifications of the GTX 970 Gaming Lite
Unfortunately, no one knows them yet. However, we can narrow down the clock speeds of the GPU by comparing the card to its foils, as well as basing our assumption on the price of $330 - $340 / €330 - €340.
First off, the card is slower than the GTX 970 Gaming, so its clocks will be a bit below 1,140 MHz base / 1,279 MHz boost.
It still needs to be superior to the original GTX 970 though, so it's faster than 1,050 MHz / 1,178 MHz. That means we might be looking at something around 1,100 / 1,130 MHz or thereabouts. The 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM probably work at 7 GHz.
Meanwhile, the cooler called Twin Frozr V is very effective, so effective that it doesn't need to start the fans as long as the temperature is below 60 °C / 140 °F. A high-end trait that MSI favors a fair bit, and which is shared by some ASUS coolers as well (STRIX DC2).
The only bad news is that, according to certain reports, the secondary fan won't stop working once it starts, even if the temperature does drop back below 60 °C. MSI is working on a BIOS fix though.
Availability
The MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Lite should start selling soon, for the price we mentioned above. It might turn out to be one with the best price-performance balance, but only if retailers don't add too much to the intended tag.
Look for a card with a dual-slot black and red dual-fan cooler, two DVI connectors, one HDMI and one DisplayPort.