MSI, the world-leading manufacturer of Gaming motherboards, graphics-cards and All-in-Ones PCs storms CeBIT with a new line-up of Gaming products. Hardware enthusiasts and gamers will flock to MSI's new Z77 GAMING motherboards with their new distinctive looks. To complement MSI's new Gaming motherboards MSI will also display a new concept of graphics cards that match the striking looks of the new gaming motherboards. CeBIT 2013 will also be the first opportunity to touch MSI's new AG2712, world's first Gaming All-in-One. 2013 is an exciting year in the computer industry and MSI has reserved a spot in the driver's seat, as can be seen on CeBIT 2013.

MSI released a slightly slower yet cheaper variant of its GeForce GTX 680 Lightning graphics card, the GTX 680 Lightning-L, in Japan. Identical in every way possible to the original launched back in June 2012, the card features clock speeds of 1019 MHz core, 1084 MHz GPU Boost, and 6008 MHz memory, against the original's 1110 MHz core, 1176 MHz GPU Boost, and 6008 MHz memory; and NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 1006 MHz core, 1058 MHz GPU Boost, and 6008 MHz memory. Since the components on the card haven't changed, MSI may have created quite some OC headroom for enthusiasts munch on, with their own skills. It remains to be seen if the GTX 680 Lightning-L makes it to other markets.Source: Hermitage Akihabara

What better way of beginning a new year than riding the avalanche of new hardware and gadgets? We at TechPowerUp and NextPowerUp, are the 2013 International CES, and the ice looks lovely! As has been our tradition for the past few years, before "smart" cameras even made it to drawing boards, our cameras are jerry-rigged to instantly upload pictures from the CES as they're clicked, making us a really fast source of news, unveils, and opinions, from the show-floor.Take a peek at the pictures, and chat with us directly by visiting: TPU Live CES 2013

HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated, announces availability of the first two JBL speaker docks built to support the new Apple iPhone 5, iPad Mini, new iPod models and the revised iPad with Retina display. The JBL OnBeat Micro ($99) and JBL Venue LT ($199) include the new Apple Lightning connector, the small, reversible, all-digital connector that allowed Apple to create thinner and faster iOS devices.

The two JBL speakers, the first in the market with the new Lightning connector, offer users great flexibility in accessing audio content. The super-portable JBL OnBeat Micro (below) is battery powered and ideal for road warriors, students or anyone else who wants outstanding performance from a go-anywhere Lightning speaker. The JBL OnBeat Venue LT is a robust tabletop speaker dock featuring dual full-range drivers and Slipstream port technology for powerful bass and a remarkably wide soundstage. Ideal for the iPad Mini and iPad with Retina display, the JBL OnBeat Venue LT includes HARMAN's exclusive TrueStream guarantee of the highest-quality sound when connecting any Apple product or any other smartphone and tablet via Bluetooth connection. Both JBL speakers charge the new Apple Lightning products when docked.

In the highly competitive world of extreme performance, MSI has once again grabbed the reigns with its Z77 MPOWER and R7970 Lightning Graphics card. Inspired by the availability of the MSI Z77 MPOWER several professional overclockers have started challenging the top scores in 3DMark 11. With the synergy of the MSI Z77 MPOWER mainboards and MSI Lightning series graphics cards, some incredible new scores have been set including the first single graphics card system to break 18000 marks in the 3DMark 11 Performance benchmark by Ukraine's T0lsty.

MSI maintained the R7970 Lightning as its flagship AMD Radeon graphics card from March, even after AMD launched the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition in June. The company finally decided to combine its R7970 Lightning board with the new "Tahiti XT2" Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition ASIC, creating the R7970 Lightning Boost Edition (BE). While the original R7970 Lightning shipped with 1070 MHz core and 5.60 GHz memory, the new R7970 Lightning BE ships with 1070 MHz core, 1150 MHz PowerTune Boost, and 6.00 GHz memory (288 GB/s). It packs 3 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface.

Most other features remain the same. The R7970 Lightning BE packs an enthusiast-grade 17-phase VRM, dual-BIOS, voltage-conditioning GPU Reactor module, and TwinFrozr IV cooling solution. Quite shockingly, MSI didn't take the opportunity to address the lack of dual-link DVI connectors in the original R7970 Lightning, the Lightning BE continues to have two single-link DVI, and four mini-DisplayPort connectors. The new R7970 Lightning BE could displace the original from its US $499.99 price-point.

EK Water Blocks, premium water cooling gear provider, will soon be releasing a Full-Cover water block for MSI N680GTX Lightning premium graphics card.

The upcoming EK-FC680 GTX Lightning (abbrevated as 'LTG') water block will directly cool the GPU, RAM as well as VRM (voltage regulation module) as water will flow directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC680 GTX Lightning water block will also features a very high flow design therefore it could easily be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

The performance lead that MSI's Radeon HD 7970 Lightning maintained over reference HD 7970 was cut down, first by NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680, and then by AMD's own Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, leaving its engineers to go back to the drawing boards, and design an even faster graphics card. The result: a liquid-cooled HD 7970 GHz Edition Lightning graphics card, which could push clock-speeds up even further. The card ships with a pre-installed full-coverage water-block, made by EK WaterBlocks (EKWB). It comes ready for 6-display Eyefinity, with four mini-DisplayPort and two DVI. Here's hoping one of those is a dual-link DVI. More details are awaited.

Update: We've received word that it's not that MSI has a new product in the works, but that EKWB has a water-block tailored for MSI's existing R7970 Lightning.Source: Softpedia

MSI's new Big Bang MPower line of motherboards were shown to public with a matching pair of graphics cards, the already launched R7970 Lightning, and the upcoming N680GTX Lightning. Based on the GeForce GTX 680, the card is expected to feature >10% higher out of the box clock speeds, with 2 GB of memory. Like its cousin from the red camp, it features MSI's swanky new black+yellow Twin Frozr IV cooling solution, and Unlocked Digital Power VRM, which gives users fine control over GPU, memory, and PLL (auxiliary) power domains using Afterburner software. The new card will be launched in the coming weeks.Source: VR-Zone

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today introduced Lightning PCI Express (PCIe) Solid State Accelerator (SSA) cards designed to boost the performance of workstations and servers used in data centers, server farms and cloud computing environments.

The new SanDisk Lightning PCIe SSA products can be added to workstations and servers to provide balanced, predictable performance for enterprise applications, delivering the ideal combination of speed, reliability and cost-savings. The cards provide rapid access to the most frequently used data and applications in order to more effectively manage heavy workloads. They are part of SanDisk's growing portfolio of solid state drive (SSD) solutions for the enterprise.

Leading international graphics card maker MSI today officially released three R7000 Power Edition graphics cards: the R7850 Power Edition 2GD5/OC, R7770 Power Edition 1GD5/OC and R7750 Power Edition 1GD5/OC. The MSI Power Edition cards all support MSI's exclusive Triple Overvoltage function and improved PWM to boost over clocking potential up to 45%1. The R7850 Power Edition 2GD5/OC is equipped with MSI’s new Twin Frozr IV Thermal Design recently exclusive to the R7970 Lightning.

The dual 8cm Propeller Blade technology fans create powerful airflow and rapid heat dissipation to reduce GPU temperature by up to 22℃2. The R7770 Power Edition 1GD5/OC and R7750 Power Edition 1GD5/OC feature the all new MSI TransThermal thermal design. The MSI TransThermal thermal design allows customization of their graphics cards fan setup: Single fan, Dual fan and Stacked fan setup3. MSI’s TransThermal comes with both Dust Removal and Propeller Blade technologies. Fans can also The MSI R7000 Power Edition series graphics cards’ exceptional overclocking performance, all-new cooling module design and the latest Military Class III components make it the best choice for gamers.

MSI is working on a bleeding-edge Radeon HD 7870 graphics card that is both factory-overclocked, and has room for more overclocking. Called the MSI R7870 HAWK, pictured below, the card uses custom-design PCB and cooling by MSI. The PCB is augmented with a revamped VRM that takes advantage of MSI's GPU Reactor module (which conditions power), the PCB also features consolidated voltage measurement points. It draws power from two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. The cooler is MSI's TwinFrozr 4, similar in design to the one featured on R7970 Lightning, albeit slightly smaller, and with less-loud dash of blue color. Although not specifically known, the card is expected to come with factory overclocked speeds, with additional overclocking headroom. More details are awaited.Source: Guru3D (link died), PCGH

If you thought MSI made too much song and dance about the product design of its R7970 Lightning, particularly the GPU Reactor module, think again. When augmented with liquid nitrogen cooling, the card has the electrical muscle required to sustain 1.7V, and facilitate a staggering 1800 MHz core clock speed, with 1925 MHz memory (7.70 GHz GDDR5 effective), churning out a gargantuan memory bandwidth of close to 370 GB/s, all thanks to the genius of Swedish proverclocker Elmor.

This R7970 Lightning on 'roid-rage was stable enough to bag a 3DMark 11 (performance preset) score of P15035 points. The rest of the test-bed consisted of an Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition six-core chip clocked at 5207 MHz, with 4 GB (4x 1 GB) DDR3 memory clocked at 2314 MHz, and MSI Big Bang XPower II motherboard, to seat it all. Perhaps this is an indication that AMD Radeon HD 7900 can work wonders on potent non-reference designs, such as MSI's R7970 Lightning.

Leading international graphics card and mainboard maker MSI today announced the release of the MSI R7970 Lightning, the new heir to the throne of Lightning graphics cards. Equipped with AMD's 28 nm Radeon HD 7970 GPU, the MSI R7970 Lightning features an all-new Unlocked Digital Power Architecture that incorporates an Unlocked BIOS, Digital PWM Controller, and Enhanced Power Design to boost overclocking potential to new heights and make overclocking easier than ever.

In an industry first, the proprietary "GPU Reactor" power supply module reduces power supply noise and also boosts overclocking stability as well. To keep this beast cool, the MSI R7970 Lightning utilizes the latest Twin Frozr IV Thermal Design equipped with Dust Removal Technology. The dual 10 cm fans with Propeller Blade Technology generate massive airflow for fast heat dissipation while remaining whisper silent. The two form-in-one heat sinks improve cooling for memory and the power supply module as well ensure structural integrity.

If you've seen the first pictures of MSI's Radeon HD 7970 Lightning graphics cards, you may have noticed an unusual-looking round cutout on its backplate, right behind the GPU. We are learning that this cutout, and the tiny headers on the exposed PCB are actually a socket for what MSI is referring to as a "GPU Reactor" (I can imagine Iron Man fans prepping their flame throwers right about now).

The "GPU Reactor" is a round add-on device that sits on this socket. It is essentially an add-on PCB that holds a battery of tantalum capacitors, which further conditions power for the GPU. Apart from capacitors, there are a few blue LEDs and a round, transparent window that make it light up. To what extant this gadget helps with maintaining stable OCs remains to be seen, but on the "flip-side", it could pose spacing issues with other add-on cards located right above HD 7970 Lightning cards that are outfitted with one of these.Source: Lab501.ro

CeBIT 2012 is kicking off tomorrow but already the show floor is buzzing with cameras taking pictures of the hardware on display. One such camera, handled by the lab501 team, spotted at MSI's booth the R7970 Lightning, a highly-customized Radeon HD 7970 targeting enthusiasts and overclockers.

Seen below, the incoming Tahiti-based card makes use of Military Class III components (Hi-c CAP, SFC, Solid CAPs) and has an oversized PCB, 14+2-phase digital power, a Twin Frozr IV dual-fan heatsink, a backplate, and something called a GPU Reactor. The R7970 Lightning also features 2048 Shader Units, a 384-bit memory interface, 3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, Eyefinity 6 support, plus two DVI and four mini DisplayPort outputs. The card's clocks, price tag and release date have yet to be revealed but should be exposed soon.Source: lab501