14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Micro Star International has announced a new graphics card based on NVIDIA's flagship GeForce graphics, the GTX 280. The new card has been designed to boost the performance achieved by the reference model, thus bringing a whole new level of performance to the state-of-the art gaming rigs of enthusiasts. The new card is based on the GTX280, but comes factory overclocked and cooled down by a custom liquid cooling solution.
MSI is undoubtedly one of NVIDIA's biggest channel partners, a position it has achieved mostly due to its openness when it comes to experimenting with some of the latest graphics cards that are being released on the market. Constantly trying to boost performance for NVIDIA's cards, MSI is thus responding to the increasing demand for higher-performance graphics solutions. The company claims its new GT200-series offering is the highest clocked GeForce GTX 280 card in the world.
By incorporating a new liquid cooling solution, dubbed HydroGen, MSI achieved a 17% boost in performance, compared with the standard GeForce GTX 280 cards. According to the company, the new HydroGen can cool down the factory overclocked card by as much as 10 degrees Celsius, as opposed to fan cooling solutions. Furthermore, unlike other cooling solutions, the HydroGen is only 1-slot thick, which will basically enable a multiple graphics card setup with all the water cooling accessories.
Despite losing the number one spot in the high-performance graphics card market, NVIDIA's latest 65nm-based graphics cards can still pack an impressive punch, performance-wise. However, high-end cards of this type are also known for their premium price tag, which means that not all users will get to enjoy the graphics performance they bring to the table.
MSI hasn't released any details regarding the card's price tag and availability, but it will probably be one of the most expensive GTX 280-based cards on the market.