what's up everyone Eber here with Hardware Canuckss and our CES 2019
coverage continues with some awesome looking graphics cards from MSI but
first a quick shout-out from our sponsors MSI Phanteks Corsair Thermaltake
and Razer without them our attendance at the show would not have been possible
all right so let's start off with the RTX 2080 TI Lightning Z because this is
one of the craziest graphics card we've ever encountered ever since it was first
released the Lightning series have been one of the fastest most overclockable
and extreme lineup of graphics cards available while its official specs will
be released a bit later this month there's a ton of stuff we learned while
visiting MSI let's start with the exterior because it jumps out right away
the triple slaw heatsink shroud is a mix of gold and carbon fiber meanwhile MSI
also added an OLED screen on the side so that it can be controlled in MSI's
mystic lighting software that's the interesting addition which could really
give your extreme PC build a touch of personalization but I have to wonder if
the display output can be flipped in the software for people who use inverted
motherboard layouts unlike some other OLED screens on
components like ASUS's new AIO's this one is monochrome so you won't be able
to add colored logos under that shroud is a huge cooler with eight heat pipes
and more than enough capacity to keep the overclocked RTX 2080 TI core from
throttling I didn't quite like the RGB LED effects on the fans but that's just
my personal opinion that huge amount of cooling will be needed since MSI is
hoping they'll be able to provide a somewhat unlocked v bios that would
allow the lightning Z to exceed envious stock voltage and power limits honestly
though if MIS can't pass those limits lightning Z could be a very tough
sell especially since its price is expected to be around $2,000 moving on
with our little tour there's also voltage read points integrated into the
PCB that will come in handy for overclockers supposedly the card is
built to provide up to 600 watts of power since the RTX 2080 TI can consume
over 500 watts when overvolting that's just nuts guys and it means that
this card has three eight pin power connectors that's right
three eight pin power connectors meanwhile the backplate is pretty
interesting too since it also uses carbon fiber and there's another heat
pipe which passes with all these features and such a
massive heat sink the RTX 2080 TI lightning Z weighs a ton
so MSI's including an anti sag bracket that attaches to your cases io slots so
a single lightning will take up five slots and that could make installing a
bit challenging there were also to RTX 2060 cards on display and they'll be
available to buying on January the 15th make sure you watch our full review of
the RTX 2060 right over here okay so let's start off with the Ventus OC since
it will retail for about the same price around $350 as invidious founders
edition from a specs standpoint the OC in the name doesn't amount to much since
it boosts clocks hit seventeen ten megahertz instead of sixteen 80
megahertz on the referenced version that won't give you any extra performance for
cooling the Ventus has a pair of MSI Torx fans direct contact heat pumps on
the cooler and a great looking back plate nice thing about this card is that
it doesn't have any hard gb so if you're going for a stealth build this could be
a great addition that doesn't cost more than the founders edition movie on to
the higher-end RTX 2060 Gaming Z and honestly this card looks amazing with
MSI's tomahawk series motherboards it will cost about $25 more than the
Aventis card but it also comes with a boost clock of 1830 megahertz which is
115 mega Hertz higher than the reference spec and that should get you some
in-game performance gains even though that this card features more stealth
black and gray color MSI has added a few RGB touches but nothing crazy like some
other GPUs on the market it also gets the full Twin Frozr seven heatsink
design with the Torx 3 fans and the ability to completely turn off the fans
when in idle mode so there you guys have it what do you think of the Lightning Z
we all know that the RTX 2080 is already super expensive but would you
pay even more for a GPU like this I really hope that MSI can get an unlocked
BIOS for its overclocking won't be an issue but anyways
stay tuned for more coverage from CES 2019 I'm Eber with Hardware Canucks signing
off and we'll see you in the next one