The card is very tech looking, and surprisingly quite short. If you are wondering if this is good for a mITX build the answer is yes! Lined up against our previous graphics review, the PNY GTX 770 it is shorter, if a little taller. We have an interesting label we have never seen before on any gamer’s graphics card, eek.
The card looks a little flatter than the reference examples, its two big fans will drive that sort of requirement and the heat pipes broaden the cards appearance again. There is an edging to the card which we liked. It is giving an overall feeling of quality and a completely thought out design philosophy.
There are a couple of drawbacks to this however. The fans seem very thin and we did not have a lot of confidence when handling the card, something you will need to do when removing the warning sticker.
The power connectors are a little hidden, not an issue for a mid to full ATX chassis, but when we tested it in our BitFenix Phenom, the connectors could only be comfortably connected while the card was removed from the chassis.
Lined up next to a PNY XLR8 GeForce GTX 770 – Enthusiast Edition, it is shorter with a little more width. We do have the active LED’s as well, they do work and they will add some atmosphere to some games but in closed chassis, it might just look like an HDD flicker from inside!
The entire card is nicely detailed with red and black, and there are some gaming inspired logos and detail dotted round the card. Overall, it is hard not to love this new generation of graphics card from any manufacturer, but this cards appearance is better than that, it definitely makes you look at it from time to time and start planning a window in your rig.
MSI GTX 970 GAMING Twin Frozr V Graphics Card Review
Package and Bundle - 9
Performance - 9.8
Price - 9
Consumer Experience - 9.5
9.3
The MSI GTX 970 GAMING Twin Frozr V is a very exciting product. It feels, performs and looks like a step change from the GTX770. Not to say the previous generation is obsolete, it is just the GTX 970 is a very mature and accomplished release. There hasn't been this sort of buzz around the GTX series in years, or at least one that was confirmed to be gratified.