Feb 9, 2011 05:56 GMT  ·  By

It's already a fairly well-known fact that hardware enthusiasts and modders tend to install water-cooling systems within their rigs, in order to be able to attain a higher level of performance and push the limits of existing hardware, and this is exactly the reason why MSI has just added to its lineup of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 cards the N580GTX HydroGen model, that comes equipped with MSI's proprietary HydroGen all copper waterblock.

The graphics solution from MSI features an all-copper large surface area waterblock that covers both the GPU and memory components, while also featuring MSI's Micro-Channel technology that places microscopic water channels just 0.45mm wide throughout the GPU area.

This interesting design approach manages to speed up water flow and thus enhance GPU heat dissipation, MSI claiming that their watercooled solution manages to attain an operating temperature that's 24 Celsius degrees lower than the one of the reference model.

Furthermore, the fact that we're talking about a single-slot design means that users will be able to easily set-up SLI multi-graphics card systems, while its reinforced reverse side prevents the weight of the waterblock from bending the PCB.

The card comes packed with 1536MB GDDR5 memory clocked at 4096Mhz and featuring a 384-bit interface, while the GPU core clock is set at 800 Mhz and the rest of its features are fairly the same as the other GTX 580 cards coming from MSI.

It's also important to mention that the card uses All Solid CAP to deliver an enhanced service life and is accompanied by the MSI Afterburner Overclocking Software, enabling users to push its graphics boundaries in a very safe and user-friendly manner.

MSI's card, which is now officially unveiled, is available on retail for around 565 Euro, which might be a high price point, but given the fact that we're most likely talking about the fastest such GPU out there, it's probably worth the money.