MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition – Greased Lightning

Physique and Features

A Buffed Up Relative

In terms of aesthetics, the MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition shares a number of similarities with its 1536MB GTX 580 Lightning counterpart. Equipped with the same Twin Frozr III cooler with two 90mm fans, the N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition is also a dual-slot graphics solution. Designed as visual thermal indicators, the card’s fans, which start off blue, gradually turn into white as the GPU heats up. The fans also feature an automatic dust removal mechanism. During startup, the fans will gyrate opposite of its normal direction for around 30 seconds, shaking off accumulated dust.

Another major selling point of the N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition is its 3GB GDDR5 memory, which is twice larger than the memory size of its lesser sibling and of the many other GeForce GTX 580 incarnations in the wild.

Aptly named Xtreme, MSI has designed the card to attract PC enthusiasts. Hence, this MSI comes with voltage check points and special switches that will enable overclockers to go outside the safe voltage limits when experimenting with liquid nitrogen. To further facilitate overclocking, the card adopts a 16-phase power delivery system with NEC proadlizers that help in ensuring stable power distribution.