MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Gaming OC Video Card Review

Introduction of the MSI GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Gaming OC

Having just come off the launch review of the brand new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB, which we found ourselves extremely impressed with, it's time to move on to the other half of the launch. The GTX 970 4GB that has a $329 price tagged attached to it is probably the product that is really scary for AMD working up towards this holiday season.

While we can't deny the simple fact that at the end of the day most people would prefer to buy the highest-end option, priced at over $200 more, the GTX 980 4GB could be out of reach for a lot of people. $329 is an extremely reasonable price for what is the second highest model in the new GTX 900 series.

The big question, though, is, what does a saving of over $200 force you to lose? That's exactly what we intend to find out today with the MIS GTX 970 3GB Twin Frozr V Gaming OC. This new model has our attention a little bit more than usual because of a few things. The first is, of course, the price point. While the MSRP for the reference GTX 970 4GB is $329, we don't doubt for a second that this version from MSI is going to carry a premium of about $20 on top of that.

The other reason this model is standing out a bit more than usual is due to the fact it's the first MSI video card that is using the new Twin Frozr V cooler. While we saw a look at the shroud during Computex, the simple fact is that it didn't really tell us much. Today, though, that changes as we finally get to take a close up look at the final version that is hitting the market. Unlike our GTX 980 4GB review, today, we're reviewing a full retail card, so we'll be moving from here straight into the package. Let's do this!

Package - What comes inside the box

Taking a look at the front of the box, you see the overall design is pretty similar to what all our other Gaming cards have looked like. Across the top, we've got the MSI, FNATIC and G Series logos. The middle gives us the model, in this case, the GTX 960 Gaming 4G, and below that, we have some of the main features which include 4GB GDDR5, PCI3 3.0, Overclock and the new Twin Frozr V cooler.

Turning the box over, you can see straight away that the main feature MSI is promoting is of course the brand new Twin Frozr V cooler. The first big feature is the brand new Torx Fan, which is designed to keep the card cooler. We have the new SuperSU Pipe which helps improve heat dissipation off the GPU better than ever, and the new Zero Frozr feature, which stops the fans spinning when the card isn't under load, or at a temperature that warrants them spinning.

You can also see that MSI is promoting the Gaming App which is designed to make overclocking an absolute breeze via three built-in settings. Finally across the bottom, you can see the main NVIDIA features are listed, along with the minimum requirements and main specifications.

Moving inside the box and taking the time to look at the bundle, you can see we've got a Quick User's Guide and a product catalogue showing off some of the other Gaming series products. We've got the standard driver CD, DVI to VGA connector and a 6-Pin to 8-Pin PCIe power connector to round things off.

PRICING: You can find the MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G Graphics Card for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G Graphics Card retails for $359.99 at Amazon.